Episode 160

[Home] [Episode Guide] [News] [Social Register] [Visitor Info] [Interact] [Links] [Credits]

Episode 160

Scene 1:

"You know if I didn't know any better I would think that you were avoiding me." Damien stated good-naturedly from behind Darcy. Darcy rolled her eyes not bothering to turn around and face him.

"Charming and brilliant," she remarked.

"You know you want me," he teased.

"Oh, I burn, I pine, I perish." She retorted with another roll of her eyes before disappearing through the crowd of teens and out onto the back patio. Many people lingered around the pool, some swimming, some even in their clothes swimming. Annoyed she moved further away from all of it. She knew Damien was still following her; relentless as ever. "What are you doing here anyway, Damien?" She asked after a moment.

He chuckled, "she addresses me. I just thought I would get to know a few people." He had to struggle a little to keep up with her fast pace.

"Why?"

"Well, after meeting the likes of you I was hoping I could find someone else as exciting and alluring from Conlan Glen High, but alas, no such luck. You are truly one of a kind," he laughed.

"You're so full of shit," Darcy remarked, she moved quickly. "Damien, leave me alone."

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

"Away from here and you!" Darcy snapped. She felt a roil in her stomach and, without more notice than that, she threw up.

Damien stopped in his tracks. He almost felt like laughing at the sheer abruptness of it, but he had a feeling Darcy would beat him to a bloody pulp if he laughed. And he had feeling she was deeply embarrassed by this. He wanted to hold back her hair or something, but he also had a feeling she would not allow that. Instead, he patiently waited for her to finish.

Darcy rose back to her full height and wiped the back of her mouth. How utterly embarrassing.
"Damien, could you please go?"

He had been gazing at the stars and he looked back down at her. She was tall for a female, but still significantly shorter than him. The words to 'Perfect Drug,' still echoed in his mind.

"Don't be embarrassed," he said simply.

"You have to be one of the strangest people I have ever met and my best friend is Catherine," Darcy groaned.

He gave her a crooked grin at that and looked utterly boyish with his mop of curly black hair. Darcy was almost charmed...almost, but not quite.

"Damien, I'm leaving okay, I'll probably see you later, seems I'm doomed to always bump into you," she remarked, turning on her heel.

"You'll be seeing a lot more of me than you probably want," he laughed. She stopped and turned back around.

"Are you going to make me ask, what do you mean?" Darcy asked after a brief silence.

He smiled, "I like to be humored. I transferred to CG High."

"Why in the world?!" Darcy demanded.

Damien laughed, he loved how she in no way assumed it was because of her, nothing like Catherine.
"C'mon Darcy, I was attending an all male school, you after all said yourself, I would probably hump anything with two breasts and a vagina."

"Oh, gawd, Damien, I almost forgot what a creep you are," Darcy groaned.

"And the chicks at the all girl prep school are so boring and well I've already gone through most of them." He smiled at the evil expression she gave him. It was delightful to ruffle her feathers. "Darcy," he called as she started to walk off.

She paused at the way he called her name. "Where were you born?" she asked abruptly, turning around once more.

He ruffled his hair with his hand, looking a little puzzled at her question.

"England."

She nodded, as if affirming something.

"Want to leave with me?" he asked. She shot him a look.

"There you go being presumptuous again, I didn't mean in that way," Damien said in response, "but you know if that's what you want, I won't protest..."

"Only in your sick fantasies, Damien," Darcy replied.

"So no to sex, but yes to a bite to eat at Connie's?" he asked.

"You're not going to stop are you?" Darcy asked, coming surprisingly close to him.

"Nope," he answered truthfully.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want me?"

"Well, whether you know it or not, you are absolutely beautiful, electrifying in fact-"

"Don't give me that, Damien."

"Give you what?" he asked, a little annoyance in his voice.

Darcy immediately noticed it. An unusual tone to hear from Damien. He always seemed to be so even-toned and suave. She started to walk off.

"Give you what?" he asked again, catching her by the arm.

Darcy looked at his hand around her arm and back at him. He refused to remove it. "This bullshit, there are plenty of pretty girls you could bed Damien, much easier than me, so why do you insist upon me?" she demanded, finally jerking her arm from his grasp, but only because he loosened his grip.

"Why that would be too easy," he replied simply and truthfully.

Darcy glared at him with sudden hateful contempt and quite possibly hurt. "You really are disgusting Damien!" she snapped viciously.

"What the hell?! I actually tell you the truth and you get pissed!" Damien hollered, surprising himself with his fierce reaction.

"Yes, you use other people, especially females as mere toys for you to play with! Its like people are to you as cars are to you, as something for you to have or worse own and its disgusting!" Darcy growled.

