Yo.
So today I was skimming through the Harvest Moon entries here on this website, and it sparked a little inspiration inside of me! So I sat down a few hours ago and began the next installment of: Jealousy which means, chapter six is now available to you! Congratulations. I hope you enjoy it, I hope it isn't what you've been expecting (I just love surprises, don't you?) Just so you know beforehand, this chappie is just a tad bit dramatic, okay it's kind of a HUGE drama-fest 2010, but I love a bit of drama in stories like this. And this story is mainly being written for my own entertainment, considering the fact that no one has really commented since I posted chapter one. . . . OH WELL, let's get on with the show!
~ Tweedlebugqueen

Jealousy

Chapter Six: Thunderstorms

The party was in full swing and everyone was having a really great time it seemed. Karen had shown up afterall, much to Gray's dismay. It turned out that he had nothing to worry about in the end, however, when Karen spent most of her time at the bar with Rick and Popuri.

Everyone who had been invited to participate in the festivities had shown up, even Harris, who I had harbored serious doubts of participation. But he surprised me immensely when he waltzed through the door when the party was expected to begin.

It was now midnight, the party had been raging for hours, and it didn't seem like anyone was planning on leaving anytime soon. I was honored to have a party last that long, people would be talking about this for weeks!

The night had started off kind of slow, only Harris, Ann, and Cliff had shown up on time, but Ann and Cliff lived where the party was hosted, so it wasn't very impressive that they had even shown up at all. Rick, Popuri, and Karen had shown up soon after them, and Elli escorted Doctor Trent inside just as the door had begun to swing shut. Presents had been brought out of jackets and set on the tables, the cake had been cut and devoured within minutes, birthday songs were sung all around, and the bar helped supply the jesters with plenty of jokes.

After Doug had finally closed the bar for the night at twelve-thirty, saying that he needed some rest and that we had all had enough as it was (he looked pointedly at Karen, who was nearly passed out drunk on the floor), Ann rushed up to the record player and put on the latest dance music, swinging her hips and her head madly while trying not to fall. She had clearly had enough to drink as well, though I hadn't seen her order anything at the bar.

A few moments passed in silence, everyone watching Ann and Karen drunk-dance before anyone else decided to join in. Doctor Trent asked Elli quietly if she would like to accompany him on the dancefloor followed by Rick jumping in to help Karen with the lively quickstep that she seemed to be dancing alone. Harris walked quietly over and slipped in beside Ann, who welcomed his company gladly, reaching for his hand and jerking him close to her in the same instant he got close enough for her to touch.

That left Gray, Cliff, Popuri, and I to just stand there awkwardly and watch everyone dance their hearts out. It made me a little queasy to watch the drunken girls with their partners. I preferred to watch Doctor and Elli dance, because they weren't falling over themselves every other second. I vowed never to get that drunk, and be smart like the doctor and his nurse. It went without saying that I liked to go throughout my days without being the talk of the town, I avoided making a fool of myself at all costs.

I guess that it was a huge benefit to everyone here, then, that none of the town gossips had been invited. Even my parents, who had been here at the beginning of the party, had retired to our house after a few short hours.

Popuri was fidgeting in her seat at a nearby table, she had partaken of too much cake earlier, and was still sitting where she had been most of the night.

Cliff shuffled his feet awkwardly next to me, I wondered if he felt uncomfortable, if he felt an obligation to ask one of us girls to dance with him. I smiled to myself at the though, Cliff was much to shy to ask anyone to dance. But that didn't mean that us girls didn't have the guts.

She must not have been suffering from a stomach-ache anymore, because soon after the thought had occurred to me that I should ask Cliff to dance, Popuri jumped out of her seat, ran over to where we were sitting at the bar, and grabbed Cliff's hand excitedly, dragging him out onto the dancefloor without a word.

Gray chuckled behind me, nearly making me fall out of my chair.

"Don't do that!" I exclaimed, holding my hand against my heart to make sure it was still beating.

He just ignored my comment and blushed. "And then there were two." he murmered.

We sat there in silence for a few moments, I guess we were each waiting for the other to ask us to dance. Or at least, I was waiting for him to ask me to dance. I hadn't a clue as to what he was thinking or feeling.

I found out not a moment later when Gray took my hand shyly and asked me to dance.

I merely smiled in response, "Well come on then." he blushed.

As we entered the dancefloor, I caught a glimpse of the other couples around us. Trent and Elli were dancing up a storm, neither one of them having even had a sip to drink, so they probably looked the best out of all of us. Rick seemed to be holding Karen up by her underarms, he was dragging her over to the table that Popuri had just vacated. Speaking of Popuri, she seemed to have gotten Cliff to laugh - though nervously - as they spun around in circles. I suspected neither of them knew how to dance very well. Ann and Harris were at the bar, Ann withdrew a key from her overalls and handed him a bottle of champagne. I distinctly heard her say that he had not had nearly enough to drink that night. The party was nearly out of control.

