A Long Time Coming part 2

A story of life and love

Realization

When Jeanette got inside of her home, she was greeted by the angry reprimands of her adoptive mother Miss Miller.

"And just what do you think you're doing waltzing in here at this hour of the night as if butter wouldn't melt in your mouth?" she said angrily, "if it weren't for the fact that I have never had a single incident from you, you would be up in your room with nothing to eat for dinner except a piece of bread and a glass of water for all the grief you caused tonight. Do you realize how scared I was when I tried to call you and you couldn't answer!?"

"I'm sorry Miss Miller." Jeanette said, tearing up slightly, "I really didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry"

After hearing her daughter's apology and seeing the tears in her eyes, Miss Miller's anger turned to concern. What had happened to make her sad?

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry that I yelled at you, I didn't mean it, I was just scared about your safety. Please dear, tell me what's wrong."

"Well," Jeanette started, "it all started in school today…" as she proceeded to tell her mother about the day's events, her sisters came in and listened. As her story drew to a close with her rejection of Simon, Jeanette began to wonder if Simon had felt the same way she had when she had been rejected by that jock.

After a tense minute of total silence, Jeanette excused herself to her room where she locked the door and began to cry again.

"What am I doing?" she asked herself between sobs, "wasn't I always dropping hints to Simon to ask me out. Didn't I always imagine him and me as the characters in the stories?"

But the only answer she ever got was silence from the walls around her. Suddenly there came a knock at the door. From the other side she heard her younger sister say, "Jeanie? Are you ok in there? Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Come on in Ellie" she said, "and close the door please."

Eleanor sat on the edge of Jeanette's bed and sighed. "You know," she began, "guys have feelings too. Even the smart ones who don't seem bothered by anything can feel the sting of being shot down or not even given a chance."

"Yeah, I know that Ellie, I just don't want to be hurt and lose a friend."

"Well you know, no one likes to be hurt this way, and as for losing a friend, if you're not careful, you've already lost one."

As Eleanor said those last words, for the first time, Jeanette felt she could really appreciate what she had put Simon through. Just because what had happened to her had hurt her, she had no right to hurt a sweet boy like Simon. After all he had felt more than his fair share of anger at that jerk for hurting her, did she really have the right to reward those kind actions with caution and scorn. As she thought these things over, Eleanor got up and walked over to Jeanette's desk. For the first time, Ellie really noticed how close Jeanette and Simon were. While there were three or four pictures of the Chipmunks as a group, there were even more of just Simon; or pictures of the whole gang with Simon holding Jeanette at his side.

"Hey Jeanette, did you ever notice that you have a lot of pictures up here of just Simon?"

"Now that you mention it, I have had a bit of a thing for him for a while." Jeanette replied, trying not to tell her sister just how deep her affections for him were.

"It seems to me," Ellie started, "that your heart has known you like him even before you realized it."

"Yeah I guess you're right. But what do I do? I totally shattered him when I said no, Ellie you didn't see his face when I turned him down. By now he'll be at home and hurt so bad he'll never want to speak to me let alone listen to an apology." Jeanette said, panic rising with each word, "Eleanor, you have Theodore's number on your cell phone, right?"

"Yeah I do." Eleanor replied.

"Well then why don't you call and find out what happened when he got home. If he's able to I'll talk to him, but I really don't want to make anything worse."

"Well, ok, but I really hope you have a good apology ready."

As Eleanor typed in the number, Jeanette prayed that Simon hadn't gone out and done something drastic. Finally Theodore picked up his phone and said, "Hey Ellie! Is something wrong? You don't really call this late unless it's a new recipe or an emergency."

"Yeah Theo I know, but this time it's kind of an emergency. Listen, is Simon at your house right now?" she asked

"Yeah he showed up here about an hour ago and walked right past me, Alvin, and Dave. Is something the matter we should know about?"

"Yeah, listen I need you to go up to Simon's room and stay quiet, now when you reach the door listen and see if he's ok."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, but finally Theodore was back and said, "Simon's not making any sounds in his room, so I went in and found him asleep. But the weird thing is, it looks like he actually cried himself to sleep. What happened this afternoon to make Simon cry at all?"

