A/N: AND THE CHAPTER BEGINS! Now read that again in an ominous voice s'il vous plait Merci! And that is my awful French on display. Anyways...
REVIEW REPLIES:
shortyschur- yes there will be other pairings beside Massington, Alicia and Claire have some interesting love lives ahead of them :)
Readingcutie428- the pairings will probably be (besides Massington) something around Alicia and either Kemp or Josh, and Claire and either Chris or Cam.. IN THE END. There's some stuff that's going to happen before that though.
PLDLAURA- thanks! I'll keep that in mind.
Princessjen211101- thank you! And here's that update you wanted!
If dreams could come alive- I had one with a whole bunch of my friends last weekend, and it was so much fun I felt obligated to put one in the story. There's some private Massington in this, where no one's watching, and I love Josh, he's a lot of fun to write about. AW thank you for saying it's great!
Jealousmuch- I checked my email this morning, and when I opened your review the length of it amazed me. I lovelovelove that you're going to comment on every chapter! Massie and Derrick are sort of based off of two of my friends, that's where I get a lot of my ideas. It's definitely going to be Massington, I promise you that. My old beta usually just looked at the chapter I wrote first, proof-read it and then made the corrections, and sometimes gave me suggestions about changing some of the parts. There's been a couple of times on one of my other stories where I was blocked, I couldn't write anything, and she helped write some of it then so it wasn't utter crap. So, that's basically what she does. Still interested?
Massie groaned, rubbing her stomach. "I need food!" She whined loudly, making her friends grumble and throw pillows at her.
"It is not my fault you are all lazy-asses and I will continued to be loud until I get my food." Massie insisted at top-volume.
Derrick yanked on her leg from his half-asleep position on the couch and made her lose her balance, toppling down on top of him.
"Better, you're quiet." He muttered.
Massie stuck out her tongue at him, but was asleep again a few minutes later.
.&.
"Massie! Derrick! Come in to the study please!" Mrs. Harrington called, one day after two weeks of confinement, as Massie had begun to refer to it.
They exchanged a glance before abandoning their science project and hurrying into the dimly lit office. Mrs. Harrington motioned for them to sit down, and they each took a comfortable chair across from the Harrington parents, and Massie's who she had noticed as well.
"We need you to do something for us." Mr. Harrington announced.
Massie raised an eyebrow. "What exactly?"
"We need you to be seen."
.&.
"Remind me again, why did we agree to this?" Massie mumbled, before downing half of her water in one go.
"Because you love being seen." Derrick reminded her. "And I love you." The words slipped out before he could stop them, and Massie froze for a second.
She relaxed a moment later and grinned cheekily. "Doesn't everyone?"
Derrick relaxed as well and half-smiled back. "Except possibly Dylan. I think she's starting to hate you."
"So it's not just me then?" Massie asked, eyes widening. "I thought I was the only who noticed that. What do you think it's about?" She paused. "Because personally, I think she's in love with you."
Derrick choked on his drink. "WHAT?" He demanded, after regaining his breath. "No way in hell, she is not interested in me."
Massie giggled. "You're so naive Derrick." She told him, patting his hand in a condescending way.
"Shut up Block." Derrick retorted.
"Seriously?" Massie stood up. "Come find me when you have a real comeback." She told him, standing and walking away, back towards their houses, which were located nearby.
Derrick stared after her for a moment and then jogged to catch up, only doing so when she was in front of her house.
"Are you breaking up with me?" He joked.
"Maybe, maybe not." Massie grinned and shut the door in his face.
"Ouch." He muttered.
.&.
Derrick: i've got a comeback, open your door.
Massie received Derrick's text message at 8:02 PM the same night. Curious, she threw on a sweater and opened her bedroom door. On the ground in front of her was a note. She reached down and picked it up.
If you want to know where this leads, I'd head for the kitchen. Xx
So Massie complied, finding another note in the kitchen, and then another at the foot of the basement stairs, another at the mouth of the Harringtons' tunnel, and another at the landing of their stairs.
Come on inside. Xx
Massie pushed the door open, and found another telling her to go to his room. She raised an eyebrow and sent him a text.
Massie: are you seducing me Harrington?
Derrick: you're hilarious, just get in here.
Massie laughed and pushed the door open. Derrick was sitting at his computer, staring at something, lips moving as he read silently.
"What's up?" Massie asked.
"Oh good, you're here." Derrick said, without a trace of his usual humor.
"What's the comeback?"
"Forget that, I just used that so you'd come." Derrick waved the thought away.
He knows me well. Massie frowned.
"So what is it?"
Derrick motioned to his computer. "You never told me that Coffee Guy's been posting on your wall for days." He sounded angry, and kind of like his feelings were hurt.
Massie hesitated. "I didn't think it was important." She lied.
"Don't lie to me Massie!" He raised his voice, and she flinched. "If you can't tell me the real reason that you didn't want me to know, then I don't think I want to see you."
