Author's note: I do not own Sailor Moon. I would like to apologize that I skip over some things. I am writing a fan-fiction story, not a novel. So, it will be short and condensed and feel fast. Anyway. Enjoy!
"Chad, stop drinking that stuff."
"But it makes me feel soooo goooood…" Chad slurred and leaned heavily on Rei.
"Ugh, I can't believe this is happening." Rei said impatiently as she carefully steered Chad to a chair. She signaled to two of his football buddies. They headed over immediately.
"Hey, can you take him home?" She indicated to the drunken Chad teetering on the chair.
"What about you Rei?" one blond jock asked as he and the other guy carefully hoisted Chad up.
"I have my car here. I had a feeling this would happen."
"Okay stay safe!" the jock threw over his shoulder as he and his friend dragged Chad from the room.
It was 3:30ish and several hours since the prom had ended. Everything went successfully; it was one of the best proms that Wakefield High had ever held. No streakers, no spiked punch and no fighting couples. Rumor had it that Rei had threatened all the trouble makers with dire and painful threats. Rei did not say anything either way. At midnight the Homecoming had broken up, the king and queen crowned and all were done with behaving. The night had just begun. Ami and Serena had left as soon as the prom ended on the arms of their dates. Serena was all mingled and danced out and Ami had a Transcendental Function exam in two weeks that she had to study for. Rei smiled when she thought of her overachieving sister and thanked the powers that be that her twin sisters were such well-behaved girls. Rei attributed their well-behavior to the fact that they had grown up in such difficult circumstances. Frankly, the girls had no time to party or mess around. Because they were orphans, they supported each other fervently and did not let anything get in the way of that.
By
now, Rei was merrily making her way down the almost empty road. She
turned up her CD player (she was a closet Backstreet Boys band) and
hummed to Nick's tenor voice. As she drove down the road she saw a
red car sitting on the side of the road. She drove further and
encountered a familiar looking broad shouldered blond walking down
the road. She coasted to a snail's pace and stuck her head out the
window.
"Um…problems Jay?"
"Rei! I just run out of gas. My sister didn't fill it up and when I get home I'm gonna…."
"Do you need a ride?"
"...uh, sure. I'd appreciate a ride. "He hopped into the passenger seat.
Jay cleared his throat, "So, um….how are you?"
"Good. Good."
"Did you have a good time?"
"Yeah."
"Where's Chad?"
"Incapacitated."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
After the brilliant train of conversation ended, Jay looked out the window and started playing with the seatbelt. The rest of the ride passed in uncomfortable silence, until the car sputtered out a strange, sick-sounding noise.
"Shhhhit. Don't do this to me now. Rust Bucket. Shit!"
"Whoa. Potty mouth. Whassa matter?"
"Oh, every once in a while, Rust Bucket" she pounded on the wheel to indicate so named car "decides to take a vacation." Rei coasted to a stop on the side of the highway. Thirty minutes later, Rei stalked around the car in her voluminous black dress to kick at the wheel.
"Um, pretty sure that's not going to work."
"Urgh! Why tonight?"
Jay shrugged his shoulders and looked out on the deserted road. He walked to the other side of the car and sat down. He listened to Rei's agitated pace and finally called out.
"Come and sit down. You're not going to do anything by wearing your pretty shoes out."
She stopped for a moment and sighed in resignation. She slowly made her way to Jay and gingerly sat down next to him, smoothing out the dress around her.
"You look nice tonight."
"Thanks."
"Why did you avoid me?"
Rei cringed when he got to the heart of the matter. She shrugged. He pressed on.
"I had such a good time and I felt like we really connected. Okay that sounds stalkerish, but you are one of the easiest people to talk to."
"Really? Most people avoid me or something."
"Well, once I got pass the 'I'm Rei, be-afraid-be-very-afraid' persona, I l..liked the person I discovered. Why the façade? Why the pretense?"
"I…." Rei struggled to answer him and couldn't. He reached out and caressed her chin. She bit her lip when he turned her face towards him. "I c…I can't. I don't…"
He placed a finger on her lips and shushed her. He quickly pulled her into a hug and inhaled the scent of her hair.
"I want to know the real Rei. I want to…I just…" here, Jay was speechless. He finally grabbed her chin and stared into her eyes. Rei couldn't remember who moved first. She remembered wanting, aching to reach forward, but she remembered the look on his face. Yearning. Something else she did not want to acknowledge yet. Nevertheless, their lips collided in a hard and searching kiss. Rei didn't remember how long the kiss lasted either. In fact she could hardly remember anything but the fact that she felt like she was flying, however clichéd that sounded. She pulled from the kiss and they were both still. Breathing hard and eyes still closed.
"Please Rei."
And that's all it took. Rei burst into tears and threw her arms around Jay's shoulders. She cried long and hard. He murmured meaningless phrases to her as he rocked her back and forth. When she finally cried herself out, she apologized and smiled when he handed her a kerchief. She wiped her eyes and they talked. Really talked. Jay found out why she was so standoffish. Rei was an orphan. He did not know that. He also found out that she was technically not an orphan. Her father was still alive and so was her mother, but she did not acknowledge them as they did not acknowledge her. Her grandfather had died and the social workers could not locate her parents. Apparently they just dropped off the face of the earth. When Rei was thirteen however, she discovered that her parents were back. In the public scene. Not together. Jay was shocked to realize that Rei's father was a prominent politician and her mother a famous actress. His heart ached for her when he realized that her parents did not search for her and probably did not realize that she was placed in an orphanage. He held her close that night, or morning, and told her about his family and secretly thanked God that he had a family. She laughed when he told her about him and his older brother's antics, their pranks on their sister, and his quirky parents.
"Hey! Hey wake up dahhhhhhlings! Hello. Hellooooo." Rei and Jay jolted awake and peered at the insufferable disturber of peace. It was Mina. In a taxi-cab. On the way to the Auto shop, Rei ignored Mina's pointed stares at her and Jay. That night in the Senshia house, with Lita on the speaker phone, Rei established that yes, she was going out with Jay (insert squeals here) and no, he did not give her anything to drink. The Senshias established that they were happy, ecstatic, no, exhilarated, for Rei.
