Chapter 8- First Impression
"Just so you know…I'm not a panty-thrower."
Aaron cocked and eye and couldn't help but let a smile slip, "What?"
Sam blushed a little and he noticed the freckles that danced on her cheeks, then she smiled at him and dimples mixed in with the freckles, "I'm not one of those enraged fans that chucks underwear at you and begs to bear your children."
"Well isn't that a shame? Looks like it's going to be a boring stay at mystery island after all without any wild sexcapades in the palm trees."
They shared an easy laugh and she said, "I didn't even know what you looked like really…I mean the CD cover doesn't exactly look real. I like the music."
"It's refreshing to meet someone who likes the music and not my abs."
"Well I didn't say I hated the abs…" Sam's eyes fell to his shirt which was covering a large tattoo that ran across said abs, "What does the tattoo say?"
"You're obviously not president of the I-Stalk-Aaron-Pace club…" He lifted his shirt to show her. In Olde English font the words "Nothing Competes With Habit" blazed.
Her hand crept out and traced the last word. A shiver shot up Aaron's spine and he pushed down his shirt.
"I've got quite the collection of them… I like tattoos. Permanent reminders."
"Reminders?" Sam tucked a stray curl behind her ear, "I hate to be the one to break it but a Post-It note is a reminder…tattoos are…I dunno. Something dumb you do when you're twenty and drunk."
"I like giving my stupidity some vague semblance of reason." He shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Well what does it mean?"
"Lyrics I heard…"
"Oh real meaningful." Sam rolled her eyes, "I bet the singer was a girl and very hot."
"That has nothing to do with it, but yeah…a bit." Aaron smirked and said, "Your folks talk much about the island?"
"My 'folks' don't talk much about the past. We're a very Hakuna Matata family." Sam picked up a stick and began breaking it in halves over and over, "What's done is done, can't change it. Can't take it back even if you wanted to."
Aaron didn't know what to say to that, it took a few minutes before he decided to just go back to his original point, "Well my mum and dad talk about it a lot. With me, mostly. I remind them of it…I was born here. They met here. I'm the reason they met. Anyway, my dad was a drug addict when he landed here."
"What drug?"
"Heroin. And it caused a lot of problems between him and my mum. Problems it took them time to get over. There's nothing my dad regrets more then his drug problem. A lot of my songs are about that. About how he gave up his vice, this fabulous ecstasy, for my mum and it was worth it. The tattoo is something very similar to what he said to me once, he said 'Aaron, habit's a…a hard thing to break. It's like a routine. Like remembering to put your pants on then your shoes. Trying to get rid of it is like putting your shoes on first. It doesn't work out well, it feels odd… and you just want to go back to before. But you have to tough it out.'. When I got into music and the drug dilemma was bound to pop up I got a big Post-It Note from Dad tattooed on my stomach to remind me: bad habits are a bitch."
Sam nodded, "I guess that's better then 'I was drunk and stupid'."
"A bit." He laughed.
For a while they walked side by side in silence.
"So what's your favorite song on the album? And why? If you like the music so much."
"Hard Habit to Break…like everyone else in the universe." She rolled her eyes as though embarrassed to admit she was so predictable, "' 'Fire Dancer' is defiantly a favorite. Then there's 'You're Eyes the Ocean'. And 'Mile High Club'."
"So the popular one, the naughty one, the ballad and the dirty one. Blatantly dirty. My mum nearly refused to let me put it on the CD cause my brothers and sisters would hear it."
"Did she really? Glad someone vetoed that… it's a great song when your feeling mischievous." As she said this she slipped a hand up her shirt to scratch an itch, revealing a flat stomach and drawing her shirt high enough that Aaron stared, hoping for a wardrobe malfunction with every fiber in his body.
"Staring is rude." Sam winked at him.
At least he had the good nature to blush.
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"Have they come back yet?"
"Chris, if you ask again I'm going to smack you with a coconut." Marita picked at a nail that had broken in her fight earlier and sent her brother a glare, "You'd think this was Junior High and she was Lindsay Steitz."
"Do not go there, Marita." Christian was touchy about Junior High. He had been a nerd of the worst kind. Thick glasses, reading books bigger then his head, a know-it-all to the extreme…and to make matters worse he had a major jones for the prettiest girl in his class, Lindsay Steitz. Who at the time was dating a High School jock.
No one, including Christian, knows what deranged thought possessed him to ask her out in the cafeteria…but he carried the scars of that public humiliation to this day.
"I'm just saying, Chris…fourth time you've asked about her in five minutes."
"It's just that we're on a weird island, in the middle of nowhere, we have no idea why we're here, how we got here, who's behind this and she really should've have gone traipsing off into the jungle with-"
"A pop star that's really hot?" Marita rolled her eyes, "If you're that worried go wait with her dad."
"Um, excuse me…Christian was it? And…I'm sorry I-"
"Marita."
"Ah yes, Marita," Claire adjusted Adah's weight on her hip and looked at the Shepard children as though afraid they might bite, "I was wondering if you two could watch my kids for a minute… I was just going to have a talk with your parents and I can't keep an eye on them myself."
