Nina regretted ever agreeing on playing truth-or-dare. In their room that night, Amber pelted her with questions.
"So you don't like anyone?" she verified yet again.
"No. I used to like Patrick from America- but I don't really think I feel the same about him anymore," Nina answered.
"So, you like someone else now?"
"No!"
"No one?"
"Not. A. One!"
Amber got quiet then. She seemed to switch gears and said instead, "Ok. Well, let's talk about guys at the House then. What do you think about Fabian, Jerome, Mick, and Alfie?"
"Do we really have to do this?"
"Yes. We do. I want to know your exact feelings on all of them!"
"I don't know all of them very well ye—" Nina tried to say.
Amber cut in, "Start with, Alfie,"
"Funny and energetic," Nina replied lamely.
"Jerome,"
"Frighteningly confident," Nina said in the same tone.
"Mick," said Amber with a slight twitch of the mouth. Nina responded with care.
"Nice enough. Don't really know him,"
"Fabian," said Amber, her attention seeming to peak. Or was that just Nina's imagination?
"Friendly. He was my first friend here," said Nina trying to stay generic as she had in responding with the others.
"Anything else?" Amber asked.
"I like him," Nina said to her instantaneous regret.
"You LIKE him!" Amber yelled triumphantly.
"No. no. no! That's not what I meant! When I said I like him, that's all I meant. I don't like-like him. I already told you I don't like-like ANYONE," rushed Nina with a twitch of annoyance. This 'like-like' stuff felt kindergarten-ish to her.
"Okay. Fine," said Amber narrowing her eyes in disappointment.
"Night," Nina responded turning off the light.
When Amber heard Nina's breaths grow deeper and more consistent- she slipped out of bed in her pink fuzzy bunny slippers and crept out the door.
She quickly made her way to Mara and Patricia's room and knocked quietly.
"It's me! Am-ber!" she whispered loudly and slowly.
They opened the door and let her in. The two girls had the light off in their room, but they had multiple torches lit. Mara handed one to Amber.
"Nina DOESN'T like Fabian!" Amber informed them in tone of disbelief, "I asked a bunch of questions but she didn't seem to like ANYONE in the House- let alone Fabian."
"She's got to like him!" Patricia said to general astonishment.
Even Patricia wanted Fabian and Nina to get together. She had known Fabian all of her life and really wanted to see him happy. He's such a shy kid, she thought. Everyone in the House had come and gone with their boyfriends and girlfriends and Fabian quietly helped each of them out. Always listening to boyfriend/girlfriend discussions or being extra nice when he knew that someone was going through a break-up. He deserves a chance a love, Patricia thought.
She internally winced. Ekkkk, I sound like Amber or Mara with all this lovey-dovey thinking.
"He certainly likes her, we can think of something," Patricia continued.
None of them suspected that Nina liked Fabian, they still didn't know her well enough to visibly spot if he liked him more than a friend. So the girls plotted practically.
"We'll make her fall in love with him. When she does- it should be easy from there," said Mara snapping her fingers. (She had just recently spent her last few weeks trying to make Mick fall in love with herself- so she felt she had some experience behind her.)
"Fine. How do you propose doing that?" Patricia asked rolling her eyes skeptically.
"Let's make a list," said Amber grabbing one of Mara's notebook and pens and began writing down notes in bubbly letters.
"What makes you all fall in love with a guy?" Amber asked.
"He needs to be sweet," Mara said immediately. Amber took a deep breath and continued to write- she knew Mara was thinking of Mick.
"Forget that," interrupted Patricia, "He needs to be interesting! Something needs to draw her to him,"
"What about you Amber?" asked Mara, curiously.
"Well dressed, handsome, and he needs to treat me like the princess I am," she ticked off as she wrote.
The girls continued to come up with ideas but the next step came as a challenge.
"Ok, so what do we do with this list?" asked Patricia when they couldn't think of anything else.
"Well, let's start with clothes and the whole 'handsome thing,'" said Amber eagerly.
