A/N: I don't own Instant Star yaddh yadda yadda
Part 2
Tom Quincy was distracted, so distracted that he decided to blow his lunch date and take the rest of the day off, all without the consent of his boss. "I won't get fired, I'm good" he thought to himself smuggly. He sat in a small cafe nursing a cappuccino and trying his best not to open the journal which he so desperately wanted to read to reveal the secrets of the red head he had met earlier. He would ever so slightly begin to lift the cover and then shut it again feeling something akin to guilt overwhelm him. He'd never felt guilty before or felt the need to apologize, ever. He was the one who made the rules and the world be damned. He felt completely off balance for the first time in his life and why was he so damned inarticulate. She turned him into a bumbling idiot. This was not good.
Elsewhere in Toronto, her stomach growled, "traitor" she said aloud to no one in particular. The sky was beginning to darken and no one was feeling particularly generous so she packed up her guitar and made her way to her makeshift home. The corners of her mouth turned up as she saw the hard-top mustang albeit without wheels, but someday she dreamt of fixing it up and driving it out of the alley. "Someday" she thought to herself. She lugged her guitar inside the car and locked the doors. She counted her earnings. She was astonished when she saw that amongst the singles and fivers that there was a hundred dollar bill. She knew how much that hundred dollar bill could get her, but she also remembered where it came from. "I have to give it back" she thought to herself as she chewed on her lower lip. She put the money in the secret compartment where she kept the rest of her earnings for safe keeping. She lifted the guitar out of the case. "Where is my journal? I know it's in here" she said as she began to rummage inside the case and around in the car. "I have to find it" she said with determination forgetting hunger, thirst, and the need to sleep as she got out of the car and began to make her rounds amongst her performance spots.
Tom
Quincy was so preoccupied that he didn't notice the person hurriedly
crossing the street that he had to slam on the breaks, which was not
good for the Viper. He cursed under his breadth as he slammed the car
door ready to do battle. He was about to ream the person when his
stomach jumped into his throat. "First you try to buy me, then
you dine me, then you nearly assault me, and now you want to kill
me?" she said with her arms across her chest. "I was...well
you see...I was looking for you" he said like a slack jawed
idiot. "Really cause I was looking for something else" she
said battling in her mind whether it was worth returning the hundred
dollar bill to someone who nearly ran her over as she watched his
face color to a shade of pink. "Do you maybe...want to.grab
something...I mean...food?" he said in caveman speak. Her
stomach decided to betray her in that moment and made a particularly
unladylike sound. "I could eat" she said suspiciously and
with resignation. He walked over to the passenger door and held it
open for her. One part of her mind was screaming at her to get out of
there, that he was more trouble than he was worth and should she
trust this stranger while the other part of her mind was screaming
for her to get in the car because she was seriously hungry. "I
hate Freud" she said casually as she stepped inside the car.
"What?" he said nervously as he attempted the close the
door while she was only halfway inside. "Ouch" she said.
"Sorry" he said as she left her to close her door on her
own.
"I hope you have good insurance" she said with a
laugh. He merely raised his eyebrow at her. "Because when you're
not trying to run me over you seem to have it in your mind to injure
me in some way" she said light-heartedly.
If this was his impression of Jeff Gordon in the Indy500 she was convinced, but strangely enough she didn't fear for her life at the speed in which they were traveling in she actually felt exhilarated as her arm snaked out of the window to feel the cool breeze she couldn't help, but smile. For some reason seeing her smile made him grin like a deranged mental patient. "Don't tell me that's the last look I'm going to see on this Earth before you butcher me" she said with a straight face, which immediately turned his frown upside down and transformed it into a sober look. "I'm kidding Tommy" she said as she playfully punched him in the arm. "Besides I could take you no problem" she said as she sized him up and made him feel uncomfortably as her eyes bore into him. He turned on the radio and to his dying shame "Pick up the pieces" filled the air. She didn't say anything. His secret was safe. He could hear Jude humming softly and he began to smile again. "What?" she said when she caught him looking at her again. "Nothing" he mumbled as he focused on the road.
"Where's Alfred" she said with a hint of a smile on her lips as they walked into the roomy apartment. "Ha ha very funny" he said. "See I knew you had it in you to laugh" she said as she walked past him and curiously looked around. "Make yourself at home" he said as he watched her make her way to the pictures on the wall before losing interest; he made his way to his bedroom and left the journal on top of his nightstand. "Could you show me where the bathroom is?" she said as reentered the living room to see her sitting on the couch. "Sure it's down the hall last door on the right." he said. It felt like she had died and gone to heaven as she fingered the softer than soft towel and saw the various soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and hair products strewn around the bathroom. She self-consciously began to itch. "When was the last time I took a hot shower?" she said as she stared at the pale skinny girl in the mirror and decided then and there that she wouldn't forgo the opportunity, so she began to strip and stepped into the shower.
He didn't hear her as she walked into the kitchen, but he felt her presence and turned to face her. When he saw what she was wearing he dropped the pot he was holding. Her red hair was wet and he could see the moisture glistening on her milky white skin. She was clad in only a towel. His mind must have wandered because sure enough she about a breadth away from him and was waving a hand in his face. "I said may I borrow some clothes" she said. When he didn't respond for the third time she turned her heel in annoyance and made her way to his bedroom. A few seconds later he snapped out of it and ran to his room remembering that he had left her journal on his night stand. "Shit, shit shit" he said as he made his way to his room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her like the day she was born putting on a t-shirt, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph" he said aloud causing her to quickly turn towards him and cover herself with the towel that was on the floor. "Sorry" he said meekly and turned his back to her, so she could finish changing. He was still standing there totally unawares when he felt pain blossom in the back of his head that drove him to his knees. He began to see stars and began to gingerly rub the back of his head to check for blood. "Ow" he said dumbly. "You had this the whole time!" she said angrily. "You read it didn't you!" she shouted accusingly as he tried to get his bearings. "What!" he said stupidly. "Why.Do.You,Have.My.Journal?" she said as her eyes darkened. When he didn't answer in the two seconds she gave him she stormed out of the room, but before she left the apartment she made sure to leave the hundred dollar bill on the kitchen table; she didn't want anything to do with him.