"Sure thing." Christian nodded and was promptly handed the baby. Seth shyly sat by Marita, blushing at her and looking away quickly as though he'd be caught staring. Ewan was trying to crack open a coconut with a rock…a feat that had occupied him for twenty minutes and if luck held out the rest of the night. Keely was pouting, obviously having been denied something. She looked around and given the choice between Christian and Marita, she bolted to Marita.
"I like your shirt." She said.
Adah gurgled at Christian and pulled at his ears, trying to get his attention. She didn't succeed for a while. It took her five minutes of pestering before Chris pulled his eyes away from the path that Sam and Aaron had disappeared down and half-heartedly made funny faces at the baby.
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"What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever done?"
"Well…one stood outside TRL wearing a towel with a sign that said 'NOTHING gets between me and OffTune!'…that was weird at the time. Funny now."
"What's TRL?"
Aaron froze, "How do you not know what TRL is?"
Sam's defenses shot up, "You wouldn't either if you lived in a car all your life and were constantly moving from state to state. There's not a TV in the backseat."
"You live in a car?" He seemed shocked. He'd lived all his life in very nice apartments and then a large house.
Sam blushed and turned away, fiddling with bark on a tree, "So what?"
"Nothing it's just… why?"
"Thought you said your parents always talk about the island. They didn't tell you about my parents?" She leaned against the trunk and aimlessly kicked the ground, "My mom is a convict, my dad is a con man…not exactly the primo combination. Though at least they can't ever tell me not to cheat or something. That would be downright hypocritical."
"Your parents are the felons? You know I remember hearing a News Report about them a while back… they just don't look the part. Well, your dad maybe but your mum? Did she really …."
"We should be getting back." Sam made an about face and tugged at Aaron's hand, "We really shouldn't be out here at all. Jungle of mystery and we have no idea how we got here or anything…"
He squeezed her hand, "Listen, Sam…I didn't mean to…"
"I know." Taking a breath she looked at their hands, calmly held together as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
Then pulled her hand out of his and kept walking.
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Christian didn't notice they were back until someone reached over his back and picked up Adah.
"Hey there Powder Puff! Made a new friend, have you?" He asked his baby sister, tossing her in the air a bit.
Christian looked for Sam and saw her leaning against a tree. She looked a bit…distant. Aloof. Not angry or sad…more like her thoughts were a thousand miles away in a hellhole. He got up and wondered over.
"Have a nice walk?" He asked nonchalantly.
"Have a nice time babysitting?"
She didn't want to talk. It should've been obvious, but sometimes the smartest people did the dumbest things.
"So…you like OffTune?"
"So…you fancy yourself a conversationalist?" Sam snapped back, dropping to the ground and cozying into the sand.
Christian paused, wondering what his next move should be but before he could control his words they slipped out, "That stick up your ass…does it hurt much?"
Sam shook her head slowly, a small smile growing on her face.
"Aha! She smiles." Christian stated triumphantly.
"Surprised you can see that…it's getting so dark." Sam leaned against the tree and watched the ocean.
"You know how to build a fire?" He asked.
"With a Zippo and a lot of newspaper."
He laughed and stood, offering her a hand, "Want to learn how to make one caveman style?"
She accepted the hand and as he pulled her up she quipped, "Baby, I like to do lots of things Caveman Style."
Aaron watched as they disappeared into the brush nearby and started gathering twigs and leaves to start the fire. He felt the urge to get up and help and nearly set Adah down with another slice of mango to occupy her…but then someone groaned.
"Jesus, not you too. It's bad enough with Christian."
"Pardon?" Aaron fixed his eyes on the girl, he'd nearly forgotten she was there having not seen her all afternoon.
"Making goo-goo eyes at her and getting jealous when she goes off with someone else." Marita motioned to Sam who laughed in earnest and pretended to slap Christian's arm, "It's a little pathetic that less then four hours on a deserted island is too long to go without vying for sexual prominence. You'd think you were dogs and she was in heat."
Aaron laughed, "Then I guess I'll stay here and reign in the rampaging Green-Eyed Monster. You are?"
"Marita."
Sawyer cocked an eyebrow at the scene behind him, thinking 'This is going to be interesting'. Then Kate nudged him back into focus for the problem at hand.
TBC
Author's Note:
The TRL Towel idea is from a Dan Radcliffe interview and the girl's sign said "Nothing gets between me and my Harry Potter"…but it was too tempting to cast aside.
So….Jate, Skate & Sana are covered….Jana would be incestuous at this point so we're going to by-pass it ….
Soon to come: the lyrics for either Mile High Club or Fire Dancer or Your Eyes The Ocean….
NEWS: Today I started at my first job ever…which means even MORE time away from the computer! Which means less time to fanfic!
But don't worry…I'm not putting this fic on hold…it's too much fun to play with :D
I've still updated every week! ALL BOW BEFORE ME!
Once more: PROPS TO BUTTERFLY without whom this chapter would still be infantile and undeveloped on my computer suffering from my deplorable procrastination.
REVIEW PLEASE!
P.S. CALLING ALL ARTISTS! Please feel free to submit any kind of art…I suck at drawing and I'm dying to see what you think these guys look like!