Okie dokie, here we go! Chapter five! Like I predicted, this is my favorite chapter, and it will probably be yours too. However, I have written this twice - the first time, I accidently forgot to save it when I turned off my computer (I am such an idiot, I know) so this is the second version. Though it's still pretty much the same, I think I liked the first version better. But bah. Can't undo the past.
This chapter was inspired by Avril Lavigne's song "I'm With You" (well, towards the end-ish.) I recommend that when you're about five or six paragraphs away from the end that you listen to it, because it fits really well with the end of the chapter. Thanks, Avril!
Finally, this chapter has a kind of...sexual scene towards the end. I can assure you, it's nothing graphic, but if you're offended by this kind of stuff, don't read!
Enjoy...
"Ugh. I'm sorry, Bo, but it's all messed up. I had it right a second ago, and...I don't know what happened." Elaine peered at the somewhat stitched up hole in Bo's jeans, which she was holding, and frowned.
"It's okay," said Bo, who was looking at the needle Elaine was holding and wondering how anyone could fit a needle through such a small hole.
"Well, we're going now," said Mosca suddenly. He, Hornet, Prosper, and Riccio were standing a few feet away from them. Unlike Bo and Elaine, they weren't dressed in their pajamas. This was because they were going out to get some things Prosper had forgotten to purchase the previous night.
"And you're going to the store at..." Elaine glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. "...9:45 at night? Remind me again why you didn't go during sensible hours."
"Because it was hot today," said Riccio. "We had to wait for the sun to go down."
"Uh-huh. And what store is open right now?"
"Well, that one on South street. The one that's open 24/7, or at least that's what it says. You know?"
"No. But it sounds familiar." Elaine was about to go back to trying to stitch up Bo's jeans again when she remembered to say good-bye. "Bye. And be careful. Venice can get kind of crazy at night."
"Okay, okay," said Riccio's muffled voice from the small hallway that lead to the door. A moment later, Elaine heard it open and then shut, and knew they were gone.
She worked at Bo's jeans for another ten minutes or so while Bo uninterestedly wandered around the theatre. After a while, she said to him, "Come on, Bo. Let's get you to bed." Bo nodded, even though she knew the last thing he wanted to do. She stood up and followed him up to his bedroom.
"Goodnight," she said to him, after tucking him in. Bo nodded again, his eyelids already starting to droop. She turned off the lamp in the room and quietly exited it.
Once she sat down on her bed, Elaine got right back to working on the hole in Bo's jeans. As she was doing it, she wasn't really concentrating on it. Her mind was on another moment in time, one that had happened years ago...
"Sewing class?" A girl of about twelve years of age pulled her blonde hair back in a loose ponytail as she asked it. "I didn't even know our school had that."
"I didn't either," said the girl sitting next to her. She was about the same age, but her hair was long and dark instead. "I just found out at the beginning of the year."
"Well, what do you do in that class, anyway?" asked the blonde, stretching out on the patch of grass she sat on. Around them, a young mother pushed her sleeping infant in a stroller around the park, and a group of teenage boys played baseball.
"Well, you sew and stuff. Since the year just started, we haven't learned too much, but I managed to fix my little cousin's stuffed animal." She rummaged around in her bookbag until she pulled out a small toy elephant. "I need to give it back to her soon, but here it is. I don't think I did half bad. Anyway, sewing class is a real easy A."
"Which you need," said the other girl, pushing her friend playfully. "Since you're failing Miss Coupelin's class."
The dark-haired girl threw the elephant at the blonde and promptly got it thrown right back at her.
"Look at you! Throwing an elephant at me. I think you're a traitor, Elaine!" She pretended to be hurt, pouting and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Oh, shut up," said Elaine, grinning. "Anyway, you're failing Miss Coupelin's class too."
Elaine smiled sadly. It was amazing that she still remembered that. Suddenly feeling as though she was being watched, Elaine looked up and nearly had a heart attack when she saw Scipio standing in the doorway.
"Scipio! Oh my God! You scared me!"
Scipio said, "Oh, well what a pleasant greeting that is!"
"How the hell did you get in?" said Elaine, still blinking in shock.
"Well, I am the Thief Lord."
"Really, Scipio..."
"Okay, okay. The door was open."
"Open? The door? Everyone but me and Bo just left. They must have left it open. Idiots." Scipio sat next to her.
"They left? Where'd they go?"
"Store."
"In the middle of the night?"
"Don't look at me that way. It was Riccio's idea." Scipio looked down at the needle and Bo's jeans and raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, this. Bo got a hole in his jeans and I'm trying to fix it." Elaine put it on the floor and turned to him. Noticing the abscence of his burlap bag, she asked, "Why are you here?"
"What? You don't want me here?"
"No, it's just that you don't have that bag you always carry around..."
"Well, I was just coming to visit, if you don't mind."
"Of course I don't."
They sat in silence for a few moments, listening to the crickets and the mild breeze. Each were lost in their own thoughts. Elaine was thinking about that stupid sewing class she'd taken in seventh grade and smiling to herself. Those were the days. Why did they have to disappear so quickly?
Scipio, on the other hand, was simply watching her. He loved it when she smiled. After a moment, Elaine looked up. "What?" she said. "Is there something on my face?"
"No, there's not."
Elaine shrugged and started to brush off the dust on her pants. As strange as it sounded, Scipio loved the way her hair fell over her face slightly, and the way her eyebrows furrowed when she concentrated on a particularly bothersome piece of lint that refused to come off.
There was something about Elaine that drew him to her. Was it her looks? Maybe. Her personality? Possibly. Both? Most likely.
There was a kind of innocence she possessed that he loved. Looking at her now, he thought about that. Also, and he seriously doubted it was only himself that thought so, Elaine was rather attractive, in his point of view. And now, her lips looked so soft, and...and...
Shit. Shut up, Scipio.
They were just friends, he reminded himself. Just friends. Nothing more than that. He shouldn't be thinking about that when they were friends. If he thought she was a very likeable person, that was fine. But that was it.
Just friends.
Elaine looked up and opened her mouth to say something, but she never got to say it. Scipio couldn't help himself when he looped his arms around her waist and just kissed her. Elaine's eyes widened in surprise, and in that moment, time seemed to stop.
I love you.
And, all of a sudden, Elaine was kissing him back, because this was what she wanted, too. Even as his hand slid up her back, under her shirt, she was just lost in this one moment. This one moment that was her own - no, theirs. Their moment.
They didn't even stop to think of the consequences. Why should they? This was just them. Them and nothing else.
Nothing.