Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Fortunes Fools

Chapter Nine

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"So we're all set?" I asked the four other people in the circle.

"Yes M-Girl." Cassie said sternly, turning to look at me. "We've gone over this too many times to count. Everything will be fine. We all know what we're doing. You just need to calm down honey." She said calmly, as she walked over to the fridge and grabbed a drink from it. "Everything will work perfectly, and no one will be shocked… except for Ric, that is." Cassie continued, lowering her voice when she said his name.

"How is he?" I asked, finally willing to go there.

Only I was met with silence, that even Henry or Luke wouldn't fill.

"That bad, huh?" I answered myself, slumping back into the chair.

"Aww no Maddie its not really." Belle began before Luke interrupted her.

"He mopes around all day, every day. He stopped going to drama. Hell, he stopped going to any classes." Luke said truthfully, as Belle glared at him.

"What?" he said, shrugging, "She deserves to know the truth."

"Thanks Luke" I said, smiling slightly before walking over to lean against the cool glass door. Winter had been harsh this year, and now we were plagued with days of rain. Not that I minded, as it fitted my feelings. I'd have hated nothing more than for it to be all sunshine and lollipops.

I sighed, putting my forehead against the glass and enjoying the chilly feeling it sent all over my body. This entire last week had been too stressful. And now, all I really wanted to do was curl up in Ric's arms. I never imagined I'd say that, but it really was all that I wanted to do.

I heard a squeal behind me, and turned to see Henry assaulting Cass with tickles, as she lay on the floor beneath him. She was gasping for breath and trying so hard to fight him off, which only caused Henry to tickle her harder. Two weeks… two days ago, neither of them would have considered doing that anywhere… in public, or downstairs in our house. Just goes to show how much has changed.

"So, you guys obviously don't hate one another any more?" I said smirking, as I watched Henry and Cassie break apart quickly.

"Are you kidding M-Girl?" Cass remarked, "I hate him more than ever." She started unconvincingly.

"It's the hate and lust thing we've got going on." Henry said wriggling his eyebrows at Cassie, "She drives me wild."

"I can't tell if he's kidding or being serious any more." I said to Cass as her face fell slightly.

"You are kidding, right?" Luke said from his place next to Belle "Fighting with Cassie has been like, the highlight of Henry's years of schooling. He thinks she's cute when she yells at him." He said, as Henry glared at him.

See, normal rules didn't apply any more. Not now that everyone knew I was dying. Now everything was nice, because… well… because I'd be gone soon, and they'd all need one another to learn to live without me.

I felt almost content at this, knowing that my death could at least bring some kind of happiness. Some kind of closure. For them. Now I just had to make it up to Ric, which would probably be harder.

"You can talk." I heard Henry say, which snapped me out of my thoughts. "I'm not the one who's been pining after a certain cynical, sarcastic someone for the last three years." He said, smirking.

"Oh now I'm intrigued." Cass said, urging Henry to continue.

"Henry…" Luke warned, as Henrys smirk grew bigger.

"Well, Luke just happened to be crushing on…" He began, but Luke clamped his hand over Henrys mouth before he could continue.

"I've gotta go." Belle said abruptly, standing up and casting one final look at Luke.

"Ah. Makes sense now." Cassie said quietly.

"Belle… wait." Luke said, running after Belle as she walked quickly out of the house.

"Good one Henry." I heard Cass say, and I turned around to see her wack him in the chest. "Why did you have to go and spoil their fun?"

"Aww they'll be fine. It'll do them the world off good having their feelings out in the open." He replied, rubbing the spot where she'd hit him.

"Excuse me?" I asked, sitting down "Their feelings? Who said anything about Belle having feelings for him?"

"As if its not half obvious. Notice how she always got annoyed by him, or jealous, the other week, when he was talking about his date?"

"Oh god." I groaned, as Henry said "Ha!" knowing that he was right.

"How is it that he knows more about us than we do?" I asked, Cass, as she stared at Henry.

She sighed, before shaking her head and turning to me. "Because M-Girl, they haven't hated us for all these years…" She said, as she turned to look at Henry "They've been scared of us. Scared of what they felt… for ages."

"Ahh," Henry said, moving closer to Cassie on the lounge "I always knew you'd be the first to figure it out."

"And why is that?" Cassie asked, her eyes flicking over Henry's form as he moved even closer to her.

"Because you're you." He replied simply, as I stood up and slipped out the door, giving them the space they deserved.