Damien stammered momentarily before exploding, "what the hell would you know?! You have met me twice and you make these assumptions! In fact you have been making assumptions about me from the start! Is that how you go through life, never really knowing anybody, because you assume you can figure them out like that!"

"Don't throw things back on me because you know what I just said was exactly the truth!" Darcy yelled back. It was a good thing they were far from the party because both were trying to out yell the other.

Damien again was at a loss for words, he ran both his hands through his thick hair. He had never met anyone before who frustrated him like this...he had never met anyone he couldn't manipulate or control or...have.

Darcy watched a flood of emotions pass over Damien's face. It was honestly intriguing to watch each emotion so clearly reflect in his handsome face and echo in his bright cerulean eyes. And quite suddenly a sort of realization hit him. He looked at her and his eyes flashed almost menacingly.

"You know our little interactions are so intense," he remarked, some of the steadiness returning to his voice. He pushed her hair out of her face, surprising her with his swift movements. He held her like that for a moment as though her were trying to memorize every curve and contour.

At first Darcy thought that he was going to do something ridiculously sentimental and dramatic like kiss her, but instead his large hands rested on the sides of her face. His hands were rougher than she expected for a spoiled rotten, well bred boy who belonged to the socially elite of Conlan's Glen. Her normal reaction would have been to give him a swift kick in the shin, but she didn't. Instead she merely watched him. And quite suddenly she felt fear like a deer caught in the headlights, no worse than that.

"You fear it, don't you?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "You couldn't take it if we merely had sex and never spoke again, yet you fear intimacy. You don't want anyone to know you can be vulnerable, sensitive, sensual, captivating. You make me think of Athena, the virgin goddess of war"

"What would you know about intimacy, Damien? I doubt any of your relationships have ever involved it," Darcy remarked, still fearful, but confident in her words. "Maybe you fear it just as much as I do."

"So you admit you fear it?" he asked.

"I never said that-"

"You all but directly said it-"

"You know you're enormously right-brained, it takes nothing for you to get off track-"

"Don't throw that back on me because you know what I said was exactly the truth," he retorted with a charming smile.

This time it was Darcy's turn to explode. She grabbed his wrists and jerked his hands away from her, but he quickly pulled her to him, locking his arms around her waist. Darcy felt herself begin to panic and she twisted and squirmed, yelling obscenities at Damien.

"Lemme go, you pigheaded, spoiled rotten asshole!"

"Darcy, chill, I'm not going to do a thing to you, harmful or sexual," Damien replied coolly. Gradually she stopped squirming. She remained stiff in his arms however and he smiled down at her.

"Have you ever had any sort of intimate physical contact with another guy?" he asked.

"That's none of your damn business!" Darcy snapped, struggling to free one of her arms, but he held her firmly against his chest, her arms pressed to him.

"I'll take that as a no," he laughed.

"Well, I certainly don't count this as intimate contact," she snapped.

"I find it rather enjoyable myself."

"That's because you are a control freak."

Damien shrugged and ran his hand along the bare expanse of her lower back revealed by her tank top. She froze quite suddenly just as she had earlier when they were dancing. The other hand he ran under her hair and across her shoulders. He felt her try and resist a shiver, a her skin prickled under his hands.

"You know goose bumps are some of the first signs of arousal...," Damien breathed in her ear.
Darcy felt her mind resist, but her body yield. She was surprised by how gentle his movements were, but still authoritative. It was overwhelming, she lost all sense of hostility or even fear for a brief moment, then he whispered in her ear. With a sudden fierceness, she snaked her arm around his neck, and pressed his neck to bring his head closer to her face. She locked her fingers in his thick hair and brushed her lips over his ear.

"You're a goddamn pig, Damien," she growled and with that she kneed him in the groin. He immediately released her and crumbled to the ground in a ball. He choked for air, gasping and moaning in pain. Darcy watched him struggle briefly, before turning and leaving him to his own personal devices.

Scene 2

Chris snagged another beer out of a cooler as he went back inside. Macy was somewhere ahead of him and would probably frown on his drinking but just now, he didn't care. He was far too wrapped up in his own issues to worry about what Macy McCormick would think of him having a beer at a kegger. He stopped at the staircase and stared at a painting on the wall. It was a seascape in blues and greens that was supposed to be calming. To Chris, it just agitated him that much more. It made him think of Florida and Jess and Michaela.

"Where did you disappear to?" Jason asked appearing from the kitchen. "I've been looking for you everywhere."

"I was outside," Chris answered, omitting who he had been outside with. Jason would only look at him funny as if to say, 'why her?' And honestly, Chris wasn't sure why her either.

"Well, Dylan's been talking shit about you since you shut Hannah up. He's got quite an audience in there."

"Really?" Chris' mouth thinned into an angry line. If Dylan was talking shit, Chris wasn't beyond shutting him up. He pushed past Jason into the kitchen and caught the end of Dylan's speech.

