Hey guys, sorry about the hugely long delay, you must really hate me... but here is the next chapter... finally. Thank you for the reviews guys, thank you Mike The Snowman for the information about annulment, it's a big help :).
28. Dirty Little Secret
The days had gone by and Rick's mood had not improved, but now Karen found herself laughing at him. He tried so hard to be intimidating but now she couldn't care less, she was stronger. She couldn't believe she'd ever been so scared of him, it was almost embarrassing.
She was once again smiling at Rick's ramblings over how she'd left the chicken coop open and one of the chickens had been eaten by a fox.
"Karen, that was totally irresponsible!" Rick yelled, his eyes still welling up with tears over the loss of his bird. Karen shrugged and continued to comb her hair and smile at her reflection in the mirror.
"Yeah well… I don't really see it as my responsibility." She said, her voice perfectly neutral. This succeeded in making Rick angrier, causing his face to swell like he had been stung by a whole hive of bees.
"But Karen, I told you I was staying at the inn late and asked if you could shut the door!" Rick whined, his voice sounding like nails on a blackboard.
"Do you remember me saying that I would?" She asked, finally turning to face him, her light eyebrows raised.
"Well no… but I know you heard me!" Rick argued and she shrugged.
"Case closed then, I never said that I would." She said. Rick's eyes filled with more tears as he held back anger. Karen however, was thoroughly enjoying herself. She'd heard him loud and clear and had simply not been bothered to shut the coop, instead leaving the coop wide open, a free buffet for any predators. In fact, she was surprised no more chickens had been scoffed by the foxes of Mineral town.
"Karen! Rick Junior is dead now because of you! I found what was left of his mangled corpse near Mother's Hill last night!" He shouted, causing her to smirk even more.
"Oh boo hoo, sorry I let your best friend die… what was his name…? Oh that's right, Rick Junior." She said, pronouncing each letter of the name with a smirk. It had its desired affect, causing Rick to run off crying. Karen grinned and finished fixing her hair, before heading out and taking a deep gulp of air.
"Morning Poe!" Karen greeted, spotting her small friend heading off towards the inn. Popuri beamed and skipped over to her, bowing her head in greeting.
"Hey Kar, it's a beautiful morning. I was just heading over to the inn, are you going?" Popuri asked sweetly. Karen shook her hair and glanced over towards the farm.
"No I'm heading to Ja… Mother's hill. I need the fresh air, Rick's blaming me for killing one of his chickens." She said heaving an exasperated sigh. Popuri's face contorted in horror and Karen mentally smacked herself, she'd forgotten that Popuri also had an obsessive love of chickens.
"A chicken died? Which one? Oh my god Karen, what did you do?" Popuri asked in horror.
"It was Rick Junior, and I shot it." Karen joked and seeing the horror on Popuri's face realized it wasn't the most tactful thing she could have done.
"You… you…" Popuri stammered, her bottom lips quivering uncontrollably.
"No Poe! I was joking; obviously I'm not very funny… I accidentally left the gate open and a fox got in." She said, forcing her face to turn serious. Popuri seemed to be keeping back tears as she nodded. Eventually she asked if Rick would be holding a funeral for it and Karen had to stop herself laughing, that was just extreme.
"Yes… well of course Rick will be burying it. I don't know yet if he's planning a ceremony, but I'm sure you can go to the burial." Karen said, trying her hardest not to laugh. Popuri nodded solemnly and gave Karen a hug, telling her that she was sorry for the loss. Karen smiled and nodded, pretending to be remotely sad before finally Popuri left.
"Wacky," she mused to herself as she followed the path to the farm.
She found Jack in the farmhouse, waiting for her patiently, she loved it when he waited.
"Hey, you're late." He said, feigning a serious voice, like a teacher to a student. Karen flicked back her hair and flashed him a surprised smile.
"Oh am I?" She said innocently, looking at a non-existent watch on her wrist. Jack grinned and pulled her into a passionate kiss.
"I killed Rick's chicken last night." Karen said with a sigh, as soon as the kiss had ended. Jack burst out laughing immediately, the response that Karen had had too. "We are so soul mates," she thought to herself.