But I didn't care, I had the company of Gray Smith to keep me entertained.

Gray wasn't a very good dancer, I came to realize. He shuffled his feet around awkwardly and shook his head to make up for his lack of moves. Luckily for him, I was not a good dancer myself, and merely just swayed my hips back and forth feverishly, twirling myself around occasionally.

A clap of thunder sounded overhead, followed by a shrill scream.

Everyone stopped dancing and turned to stare at Popuri, who had her hands covering her ears and looked petrified.

Karen laughed, followed by Rick. Soon everyone was laughing, even Popuri chimed in after a while. It seemed that rain had begun outside, which was a lot better than more snow, in my opinion.

The dancing slowly resumed, and Cliff sat with Popuri at the same table as Rick and Karen. They were talking animatedly about their mutual fear of thunderstorms. I was glad to see that Cliff had made a new friend in town. I smiled at the thought that Popuri was socializing with a boy other than Kai, who wasn't a very stable boyfriend for her to have.

After some convincing from Harris, Gray even took a few swigs of champagne here and there, and with each swig came a new dance move. I found out that I had been quite wrong about Gray's ability to dance, he had just been too sober to show off his skills. He soon had me catching my breath between loops and spins and pretzels. It was overwhelming me and I feared that soon I would collapse with all of the activity, but the high powered music slowly faded out, and Ann put on an 'ooey-gooey love kanoodle thinger thing' on for everyone to listen to. I nearly died laughing after she said that, but Gray held me close as the song began to play, staring into my eyes.

"I love this song," he murmured quietly, with just a fraction of a slur.

Surprisingly, I didn't mind that he was a little tipsy, I was more preoccupied with the fact that we weren't even an inch apart. I could feel his warm breath on my face as he held me in place.

Doctor and Elli had meandered away from the dance floor and were talking in hushed tones over by the door, Rick and Karen were off in the corner, it looked like they were kissing, and Popuri was sleeping on Cliff's lap over by the staircase. Ann and Harris had both disappeared, though I had no idea where. Before I could look around to investigate further, Gray had my face in both of his hands.

Surprised, I turned to look at him. He seemed happy once my attention was back to him, and he embraced me in a hug as he began to sway back and forth. After a violent blush had made it's way onto my cheeks, I accepted the hug and soon he was whispering the lyrics softly into my ear.

Another clap of thunder sounded, and the Inn doors burst open. Wind flew in all around us, and a young girl staggered into the place before collapsing on the floor.

Silence fell around the room for about five seconds before Doctor Trent and Elli did anything.

They rushed to the young woman's side and barked orders at everyone to calm down, (only then did I realize that Popuri had been startled awake and was now crying hysterically, begging to know whether or not the girl was dead. Ann had also begun crying, but I suspected that half of her emotion was because of the alcohol in her system).

"Ann, stop your snivelling and get me some ice water, we can't take the poor girl out in this weather!" Trent practically yelled over the wind, "And would someone please close the door!"

Gray rushed forward, letting go of me all too quickly, and struggled with the rattling Inn doors. Harris accompanied him only minutes later when it became apparent that Gray could not do the job himself.

"Miss, are you alright? Can you hear me? Everything is going to be fine." Elli was saying to the woman lying on the floor.

Ann rushed over with the ice water, her hands shaking violently and half of the water on the floor as a result of it. The loss of water didn't seem to bother the doctor though as he took it from her and dipped his handkerchief in it.

As Elli placed the cool, wet cloth on the girl's forhead, Cliff suggested that someone move her upstairs into the empty room.

Rick and Gray stepped forward with outstretched arms, ready to carry her up the steps.

"We really shouldn't move her. . . ." Trent said slowly, "It won't do anything to help her condition."

Gray rolled his eyes, "Would it do any harm?"

Elli spoke up then, speaking over the doctor, "It's alright to move her, she should wake up after a little rest."

Rick bent down first and swooped her up in one gesture, but staggered on the spot when he straightened himself out. Gray helped him on the other side, though I knew from experience that he could have done the job on his own. I walked to his side and asked if there was anything I could help with.

"Go upstairs and open the door to her room, if you could turn down the bedding on the bed closest to the heater, that would be great too. We won't have to shuffle her around as much, I don't want to disturb her."

I nodded my head and dashed up the stairs to do as he asked immediately. In passing I saw that Karen was now trying to get up from her chair, but Cliff and Popuri were keeping her and Ann at the table she was seated in. All of the girls seemed to be upset besides Elli, who was just as calm and collected as Doctor Trent himself.

Moments after the bed had been turned down Gray entered the room with the blonde in his arms. It seemed that he had abruptly taken her from Rick and ran up the stairs before the latter could do anything about it, because Rick entered the room red-faced only seconds after Gray.