"You know that if Ericson goes down and Mason has to play QB, the whole season is shot. I hope Jamie Mason paid the paper a lot of money to make sure they didn't write that his son blew the season," Dylan said, eliciting a roar of laugher from his friends. He took a swig of his beer and smiled at everyone's response. He knew that he was right. Mason didn't deserve to be on that team. He'd just end up embarrassing everyone. And making Dylan look even worse for not being on the team.

"You forgot something," Chris called from behind a couple of girls. "The Masons own the newspaper." The two girls split at his comment, letting him pass between them. One girl practically spit her beer out at the sight of him. Apparently, Dylan's friends didn't think Chris would have the guts for a face to face encounter. He saw Emily in the corner with her friends looking worried as she watched him step forward.

Dylan snickered. "Oh, that's right. How could I forget? The Masons own everything. That's the only reason no one has the guts to criticize you other than me. I guess I should be worried that daddy's going to have the school board call my parents so I stop bullying you, right? Give me a break, Chris. You wouldn't last a second in the real world. You're pathetic if you think you'd have a shot without all the help that's handed to you."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Dylan. My dad is too wrapped up in his own life to give a damn about mine. Besides, did it ever occur to you that I made the team on my own? Which I did. Ask Coach Foster. Better yet..." He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. "I could call my dad for you and you could ask him yourself. Or would you rather talk to his accountant? You know, the guy who watches where my dad's money goes?"

Dylan snickered yet again. "So your dad doesn't even care about you? Poor little Chris. Maybe you should have another beer. I hear it hurts when people don't like you." He looked over at his friends and took joy in the smiles on their faces. "We all know that you didn't make the team on merit alone, because we all know that I'm a better player than you are. Ask anyone in this room. No one will deny it. But while I'm rotting in JV, you're riding the pine up at varsity, because Coach Foster's scared of your dad. Ya know what, Mason? I'm sick of people who deserve things getting pushed out of the way for people like you who don't deserve them," Dylan spat out, his words laced with contempt.

"What makes you think you deserve anything more than I do?" Chris shoved his phone back in his pocket. He wasn't relishing this like Dylan seemed to. Probably, he realized, because he thought Dylan was right. And that alone made his temper flare again. "You think you deserve what I have? You're welcome to it, Dylan. I never asked to be on Varsity. But you know what? I'm there. Maybe my dad did get me on it, who cares? All I know is that I am a Mason. I own this town and someday, I'll own you to."

Dylan enjoyed watching Chris squirm. He enjoyed listening to his friends heckle Mason from within the crowd. He enjoyed finally speaking his mind. What he didn't like was Chris's last comment. Dylan felt the anger rise within him and his face turned red. "You think you'll own me, you little cocky bastard? How about I own you right now?" he yelled, clenching his hand into a fist and winding up to connect with Chris's jaw.

The blow surprised him enough to make him stumble backwards into the two girls. Somewhere he heard a kid yell "fight!" as he was pushed back towards Dylan by the crowd. The punch didn't hurt too badly but it would in a while when his adrenaline wore off. He heard Jason swear loudly behind him, unable to reach the fight to stop it. Jason, as he had so often told anyone who would listen, was a lover not a fighter. Chris threw a rash of punches landing a few, mostly in the side as they grappled with one another. He saw Emily and then Macy, able to tell them apart at a glance when no one else seemed able to, push forward to watch the fight. Emily's eyes showed concern but Macy's were shadowed, almost angry. She distracted him for a moment and he went down to the floor.

"Look at that," Dylan panted. "No one's here to help you now," he yelled through gritted teeth. Who ever said it was bad to kick someone when he was down? Dylan followed Chris to the floor and continued to punch and swing his arms at him until he felt arms around his back, trying to pull him off. "Let go of me. I'm going to finish what I started!" He continued to swing and made contact, but a look of surprise crossed his face and he fell still. That wasn't Chris who he hit with his last punch.

Chris stared over Dylan's shoulder at Emily who now cringed away her face buried in her hands. He could hear Jason yell out to her and practically leap to her side.

Jason poked a finger into Dylan's chest angrily. "What's the matter with you? Starting fights because it's your party? Get a life, Dylan." Chris got to his feet, bruised but not beaten. Dylan was the one who looked beaten. "Are you all right Emily?" Jason asked.

Chris ignored the interplay between Jason and Emily for the moment and stared back at Dylan. "Feel like a winner now?"

"Get out of my face, jerk," Dylan answered out of breath before turning to Emily. "I am so sorry. Are you okay? I never meant to hit you," he explained, showing care that he never would have shown to anyone named Mason.