"So how'd you do it? Shotgun, axe, hoe, poison in the food?" Jack asked with a smirk. She feigned a look of hurt and then smiled.
"Do you really think I'm psychotic? No I just "accidentally" left the coop door open." She said doing air quotations.
"Oh that's brilliant!" Jack said with a grin and Karen smiled proudly. She kissed Jack on the cheek and then sat next to him on the sofa.
"You wanna watch a movie?" She asked eventually and he shrugged.
"Sure why not? What do you want to watch?" He asked, pointing to a vast selection of videos.
"Hmmm, I'm in the mood for something sad, dunno why… oooh Bambi!" She said grabbing the video.
"Oh god no!" Jack said quickly, reaching to grab the video out of Karen's hand. "I think you've had enough killing of innocent animals for one day, let's watch something else…"
"Why?" Karen asked her face blank. Jack bit his lip and struggled to think of an excuse.
"Well, we should watch something romantic… cos we're a couple." He said, arousing Karen's suspicion. She raised her eyebrows and looked back and forth from the tape to him. Suddenly she realized why he didn't want to watch Bambi.
"Oh my god! Bambi makes you cry, admit it! You're all sensitive!" She said with a triumphant grin.
"Am not, I just don't want you to cry." He said defensively. Karen kissed him on the cheek and smiled mockingly.
"Aww baby, does the wittle deer's mom dying make you sad, do you want me to hold your hand?" She asked patronizingly. He frowned and grabbed the tape.
"Fine then, we'll watch Bambi, but don't blame me if you cry." He said, shoving the tape into the machine while Karen just smirked.
After the movie had finished Jack sat surrounded by tissues, his eyes red and swollen from crying. He blew his nose loudly on a tissue and she grinned, watching in amusement.
"Why does Bambi's mom have to die? Why? Poor Bambi all alone, and his dad does next to nothing! It's so sad!" Jack sniffled, while Karen cradled him in her arms.
"It's just a movie! You laughed when the actual chicken died!" She accused incredulously. Jack smiled sheepishly and began to pick up the scattered tissues.
"Yeah, but that chicken didn't have an adorably cute son." He protested forcing her to smile in agreement. She glanced at her watch and sighed, it was time for her to go home to the chicken boy.
"Well I've gotta go home now, before chicken boy gets all suspicious." She said with a sigh, placing her hands on her hips in annoyance. Jack smiled weakly and went to kiss her goodbye, pulling her into a passionate kiss and embrace. He smiled at her, his golden-brown eyes twinkling with love.
"Damn I wish I didn't have to go…" She said, reluctantly heading towards the door. He grabbed onto her hand and held tight, pulling her back into the delightfully warm comfort of his arms.
"Then don't." He told her, his voice encouraging and his offer tempting. His lips tricked a trail of kisses up her neck and onto her lips again making her shiver with the sensation.
"No, I'd better go or Rick'll throw a hissy fit." She said grimly, kissing him once more goodbye. She then hurried quickly to the door and into the unwelcoming outside air, before she lost all her resolve.
After checking that the house was empty and Rick was not waiting impatiently for her Karen headed to the inn to find Ann. Their friendship was a lot better since Cliff had proposed, so she really had to thank him.
"Hey Ann," she greeted, taking a comfortable seat opposite her friend against a clean inn table. Ann looked up from her magazine, her bright blue eyes glimmering with joy.
"Oh Karen, look at these dresses! Which one would look best on me?" Ann asked, showing her a couple of the circled dresses. Karen almost fell out of her seat with laughter at the ones Ann had picked, they were all the most poofy dresses.
"Ann, you're becoming like Popuri!" She exclaimed, pointing to a bright pink dress with frills and a long skirt as proof. Ann blushed furiously and hurried to cover up the picture with her hand.
"That's not for the wedding…" She said, flushing a furious shade of red. Karen shook her head and flicked through the magazine again, trying to find at least one of the dresses that she agreed with.
"Seriously, when did you become Popuri?" Karen asked with a shocked grin and Ann shrugged and looked sheepish.
