Chapter Twenty: I've.Found.I.Just.Can't.Leave.You.Alone[PART ONE] (The evening of April 12th, 2000)
"How do I look?" Chin asked, walking into Jenny's and my room.
"Great...why?" I grabbed a sweater and headed for the bathroom looking for my brush.
"No reason," she replied and followed me, poking at her black skirt.
"What's on your mind?" I asked, rummaging through all the drawers.
"Nothing," she sighed and leaned over to something. "I should be asking you that." Chin handed me something.
"What?" I looked up.
"Looking for this?" She held a brush up in the air. I smiled and took it from her. "I'm gonna go pester Jenny, See ya!" I watched her walk out the door, and smiled. It was priceless...she had spent almost an hour getting ready...for AJ...Of course, she wouldn't admit it.
When are they getting together? I wondered. They both liked each other, right?"Dinner, dinner, dinner," Nick chanted, walking along the second floor hallway towards the stairs, "dinner, dinner, dinner, din-"
"NICK!!!!" everyone in the house yelled.
"ALRIGHT!" he grumbled as he began to descend the stairs. Once at the bottom, he noticed Julie sitting in the living room, curled up on a sofa, reading. "Everyone is mean...but you," he whispered with a smile playing on his lips as he sat down beside her. She looked up at him and closed her book.
"Poor Nickers," she grinned. He made a face.
"Did you get that from Chin? Grrr." He tried to act mad. Julie shrugged. "Hey, speaking of Chin," Nick said after a few moments, "What's with her and AJ?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"We all know how AJ feels about her...except Chin herself, right?" Nick asked.
"Yeah..." Julie gazed around the room, not meeting his eyes.
"You know something, don't you?" he smirked as he brought his face closer to hers. She turned her head and their noses hit.
"Maybe," she smiled.
"Wanna tell me?"
"No." Julie lightly pushed him away.
"You know what the consequences will be," he threatened, wiggling his fingers.
"If you tickle me, I'll scream."
"I don't care. If you don't tell me, I'll tickle you," Nick grinned, inching closer towards her.
"Nick...stop...no...AH!...Fine!" She gave in after a poke.
"That was too easy," he smiled.
"But you swear not to say anything?" She pointed a finger at his nose. "Only the girls know."
"Go on."
"Do you swear?" Julie demanded.
"Just tell me!" Nick sighed.
"Chin...likes AJ," she whispered.
"Oh really?" He lunged at her and tickled her.
"AHHH!!!!!...What was THAT for?!" she screamed.
"Couldn't resist." He innocently smiled.
In his mind, a plan was forming...he knew what he had to do."Jenny?" Chin poked her head in every room. "Jenny?" she called out again.
"SHE'S ON THE BALCONY...I THINK," AJ shouted from the guestroom.
"THANKS!" Chin headed to the balcony. "Jenny?" She stuck her head out.
"Hmmm?" Jenny mumbled.
"Everything okay?" Chin glanced at the balcony itself. Slowly, she stepped out as well, shrugging off the bad feelings from previous events.
"I guess," Jenny sighed and looked at Chin. "You?"
"Me?" Chin asked.
"How are you? Everything good?"
"As good as it'll ever be I guess."
"Welcome to my world," Jenny sighed.
"Girls?" Brian stuck his head out. "Ready to go?"
"Yup," Jenny smiled and all sadness seemed to vanish. Chin watched Jenny silently.
"I can do that too," Chin whispered to Jenny as a challenge.
"Are we gonna actually bet on this?" Jenny laughed as they stepped inside, following Brian.
"It would make it easier," Chin sighed as they approached the stairs, where Brian and AJ waited for them with big smiles.
"Okay, let's bet on it now. Zero sadness around them, or else." Jenny stuck her hand out.
"Or else," Chin repeated and they shook on it."You know what? It's still baffling to me that on the road we'll have our own rooms so we don't beat the crap out of each other in a fight...but then we get home and we spend every waking moment together...What's with that?" Nick asked as we gathered to leave the house.
"It's because you guys are just freaks," I laughed, walking towards the door to the garage.
"HEY!" they all yelled at me. I ran to my car for safety. According to Kevin, I was lucky I made it.
The ride was an unofficial race...not that we broke the speed limit or anything. I swear, the guys are such boys at times. Nick and Brian both bolted to the door of the restaurant...the wrong one, that is. In their haste to be first, the didn't notice us leave the parking lot, heading in the other direction. We figured a light would go off in one of their heads, eventually.
So...we finally went out for dinner in celebration, like Nick had suggested. Funny how something this big happened to us and the world would never know about it. Not even our parents. [We just couldn't tell them. Who knows how well - or horrible - they would take something like this...something bizarre as it is. And would you want your house jam-packed with relieved family for two weeks, trying to make themselves feel better by looking out for their grown-up children? I didn't think so. No news is good news for them].
But that's a good thing, right? Right. No need for a media explosion. No need for delayed worry or concern. No more fans would find out about us. And that meant we would be okay...
"Sarah? You awake?" Kevin waved his hand in front of my face. I snapped out of thinking and smiled brightly.
"Shall we?" I asked and we headed to our table.
All throughout dinner, Jenny and Chin glanced at each other, making sure the other was holding up the bet.
Dinner was fun as usual. Brian was up to no good. AJ and Chin seemed to be doing really well with their friendship. Julie and Nick were happy in each other's arms. Cathy and Howie seemed to be in their own world. Hannah was tossing grapes into Lance's mouth. And well, Kevin and me... don't get me started.