He set her down in the bed and pulled up a chair, taking a seat beside her and holding her hand. I would have been extremely jealous if this were not a dire situation. The fact that the girl had yet to wake up kept me from envying her at all. Gray was a very sweet man, it was only to be expected that he would sit by her side until she woke up . . . right?

The girl's name was Claire, or at least that's what Doctor had told us after checking her driver's liscence. She was eighteen, one year older than I was, an adult. We didn't know much else about her except that she was an organ donor, that she was an average height of five feet, six inches, and that under her still-closed eyelids, her eye color was blue.

No solid information of where she came from, what she was doing in Mineral Town, or what had lead her to the Inn at this time of night.

Elli had pushed everyone out of Claire's room only moments after declaring that she had a mild case of hypothermia, and that she needed to get out of her wet clothes. Gray was reluctant at first, but soon nodded his understanding when Doctor Trent emphasized that Claire would need to change her clothes to get warm again. Even Gray, who was a lot less shy than he had once been couldn't stop the blush from gracing his cheeks and neck when Trent had said that.

Ann was the only one allowed in with Elli to help find a nightdress for Claire, and to help her get changed.

Outside it had begun to snow again, a horrible blizzard that looked like it might last for days replaced the slight thunderstorm that had been when Claire entered the Inn. None of us looked forward to spending a day or so locked in the Inn, but after having been awoken, Doug exclaimed that the weather warning on the radio had said that the storm would most likely last for at least two days, and we all were forced to get comfortable downstairs until Claire woke up. Doctor Trent said that the girls needed to stay out of their designated room until Elli could explain to Claire what had happened. No need to unnecessarily upset her.

Luckily for us girls, the guys who stayed here at the Inn offered up their room to us, and they helped Doug pull some spare mattresses from the confines of his room to set up in the main dining room.

So that left Karen, Ann, Popuri and I to fight over the three beds that occupied the small room. Oh joy, I thought to myself as Ann, Karen, and Popuri began quarreling about who would be most unfortunate and would have to sleep on the floor.

"You should sleep on the floor, you're the drunkest!" Ann was yelling fiercely at Karen.

"Well you live here, don't the rules say that guests come first?" Karen countered with a heavy slurr.

Popuri collapsed on the nearest bed and promptly began to sob.

"STOP IT!" I yelled.

Karen and Ann just turned to stare blankly at me, while Popuri's sobs quieted somewhat.

"You two are acting like spoiled brats! Karen, you are acting so selfish it isn't even funny. Ann, you live here! Your father's room is just downstairs, why can't you just go down there and share with him tonight? If it bothers the both of you so much, let me change first and I can go downstairs with the guys!"

Popuri lifted her head off of the mattress then, gaping at me.

Ann was the first one to speak, "Sleep . . . with the . . . boys?" she was astounded.

"Not sleep with them. Sleep in close proximity to them!" I said, "They have enough mattresses down there to spare an extra. They did the smart thing and pushed them all together to make one big bed, I saw Cliff and Rick finish doing so when I went to wake Doug about Claire."

Karen laughed then, a druken laugh that creeped me out, "Then that's what we have ta do!" she exclaimed loudly.

"Do what?" Popuri asked.

"Push the beds together!" Ann finished for Karen.

And we all got to work trying to move the beds together. After we managed it, we all changed into some nightclothes that Ann had brought for us. (She had quite the collection of nightdresses and pajamas, we came to find out.)

When the three girls next to me finally fell asleep, I prepared myself for a long few days.

A/N: Whew, I'm glad that's over with. While writing this, I sort of just let the story tell itself. I didn't really plan ahead with this one, knowing that the drama would just flow out of me (since I deal with so much of it in my everyday life) and I think it turned out really well! I hadn't really planned any of this to be honest with you, except for Claire staggering in and collapsing just when Mary and Gray start to get close, (I'm such a stinker, aren't I?)
So yeah, there's chapter six of Jealousy, I hope you liked it.
Something I've come to find with writing, is that sometimes you are let down. I've practically been begging for reviews and favorites for quite a while now, and nothing has come of it. I really began to feel discouraged until this afternoon when I saw one writer who had only seven reviews for her story, and it was one of the best stories I have ever read on this website. I went to her profile and saw that she writes just to please herself, and if it pleases others along the way, then that's great! If not, oh well, at least she enjoyed writing it. I really admired her mentality, and I've decided to try and be more like her. I don't know if anybody is reading this story, or if you all just abandoned me at chapter one, but I'm going to continue writing anyway . . . though I would appreciate reviews you know. Just like any writer appreciates feedback.
So there's my rant for this chapter, it seems I always have one in store for you right? Next chapter may or may not be up soon, we'll see.
Much love,
Tweedlebugqueen (: