My muse ran away recently. So this chapter will take a lot of determination.
On with the show!
Disclaimer: Nope! Movie rights aren't mine and neither is Darien in a towel.
This chapter is dedicated to Ange Noir who only had a month to live. lol. I hope this helps your recovery!
I finally fixed that no breaks problem. Much easier to read!
Last Time:
"Do you always do this for people on Tuesdays or am I just special?" He froze mid slam and turned around hesitantly. His deep-blue eyes widened as his eyes slowly worked their way up long shapely legs and a petite but curvy body. Long blonde hair tumbled down her head in ringlets as her smile lit up the room.
"Serena?" Her smile widened as his eyes got closer and closer to popping out of his head. Her head tilted slightly in amusement.
"Hello...Darien."
Can't Stop the Music
Chapter 7
Big changes
Serena shifted nervously from foot to foot, confidence slipping, as Darien remained emotionless.
It wasn't particularly easy.
As good as they looked - looked being the keyword- the heels she was donning aimed to kill her before the day was over.
She wasn't so sure about the choice of clothing either. The clothes clung to places even she didn't know she had while she struggled to keep her balance . Things would have been much easier if she wasn't constantly tugging her skirt down insecurely.
Why hadn't he said anything yet? Seconds ticked by like days as his gaze traveled from one place to the other, never straying from her person. Her mind screamed at her to flee while she still could.
Too bad her body was like a deer in headlights.
His eyes slowly roved over her body taking in every little detail with a lump in his throat. She was beautiful. He found himself unconsciously checking to see how he looked.
Hair? Check- there was nothing he could do about his hair.-
Clothes? Only slightly rumpled...Check.
Breath? Minty fresh! Check.
Ability to talk? Working on it...
He knew the silence was overwhelming, he just didn't know what to do about it.
Obsidian locks fell into his eyes, cleverly hiding what he was thinking. For once he was truly happy with his unruly bangs. His eyes stayed hidden from the world and a certain cerulean-eyed blonde, leaving him to look wherever he pleased and not get caught.
After all, eyes were the window to the soul, were they not?
Days like this were usually pretty calm, so he didn't fail to notice when the people who did enter the arcade had their eyes glued to Serena. Her gaze made him squirm in his seat. She didn't look impatient to people walking by but he could tell.
Her dainty manicured nails thumped lightly on her forearms while her foot tapped to an unknown beat. Other than that, her face remained blank with only a hint of her smile.
Andrew was their lord and savior when he skidded to a halt beside the vibrant blonde. Darien watched in faint amusement as Andrew also tried to regain his train of thought.
"Serena, is that you?" His eyes twinkled in poorly hidden amusement.
"And are those LEGS poking out from under that indecent thing you call a skirt?"
Both men watched in either amazement of amusement as she went through all the shades of red in 10 seconds flat.
Serena tried to cover up her obvious blush with anger. "You try walking in this thing all day and-"
She froze when she felt him playfully poking her thigh with a fork. He turned to Darien in astonishment while still poking the flustered blonde.
"I think they are!"
The blonde man's gaze widened dramatically. It took all his will power not to laugh as she quickly scooted away pulling her skirt down further.
"Who knew you were a girl!"
She punched him in the arm enjoying his cries of abuse. She may have looked like a new Serena but dammit if she still didn't punch like the old one.
She sat quickly in the stool next to Darien and kicked off her shoes. A look of relief ran over her face as she wiggled her toes deliciously.
Freedom!
Darien had finally found his voice while he watched her devour her third milkshake. He cleared his throat and waited until she abruptly stopped inhaling her dairy delight to look at him.
"Yes? What is it Darien?" She let go of her straw to give him her full attention.
He had never had trouble talking to a woman before! Yes, he had just called Serena a woman. He wrung his hands together before letting out three special words that would either make or break him.
"You..uh..You.."
Her patience slipped quickly waiting for him to say what he needed to say so she could get back to her beloved milkshake. Maybe he needed a little help from her.
"I..."
He stuttered and tripped over the words feeling dumber every minute he tried to spit out what he was trying to say. "What I mean to say is, you.. you..you look.."
Her patience was far gone and was never coming back. "For god sakes spit it out, Darien!" It all tumbled out as her outburst scared him to death.
"You look nice!"
MEN!
She stormed out of the arcade, heels in hand. There was no way she was walking all the way home in them. She'd rather step on glass. Anyone who stared at her received a dark glare and an even darker growl.
Nice?
After being jumped and forced to go through a traumatic experience by some nut case in her own house, all she got was nice
-flashback-
The captor said nothing as she blindfolded the young dancer and tied her to a chair.
"What do you want with me?" She wiggled her wrists feeling her breathing shallow as she listened to the captor's movements.
A smirk played across the captors face. "You'll see soon enough, Serena. Soon enough."
Serena listened intently to every move her captor made. She had heard her speak only a few times but knew it was a female. Much rustling was heard as was the sound of maybe hundreds of clattering objects.
Was she going to be tortured?
The room was once again silent as the breathing of her captor drew closer. She felt a loosening of the blindfold and didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified. The blindfold floated to the ground as the blonde opened her eyes to the darkness around her.
The captor was nowhere in sight.
A soft click was heard and she was momentarily blinded. The lights had been turned on only for Serena to see she was still very much tied up in her very own living room. The captor came out of what little shadow there was and waved cheerfully.