"Grape?" he asked me after he challenged Hannah and Lance that he could do better.
"What's with you and grapes?...No." I pressed my lips together.
"Well, I'm going to the bathroom..." Chin shook her head at Kevin and stood up.
"Take me with you!" I jumped out of my seat at the first chance to get away from Kevin. He pretended to pout and I rolled my eyes and joined Chin. I explained to her what Kevin was up to and she laughed.
I waited for her and told her I noticed she and AJ were getting along quite well. She smiled and we returned. We walked up to the table as Nick was saying something to the whole group. Chin and I sneaked up behind Nick to listen in...
"...I'm so glad everything's okay now. I mean, I'm glad AJ isn't yelling again... especially since he was crazy about Chin in the first place..." Nick paused and took a sip of his drink. Everyone at the table froze. Everyone but Nick. He pretended hadn't noticed Chin and me return and continued. "But it's okay now, cuz Chin is crazy about you too, Age." Julie nudged Nick so hard he almost dropped his glass. "What?" he asked, pretending to be oblivious. I coughed to make Nick turn around to see Chin and me. "Oh...hey."
We all waited for Chin or AJ to do something. Chin laughed and glanced down at her feet.
"Nick, you might want to watch what you're drinking..." she said, and looked up at AJ, who sat across the table from where we were standing. She broke into a smile. "You might say things you're not supposed to..."
Everyone relaxed as AJ smiled back at Chin. I nudged Chin and we returned to our seats. Kevin was still in the grape mood. Argh...
"So, did Nick say the truth?" AJ whispered to Chin when she sat down next to him. She glanced at him and innocently smiled.
"You tell me..." she whispered back.
Dinner was completed with three - yes, three - cakes, to show that neither Jenny, Brian, nor I had been forgotten. There were some disturbing memories of AJ's birthday, but those were quickly forgotten amidst the happiness and laughter. We were way too civil to actually have a friendly fight in the restaurant...so we saved the cakes to take home. AJ had smudged a bit of icing on Chin's nose, Jenny had smeared a bit on Brian's shirt, and so on...as soon as we set foot into our house, it was on. We ran to the backyard to save our house. The dogs had a lovely time trying to clean the patio and grass of the destroyed dessert.
Before we dispersed to clean up, Nick made yet another novel suggestion - to take a midnight walk on the beach. Everybody agreed and met back in an hour or so. Everyone kept complaining about the lack of hot water in the showers. Just before we were about to leave, after a little discussion on which beach [the closest], if we should drive [we'd walk there], how long we'd stay [as long as we wanted], Chin was the last to show up. She had come running down the stairs, passed us, and headed for the kitchen, mentioning something about Sprite being sick. She rushed past us again with a bowl of water and told us to leave; she was going to stay with her cat. She didn't give us time to argue, and disappeared upstairs. AJ opted to stay, and shooed us out of the house, telling us not to worry about it. Ever since New Year's Eve, the guys had found some way to never leave any one of us home alone when they were visiting. It had become a sort of unwritten rule that they had decided on. On other occasions with the rest of us, it had been the same. If one of us wasn't up to going out for a night, our best friend insisted on staying back as well...He went to find Chin in the gameroom."Is Sprite okay?" Chin heard a familiar raspy voice and opened her eyes to see AJ standing over her. It took her a second to realize that she had dozed off. She looked down in her lap where the white cat lay.
"She's better. She left me some lovely throw-up on my pillow, so I figured it was something she ate when we weren't looking." Chin shrugged as she petted Sprite's head. "Why aren't you at the beach?"
"Didn't feel like it," AJ shrugged. Should I have said 'I didn't want to leave you alone in the house'? he asked himself silently. "Do you want me to go put the pillow case in the washing machine?" AJ offered.
"How'd you know I hadn't taken care of that yet?" she smiled. "Sure...Thank you."
AJ nodded and left the room. He returned about ten minutes later; Chin was dozing off again. He went over and turned on the CD player, not sure if he should wake her. He selected the random play mode for all the CD's inside the player, and then decided to play some pool. Chin opened her eyes and silently observed him. His back was to her. She hadn't dozed off; she was trying to prevent herself from doing so."Hey, did you know that 'gullible' isn't in the dictionary?" Jenny whispered to Brian as they walked along the shoreline under the stars.
"Really? Why no-" Brian caught himself. "Cute. Real cute."
"I thought so." He could see her grinning in the moonlight. "I'm surprised you haven't heard that before," she laughed.
"Oh, you're gonna get it!" he threatened as she began to run. He took off after her.
The two whizzed by Kevin and me, just in time, stopping him from his attempt to pick me up and throw me in the water - their running in the water caused him to get splashed instead. We looked up ahead to see Jenny break through Julie and Nick's locked arms, and Brian do the same once the couple's arms had hooked back together. Nick got mad and ran after Brian, paying no attention to Julie, who was yelling at him to stop. She gave up and ran after them. The four darted past Hannah and Lance, who had also been walking quietly along, hand in hand. I turned around to see Cathy and Howie laughing. Jenny went up into the dunes and came full circle, running past us again. Nick and Brian almost knocked Cathy and Howie over (Julie stepped out of the way) - the couple stopped laughing and Howie joined the chase.
"So much for a peaceful midnight walk, huh?" I looked up at Kevin.
"Who said it was supposed to be peaceful?" he grinned at me and got a glimmer in his eye.
"Ohhh no you don't!" I yelled and ran before he could pick me up...-->Chapter Twenty: I've.Found.I.Just.Can't.Leave.You.Alone[PART TWO]
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