Brittany stared at the clothes in her closet and she realized that she had nothing to wear for her and Michael's date. Ugh! It's not a date! she reminded herself.
She was never nervous about dates. They were kinda her thing. She always wore the cutest outfits and wowed everyone. But now, she could not find the perfect dress. Some of her clothes were too frilly, too extravagant, too...
"Ugh! Lisa!" she groaned and Lisa came in with a duster in her hand, "What do you want?" "Dad's credit card, let's go shopping!" Brittany said and Lisa looked at her unbelievably, "Young lady, you are still suspended from school and you want to go shopping? No remorse at all?" "Lisa, I promise you I won't spend much" "So says the girl that spent eighty thousand dollars on chocolate and spandex suits" "That was the price!" "Well you could have gone to a cheaper store" Lisa said and looked at her closet, "By the way, why do you need to go shopping?" "I have nothing to wear!" Brittany complained and Lisa turned to go. "Where are you going?" Brittany called "When you get a new pair of eyes, call me!" Lisa said and left.
"Lisa!" Brittany screamed and sighed, "We'll just improvise!" But I can steal the card, she thought and shook her head, "I'll have to get spandex suits to steal it. It's always good to steal fashionably" she said as she nodded then she looked at her clothes. "It depends on my magic touch now" she said and closed her eyes and walked into her closet.
~~~~~~~
Seth sipped his drink as he stared at the door. He was nervous about seeing Hope's face. He had imagined how she would look and had come to the conclusion that she was the type of girl that was really pretty but she still called herself ugly. But the key word was that she was really pretty. Blonde hair, blue eyes, from her silhouette, she was tall, slim, had legs that went on like forever and...he was only making himself more nervous.
He was on the lookout for a girl in a short, white lace, strappy gown. He had told her what he was wearing; black jeans with a black shirt and a blue denim jacket. He had also worn a beanie because he had woken up with a serious case of bed hair.
The door opened and she walked in. Seth's eyes travelled from her legs;tanned long legs in a white wedge, sexy lace gown that showed her curves, he was shocked when he saw her face. Brittany? What the fuck? he thought and calmed down. Maybe she's on a date here too.
Her eyes wandered from everyone's face till they landed on Seth, in the exact clothes Michael had said he was wearing.
"Crap! She's coming here!" Seth mumbled as Brittany made her way towards him. "What are you doing here?!" she asked as she pointed at him, "Princess, last time I checked, this wasn't your personal restaurant. It's open to all and I just happen to be here" he said and she snorted, "Why are you wearing that?" "I can wear whatever I want. The real question is what are you doing here dressed like that?" "I'm on a date!" "Who's the unlucky guy?" "Excuse me?" "Did you sneeze?" he smirked and she glared at him, "I don't want to reduce my IQ by talking to you" she said and sat at the table opposite him.
"Can you move to another table? I don't like seeing ugly when I'm eating" he said and she hmphed and looked away. It's all coincidence, they both thought. Sooner or later, Michael will come here and we can leave! Brittany thought and signaled the waiter.
After she was given her water, she decided to text Michael since he was not here and she did not want to watch Seth wink at all the girls in the restaurant. She rolled her eyes when he winked at her then she took out her phone and texted Michael.
'Hey where are you'
'I'm supposed to be asking you that. I have been in the restaurant since'
'But I can't see you' she sent and her eyes met Seth's who winked and she stuck her tongue at him.
'Hold on, let me just call you' he sent and called.
His eyes widened when Brittany held her phone close to her ear, "Hello?" she asked. This can not be happening, he thought and spoke, "Hello". The same look of horror etched on Brittany's face. "Fudge" she said as she dropped her phone then he cut the call.
Brittany stood up and marched over to his table, "You're Michael?!" she shouted and everyone looked at them. "Easy princess! Let's get out of here then you can scream your head off" he said and dragged her outside. "Okay. You're Michael?" she asked once they were outside. "I'll ask the questions here. You're Hope? How?"
"Don't you dare answer my question with a question you deceiver!" Brittany snapped and he scoffed, "I'm a deceiver? Please you said your name was Hope" "It's my middle name!" "Well Michael is my middle name too!" he said and she hit his chest, "Shut up! How can you be Michael? He's so...kind, funny while you're disgusting to look at!" "Sorry I'm not who you expected but don't you dare call me disgusting" he glared at her and she glared back.
"I told you things I have never told anyone. You were my favorite secret. My Michael, the one I could talk to and he'll understand but you turned out to be my worst enemy" Brittany said and Seth smirked, "My Michael? Brittany, I fucking blushed when you wrapped my bloody hand with your handkerchief. Seth Michael Williams doesn't blush for anyone. I saw you as...I don't know...an angel that the lake had given me for comfort. I was not expecting you to look like a bitch. The bitch who pinked my motorcycle, the bitch who got me suspended" he said angrily and a lump formed in her throat, "I almost kissed you! You were the...only girl I...I don't even know. I almost fell for you? Fuck, I should have noticed. The purple hair, the blue eyes, the long hair, the..." he noticed that she was crying.
