A/N: I'm back y'all! Sorry for the like super delayed update, I got some new meds and I've been completely off for the past couple of weeks; not to mention I'm in my last semester of school so it's really stressful with preperations for graduation and shit. BUT to compensate all that this chapter is longer and more dramatic and more exposing.
I do not own Total Drama, all rights reserved to the respective owners.
It was a beautiful morning when I woke up. The sun was still low on the sky and frost had settled on the ground during the night; the first one of the year, and just in time for halloween.
I sat up in the bed, holding the cover close to my chest, as I carefully touched the condensation that had formed on the window. It was cold and wet and it gave me a spectacular idea.
Turning to face Duncan, I let the same finger I touched the window with touch him, dragging it slowly up from his bellybutton to in between his pecs. He hissed in his sleep and I had to bite my lip so suppress a chuckle. I pressed my hand to the window before slowly placing it on the side of his neck, causing him to wake up and wave my arm away.
"What the hell, woman?" he hissed, touching his neck in confusion.
"There's frost outside", I smiled, shrugging away his questioning and accusing look.
"So you had to go and make me suffer?" He was still holding his hand close to his neck, still in awe at the sudden start of his morning.
"Isn't that what I do?" I asked sultry, leaning down with my hands on his chest, our lips, oh, so very close. Something about last night had awakened something inside me. Something that found excitement in the risks we'd taken and joy in knowing the power I had over the man laying underneath me.
"You do", Duncan sighed and looked me in the eyes, "but not without a fight." Quickly he swung us around, pinning me back under him and holding my wrists by the sides my head, making me giggle. I hummed in content as his lips met mine, easily slipping my hands out of his grip to entangle them in his hair.
But before we got any further, the door swung open.
"Hey bro-ho-ho-ho", Jonas said, breaking into a nervous - and almost proud - laughter as he spotted Duncan and I on the bed.
"Shit."
"Damn it." I crawled out from underneath Duncan, holding the covers close to my chest in an effort to conceal myself the best I could.
"So", Jonas sneered and leaned against the doorframe, "this is the mystery chick?"
"What? You've been talking about me?" I blurted out in confusion, looking at Duncan with furrowed brows.
"Just close the door", he said instead of answering me, directing the command at his brother.
"Wait?" Jonas cocked his head to the side and pointed at me, "aren't you Courtney?" I looked between the two brothers before nodding slowly, unsure of where this was going and more mortified than I had ever imagined I could be. "Oh, man", Jonas laughed, "this just got way better."
"I said close the door, man", Duncan repeated, louder and with less patience. The second the door clicked shut he shot up from the bed and marched over to lock it, mumbling to himself about why he hadn't done it last night. He sat down on the edge of the bed and I came up behind him, wrapping my arms, and the cover, around him.
"So you've been talking about me?" I teased, popping my head into his peripheral vision by leaning my cheek onto his shoulder.
"Oh, shut up", Duncan defended with a laugh and bumped me with his elbow. His laugh was beautiful, just like him, it was a deep, guttural laugh and the skin around his eyes crinkled as he smiled widely.
"I should go though", I sighed, "before my parents notice I'm gone."
"Yeah, I know", he nodded and kissed me sweetly before I stood up from his bed, stealing back the covers, "but hey, don't worry about Jonas. I've kept his overnight guests a secret so he'll do the same for me."
I smacked my lips together as his words relieved some of the anxiousness I felt. Being with Duncan got easier and easier by the second and even though we had cleared up a lot of things, I was still scared of the truth getting out. No matter what I felt for him. "Okay."
Sneaking out of the house was a lot harder than sneaking into it. Both Max and Jonas were sitting at the table in the kitchen, with their mother watching tv in the livingroom, only around the corner. But thanks to Duncan's more or less obvious distraction - and Jonas's unspoken promise to not rat his brother out - I managed to sneak out through the kitchen door.
I opened and closed the front door to my house as quietly as I could, not knowing who would be up; if anyone was. I breathed a sigh of relief as I dropped my backpack by the, now closed, door and leaned back against the wall. With small, tip-toeing steps I started to make my way back to my room.
"Hello, Courtney." It was my father's voice, and even though I tensed up at the thought of having been caught, his tone was anything but angry and disappointed. I walked into the living room, he sat with his legs crossed on the couch, reading this morning's paper.
"Good morning, daddy", I said, in hope that he was only making small talk and unaware of my adventures.
"Were you just at the door?" He looked up from the newspaper as he spoke, scrunching his eyebrows together in thought and wonder.
"Oh, erm, I just went out with the trash."
"Hm, okay" he shrugged before looking back down at the paper in his hands. I sometimes wished he was harder to fool; that he cared more. "You want breakfast?"
"Is there any?" I was genuinely surprised. Normally it was every man, and woman, to themselves when it came to breakfast and I usually settled with an apple on my way to school.
"Your mother's making some." He shrugged again before straightening out the paper with a firm shake, signaling the end of the conversation whether I liked it or not.
As I doubled back into the foyer I could hear the clatter of pans and pots coming from the kitchen. Sure enough, mom was making breakfast. As if my life hadn't already gotten turned upside down, thanks to Duncan, now she too had to go and make a complete 180.