Henry and Cassie. Belle and Luke. I never thought we'd end up here. All coupled up. With no tears of pain, no cruel remarks. It was so surreal, like I was living in another world.

Walking upstairs, I stopped at the door of Mums room and peered in, finding her sitting on the bed, photos sitting all around her. Knocking gently, she looked up and smiled through her tears before waving me in.

I crawled onto the bed next to her as she put an arm around me. Looking through all the photos, I found photos from all the holidays we'd taken together, from all the plays I'd been in, from any random moment Mum had managed to capture during my life.

"There's just so many memories here." She said, crying a little "And I wanted to organize them all." She said, beginning to shake. "And then I couldn't find the pictures of the holiday that we took to Melbourne, when you were nine, and I searched and searched, and I couldn't find them." Mum said, breaking out into sobs.

I hugged her shaking body into me as the tears began to stream down my own face.

"What am I going to do without you Maddie?" She cried, "I almost died when I lost your father. I can't lose you too. I just can't."

I was crying as hard as she was now. She'd been so brave for the last few years. She'd never cried infront of me, and had always been the one telling me that it would be okay. That Dad would be waiting for me, and together we'd wait for Mum to join us, and then we'd all been together again. She'd been my pillar of strength, when Henry had cut me from his world. And now, I needed to be the strong one.

"You remember when Henry and I couldn't wait to go to Lunar Park?" I said through my tears, as Mum turned to face me. "And we were up and ready at five in the morning? We came in and jumped on yours and Dad's bed until you got up and took us out to breakfast while we watched the sun rise. And then we had to stand at the entrance for two hours until the park opened, and Henry and I had practically fallen asleep by then."

Mum nodded as she sniffled. "But then Henry and I got some fairy floss into us, and we went crazy for the rest of the day. And you and Dad let us, because you knew we'd zonk out when we got back to the hotel, and sleep in the next morning. God, we laughed so much that day. Whatever I can remember about it, we're laughing in that memory." I said, the tears subsiding as I pushed some of the photos, finding the picture mum had been searching for.

"You'll go on, because you've got to. There are other people in this world who need you." I said, as I handed her the photo of Henry and I, our faces covered in pink fairy floss with both of us sticking out our tongues at the camera.

"That little boy there to begin with." I said, as we both looked at Henrys cheeky face "He's going to need you as much as you need him. And I'm going to need you both back one day, but you've both got to live your lives out for me, before that can happen."

"How did you become so brave?" Mum asked as she pulled me into a tight hug.

"I'm lucky" I replied, snuggling into her "I take after my mum."

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I opened my eyes to see someone else staring back at me. Taking a shaky breath, I felt Cass place the final strand of hair in place with a bobby pin.

"M-Girl you're going to blow them away." Belle said from beside me as she touched up her own smoldering makeup. I looked intently at the girl in the mirror. In place of the shy, awkward teenager I used to be, stood a temptress, with dark eyes and ruby red lips.

"Behold." Cassie said from behind me "Good girls gone bad."

I would've hit her, only at that exact moment it just so happened that Ric, Henry and Luke came into our line of fire.

"Where's your tarty makeup?" Henry said to Cassie as he pulled her to the side, pouting.

At least not all things had changed between those two. Unlike Belle and Luke.

All afternoon they'd been sneaking glances at one another, and I'd even caught Belle blushing once or twice. Something had definitely changed after he'd run after her. Not that she'd told Cassie or myself. We seemed to be getting better at keeping secrets from one another these days… at least when it concerned guys.

"Uh… Hi Belle." Luke said shyly, shuffling his feet and running a hand through his hair "Do you think we could … maybe… talk?" He said, as Belle's eyes snapped from herself on the mirror to Luke.

"Only if you admit you've got an imaginary and or Internet girlfriend." She said seriously, as Luke blushed a deep shade of crimson and pulled her quickly away, leaving only Ric and I.

Just as we had planned.

And yes, I had expected it to be monumentally awkward. Just like it was. But it didn't matter now. He just needed to know one thing. One small thing.

I looked up in the mirror and met Ric's eyes, now cold and distant. I waited for as long as I needed to before they finally let me in, and I knew he was listening to everything I was about to say.

"I'm dying Ric." I said, sighing, and turning around to face him completely. "And I was dying long before you decided to fall for me. Long before I fell for you." I added, as his face fell, and our gaze broke.

"And there's nothing I can say that will make it easier for you. Or for me. Because I wasn't supposed to feel this way. Me, Ric. I wasn't supposed to leave someone behind." I said, moving closer to him. "But you made it impossible for me not to…" I said, as I trailed off.

"Not to what…?" Ric asked finally moving closer to me.

I sucked in a deep breath as I met his ice blue eyes once more.

"Impossible for me not to fall in love with you." I said, tears welling in my eyes as I turned and ran, ignoring Ric calling my name.

-

"I thought we said no tears M-Girl." Cassie said as she hurriedly redid my eyeliner and mascara.

"Chill Cass" B said from beside her "Now Maddie's got the trashy look going on. And it'll work fine, remember. Begin at the end, and then the beginning?"

I sniffed a little with brought their attention back to me.

"Oh Maddie, everything is going to fine. I promise." Belle said, as Luke joined us.

"Its go time." He said dramatically as Belle rolled her eyes. "What?" He asked of Belle as she grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

"You sure you wanna do this Maddie?" Cassie asked me seriously, as I nodded in response.

"There's no going back now." I sighed, as I stood up from the chair and walked side stage as Ashton yelled from the front, "Places people, this is a dress rehearsal, but too bad if anything goes wrong we have no time to fix it before opening night." Taking a swig of his 'water' he slumped back into his chair as the lights around me dimmed as the voice over began to speak.

"I wanted to write about falling in love and why it can't last, but at the same time, how it lasts forever. Because in some unearthly way it's always gonna be you and me. Soul mates. What we have goes beyond friendship, beyond lovers. It's forever. That's what I wanted to tell you. That's my story that I want to share.

We met in hatred. We died in love. We were alone against a world that would have us apart and unhappy rather than together and blissfully unaware of the prejudice our families held against one another. Tonight I shall tell you our story, of how we met, loved and died. Because tonight is about us. Tonight we simply are.

And so it begins…"

I took in a deep breath as I walked onto the stage amongst cat-calling and wolf whistles. I heard Ashton bark at everyone to shut up, but it seemed far off and distant. My eyes had locked with Ric's at the beginning of the speech, and they had yet to leave them. I'd watched realization dawn on his face as the voiceover had continued, and now he knew.

He knew that everything was about us. And everything was bigger than us. No matter how hard we fought to change what was going to happen, no matter how hard we fought to change out destiny, fate has intervened.

I stood in the center of the stage as the melodic beats of techno music filled my ears. I closed my eyes and imagined the atmosphere, of a dimly lit room, hazy from the smoke, from the sweat, from the lust. My body reacted to the sound, the smell, the taste… and began to sway. My arms moved up and down my body, flowing freely in the air, moving across my hips as my hair began to fall down, becoming loose, becoming wild. Just as I was.

I felt his eyes follow the trail my hands left, I felt his eyes bore holes into my body, into my mind, and I knew the usually ice blue eyes were becoming dark, laced with raw lust and need. My own flicked open, and I saw across the other side of the stage, Ric standing casually in the shadows, his face half hidden, his one visible eye locked on mine.

He strode slowly across the stage, stalking right up to me, grabbing my body and roughly shoving it against his. His arms wrapped themselves tightly around my small frame, and I found myself trapped… trapped by the movement, the music… trapped in the moment.

Our eyes met and locked. Nothing was going to break this moment. Nothing was going to ruin this night for me. Slowly, he pushed me towards the side stage, and against the wall. Our bodies remained against one another, and his hands moved from my waist to either side of me, blocking me in, trapping me once more.

Not that I would want to escape this moment.

His head moved down and his lips gently touched mine, shooting sensations of lust and craving all over my body. My hands reached up and clawed at his shirt, pulling him closer to me, deepening the kiss. I parted my legs as Ric's body moulded into mine, our legs crossing, my hands roaming everywhere. His hands were in my hair and our kisses were frantic and desperate, we craved on another's touch, one another feel.

We craved one another's love.

Suddenly, Ric pushed me against the wall and stepped backward. I saw in his eyes a thousand emotions, pity, love, hate, lust, sadness… everything… and I felt the tears begin to stream down my face, as his breathing calmed, and his hand gently cupped my face.

"I am fortunes fool." He whispered softly, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

"Let me have this one night." I pleaded, my eyes spilling tears "Let me live this once."

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Go hence and have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punished.

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AN: Thanks Tess for proofing. One more to go. Bet you hate me even more now. But that's okay, because I'm a little in love with how this story ends. Reviews are appreciated, flames are not wanted. Please don't say "Oh no, you can't end this" because I will, no matter how many people tell me not to.