Massie's eyes hardened and her face closed. "Do you, or don't you Derrick, because if you don't then don't worry. You'll never see me again. I didn't think keeping one secret was such a big deal." She hissed.
"This isn't just one secret!"
"Then why is it such a big deal?" She demanded loudly.
"Because I'm in love with you!"
They both froze. Massie finally grabbed her phone from where she'd tossed it on the bed.
"Don't worry," her voice cracked, and she looked like she was about to cry. "I'll leave you alone now, you'll never have to see me again." She slammed the door to his room, and pounded down the stairs, slamming all the doors she passed through.
Derrick sank down on his bed, and stared numbly at the wall for half an hour before he called Josh and Cam.
.&.
Needless to say, Massie's approach wasn't quite the same, as she went straight to Alicia's. Without knocking, she let herself in, and headed up to Alicia's room. Knocking on the door, she heard a "come in!" and let herself into the room, breaking down the second she saw Alicia, and letting herself slide down to the floor. Alicia was next to her within two seconds, the fastest she'd ever moved, and hugged her best friend.
"What's wrong Massie?"
"I got in a fight with Derrick." Massie's voice was small.
"What?" Alicia blurted out in surprise, before wincing. "Sorry. Do you want to tell me what happened?"
"I went over to his house," Massie started, leaving out the cute trail he'd left for her, "and when I got there, he was on Facebook, and he was looking at all the posts from Coffee Guy, and he asked me why I didn't tell him. I told him I didn't think it was important." She paused and drew in a breath. "And he told me not to lie to him, and that if I couldn't tell him the truth then he didn't think he wanted to see me."
She told Alicia the rest of the argument. "And then I told him not to worry because he'd never have to see me again." She finished, looking down at her fingers.
"MASSIE!" Alicia exploded. "Why would you leave after he said something like that?"
Massie was silent for what Alicia counted to be exactly two minutes. "Because I love him too, and f I stayed there even another minute I probably would have told him, and he didn't mean he's in love with me I'm sure, because he can do so much better than me, I'm a huge bitch, and once he said he didn't love me like that, I'd die." Massie said the whole thing very fast, but Alicia understood perfectly.
"Well you're an idiot, but since you're my best friend, I'll take your side anyways." She said a moment later, prompting Massie to smile involuntarily.
"Thanks for the support." She muttered sarcastically, and a second later both girls were laughing hysterically, and neither knew why.
.&.
Massie spent the night at Alicia's house, after they had invited over Claire, repeated the story –which left Massie feeling a little depressed- and eaten a whole tub of ice cream, sans guilt.
She woke up around ten, grateful she hadn't spent the night at her house, knowing she never would have slept.
The other girls woke up shortly after she did, and decided they would go to Massie's for breakfast, where Inez would make them a buffet of delicious food. Massie threw her hair up in a messy bun, and cleaned the makeup of off her face before they left, knowing her mom would lecture her about the importance of appearance if she went as-is.
But unfortunately, fate was working against Massie that morning. When they got down to the tunnels, which were easily the quickest means of transportation, they saw Derrick in the Josh tunnel. And he saw them.
"Massie!"
"Go, just go." Massie muttered to her friends, shooing them on into her own, and completely ignoring Derrick, even though all three of the others saw her tense up.
Alicia went last into the Blocks tunnel, and shot Derrick an apologetic look. He looked disappointed, like he'd really wanted to talk to his best friend.
Claire shot Alicia a knowing look, and both girls silently decided at that moment that they were going to get Massie and Derrick together once and for all before they stopped meddling.
.&.
Two days later, when they were back at school, they realized it was not going to be easy. The entire school had noticed the determined stubbornness that Massie ignored Derrick with, and the increased resignation that Derrick seemed to have. Dylan was thrilled by it all, but almost everyone else seemed heartbroken that the infamous friendship seemed to be over for good. Even the teachers were worried, both Massie and Derrick were straight A students, and their grades were rapidly declining, not because of missing school, because they weren't trying anymore. At least their parents dutifully stayed out of it, not even lecturing about grades.
And then, Friday, almost a whole week after the fight, it came to a boiling point. Well actually, any pretense of friendship, and there was very little, exploded.
"Massie, talk to me." Derrick said loudly at lunch, and the entire café went silent, waiting for Massie's response, which is really what pressured her into answering in the first place.
"I'd really rather not Derrick." Her voice was flat, completely devoid of any emotion.
"Come on. You can't deny the caf the drama they so obviously want to see."
"Fine." She paused and took a deep breath. "You got mad at me for something completely ridiculous. I'm mad. End of story."
"Not the end." He insisted. "Because now you won't even look at me."
That was true; Massie was looking everywhere but at him.
"Because you're a bastard!" Massie exploded, standing up and abandoning her lunch.
Two weeks later and they still weren't speaking to each other.