Between Me and You
Chapter 3
Gwen's POV
The next morning before Courtney was awake Bridgette and I were sitting outside her door, talking, trying not to wake her.
"You saw that thing with Duncan too, right?" Bridgette asked, uneasily bringing it up, clearly afraid of honestly imagining the entire thing and looking like a fool.
"Oh, yeah. It definitely happened. Whether Court wants to admit it or not, there is something between the two of them." I answered; attempting to run a comb through my rat's nest of a thing I call hair.
"Why would she want to deny it anyway? I mean, I know Duncan's done some bad things in his past, but he's growing up, he's learning, you know?" Bridgette said, stretching herself along Courtney's narrow, and long upstairs hallway.
"Well, you know Courtney's family. All into appearances and first impressions, and you and I both know that there is no way that boy would make a good impression on anyone. Especially not someone in her family." I replied, slightly sad for my friend. Her parents hardly allowed me to be friends with her, and I'd never committed crimes or anything, I just dressed differently, Duncan wouldn't pass any expectations from this family.
"Do you think there's anything we can do about it?" Bridgette asked, looking over her shoulder as sounds began to come out of Courtney's room.
"I don't know, I don't really think we can do anything until she at least admits she likes him to us." I said quickly, ending just as Courtney stepped out of the room. Her hair was a mess; she looked like she hadn't slept peacefully or easily.
"Court, you okay?" Bridgette asked, looking up at our friend with concern.
"Yeah, I just need to wake up a bit, you know?" Courtney answered, her voice barely above a whisper, and cracking as she did so.
"She really doesn't look good." Bridgette said as soon as Courtney shut the door to her small bathroom behind her.
"I know. But you know what I think would cheer her up?" I asked, pulling out my phone and opening a new text message
"Oh Gwen, don't text him! You know if she found out she would be majorly upset." Bridgette exclaimed, trying to grab the phone from out of my hands.
"Oh, she will never know I did it. She'll just think she decided to come over." I smiled maliciously while pressing the send button.
"What do you mean?" Bridgette asked, clearly confused.
"I'm going to tell him to come over once we leave, because you know Court will be alone for the rest of the day, and I'm going to tell him not to say anything about me telling him to." I answered, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.
"But how do you know he'll listen to you?" Bridgette asked, her confusion still not cleared up.
"Because, he has reasons to be afraid of me." I whispered, referring to my brothers whom Duncan was both very familiar with and very afraid of.
"What are you two talking about?" Courtney asked, coming out of her bathroom just as I finished, looking much better than when she had gone in; her hair was in pigtails, brushed, and she looked like she had cleaned her face, removing the make-up leftover from yesterday.
"Just talking about the boys." Bridgette answered, smiling over at me, because technically she wasn't lying, and she hated lying.
"You guys are so predictable, always talking about your guys." Courtney laughed, heading downstairs, hopefully to make us food, with me and Bridgette hot on her heels.
Courtney ended up making pancakes for all of us, and almost immediately after she had finished, Bridgette's parents showed up to pick her up, and she was gone. Courtney and I were hardly ever alone, and never with no one else even in the same area.
"Are you thinking about how weird this is too?" Courtney asked, placing the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher and then heading into the living room and plopping down on the couch.
"I mean, it's not weird, just different." I answered, following her into the living room and dropping myself onto the smaller couch.
About an hour later, my parents finally showed up to take me home. Courtney came outside to wave goodbye to me, and as I was leaving, I thought about how sad she looked as I drove away. We both knew she'd be alone all day, but I knew she had a surprise guest coming, she didn't. So with my eyes still on Courtney, I let Duncan know that I was gone and it was safe for him to show up. He texted back almost immediately to tell me that he was leaving, and would be there as soon as he could be. I smiled; hopefully my friend would have a good day.
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Courtney's POV;
Gwen had finally left and I was hanging around in my soffee's and a tank top because it was still warm outside and my mother refused to turn on the air conditioner yet, when suddenly my doorbell rang. I sighed, getting up out of my comfortable position on the couch to answer the door which would probably be Bridgette or Gwen back for something they had forgotten and could not wait until Monday to get back. But it was neither of the above, it was Duncan.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, leaning back against the door frame as I glared at him.
"You look nice." He replied, walking past me and into my house, instantly making me nervous.
"Duncan, seriously, what are you doing here? If my mom comes home and finds you here she will freak out." My voice came out more panicked than I expected, as I relocked the door, and followed into my house.
"Look, Princess, I'll leave and no one will ever know I was here, I promise." Duncan replied, his gaze on the walls where photos of my childhood were nailed up.