"I'm Mina and I'll be your captor/makeover extraordinaire tonight!"
This girl could have been Serena's twin! Her hair and eyes were a few shades lighter, she definitely didn't wear glasses, and her whole aura reeked of confidence.
She couldn't remember what happened next. Maybe it was because she fainted.
Serena felt different when she awoke. Maybe the whole getting jumped by a strange blonde thing never happened. Maybe she had just gone home and fallen asleep. She stretched out on the couch and turned over...
to stare into two big orbs of light blue.
"Shit!"
She toppled off the couch and onto the floor as the blond handed her a plate of charred bacon and semi decent looking eggs. Serena grabbed it wordlessly still wondering what the hell was going on. All Mina did was smile brightly and stare back.
"Well? Eat up! I thought you were gonna be out forever! That puts us a little behind schedule but-"
Slowly the disoriented blonde on the floor dug into her food only half listening.
It wasn't that bad.
The thing she was most afraid of was how her kitchen looked. She watched the Mina woman in morbid fascination wondering how anyone her age -without the help of sugar- could possibly talk that fast.
"Schedule?" She nibbled lightly on her bacon. Mina stopped in the middle of whatever she had been ranting about and directed her attention to Serena.
"Your makeover silly! I heard from a reliable source that you needed a little help -ok a lot- (Man she was brutally honest!) and to come and surprise you! Are you surprised?"
Who did this? Whose fault was it that this crazy, probably homicidal, make-up maniac had stormed into her house and tied her up?
Serena just nodded her head stupefied. She would find out who did this...and then she would kill them.
Mina helped her up when the food had been eaten and sat her on the couch. She fiddled with the dancer's hair before taking it down from it's customary hair style atop her head.
"You have beautiful hair! It just needs a little of Mina's TLC!"
It was true Serena had never cut her hair. She either never had enough money, or that same money was spent on "luxuries" like bills.
She soon found other the rustling she heard earlier was 100 pounds worth of clothes, and the clatter was not torture devices but make-up and other various hair accessories. Mina stood and turned to Serena with an evil glint in her eyes.
"Now, let's get started!"
What had she gotten herself into?
-end flashback-
She found herself at the park sitting by the pond. No matter how hard she tried she found herself thinking about that bastard. The one who gave her that half-assed 'nice' comment.
Didn't he know what she must have gone through? All that plucking, tweezing, and worst of all waxing? She didn't know why she was so mad. A few weeks ago she wouldn't have cared if he had even looked her way. Now she wanted his opinion.
She finally decided against better judgment, to come out of her shell and asks the dumbest most oblivious man on planet earth what he thinks!
She needed chocolate. Lots of chocolate.
Lita's place it was!
People watched in interest at the two men by the counter. Neither said anything, just staring at each other. Well, one glared while the other looked pitifully away in guilt.
Andrew slammed his hands down on the counter angrily. "What the hell d o you mean you told her she looked nice? Are you out of your mind?" He paced back and forth shaking his head and Darien every once in a while.
Darien knew he messed up. He didn't need to hear it from the other man too. "i couldn't think! How was I supposed to tell her she took my breath away? Who knew she looked like that under all those frumpy clothes?"
Andrew stared him in the eye calmly. "I did, Darien. I hoped you would have seen it too. That's why I called Mina. I wanted you to See just how beautiful she was on the inside and on the outside. But YOU were too thick to notice!" He ran his hands through his hair.
Darien looked down at the cold coffee in his hands. "Well what do you want me to do, Andy? How do you want me to fix this?" Andrew looked at him like he was the dumbest thing he had ever seen.
"Apologize you dimwit!"
Lita's place always smelled like home cooked meals. Half the time she didn't even have to cook anything!
Serena was sitting in the living room enjoying her hot chocolate with chocolate whipped cream and double-fudge cookies. She wasn't enjoying it as much as she normally would.
The brunette had been very surprised to see a strikingly beautiful blonde show up and her door. It had taken her quite a few looks to tell who it was. Now here she was and she hadn't said a thing since she walked in the door.
"So, what's his name?"
Serena's eyes shot up to look into Lita's green gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about. There is no guy." Lita grabbed one of the cookies off the blonde's plate with a look that said 'yeah right'. "I've been through my fair share of guys to know that look, Sere. Now tell me what happened.
The whole story spilled out as Lita listened intently. When she was finished it returned to that same uncomfortable silence. Lita looked Serena in the eyes and started giggling. Her giggles soon turned into a down right laugh.
"What's so funny? I just spilled my whole soul out to you!" The young dancer huffed indignantly and put her tray down. Lita wiped the tears of mirth out of eyes gaze and calmed down.
"Is that it, Sere? I must say you look beautiful, but this is a man we're talking about. Mina could have turned you into Miss America and he would still say you looked nice. Men sometimes have problems expressing their feelings."
"Oh."
Serena didn't have a whole lot of experience with men. The only male friends she had ever really had were Andrew and a friend from high school named Melvin.
Now that she thought of it that was really scary. What Lita said lifted a huge weight off of her shoulders. Maybe she could face him now with out dismembering him.
"Don't ever give men more credit than they deserve, Serena." Lita winked at the gorgeous blonde. "It always leads to trouble! Take it from an expert on the situation."
Serena gave her a dazzling smile and crushed her into a hug. "Thank you, Lita. Now hand over that tray. I'm starved!"