Chapter 10 - Confrontations

Boomer felt like the room was getting somewhat warmer, and at first he thought it was just being in Blossom's presence, until he heard a strangled gasp come from the direction of the couch.

He turned to see Bubbles staring at something. It looked like she was looking under the table, but he couldn't figure out what was so interesting under there. He returned his attention to the card in his hand, vaguely realizing he was looking at the wrong side, but Blossom had noticed his momentary distraction from the game. How nice to know he was living in a petri dish.

Blossom slid out of her seat and quietly made her way over toward the couch. He assumed she was worried about Bubbles. He turned again to watch the two sisters, only faintly curious.

He heard Blossom murmur something, and Bubbles' face looked redder than Princ- redder than Blossom's hair.

His eyes gazed downward, and he noticed that he'd left his journal lying there. Some part of his mind said that it was a bad idea to leave it lying there, and he went to get it. He felt a little better when he felt the wire spirals press into the underside of his leg as he sat on the notebook.

~~~~~

I'm pathetic. Completely, utterly, pathetic.

I'd spent so much time admiring Boomer's handwriting, and acknowledging that yes, it certainly was his, that I didn't once read the words that were sitting there on the page!

Not only that, because of my attempt to infringe on his privacy, I got an eyeful that I'd rather not have.

Although I'm not exactly complaining about that.

But still! I felt like it was written all over my face! "Bubbles is a Peeping Tom, Bubbles is a Peeping Tom!"

If I was feeling this flushed just SEEING more of Brick and Boomer than I did on a daily basis, how must Buttercup feel to see Butch like that, but with permission to do that and more?

The end of the evening couldn't happen too soon for me, and I think the long weekend was just what I needed to get over my acute embarrassment.

How was I going to face them at school on Monday, though?

~~~~~

Boomer hunched over, shoving his hands in the pocket of the black trench coat he'd taken to wearing, and walking outside into the crisp air. When he joined the group of goths outside sneaking a few cigarettes, he breathed a bit easier.

His hair was lightening to a gray color as the black slowly washed out. His blond roots were showing, and it gave his hair a rather interesting appearance.

He liked mingling with this particular goth group, because they were so busy trying to shove their scorn down everyone else's faces, people tended to avoid them. He had to put up with the second hand smoke, but he supposed that was a small price to pay. Going home with the stale smell on his clothes wasn't a problem. He could easily fly around long enough to air out all the clothes, and the trenchcoat got the brunt of the smoke. That didn't make it in the house.

Blossom had started to act differently towards him, and he found himself reacting to her attention in a way that, a couple of months ago, he'd never have imagined.

He felt unworthy somehow, as if his dalliance with Princess had made him unclean. He'd been avoiding the bitch ever since the Halloween party. How could he have let her touch him, grope him, get him all hot and bothered the way she did?

She was a real tease, too. He'd come very close to the point of giving in to her demanding hands, her pulling, pawing hands. His sexual experience was limited to self stimulation, and it had been exciting to have someone else do all the work.

Except she delighted in leaving him aching and panting for more.

Maybe it was a good thing she'd never managed, or bothered, or wanted, to get him to climax. If being felt up was making him feel this dirty, how would he feel if she'd given him just that little bit more attention?

Then again, maybe if she had gotten him off, he'd not have cared anymore.

He wasn't sure who he felt worse about disappointing. Blossom, who he'd lusted after for years, and who was just starting to notice him as more than a bookend...or Bubbles, whose stricken face when she'd caught him with Princess popped into his consciousness more than he'd like to admit.

Brick doted on her. He hadn't realized it at first, wanting to take his brother apart, limb from limb, as he managed to get all Blossom's attention.

He blew the bangs out of his face. They were getting a bit too long.

Maybe he had his sights set too high. Blossom would never give all her attention to anyone, not even Brick. She cared too much. It was one of the things he loved about her. She was smart, and caring, and could process a million things at once. And she was so damned sexy, her fiery red hair an obvious sign of the passion he just knew lurked beneath the surface.

Buttercup had her own brand of passion and a zest for fun, and he hated to admit it, but she and Butch made a damn near perfect couple.

Seeing Bubbles' eyes get all quivery when she'd look at Butch had disgusted him. She should have seen that she had no chance, should have known that Butch didn't look at her "that way."

To be fair, he expected more from her. She seemed to be in tune with everyone's feelings, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out how she could even entertain the idea of pining after Butch.

Then again, he was a fair one to talk. He was the one who'd put his tongue down Princess' throat.

The memory made him want to puke.

~~~~~

I love Christmas time. Even Buttercup has not gotten too into her role as Teen Rebel that she doesn't come alive this time of year.

I'd managed to avoid looking guilty whenever I looked at either Brick or Boomer. I finally realized that the only thing giving me away was me, and once I accepted that there was nothing I could do to change it, it was almost as if it had never happened. Almost.

We were decorating the gymnasium for the winter dance when she came in from outside. Her cheeks were flushed, but her eyes were so full of emotion, I knew the rosy color to her face had little, or anything, to do with the chill in the air.

Blossom had managed to convince Boomer to go with her, so Brick gallantly invited me as well. Butch and Buttercup were too busy telling us all how much they thought it was lame, but we all knew they'd be there anyway. I was sure that they'd be involved in some sort of mischief, but nothing dangerous or hurtful. Neither of them wanted to sully the joy of the season by doing something stupid.

But Buttercup managed to do just that.

~~~~~

Brick looked incredible in his velvet suit of a color I knew as hollyhock from my art classes. It was a deep purplish red, and I would not have expected it to work with his coloring, but he really is a striking looking young man.

For some reason Brick is the only one I really see as a man. Boomer and Butch are still more boys than adults, even though we're, at best estimates, sixteen.

Being created as we were, none of us were ever infants. We never really went through puberty in its entirety. One day I woke up and I had a full bosom, almost overnight. The fingers came near the end of those physical changes. Apparently we were, surprisingly, capable of reproducing. That's when Blossom got incredibly maternal, lecturing us on safe sex and warning us that no one knew what could happen if we were to mix our Chemical X enhanced DNA with something else.

And don't get me started on the Safe Sex and You video she made us watch. It was narrated just like those old cartoons, and the information was so dated, I thought she was kidding.

Oh, no, not my sister. She takes the whole issue of teenaged sexuality to a new limit.

I honestly think I could discuss having unprotected sex with the Professor with less embarrassment than just listening to Blossom lecture us on it.

Fortunately that was one topic she didn't dwell on. Apparently she wasn't exactly comfortable with it, either.

I hadn't given much thought to the anatomy of the Rowdyruffs until I'd seen Princess' hand trying to shove down the front of Boomer's pants.

Ever since I'd gotten a glimpse of what she was grabbing, I couldn't get it out of my mind.

Just like us, their anatomy, on the outside, at least, looked just like a normal human boy.

I suppose I knew that, because I wasn't sure how else the act would be done when Buttercup confessed that she and Butch had been intimate, but I hadn't really THOUGHT about it, because I was still trying to convince myself I was happy that she and Butch and gotten together.

Does sex bring two people closer? I think it does, if the people care about each other in the first place.

Sex didn't seem to do much for Boomer and Princess. I don't know how far the two of them got with each other, so maybe I'm wrong.

Then again, Princess could take almost anything and turn it black and miserable.

Which is exactly what she did at the dance.

~~~~~

Buttercup looked absolutely beautiful. I was surprised to see her in a deep green satin, but she grinned and said "'Tis the season," which I guess explained Blossom's carnelian dress.

Of course Buttercup was wearing a pantsuit, but it fit her like a glove.

I was wearing white. Yeah, tell me about it. And Boomer was wearing black. What a surprise.

Things seemed to be going well, though, and Blossom had actually managed to convince Boomer to dance with her at one point.

Then all hell broke loose.

Princess has never been a good loser, and I've said on more than one occasion, she seems to hate Blossom more than any of us. She saw Blossom dancing with what she thought of as her property, and her screeching voice put the sound system in the gym to shame.

"BOOMER!!! What the HELL do you think you're doing with her?"

And with that, she pried them apart, even though they were maintaining a respectable distance between them, and then she slapped him across the face. Hard.

He stared at her for a moment, and then a glimmer of emotion crossed his face. It wasn't anger. It was disdain.

Thought she was mad before? Oh, she was just getting warmed up.

She called Blossom every derogatory term in the book, all of which implied my sister was the type to spread her legs for every man, and possibly a few women, just because she'd dared touch HER property.

Buttercup had flown to Blossom's side in an instant, and suddenly her face went from angry and annoyed to something almost frightening.

She fixed those large green eyes on Butch, who was standing next to Boomer and looking as though he wanted to say something but unsure what. Brick was standing behind me with his arms half around me and his hands under my elbows. I was leaning back against his chest for warmth, although it wasn't my body that was cold.

Suddenly Buttercup looked from Princess, who was still making a scene, to Boomer, and then to Butch, and she looked absolutely horrified. For a split second I thought she was going to cry.

Then she pulled something off her finger and threw it at Butch, then flew out the window.

Did I mention that the windows were closed, considering it was winter?

That even got Princess' attention, and she sneered at Blossom, then swept her eyes over me, pointedly staring at my chest before crossing her arms over her own.

"I see that Chemical X must have some kind of whore component to it-"

The sound of a loud crack made all other noises screech to a halt.

Blossom had just slapped Princess across the face.

Brick gave me a gentle squeeze, and I knew what he wanted and nodded. He took his place next to Blossom and the two of them made a united front against Princess.

Soon the students were abuzz once again, but it was obvious that Princess was not exactly earning popularity points.

She may hate Blossom, but she is the only one I know who does, at least who does so openly.

The student body, as a whole, suddenly turned on her in that instant. Her face still had the imprint of Blossom's hand on it, red and angry, and yet everyone was mad at HER.

Blossom doesn't react to her passionate side very often, not in a physical sense. She turned and buried her face against Brick's chest, and his arms came up and wrapped around her, and she started crying.

The rest of the student body crowded around Princess, who looked like she'd suddenly been thrown out of an airplane, and that was the last I saw of her, because my attention went from Brick comforting Blossom to Boomer and Butch.

Boomer reached over and took the item that Buttercup had thrown at Butch. I thought he might need to pry it out of his hands, but Butch's grasp had gone lax as soon as Boomer reached for it.

I didn't need any super vision to know it was Butch's school ring.

He'd given it to her the week before.