"Oh, don't look at these, I was such an ugly, fat child." I said, trying to block his view of the pictures by stepping in front of him, instead, he just lightly pushed me aside, and continued gazing at them.
"Since when do you care what I think? Besides, you look beautiful in these, just like now." The first half of his statement seemed judging, but the second part was so soft, so gentle, it was so unexpected from him, and the reaction inside of me was even more so; I felt butterflies fill my every fiber.
"Well…thanks." I said, completely unaware of what was happening between the two of us at this moment, and rather than find out I went back into the living room.
"So, is this what you spend all your weekends doing?" Duncan asked, coming in behind me and sitting on the large couch with me, closer than most anyone else I know would have been to me.
"Yes, only preferably alone." I answered, trying to get him to leave, even though I really didn't want him to, and this was the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.
"Princess, this isn't even a life." He said, looking at me harshly, sadness in his eyes.
"What are you talking about? Of course it's a life! It's my life!" I didn't even understand what he was trying to say.
"Well, I mean, yes this is your life, but it isn't a 'life'. Sitting home alone every weekend, all weekend, is no way to spend your childhood." Duncan said, scooting closer to me, his voice lowering.
"Well, I'm sorry my parents aren't here all the time to do whatever I want them to, and to take care of me all the time." I barely got these words out of my mouth, the tears were catching my words and locking them in my throat where I couldn't get them out.
"They should be, this is your childhood, and you know they should." Duncan said, looking at me once again, but I could no longer meet his eye. I wasn't this strong person that he thought I was, and if he saw me cry, like I wanted to, I knew I would never live it down.
"Duncan what do you think gives you the right to talk about my life like that?" I asked, standing up and getting slightly angry. I no longer wanted him here, prying into things he had no business knowing about.
"Look, I just wanted to come see you. If you really want me to leave or shut up or whatever, I will." He answered swiftly, getting up and walking towards the front door.
"Why would you want to come here on your weekend?" I asked, stopping him just as his hand touched the doorknob to leave.
"Do you really have to ask that?" he asked, his ivy eyes looking at me angrier than ever before. When I didn't give an answer, he simply shook his head at me and walked out, slamming the door behind him. I rushed out after him, but he reached the woods before I was even on the porch, disappearing into them within a few seconds.
Suddenly the chill wind seemed colder, and my empty house seemed more isolated. I felt lonely, no longer alone. I no longer felt like this isolation was self-imposed. Duncan, of all people, had changed something inside of me.
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Duncan's POV;
"Gwen, why the hell did you want me to come over here?" I growled into the phone as soon as the girl answered, angry that Courtney hadn't wanted me there, even angrier at myself for thinking she had. Of course she hadn't asked the girl to tell me to come over, her surprise wasn't feigned, and she hadn't known a single thing about me coming over to her house.
"I wanted to cheer her up. She's always alone over there, what happened?" Gwen asked, a tint of anger in the last few words as if she thought I had upset the Princess.
"Nothing, she just clearly didn't want me there. Don't do this again." I said, a hint of a threat at the end of the sentence.
"I can do whatever I want, and if I decide to tell you to go there again, you will. Or I'll tell them." Gwen replied, her threat even worse than mine, and the tone of her voice edgier and scarier than I'd ever heard it.
"Gwen." I said simply, hoping she would realize that this was not something she could continually threaten me with. But instead she just laughed, then hung up on me.
I sat down on one of the knocked down trees and put my head in my hands, sighing. There had to be some way for me to get out of this threatening cycle with Gwen. There had to be a way to solve it, and I'd find one, because Gwen's demands were getting worse, and more often, and there was no way I was going to spend my life doing whatever this girl wanted, whenever she wanted.
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Bridgette's POV;
"Are you ever going to tell anyone?" Geoff asked me, looking over at me as we snuggled on my couch.
"Everyone already knows I like you, why do I need to tell them that we're going out? Besides, Courtney's leaving and I don't want to make her last few weeks about me." I said, looking up at him and hoping that he would understand.
"I understand that, but don't you feel like you're lying to everyone?" He asked me, lightly twirling his thumb over my fingers which were enclosed between his.
"Well, yes. But I just don't want anyone to start acting weird, or Courtney to feel less important." I answered, turning away from him, and wondering whether or not I was really doing the right thing.
"Oh, babe. But eventually everyone's going to have to know." Geoff answered, turning my face towards him, and lightly kissing me on the lips. These were the moments I liked, the moments when it seemed like we were the only two people in the world and nothing else mattered.
A/N: I know it's been a long time, guys, I'm really sorry. I haven't felt much like writing in a while, but I'm back now, and hopefully not leaving any time soon. Review it guys, and tell me what you think, I'm sorry if it's bad, it's really been a while since I've written. I love you all!