A/N: Just some snippets from Courtney's week. Mostly filler, though slight plot point towards the end.
I do not own Total Drama, all rights reserved to the respective owners.
The week went by with wondering looks and whispers that stopped as I passed by. It was exhausting and irritating, but I found relief in the fact that Heather hadn't spoken out about our conflict, making the talk about us only wild rumors fueled by nothing other than hearsay and secret wishes.
I had dragged Duncan into one of the faculty corridors that Tuesday afternoon, telling him about the discussion with Heather.
"She figured it out somehow", I said in a hushed voice and leaned back against the cool wall.
"But how?" Duncan was more confused about the whole ordeal than anything, not sharing the anxiousness I felt about it.
"She has eyes and ears everywhere", I sighed. Someone had probably overheard our conversation in the cafeteria while someone else might have seen us outside the diner, and she simply put the pieces together. "Maybe we should lay low for a while. Until it blows over."
"Dragging me into an empty hallway ain't exactly laying low", he smirked, leaning a hand on the wall beside me. His eyes caught mine and I felt more than saw the mischievous glint in them.
"Shut up", I said and turned my head away from his. I knew if I had held his gaze any longer I might've buckled and let the danger of getting caught fuel our bodies and emotions.
"Don't be mad at me", Duncan said, his voice full of pretend innocence. He leaned in closer and I felt his breath hit the exposed skin of my neck. "You could've texted me, or not tell me at all. But no, you took time out of your day to find an unoccupied corridor to talk to me in." His voice got lower and more etched with teasing desire by each word, his lips brushing my neck as he spoke.
"Don't make this about you", I said, the words trembling as I tried hard to hold my composure.
"You're right", Duncan said, his mouth moving away from my skin, "it's about you." And with that his lips crashed against mine. His tongue parting my lips, sneaking its way inside to meet mine. The kiss got heated fast. I was caged against the wall, letting Duncan breath in my moans as our lips danced against each other. And if the school bell hadn't rung to warn about the last class of the day, I don't know how far we would've taken it.
A teacher had rounded the corner just as we parted and Duncan used his hands to push himself away from the wall I leaned against. The adult had raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat in an attempt to get our attention. Duncan scratched the back of his neck and we both started rambling about the classes we had to go to.
"That was too close", I had warned him once we were out of earshot from the teacher.
On Wednesday I tried to keep my distance. I took a seat in the front of the first class we had together and I raised my hand at every question, minimizing his - and my - opportunities to talk or touch. All five of us had PE together and I quickly paired myself with Bridgette to walk the obstacle course we had that day; which in hindsight had not been the greatest idea. We had fallen at the balancing rope and she got her foot stuck in the climbing net. I had pushed her up the beacons while she grabbed at it like a sloth. It had been an exhausting hour that otherwise I would have completed without problem or fault.
On Thursday I started getting nervous I had pushed him away, gone a little too far in my quest to lay low. It wasn't until lunch he decided to show up. Geoff, Bridgette, DJ and I had already taken our seats in the schoolyard, sitting down in an unevenly shaped circle next to my favorite tree. None of us had even spotted Duncan until he flicked a cigarette he was done with near us and plopped down on the ground next to me.
"Gonna go home tomorrow", he said, low enough for only me to hear. I turned my head to face him but he was stubbornly looking straight ahead at the flailing hands of Geoff who was trying to explain something to DJ.
"That's great", I answered, turning my head back to watch the hopeless conversation in front of us.
"Thought maybe you'd wanna know", he shrugged and leaned back on his elbows, experimentally resting a hand on the small of my back.
"I'm happy for you. Do you want me to…" I started, not really sure what I was offering to help with, "do something?" I finally managed to settle on.
"It's good, I need to do it alone", he said with a determined tone and I understood his decision. It had been weeks since he spent a night at home, weeks since he had talked to his father and eaten breakfast with his brothers. Adding me to the mix would more likely than not screw something up; I would've spoken up about the unfair treatment too loudly too quickly.
Duncan's thumb stroke small circles into my back as we continued to silently watch the interaction between our other friends, and I felt myself lean into his touch more and more as the minutes ticked by.
For the entirety of Friday Duncan didn't show and I could only hope everything with his move home had gone well and turned out okay.
I had taken a seat in the front of the classroom, near a window, for English class. One of Heather's cheerleaders sat two rows behind me and I could feel her eyes on me with every move I made. I raised my hand to answer a question, her head would snap up from her notebook in an instant. I turned my head to watch outside the window, her eyes followed my line of sight. I took out a new pen from my bag when the one I had snapped at the tip, she watched me carefully with narrowed eyes.
Halfway through the class, the door burst open, hitting the wall as it swung powerfully, and the chattery room went dead silent as everyone got startled. Heather stood in the doorway, her perfectly manicured fingernails tapping a rhythm on her hip and her long hair swept to one side. A smile played on her lips as she sashayed her way over to the teacher's desk. I looked around the room, seeing how some of the students had gone back to talking amongst each other like before Heather had entered, some threw quizzical glances between their textbooks and her, while some - mostly boys - straight out stared. And wow, did she know it. She bent down a little more than necessary as she spoke in a hushed voice to the teacher, making her skirt rise up just enough to hint at the roundings of her cheeks, her right leg crossing over the calf of her left.
As the seconds ticked away at the clock, and the time continued to pass without further interruption, everyone slowly went back to focus on their work - or chatter. Within minutes she had left again, though no less dramatic than she had entered, and the teacher cleared her throat, telling everyone to continue with question 42.
I packed my things back in my bag as the final seconds of the class ticked down loudly on the clock above the door, our teacher dismissing everyone and wishing us a good weekend.
"Don't think you have me fooled." The voice came from my right as I passed out the doorway with the other students. Heather was leaning against the wall, absentmindedly exhibiting her nails with outstretched arms as she spoke without looking at me.
"What are you talking about now?" I asked and readjusted my bag, the cheerleader I had class with coming up behind me, as to block the possible escape route.
"Your boy-toy, of course", Heather answered and glanced up from her manicure to look at me, her hand being slowly lowered to be put atop her hip instead.
"Of course", I repeated with a sigh and rolled my eyes.
"I know what you're trying to play", she continued, "just don't play it too hard or he'll lose interest."
"I'm not playing", I said and put my hand on my hip, mimicking her stance.
"Oh, honey, stop trying to kid yourself", she said, her smile never reaching the wicked expression in her eyes.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes in an attempt to sort the situation out; it didn't matter what Heather knew or thought she knew, she had kept it quiet this long, even with all the rumors and gossip going around the school, and without any evidence to back it up she would continue to keep it quiet while she made unspoken, empty threats.
"Whatever", I shrugged, not dignifying her comment with a proper answer, and gestured absentmindedly with my hands, making my bag slip down from my shoulder to the crevice of my elbow.
Heather looked at me with a mixture of shock and disbelief at the disrespectful word. She opened her mouth to speak but I walked away before she had a chance to say anything, a triumphant smile on my lips.
When I opened the gate to the fence surrounding my yard, I was surprised to see my mother's car parked in the driveway, blocking the door to the garage. She had been away for three weeks and the sight of the vehicle made me pause at the gate. I furrowed my brows in confusion but quickly shook it off, resuming my route to the front door.
I dropped the bag in the foyer as the front door closed behind me. I heard Will's tiny footsteps in his room above the stairs, and it didn't take long before his smiling face popped out of the doorway to his room and he jumped down the steps toward me.
"I missed you so much", he said as he threw his arms around me, stretching out the second to last word to emphasize just how much he meant it.
"I missed you too", I smiled back, enveloping my arms around his tiny frame tightly. "How's grandma?"
"Tired", he said with a sigh as we separated and I took the opportunity to kick off my shoes. I could tell from his expression and tone that, although alive, grandmother was not doing well. He was just eight and had only recently grasped the concept of death, and, knowing my mom, 'tired' was the only description he had gotten when asking about grandmother's wellbeing.
"Why don't you run upstairs and I'll be up in a minute to play?" I said, letting a smile tuck at the corner of my lips to get Will's mind on other, more fun, thoughts. His eyes shone with delight as he looked up at me and vigorously nodded his head before racing up the stairs.
I let my bag sit slumped against the wall of the foyer as I made my way around the back of the stairway, my mom's personal den spilling out before me, soft light shining from the candelabra she had lit.
"You're back", I said, standing in the doorway with my arms held behind my back.
"I am", my mom answered without lifting her face from the book she held in her hand. She sat in the armchair, not too far from the arch, with her feet tucked under her.
"You should move your car", I stated softly, rocking slowly back and forth on the soles of my feet.
"If your father has a problem with my parking, mija, he can take it up with me." She violently flipped a page in her book, the sound being absorbed by the darkly painted walls, and I knew the conversation was over. She had presumably heard Will and I's conversation in the foyer and had decided not to mention grandmother's state other than 'tired', and with a sigh I took my leave.
Will and I played in his room for an hour before he grew tired off it and wanted to watch tv, and I decided that studying in my own room would be more desireable than childrens' cartoons. I fetched my bag from beside the front door and threw it onto my bed. My phone bouncing out and catching my eye as the screen lit up with unread messages and notifications.
I quickly answered some texts from Bridgette, sent back my response to a funny cat video from DJ and deleted multiple notifications about newly published news articles. It wasn't until Duncan's name popped up in the roll-down-curtain that I stopped the scrolling, unknowingly holding my breath. I opened the message and my thoughts started spinning like carousel as I saw the two-worded sentence. 'Call me'. Was this a 'we need to talk' sort of call? Did Heather get to him too?
With shaky fingers I dialed his number and within the first two signals he answered. He described his encounter with his family. How happy his mother had been, her lips reaching from ear to ear as she smiled at him. How Max had given him a big hug and showed him his new high score at a video game. How Jonas had patted his back and whispered that he had borrowed a condom from Duncan's bedroom drawer. How when his father came home he ruffled Max's hair and asked Jonas about the police academy. How his father didn't acknowledge him, not even with a glance.
"I thought he'd at least notice me", Duncan sighed sadly into the phone. I had put my bag down on the floor and laid down on my back on the bed.
"Does he want you out again?" I asked concerningly, not wanting him out in the woods once more.
"Haven't heard anything."
"Well that's good", I said, trying hard to point out the silver lining in a crap situation. I could almost hear how Duncan shrugged his answer.
He sighed and I could hear his bed creak as he got into it. "Can we change the topic?"
"Yeah", I agreed with a nod, not wanting him to dwell on his father's stupid behaviour. "Guess what."
"What?" Duncan asked, his voice already sounding less sad and less angry.
"Mom and Will are back."
"How did that go?" he chuckled, knowing how energetic my brother was and how passive my mother behaved. I told him about the car and we both rolled our eyes at the story. I told him about Will's new set of Lego. I told him about Heather's cornering of me after English class. I told him how I had been scared I had pushed him away when he didn't show up that Friday morning.
"Don't worry, honey", he had answered earnestly. The nickname rolling of his tongue as if it was nothing, sounding so sweet and innocent, filling the black pit in my stomach from Heather's harsh interpretation of the word only hours before with butterflies.
And that Friday night, I fell asleep on the phone with Duncan.