"How do we go about that? I mean, Fabian's cute, really," said Mara.
"But we need to make him REALLY handsome. Irresistible." said Patricia. "But how do we do that?" she said repeating Mara's question.
"Oh I think we'll think of something," said Amber smugly as she pulled out a credit card from robe-pocket.
"I just got an increased allowance for not over-maxing my cell-minutes last month," Amber said nodding with that all-too-smug-smile.
They spent hours looking up clothes and debating over each prospective order. Patricia wanted leather pants and all things edgy while Amber wanted (UBER) prep-boy style.
Mara had to keep their angers at bay, "WAIT guys! We cannot simply give him a whole new, more appealing look. That won't work because we want her to fall in love with HIM, not who we WANT him to be. "(She had learned that from her experience with Mick.)
"We need to keep the old Fabian look and just, improve on his old wardrobe…designer clothes or adding an accessory here and there." She finished adamantly.
In the end, they all agreed that Mara's way was best- though they DID buy him one leather jacket.
They continued to strategize until four in the morning. They disbanded after Amber started getting grumpy from sleep deprivation. All the caffeine they had at the movie party had long since worn off.
The next morning everyone stumbled in for a late 10 O'clock brunch that was considered a tradition after the 'Night Out.'
After Alfie gave a long winded summary of the sci-fi movie to the girls, they all discussed their plans for the day and the girls began to implement their plan.
"Hey Fabian. Nina. " said Patricia, "Do you want to go to the town with me this afternoon?"
"Actually, I've been meaning to go to town," said Jerome, "I'd love to go. Thanks for asking."
"I DIDN'T ask you," said Patricia.
"I want to go too!" chimed in Alfie.
Patricia started to say no, but Mara interrupted her.
"It's fine. How about we ALL go?" she asked, eyes wide and signaling Patricia not to argue.
"Fine," said Patricia grudgingly. Why did Jerome have to make things so difficult? He should not have said anything. She would have to deal with him later.
"Oh hey Fabian," said Patricia trying again. "Since you're getting up, will you bring the fruit bowl over to the table?"
"Sure," said Fabian agreeably, as always.
"Isn't he so thoughtful?"whispered Patricia to Nina. Nina's stomach turned at this. She thought of last night- Patricia was obviously gloating over the fact that Fabian liked her and not Nina.
This upset Nina more than she though it should. She should not care. She wouldn't LET herself care. BUT- she figured it would be easier not to care if she was not in the room when Patricia was gloating over her Fabian. So she got up as she answered Patricia, "Sure he is," and left the room to get ready to go into town.
They left for town in an hour. They decided to walk since it was a nice day, it wasn't far.
Mara and Mick suddenly decided not to come. Mara had whispered an explanation to Amber and Patricia before they walked out the door. Since they were expecting the clothes to come in the late afternoon, she told the girls that she would work on the 'Fabian-clothes' mission, or specifically- how to actually GET them to Fabian… she and Mick would think of something. She didn't need to tell them that she was also seeking some alone time with him.
They all walked as a group to town, talking and laughing on the way. But when they got there, Patricia grabbed Jerome's arm and hissed at him- "Let's go to the shop across the street- you owe me a new hair piece after what you did to the last one."
"It was an accident," said Jerome mildly struggling to stay with the group.
"Nope- you are replacing it, and you are replacing it now," she tugged him across the street leaving Amber to take her cue.
"Alfie, I need someone to help me carry my shoes that I ordered a few weeks ago- will you help?" she asked carefully.
Alfie was thrilled and began tugging Amber down the street.
Fabian looked at Nina and shyly offered her an arm.
"Shall we?" he asked.
She hesitated, but lightly accepted his arm as they strolled deeper into town.
A/N: Thanks for reading. The reviews are completely appreciated :) Next Chapter is coming soon- reviews make me write faster (as always)
PS- I am trying to add a hint of romance between other characters too- upon request. NOTE: Not much Nina/Fabian action in this chapter (in case you didn't notice)- but certainly in chapters to come.