As the girls heard this report, Jeanette suddenly felt horrible for what she had done to Simon. She grabbed the phone out of her sister's hand and said, "Listen Theo, I need you to help me out, go back to Simon's room and put the phone on speaker and slide it under the door so I can wake Simon up and have a private conversation."

"Well, that sounds really weird but ok Jeanette, just please be careful, you obviously know more about why he's like this than I do but please try and help him."

"I will Theodore, I will." I hope, she said to herself.

A few seconds later she heard the buzz from the receiver on Theo's phone sliding under Simon's door. She took a few deep calming breaths and spoke hesitantly. "Simon? Si, are you there?"

In Simon's dream, he was in a large field deep in the woods, he had no idea what he was doing there but when he tried to get up and move around, the grass came up and twined itself around him until he could move no more. When the grass had him pinned to the ground, he saw a shape in the trees, as he watched, unable to call for help; he saw the shape coming towards the meadow. He tried yet again to call out a warning to the stranger in the woods that the field was dangerous, but the grass was practically strangling him. Yet as he shadow drew nearer, he began to make out familiar things about the stranger.

The first thing that he noticed about the person was that it was in fact a woman, a young woman, in fact. Even in his state of helplessness, he could not help but admire her beauty, the sheen of her hair, the grace of her stride, and lastly the color of her eyes. Oh those eyes; like the finest jade plucked from the very deepest recesses of the earth. In fact, they reminded him of another girl, but it couldn't be. Could it? And sure enough, it was, it was Jeanette, Jeanette running towards the deadly field. Simon had to stop her. He had to save her. With a burst of effort that left him seeing spots, he ripped the treacherous grass by its roots and took off full sprint for the shape he now recognized as the girl he loved.

When he reached the shelter of the trees, he turned in every direction, yet none found him Jeanette. tired and beaten he headed deeper into the woods trying to find a way out of this madness, after what seemed to him an eon of walking, he saw a house in the distance; a house, interestingly enough, built into the trunk of a great redwood. Now he recognized it as the house the Chipettes used to live in, he remembered an old picture that Alvin had showed him once of him and Britney outside of this very home. Simon approached carefully, and just as he was about to reach the door, he heard a twig snap. Startled, he turned around to find himself face to face with Jeanette. relief overtook him for an instant when all of a sudden, he heard another sound, a sound like a million groans mixed with a horrendous crackle the same as a cannon. The next thing he knows, he's trapped again, but this time his captor is the tree itself. The gnarled, twisted branches bind him foot to face with the only gap being directly over the center of his chest. "Jeanette" he croaks out from between clenched teeth, "help me, please!"

Jeanette smiled coyly at him and replied "No."

Horror filled Simon's heart as he realized that the voice that came from her mouth was not hers, instead it was as if the words had come a demon straight from hell.

And as this realization dawned on him, the demon that paraded around in Jeanettes form reached out towards him and pierced his chest.

"!!!!!!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

When the pain began to subside, he saw through the slits of his eyelids that the demoness held his heart in her clawed hands.

"Well Simon, didn't you offer me your heart?"

"My heart belongs to one person and she's already broken it." He replied with defeat in his voice.

Suddenly, there came a whisper on the wind, "Simon" it called. "Simon, please wake up, please" the voice pleaded. Simon knew that voice; that was the voice of Jeanette. Suddenly his situation made sense. "This is all just a dream" he said, "All just a dream"

"Then wake up, you weakling, wake up if you can."

"SIMON" the voice yelled as he opened his eyes.

He stared around his room in confusion for a few seconds until he heard the voice again. "Simon?" the voice asked, "Are you there, can you hear me?"

Simon picked up the phone and said with venom dripping in every syllable, "Yeah I can hear you Jeanette."

At first Jeanette was relieved that he had answered the phone, but when she heard his voice, the sound of pure anger was evident in his every word. "Simon," she began, but was cut off by the very person she had tried to console.

"No, no, you don't speak to me until I've had my say." He barked into the phone, "I understand that that ass-hole hurt you, and at first I was sympathetic, but what you did was so cold, I don't even think it was you saying those words."

"Si," Jeanette started, beginning to tear up again on her end of the line.

"What was that bullshit about wanting to not ruin our friendship? If you gave me a chance, you might like it better, being more than friends." Simon said, beginning to calm down a little.

"SIMON!" Jeanette yelled.

"WHAT?!"