"Buenos días, mija", she smiled as she saw me stand in the doorframe, confused, with my head cocked to the side. "Eggs and bacon?"
"Uh, yes", I answered, trying to shake the confusion as I moved over to the kitchen table to sit in one of the chairs. Three plates with accompanying glasses and cutleries were already set out, with a glass jar in the middle, full of orange juice that smelled deliciously newly pressed. "Thank you." She came to set down a fourth plate in front of me and the room filled with the smell of something burning.
"Damn." She scurried back to the stove and quickly scraped the bacon from the pan onto a serving tray. "It's still eatable", she said, mostly to herself, "I think."
Even though my mom knew how to cook, and would often be the one serving dinner, breakfast was not her thing. She seldomly came out of the bedroom until noon, and even then she would only make coffee and not talk to anyone before the caffeine had properly enlivened her.
"Is something going on?" I asked as she cracked four eggs into the pan.
"Can't a mother make breakfast for her family?" She answered without looking back at me, seasoning the eggs in the pan as she scrambled them.
"Yes she can, but you usually don't."
"Courtney", my mom snapped and turned around, spatula in hand, "do not be a smart mouth." She turned back around before continuing. "But if you must know, Kiki is getting her divorce finalised and she need the support of her girlfriends."
"So you're going away and this is a 'last meal' kind of thing?" I asked snidely and rolled my eyes. Of course there was a hidden meaning behind this breakfast. It was a peace offering of sorts. She knew she was gone too much and, even though it always ended with her leaving, she felt bad about it deep down.
"Why do you always have to be so dramatic? I'm only going to be gone a week or two." She scraped the scrambled eggs onto the same serving tray the bacon was on before putting the pan in the sink, letting it soak.
"What about Will?" I asked as I poured myself a glass of orange juice, my mom walking over to the table to put down the tray of food.
"What about him?" I raised my eyebrows as I dipped my head and eyed her accusingly. Will was still too young to be left home alone, and with me studying and dad working, mom was the only one that was able to look after him in the afternoons. With her gone, Will would grow scared and agitated in the big house by himself. My mom sighed as I still glared at her. "We'll hire a nanny or I'll drop him off at my cousin's."
"Drop who off?" My dad threw the folded newspaper on the table before taking a seat across from me.
"Will", I answered bluntly before my mom could come up with a way to sugarcoat her leaving again.
"Speaking of", she said and cleared her throat, "care to go get your brother, mija?" I knew from the look on my dad's face that he wanted to question her going away, and from her stance I knew she wasn't going to back down, and sending me upstairs was the quickest way of ridding me so they could speak their minds freely.
I knocked on Will's door, not stopping to wait for an answer before pushing it open. "Mom made breakfast", I said as I crossed the floor, sitting down on the edge of his bed.
"Breakfast?" Will questioned, looking at me from where he sat cross-legged on the floor.
"Yeah", I nodded slowly, "she's going away for a while."
"Where?" He looked back down to the intricate vehicle he was building out of Lego, only about half of it was done and the manual laid open on the floor in front of him.
"To Kiki."
"I like Kiki", Will answered fast, with a big smile on his face.
"Of course you do", I laughed, remembering how the woman always had cake or candy to offer him whenever they met. The muffled voices of our parents reached Will's room and I cringed at the anger they contained. At least when one of them wasn't home, they didn't fight audibly.
It wasn't until half an hour later that their voices dialed down and I led Will down to the kitchen. The bacon had grown cold and the scrambled eggs mushy, but at least the orange juice was still fine. I chugged the first glass without thought and chewed slowly on the same piece of bacon for too long. My dad brewed some coffee, completely disregarding the cooked breakfast, and stalked out of the kitchen as soon as the last drop hit the surface of the dark liquid.
The conversation around the kitchen table was stiff, but informational. Will decided against a nanny or babysitter, knowing it would be a stranger of our mom's choosing. And with my dad as irritated as he was, it was looking like I had another weekend alone in front of me. Well, maybe not alone alone.
The thought of spending a few days without having to pretend and keep up the facade we had built over the years warmed my body and made me smile. Letting our fingers dance across the others skin, kiss each other whenever we felt like it, laugh about our lives and talk freely about anything and everything. Even though the secrecy added an element of excitement into our relationship, I still longed for the moments where we could thoroughly enjoy it.
I downed another glass of orange juice before excusing myself from the table. My fingers worked as if with a mind of their own, swiftly punching in the right digits to Duncan's number, and I plopped down on my bed as the call signal rang through the phone.
"Guess what", I said excitedly as soon as I heard the answering click.
"Is it something interesting?" Duncan asked on the other end, his voice was low and husky, like he had just woken up.
"Yes", I answered and rolled my eyes, trying to ignore the warming feeling in between my legs that his scratchy voice caused.
"Okay then, what?" he chuckled.
"I'll probably have the house to myself this weekend."
"You're right, that is interesting."
"I knew you'd think that", I said, a big smile on my lips. It was a smile that lasted the day through, even with the stale atmosphere in the house as my mom packed a suitcase to last a week or two. It wasn't until the next day that it faded.