"It's just… I'm so excited about this wedding! I've been waiting for him to propose for like… two years now, and now I'm finally about to get married! I just want it all to be perfect." She admitted, tossing the magazine to the side in frustration. Karen smiled kindly and picked the magazine up again, scanning the pages quickly.
"Come on, I'll help. I think I saw one that you like that will look beautiful on you and have the plus of not making you look like the fairy godmother off Cinderella." She said, finally coming to the page she agreed with. She pointed to a beautiful white dress, with a beautiful flowing skirt and a delicately embroidered top.
"There." She said triumphantly. Ann looked it over and made a face, staring in horror at the price.
"Yeah, but look at the price tag, I cannot afford six hundred dollars, Kar." Ann told her, the beautiful sparkle fading out of her eyes, like a fire being extinguished by water.
"Ann, this is your wedding, you'll only get one, so make the most of it! Cliff loves you, he will buy you this dress." She said determinedly, her jade glare meeting Ann's sapphire gaze. She nodded and ripped out the page from the magazine with a satisfying tear.
"You're right, this dress is perfect, I'll order it tonight." Ann said with a grin. Karen felt excitement and happiness for her friend bubble up inside her like warm foam, tickling her insides gently. The only thing that could spoil her happiness was…
"Hey Karen, where have you been?" Rick demanded. Yeah that oughta about do it. She turned, scowling into Rick's beady grey eyes.
"Erm the inn, kinda like where I am now," she said sarcastically, gesturing to the building around her. Rick's face grew red and he fumed, she could almost see the steam spraying out of his ears.
"I came to the inn earlier to find you, you weren't there." He snapped. Karen smiled sweetly and kept her face as straight as possible.
"Well maybe you didn't look hard enough…" She said with a sour sweetness that made Rick's blood boil.
"But I asked Ann earlier, she said you weren't here." He pointed out. Karen looked at Ann, her eyes showing convincing shock.
"Ann, I was here all day, you can't have said that, did you say that?" Karen asked, her voice sounding genuine. Ann forced her face to remain straight and shook her head, feigning looking worried for Rick's mental health.
"No never, are you sure you heard right, Rick?" Ann asked, sounding very convincingly sympathetic.
"Wha? But… no… I…" Rick stammered, before giving up. He didn't want to sound completely crazy and his shoulders fell in defeat. Karen smiled, the whole affair thing would be easy when Rick was so easily fooled.
She frowned suddenly, an affair, she'd never believed she was the affair kind of girl, from being a young child she'd always believed she'd fall in love, get married, then live the life with a white picket fence. But after Jack died, her ideals started to change, she realized it wasn't a perfect world that she lived in, not the fairytale world where love always prevails, but a world where you fight for what scraps of love you can get. So here she was, hurting Rick more than she could have ever imagined hurting anyone and loving every minute of it. Now she was disgusted with herself, but she hadn't felt pure since she'd married Rick.
"Well I'll buy a drink then…" Rick said impatiently, snapping Karen from her daze immediately. "Honey, do you want something?"
"No… thank you," she replied meekly. His eyes widened in surprise at her weakened tone, but he shrugged it off, he was used to her playing him hot and cold. He returned with a pint of golden, bubbling beer, licking the foam off in delight.
"I'm gonna go home, see you tomorrow Ann…" Karen said softly, smiling weakly at her friend and even more weakly at Rick.
"Oh, how come?" Ann asked casually, pouring out a glass of wine for Gotz.
"I have a headache." She said softly, placing her hand to her forehead delicately, her cool hands soothing her head slightly. Ann nodded and watched Karen leave, she looked slightly off all of a sudden.
She was walking across the darkened streets of Mineral town, wondering how it had got so dark all of a sudden. The pale streetlamps dimly lit the shadowed street, causing a pale ghostly light to emit across them. Karen kept her arms folded, biting her lip in thought as she walked down the path, her footsteps sounding a rhythmic beat across the bricks. Suddenly she collided with something hard and struggled to keep her balance, swaying forwards to keep from falling. She looked up with expressive eyes to see what had hit into her and found the shy girl Mary smiling slightly at her.
"Oh sorry, I didn't see you…" Karen said gently, helping Mary to her feet. She shook her head, her raven black hair shimmering with a glossy shine in the moonlight.