"I called to explain about what happened, and if I didn't care about you, do you think I would sit here and listen to you vent on me?"

This question startled Simon to the point that he totally forgot why he was mad for a minute.

"Wha…you…me…What are you saying Jeanette?"

Jeanette giggled a little at the fact that she had actually made him stutter. Usually it was the other way around; Jeanette was the one who got tongue tied in front of Simon.

"What I'm saying is that I want to talk to you about what happened." She replied.

"Well, what about what happened? Seems kind of cut and dry to me, I like you but you don't seem to feel the same way about me."

"That's not true Simon. I really like you, the only reason that I acted the way I did was because I was hurting and I made a stupid mistake by not telling you the truth. I have always liked you Simon Seville, I just didn't want to endanger our friendship by moving beyond. I wanted to play it safe."

Simon sat in stunned silence. Listening with rapt attention, not daring to believe what he was hearing but at the same time also afraid to even think that this was all a dream.

"Simon?" Jeanette asked, concern obvious in her voice, "Are you there?"

Simon snapped out of his daze and replied, "Yeah I'm here. Please keep going." Those last words sounding almost needy when he spoke them.

"Well, Simon, I was thinking, why not take a little risk? I'm free on Sunday if you want to do anything." Jeanette was glad that she was talking like this over the phone, there was no way she would be able to say this to Simon's face without turning flaming red.

"Uhhh…" Simon croaked out, too stunned to form a coherent sentence.

"Should I take that as a yes?" she asked trying her best to sound innocent while hiding the joy she felt inside at the realization that she had just asked the boy of her dreams out.

"Uhh…wel…YEAH!" He practically yelled into the phone he was so excited. Fumbling to recover, he said, "What time should I pick you up Jeannie?"

Now it was her turn to be flustered, the mention of her pet name was almost too much. "Well," she began, "tomorrow, I'll have to talk to Miss Miller, but I'm pretty sure that she'll say yes to about five-ish if you want to go get dinner first."

"Dinner with you sounds great." Simon replied, "So I guess I'll see you Sunday?"

"Definitely, and Simon, I'm really sorry about earlier."

"That's alright Jeanette, you did what you felt was right."

"Well, bye then." Jeanette said eager to hang up and share the news.

"Yeah, see you Sunday." Simon replied, still stunned, but also eager to share the news.

And with that they both hung up and ran off to tell their families.

Jeanette's family wasn't surprised that they were going out on Sunday. In fact, Jeanette found out that at the beginning of the year, Britney had set up a pool for who would ask who out. Now came the difficult part for Jeanette.

"Hey Britney," Jeanette started hesitantly, "is there any way…"

"…that you can help me get ready for Sunday Alvin." asked Simon.

"Well, since you did help me pass that last algebra test, I guess I do owe you huh?"

Simon was relieved, "Yeah you really do. I don't need a total overhaul though; I just need your help to decide what to wear. And there's also one other thing I need your help with."

"Oh," Alvin replied, surprise clearly written on his face, Simon had never asked for his help before, and now two times in one night. This was turning out to be an interesting weekend.

"Alright Si, what do you need?"

Simon took a breath and said, "I need you to give me some directions."

"But Britney!!!" whined Jeanette, after seeing what her sister had picked out for her to wear, "I don't want to look like a tart, and you know I can't walk well in heels."

"Be quiet Jeanette, you asked for my help getting ready and that's what I'm going to do whether you like it or not!" Britney said exasperated at how much her little sister squirmed. Well little was a relative term. After all, technically all three of the sisters were in the same grade and they were triplets, Britney just happened to be the one to be born five minutes before Jeanette.

"Besides," continued Britney, "That dress really accentuates your figure."

"My curves you mean." Muttered Jeanette under her breath. SMACK!

"OWE!! That hurt like hell Brit."

"Next time you have a problem with my decisions don't mumble. It's rude!" Britney said somewhat condescendingly.

"And yes," Britney continued, "it really does flatter your curves; you wouldn't feel self conscious if you wore clothes that fit you instead of that shapeless smock you call a sweater all the damn time."

"Do you really think I have a good figure?" asked Jeanette.