"Brittany I..." "I was right. You are nothing like Michael. And to think I was about to take you up on your proposal" she said and ran away. Proposal? he thought and remembered what he had told Hope(Brittany); "I'm saying you should fall in love with me". "Shit!" he yelled and saw Brittany driving out. "Brittany wait!" he yelled but she almost ran him over.
~~~~~~~
Brittany collapsed on her bed and cried in her pillows. She had never cried over a guy. This was her first and she hoped it was her last because it hurt so much.
"Brittany Hope Copper, you left your lights on for the umpteenth ti---- Brittany?" Lisa said as she walked into Brittany's room and saw her crying. "Brittany are you okay?" Lisa asked and Brittany quickly cleaned her eyes, "Yeah!" She never liked crying in front of people.
"Honey you don't look okay" Lisa said as she held Brittany's hand and tears trickled down her face, "Oh honey" Lisa said and enveloped Brittany in a warm hug as she cried.
Scott walked across her room then he came back and saw his daughter crying. Lisa's back was to him. The last time he had seen Brittany cry, was the day Lisa dragged her to the children's home after he had almost killed her. Even after he had almost killed her, she still wanted to stay with him. That broke his heart. He walked away with a heavy heart knowing he was not yet worthy of petting her.
~~~~~~~
After Brittany was done crying, Lisa put her to bed, or so she thought. After Lisa had left, Brittany stood up and brought out ice cream she had bought as she drove home in tears. Since she could no longer meet Michael, her only option was ice cream. Damian had stopped talking to her after Jake had beaten him up. Maddie slept by eight and it was...nine? Brittany shrugged and continued licking her vanilla, strawberry ice cream with sprinkles.
How could she have not known that Michael was Seth? Michael still had that jerk attitude but it was little compared to the massive jerk attitude Seth had. But Michael had seemed vunerable. They had both been vunerable. She had shown him a side of her that no one had ever seen. She had told him things no one else knew. The good thing was that she had not blurted out that her dad had almost killed her when she was nine and she was never going to tell anyone that.
The memory of her almost letting him kiss her, made her face really red. What was she thinking allowing him get so close to her? "You wanted to know how he tasted because you have a crush on him", a small voice in her head said and she shook her head. "I only had a crush on him because I had not seen his face. Now that I have seen who he is and how much of a jerk he is, the crush has been terminated" she convinced herself. "Keep telling yourself that. Seth or Michael, you feel something for him, even if it's teeny" the voice in her head argued and she frowned, "Well, I have Damian!" she said and she heard the voice scoff, "Yeah! The pussy who got scared after a beating" "Why are you using vulgar language? And aren't you meant to be on my side? Who are you by the way?" she asked but the voice in her head did not say anything again.
"Ignore me when I ask a serious question" she said sarcastically and took a huge lick of her ice cream. How was she going to avoid Seth when they worked at the same place?
~~~~~~~
Brittany was about to go behind the counter but Seth turned and she bumped into him. She moved to the left but he also moved to the left. She moved to the right and he also moved to the right. She glared at him and he shrugged then he allowed her to pass.
Max held his shoulder, "What's going on between you and Brittany?" he asked and Seth sighed, "We had a fight" "Don't you always?" Max sniggered "The fight wasn't like our usual ones, I...I really hurt her...I made her cry" Seth said and Max's face dropped. Seth had never seen him look so serious.
"You made Brittany cry?" he said in a low voice and Seth gulped. Max had a different aura around him. Max leaned and whispered in Seth's ear, "So you're the fucking reason she has been gloomy all day? If you don't fix your bullshit by the end of today, I'll rip off your balls myself and feed it to you on a silver platter" he threatened.
"But how am I supposed to fix it?" Seth asked and Max leaned back, "Take her out, buy her something nice, don't you know what girls like?" he chuckled. All seriousness gone from his face. "Brittany, why don't you take the day off?" Max said and she looked up from the counter, "Really?" "Yeah! King and I can manage" Max said and she looked at King who only grunted in response.
Sweet! Brittany thought and took off her apron as she went to the back room to get her stuff. She grabbed her purse, smoothened her pants and was about walking out but Seth stopped her.
"Hey" he smirked and she rolled her eyes, "What do you want?" she asked and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "I was wondering if you were free this evening". Is that pink on his cheeks? Is he blushing? He looks so cute, she thought and shook her head. Don't fall for it Brittany! He's using the Michael card on you, she said in her head. "You wanna take me out?" she asked and he nodded. Cute, she gushed over him but herself quickly. Since when did she find Seth Williams cute?