"No worries Karen." She said, adjusting her glasses on to her cute face quickly. "So what are you doing pacing the streets this late?"
"Oh I'm… clearing my head I guess… and what about you?" Karen asked her eyes revealing easily the confusion dancing within them.
"Me too, it's a beautiful evening for a pensive walk." Mary agreed, brushing some non-existent dust of her grey-green skirt. Karen smiled, and began to walk with Mary by her side.
"So why are you feeling pensive?" Karen asked, their steps were matching perfectly in their slow walk. Mary breathed in deeply, her small lungs filling with the mild night air.
"Gray… he's so distant lately." She admitted, her head hanging slightly lower as she said the words. Karen snorted tactlessly.
"Lately? When has he not been distant?" She asked. Gray had always been rather silent, deep, but not willing to reveal the depth that his azure eyes held. He always came across as cold, but shy was more the right word, an air of mystery to his silent persona.
"He hasn't ever been this distant before… I try to talk to him, but… it's like I don't really matter, y'know?" She said, her dark eyes glimmering with worry. Karen cocked her head, unsure whether she really knew what it was like not to matter. Not mattering was the one thing that never seemed to have happened to her. With both Rick and Jack she seemed to matter in excess, and that was as bad as not mattering.
"I'm sorry, I don't know how that feels. I've always mattered way too much to Rick." She said, being carefully not to mention Jack.
"Ah, well that's no good either. See, the thing that hurts most is that I know that Gray doesn't love me. We may get along wonderfully when it comes to reading books, but there isn't a… a… spark." She said, sighing. Karen felt a small twinge of guilt in her stomach, the knowledge that Gray was still in love with her making her feel sick.
"Well there's no spark with Rick either, but he tries too hard to make it. It's like your situation, he loves me, I don't love him." She said darkly. Mary looked at her quickly, taking in her newly acquired information. She pushed her glasses further onto her nose, the lenses magnifying her eyes to make them look large and sparkly.
"There have been rumors… well I guess it's pretty obvious." Mary said, it was true that she didn't sound at all surprised. She then stopped and looked at Karen very seriously, as though deciding her next words carefully.
"I know Gray's in love with you." She informed her, her voice suddenly cold and chilling, her eyes filled with jealousy. Karen opened her mouth to speak and then quickly closed it, what could she say after all?
"I never led him to believe that I felt anything for him, I never encouraged him. It's not my fault." Karen said dryly. Mary nodded and sighed.
"I guess he has the spark for you… and you… you and Jack have it." Mary said, Karen was impressed at how quickly she had assessed the situation between her and Jack. "Are you seeing each other?"
"Yeah," she replied shortly, there was no point in denying it, Mary wasn't stupid. She didn't seem shocked or disgusted with the situation at all, she simply continued walking.
"Hmm, well tell me how that works out for you." She said sardonically. She then turned to Karen, her cold, tar-coloured eyes suddenly seemed to have melted into tears. "What if he never loves me Karen?"
"He will, as long as he doesn't hate you, he will." She promised. She wondered that, had Rick not treated her like crap the first day of marriage, if she might have learned to love him. She had always told herself she would, but if she had, what would she have done when Jack came back?
"Thanks." Mary replied softly, fixing a smile onto her face. Karen nodded and gave Mary a quick hug.
"Mineral town really isn't the best place for true love, is it?" She laughed, giving Mary a smile.
"Tell that to Popuri and Kai and Elli and Doctor Mason." She replied bitterly. Karen smiled gently and looked forward into the dark.
"G'night Mary," she said gently and she replied with a small smile.
The next day Karen woke up to autumn outside her window, the birds were singing and the annoying buzzing of bees and various other insects was gone. She took a deep breath of air and scrambled out of bed to greet the day. She made herself breakfast and ate it quickly, her mood suddenly improved with the change of weather.
"Mornin' sweetie, you sound happy." Rick commented as he walked into the kitchen and Karen offered him a scowl. He just continued to smile, whistling a happy tune.
"So Karen, sweetie, darling, baby…" Rick said, uttering as many pet names as would come into his head.