"Sweetie, there are girls who would kill for your shape." And it was true, while Jeanette wasn't particularly large in the TNA department; she nonetheless had an undeniably luscious form that would make most grown men stare in awe. This effect was brought on by her slender frame and height. Jeanette had always been a little taller than most of the girls, and even some of the guys! Nonetheless, Simon still towered over her by at least half a foot. Jeanette always felt a bit of relief at the fact that she wasn't the tallest, and it was always funny to see Simon play keep-away with Britney and Alvin.

"Hello, earth to Jeanie!" Britney yelled while waving a hand in front of her face.

"Huh?" Jeanette replied stunned.

"I said, what are you going to be wearing under the dress?" Britney asked in a huff.

"What do you mean?" Jeanette shot back, obviously confused.

"I mean what kind of underwear are you going to be wearing, duh?"

Jeanette's cheeks flared bright scarlet for a second as she thought out the implications of that question. Britney didn't really expect Simon to be that forthcoming on the first date, did she?

"What do you need to know that for?" she asked obviously flustered.

"I need to know so that I can make sure there are no lines showing when you put on the dress. Besides," she added, "even if Simon won't see them you can still feel sexy." Her sister replied with a mischievous grin.

SUNDAY NIGHT

"Simon! You need to hurry up or you'll be late!" Dave yelled from the living room.

"Alright dad, I'm hurrying." Simon yelled back.

"Jeez, you'd think the fate of the world is at stake here." He thought to himself. Well, if it didn't go well tonight, it would be the end of his world.

All of a sudden, Alvin burst into Simon's room to find him half dressed in the casual suit he wore to the science fairs. Alvin had to admit that it really suited his brother. After he finally recovered his breath he said, "Ok dude, the lights are all in place, and your car has a full tank of gas."

"Thanks Al, I really owe you one if this all works out."

"Hey no problem Si, let's just call it even in exchange for you deleting all of the records of the pranks I pulled at school last year."

"Already done bro. Videos deleted and all."

Alvin sighed, relieved; now he was off the hook with the school. Now it was time for little help from the love doctor.

"Hey Si," he began innocently, "you really like Jeanette don't you?"

"Obviously, why else would I be going through all this trouble to make it a fantastic night?"

"Well, here's a little something from me in case this night turns out to be extra special."

So saying he pressed a metallic packet into Simon's hand and bolted for the door.

When Simon looked down at what it was he was surprised to find that it was in fact a Trojan. His face turned bright red when the thought of being able to use it with Jeanette popped into his head. He quickly shoved the image aside and continued to dress, thought not being so forgetful as to not put the packet in his inside jacket pocket.

Ten minutes later, Simon arrived at the front porch of the Millers home to be greeted by none other than his old babysitter.

"Why hello there Simon, my don't you look handsome. Much spiffier than when Alvin came to pick up Britney, he had the nerve to show up her in jeans and a t-shirt."

"MOM!" Britney cut in, "you know he only dressed like that because he took me to the U2 concert!"

"Yes dear I know, but that's still no excuse to not look presentable."

"Uh, excuse me Miss Miller," Simon interrupted, "but can I come in and wait for Jeanette in your living room? It's kind of cool out."

"Oh why if course, of course dear, come on in." she replied opening the door wide for him.

Simon stepped into the familiar house. He had spent almost as much time in here than he had in his own home. As he sat down on the couch facing the bottom of the stairs, Eleanor walked in and sat down across from him.

"Hi Simon!" she exclaimed happily, "Jeanette will be right down, "Britney's just helping her put the finishing touches on her makeup."

"No problem, there's no rush at all." Simon replied.

"Britney, is he here yet?" Jeanette asked impatiently.

"Yes, he's here now, I have Ellie stalling him in the living room. Now get over here and let me fix you up." Brit replied hastily.

"Well hurry up and finish. I want to go see him."

"Ok, ok, there you're done." Britney replied as she dabbed the last bit of her makeup on. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to say thank you." She finished with a pout in her voice.

"Oh Britney, you know I'll always owe you for this. You are my big sister after all."Jeanette answered as she hugged her sister.

"Yeah yeah, now get out of here and go have a good time with prince charming; and Jeanette,"

"Yes?" she answered hesitantly.

"When you're out having a good time, try not to be careless."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if it goes past second base, make sure he has protection." She replied with a mischievous wink.

"Britney!" Jeanette squealed with surprise, "I trust Simon to respect me more than that."

"Okay, whatever you say sis." Britney retorted with a giggle.

As Simon sat in the living room and talked to Eleanor his mind kept wandering to what was in store for Jeanette tonight. He really hoped that she would appreciate the work he had done all yesterday to get her surprise in order. As he sat there mulling over the best way to introduce her to what he had done, he spotted a sliver of dark purple approaching the bottom of the stairs. By the time he realized that the vision of beauty in front of him was his date, he was stricken dumb for a full minute, captured as he was by the perfection that stood in front of him. After all, his stomach flipped when she was in front of him on a normal day, but if it was possible to improve on perfection, then he had just seen it.

"Damn." He said before he could stop himself, "Jeanette you look stunning."

Jeanette blushed at this compliment and giggled a little bit as she realized just how smitten he was. Surely she didn't look that different, and the dress wasn't even that expensive, it was a simple strapless dark purple dress with a slit running about three inches up the thigh. Though the dress made her feel a little exposed, it pleased her to no end to see the effect she had on a boy as intelligent as Simon.

"Thank you, you look pretty nice yourself there Simon." she replied, still smiling.

"Now Simon," Miss Miller cut in, "I want there to be some ground rules when you're taking my daughter out tonight. Rule number 1: I want her home tonight no later than 11:30 understood. I don't care that you kids don't have school tomorrow I want her home and safe by 11:30."

"Yes ma'am, I understand completely." Simon answered, not mentioning the fact that he had planned to have her home by 10.

"Rule number 2," she continued while the girls sat in the corner laughing at the whole situation, "if my daughter comes home drunk or on drugs, I will personally see to it that you are never welcome in this house ever again."

"No problems there" Simon thought to himself, and nodded.

"Other than that, I want you two to go out and enjoy yourselves, you are after all legal adults soon and I trust you to use your better judgment." And with that her expression morphed from that of the stern matriarch to one with a soft kind smile.

"Well if that's all, Jeanette are you ready to go?" he asked looking over to the vision of beauty that sat on the couch across from him.

"Yes I am." She replied with a slight blush to her cheeks.

"Then we should go before the movie starts."

And with that they were out the door and in his car driving off for their first date.

"Oh Simon, that movie was wonderful!" Jeanette gushed.

Simon was glad that she enjoyed herself. He had found the movie far less interesting than watching her face as all of the scenes seemed to elicit a new emotion.

"The way the director showed the raw emotion of the natives was absolutely breathtaking!" she continued.

"Yes, I had hoped that you would enjoy Avatar."

"Are you kidding, I loved it!" (And the movie was even better since I shared it with you.) she thought to herself.

"Well the nights not over yet my dear. There is still one more thing to do before I can let you go home." Simon said coyly.

"Oh Simon, you know I hate surprises." Jeanette whined half-heartedly.

"Well I can personally guarantee that you will love this surprise."

"And if I don't absolutely love it? Then what happens?" she asked innocently.

"Then I owe you one." He responded jokingly.

"Fine, but you better hope this is really something." She said pretending to pout.

"Ah, here we are." Simon said as they pulled up to the park.

"Simon, what are you doing?" Jeanette asked as Simon reached in the back seat for a piece of cloth.

"Well I can't exactly have you see the surprise before its ready, now can I?" Simon replied cagily with a mischievous grin.

"Ok then, but at least let me change shoes first, I can't hardly walk in these things when I can see where I'm going." Jeanette explained as she reached for her backpack where she kept an extra set of sneakers.

After Jeanette had changed shoes and gotten out of the car, Simon came up behind her and tied the blindfold around her eyes.

"Now Jeanette, what I need you to do is grab my shoulders and follow me closely, I'll tell you if there is a drop."

"Ok" she replied as she grabbed his shoulders and pressed herself into his back to the point that he could feel her curves and her heart beat as if it was inside of his chest.

When Simon felt Jeanette at his back, he let out an involuntary shudder at the warmth she seemed to radiate. Regaining his composure, he began to walk her slowly towards the path Alvin had helped him hang the lights in. As they headed into the depths of the park, neither of them noticed another set of eyes peering out of the bushes, but these were not the eyes of an animal, no these were the eyes of a monster hungry for pleasure and the need to cause pain.

TO BE CONTINUED IN

A LONG TIME COMING

Part 3

Arrival

Coming soon