"Too bad, I have a date" "With who?" he asked and the first name that came to her head was, "Jake!" "Your ex-boyfriend? Thought you said he was a terrible kisser" "He might be a terrible kisser but at least he doesn't call me a bitch and says hurtful words to me" "Brittany I..." "I don't even know why I expected so much from you. Of course you'll say hurtful things to me, you are the biggest jerk in the world, aren't you? You asked me if you were so disgusting that I wiped your kiss, well yeah! You disgust me Seth Michael Williams! Infact, here!" she yelled and wiped her hand and cleaned it on his navy blue sleeve. When he held her hand during the movie and all those times their hands had 'accidentally' bumped while they were at the lake. She wiped her shoulders and did the same thing. When he had put his arm around her shoulders.
"Everything about you disgust me! Don't ever show your face at that lake again!" she said and stormed off. King came into the room, "You okay?" he asked and Seth nodded, "I deserved that! I deserve a lot actually!" he said and left.
~~~~~~~
Brittany sat in her room again crying and licking ice cream. "He's not even my boyfriend, why am I crying over him?" she said and blew her nose with a tissue. "Because you don't totally hate him" the voice said and she groaned, "When I don't need you, you show up. Fudge out of my life!" "I can't! I am your conscience. I leave rent free in your head" the voice said and she rolled her eyes, "Well I hate you and I want you to fudge off!"
"Say whatever you want but you know you don't totally hate Seth" the voice continued. Deep down and even though she didn't want to admit it, Brittany knew she had grown from hating him completely to liking a teeny-itsbity part of him. That part was Michael. But he was gone so she hated him totally. At least that was what she believed and believing it made it seem like the truth.
She looked at the hand he had always held and sighed, "Maybe I should have not wiped it off. My hand feels so...empty" she admitted and looked outside her window.
"I can't do this! Work was way better than sulking and thinking about Seth Williams" she said and got up then she grabbed her car keys and applied eyeliner and lipgloss then she went down.
"Ah! I was just about to come and get you. Damian's here!" Lisa said. "Pussy!" her conscience growled "Shut up!" Brittany said and went to the living room. Damian got up and smiled. Gosh! She missed that smile, those big clothes, those suspenders, those glasses, she missed everything about him.
"Brittany" Damian said and she studied his face. The black eye was gone, his lip was not busted and the bruises and cuts were gone. Scott smiled and gave himself a mental pat on the back. After he had seen Brittany cry, he went to Damian's house and asked why he had stopped coming to visit. After much convincing from him and Lizzie, Damian's sister, Damian agreed to visit Brittany. "Lisa and I will be discussing about stuff, you kids have fun!" Scott said as he left with Lisa smiling smugly behind him.
There was an awkward silence between them then Brittany cleared her throat, "Wanna go for a stroll?" he nodded and they left.
The stroll was just in her yard. After seeing Damian, she did not want to go out anymore. "So... how's school?" she asked and he shrugged, "The usual". She sighed. Of course Damian would not tell her about the latest gossip or who is the recent queen. Only Maddie could tell her but...they have not hung out in a while. It was like they were only friends because of circumstances.
"I'm sorry" he said and she sat at the gazebo, "For what?" "For everything. For being so boring. For being a coward. For being afraid to come here. I'm such----" "Damian, you're not a coward" she said "I'm not?" "Well, anyone would be scared to come close to anyone after someone beat you up because of that person. I'm just a little hurt that you did not want to come here".
"It's not like that!" he said as he held her hand. She looked at her hand and he quickly let go of her hand, "I'm sorry!" All she could think of was that Damian's touch was nothing like Seth's touch and it made her angry. She felt nothing when he held her hand. Am I frickin' Prince Charming that knows his true love just by holding hands? she thought.
"Brittany?" Damian said and she looked at him guilty that she had not been listening. "What were you saying?" she asked with a smile and he shook his head, "I was just apologizing for being a jerk!" he said and she held his face, "You, Damian Sebastian Thompson, can never be a jerk!" she said and his face heated up. Her heart fluttered at the blush on his face. Shy boys were really the best.
"You're too cute for that!" she said and removed her palms from his face. "So...Uh...We good?" he asked nervously and she stood up, "We are good...only on two conditions!" "I'm down for whatever conditions, except ditching!" he said and she laughed, "Oh Damian, I'll never ask you to ditch again since you are head over heels for school" he smiled at that.
"Condition one..." she said and spread out her arms, "...hug me!" Damian's face turned tomato red. Sure they have had few physical contact, she had hugged him once but he had not hugged her back.
"Er..." he stuttered and she rolled her eyes, "No er's and um's Damian, hug me" she said and he walked slowly to her and was about to put his arms around her but she put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. Her breathing fanned where his pulse was and it sent shivers down his spine. He was really falling for her.
"This is the part you put your arms around my waist" she whispered in his ears and he gulped then he put his arms around her waist. They stayed like that for a while and then she pulled away. He wished the earth could just open up and swallow him because it was kinda embarrassing to look at her with a full blown red face.
"Condition two...take me out on a date!" she said and Damian's brain exploded. System override! System override! System override! his brain screamed at him. Brittany smiled unaware of the damage she had caused to him.