"What?" She snapped back, silencing him before she heard another disgusting pet name uttered from his mouth.
"Well… ya see, I was wondering if I could go to the bar with the guys tonight… we're all going for a big guy party thing… so can I go?" He said in an annoying voice. Karen scowled and then shrugged, her cheerful mood disappearing.
"What am I, your mother? Go ahead. See if I care." She said with a shrug. He wasn't sure whether to be happy or not, sure she'd said he could go, but she'd also said she didn't care. So he decided instead to tell her what it was, it was a safe option.
"All the guys of Mineral town are gonna meet in the inn, probably talk about the women and get drunk, are you okay with it?" He asked again, determined to get a better reaction from her.
"What do I care what you guys do?" She said with a sigh. She pretended not to care, but a part of her was filled with curiosity, what it would be to be the fly in the wall at that party. So she glanced at Rick, decided then and there that she would be eavesdropping at that party.
"What time does it start?" She asked, still pretending to be neutral. Rick smiled at her small show of interest, it was the best he was going to get.
"At eight, I think the girls are all gonna stay at home." He notified her and Karen smiled, "not this girl," she thought.
"Okie dokie," she said with a falsely sweet smile. "I'll just stay home and read a book or something. I think I'll go for a walk now." She told him, hurrying out of the door before he could say another word.
She hurried down the street heading towards the farm, she had to find out whether Jack was going or not. She ran across the dirt path to his farm, her feet making a satisfying crunching sound as they hit. She was met with a serene picture of perfection as she entered the farm, the grass was twinkling with the morning dew and the chickens hobbling around the farm gleefully. The horse and cows munched merrily at the sweet grass and wore peaceful expressions on their long faces. But the most beautiful sight of all hit Karen's eyes as she saw Jack walking towards her. She sighed contentedly as he pulled her into his arms kissing her neck softly.
"Hey sweetie, not that I'm complaining but what's with the early morning visit?" He asked, releasing her from the warm hug. She smiled, trying to clear her fuzzy mind and remember the reason for her being there.
"Umm…" She thought, she then remembered her reason and tried to put it into a more tactful sentence. "Can we meet up tonight?" "Yeah, that sounds good." She thought, giving herself a mental pat on the back.
"Sorry sweetie tonight's not so good they're having a party at the inn, and I'm going." He said, kissing her sweetly on the cheek. She sighed, so he was going too, now she had to find a way to eavesdrop on the gathering.
"No problem, another night then." She said with a shrug, trying to sound a little disappointed rather than curious.
"Yeah, do you want to hang around today?" He asked with a grin. Karen gulped, knowing that he would expect her to help with farm work.
"Wow, as appealing as the whole farm work thing sounds, I'm kinda busy. I promised Ann I'd help her out with some wedding plans, so I'll see you tomorrow?" She told him, planting a tender kiss on his lips. "Well I'll be seeing you tonight, you just won't see me." She thought deviously.
"Sure thing, have a good day." He told her, reluctantly releasing her from the embrace. She then set off to the inn, forming a plan in her mind.
After she had explained her idea to Ann they both sat looking pensive but excited.
"We really shouldn't eavesdrop…" Ann said, always sticking to her morals. Karen snorted and grinned evilly.
"Come on Ann! Don't you wanna know what the guys talk about when we're not there? We could find out!" She said enticingly, Ann looked tempted for a moment then shook her head again.
"No Karen, it'd be wrong and… and… we wouldn't like it if they eavesdropped on us!" Ann said firmly but Karen smiled a secretive smile, she knew she could get her friend to agree. She put on a pout, green eyes shining like glossy emeralds as she looked towards the floor.
"But we don't have parties like that," she protested and then in a whiny voice said, "I really wanna knoooow!" Holding out the note as long as she could, drilling into Ann's armor. Ann looked weakened and tried hard to resist the puppy dog eyes Karen was shining on her.
"Oh fine, we'll sneak into the inn and watch from the cellar, okay? You happy now?" She asked, her arms folded and a frown upon her face.
"Yeees Ann," Karen replied sweetly, before grinning an evil grin.
So not really a cliffhanger, but there'll be another one next chapter i think. Anyway till then ciao.