All five of us were sitting at a round table in the school cafeteria, picking at the food more than eating it while we talked, when Heather approached us; her cheerleading minions in tow.
"As you may know, it's Halloween on Saturday", she said, looking down her nose at us. The cheerleaders behind her stepped forward, a stack of paper in their hands. "I'm throwing a little get together at my place. Costume mandatory." As Heather spoke her friends handed out the papers to each one of us; invitations with date and time, big letters reminding about the dress code.
"Cool", Geoff nodded in approval, a lopsided smile on his face.
"It's a great opportunity to bring a date", Heather smirked, emphasizing the last word as she glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes, before walking away.
"Okay", Geoff interrupted, slapping his hands together in excitement and a big smile on his face, "Who's in?"
"I don't see why not", Bridgette shrugged.
"DJ?" Geoff asked.
"I don't know", he dragged out the words and pressed his lips together in thought.
"Come on", Geoff egged on.
"Okay, fine", DJ said after a few more seconds of Geoff staring at him with glee and anticipation. "If only to keep an eye on you", he added and waggled his fingers towards Geoff, "I don't like that look in your eyes."
"Duncan?" Geoff asked, ignoring DJ's promise of babysitting. "You can bring your hot mystery girl." He wiggled his eyebrows and smirked, already knowing Duncan's answer.
"Definitely." Geoff's finger wandered from the green haired boy sitting beside me to me.
"Are you in, Court?"
"Yeah, babe. You gonna be there?" Duncan smirked, casually slipping in the pet name that once used to hold so little meaning but now warmed my body with affection. I remembered when he would call even Bridgette 'babe', though that had stopped abruptly when Geoff got together with her. I now understood why. If someone would've talked to Duncan the way he talked to me, I would've kicked them.
"I don't know", I shrugged and my face scrunched up in thought, an unusual whining noise pierced my tone as I mowed it over in my mind.
"Come on, honey, it'll be fun", Duncan pushed. 'Honey' was a word I later realised Bridgette had picked up on. Even though he had uttered it in my direction numerous times before - in the darkness of the night when we laid spent in the messy bed, on the phone when my mind had drifted away from the conversation to grab my attention again - he had never done it when surrounded by our friends. I, however, had grown used to the pet name, not giving it a second thought when the word slipped out of his mouth.
"You always say that and it usually never is", I tilted my head to look at him, a smirk played on his lips as he dropped his hand to brush my thigh under the table.
"Exactly", he lit up, "usually."
"Ugh", was the only answer escaping my lips as I rolled my eyes and turned back to face the others. My eyes interlocked with Bridgette's as I was about to agree to the party, but her mouth hung open and her eyes had grown wide and I realised she had figured it out. "Uhm, Bridg", I started, not breaking eye contact, "I just remembered you left your book in my locker. Let's go get it." The last four words were emphasized by the quick jerk of my head in the direction of the exit.
"What?" She looked confused for a second and tilted her head in wonder. "Oh right. That's where I left it. My. Book."
"Yes", I squeezed out in frustration between my teeth. I loved Bridgette, of course I did, but prompts like these would more often than not go right over her head. "So let's go." I jerked my head again, causing a disturbed look from DJ. Knowing his intuition - and his suspicions surrounding Duncan and I - I knew he wasn't too far from finding out the truth too.
We walked out of the cafeteria, leaving our trays behind, and I hurried all the way to our lockers, making sure to put as much space between us and the guys and whatever nosy ears may snap up our conversation.
"It's not what you think", I said in a panicked voice, trying hard to convince and assure her.
"Then what is it?" Bridgette raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest. She looked at me, unconvinced, and I knew she had a hard time even imagining our unlikely coupling.
"It's nothing", I tried once more, sounding even less convincing than the first time.
"He called you babe."
"So? He calls everyone that."
"He called you honey", she lowered her voice as two scrawny looking tenth graders walked by with looks of interest plastered across their faces. I didn't reply, my gaze kept firm on the slight swaying of my right foot. "Oh my god", she gasped, bringing one hand to cover her mouth, "are you in love with him?" The question shocked me and I snapped my head back up to meet her gaze.
"What-no-that's not even-why would you-no." I shook my head frantically, my eyebrows scrunching together in confusion. "We're just, I don't know", I sighed, "hanging out I guess."
"You mean dating?" A knowing smile had crept its way onto Bridgette's lips as she looked at me with a gleeful glint in her eyes.
"No", I shook my head again, "we've never-okay-we've been on like one date. Breakfast."
"Wait." It was her time now to shake her head, though in confusion more than anything. "Breakfast? So you mean he wasn't exaggerating when he bragged about spending nights together? And the hickeys, oh my god!"
"Would you be quiet?" I whispered forcefully as students passed us by, staring in confusion and jumping in fright at Bridgette's squealing.
"You're in looove", she said in a sing songy voice while smiling, almost bouncing in place with sympathetic rejoicement.
"Are you done?" I crossed my arms.
"No", Bridgette sung again before throwing her arms around my neck in a hug, "now I am." And as I hugged her back I couldn't help but smile myself.