Macy had her arms wrapped protectively around her sister looking angrily at asshole Dylan and idiot of the moment Chris. Emily groaned and rubbed her face which felt taut and swollen. Everyone crowded around her. She wasn't even sure how she got into the middle of it all. People were pushing and shoving all in an effort to see and then bam. She looked to Macy and then to Jason, then to Dylan.

"Why don't we go home, Em?" Macy suggested, sensing her twin's embarrassment. Queen of popularity or not, Emily hated when all attention was on her, especially in a situation such as this one. "And why not everyone give us a little SPACE!"

The crowd backed off at Macy's bark as if she were the Wicked Witch of the West. Macy and Jason helped Emily back to her feet.

"I'm okay, Jason," Emily assured her friend who looked very upset. She heard some more commotion as Jareth, Darcy, and Catherine came barrelling through the crowd.

"Don't look now its the three stooges," Macy commented, making Emily smile a little.

Tabitha Guthrie, Dylan's sister, came up behind them, looking highly annoyed. Dylan was still hovering by Emily and Jareth gave him a shove backwards. "Get out of her face, man," he snapped.

"Way to play hostess, Tabby," Catherine laughed.

As though they were an Irish mob family, everyone backed away from the McCormicks. Jareth led the way towards the door, with Macy and Em in the middle, and Darcy and Catherine behind.

"This is so embarrassing," Emily whispered to her twin.

"Its okay, Em, but what are we gonna tell Mom?" Macy asked.

Scene 3

He tore through the crowd of drunken, sexually charged teenagers, knocking a few people out of his path. He heard some obscenities shouted at them, but disregarded them. Catherine watched Damien's lanky figure, all 6'4 of him. He was truly a perfect male specimen, of course, that certainly could not be said for his personality. She could practically feel the anger radiating off him. His shoulders were hunched, his forehead drawn and creased, his beautiful blue eyes dark. She smirked, she had watched the whole scene enfold. The ending result had been absolutely delightful.

"Where are you going?" she asked sweetly when they were alone in the foyer and Damien was charging towards the door.

He stopped short of turning the knob. A groan rose from his throat, "Catherine as much as I enjoy these moments, now really isn't the time."

She laughed and moved forward. "What? Couldn't charm your way into some girl's pants? Sexually frustrated now?" she asked. Damien gave her a dark look. "Darcy is the virgin goddess Damien. Like I told you she'll never touch you in that way," Catherine sneered. "It kills you too, doesn't it? A girl you can't have. You don't just want her now sexually, do you? You want all of her. You want to have her...but you never will. No one will ever have Darcy."

Damien grabbed Catherine and shoved her up against the wall. She released a little yelp of pain, but kept her gaze on him steadfast. "I'm just as pigheaded as you Catherine....if not more so and I always get what I want," he growled, looking down at her. How small she was compared to him. She looked as fragile as china compared to the sturdiness and strength of Darcy. He pushed her against the wall to where his body pinned her body and held it in place. "In fact, I could have you easily...," he began, running his hand up her thigh. He licked his lips and smiled. "You'd certainly put up a good fight, but in the end you would yield yourself to me like you've done so many times before." She gasped when she felt him slid a finger under her panties.

"But that's all over, isn't it?" he asked. Damien stopped and released Catherine from the wall. Her breathing was ragged and angry. "Beautiful Cat," he cooed, "we're we only good in one area and that was in the bed...and well the many other places, but you catch my gist." He smiled his trademark charmingly boyish grin, before exiting and leaving Catherine still recovering.

Scene 4

The lingering crowd of Dylan supporters dispersed after a moment, taking a lot of the tension with them. Chris and Dylan still stood nose to nose and ready to do battle but a firm grip on Chris' shoulder from Jason ended any thoughts of continuing the fight.

"You two have done enough damage tonight," Jason hissed at them, barely able to hide his anger. "Come on Chris, let's go." He pushed Chris towards the back door and out into the yard. Chris rubbed at his cheek where Dylan had punched him. It would bruise and turn lots of pretty colors, Jason noted not feeling any sympathy for Chris at all. "What the hell are you thinking?" He demanded when they were safely outside and away from Dylan's house.

Chris frowned and offered only the smallest of shrugs. "He started it."

"Oh that's a wonderful excuse. He started it. What are you? Five years old? Emily is likely going to end up with a bruise twice the size of yours and all you can say is 'he started it'? That's nice," Jason fired back.

"What is your problem? Dylan has been hounding me all week and I couldn't take it any more all right? I'm sorry Emily got hurt. I'm not that big of a jerk."

Jason fell silent as they walked back towards their homes. Kyle had been having too much fun to leave and without a car, this was their only mode of transportation. Jason's sixteenth birthday was coming soon and he intended to celebrate in style by getting the car he'd been saving for since he moved the States. He didn't care what his sister thought about it. In fact, as far as he was concerned, Rebecca was just too stiff for her own good. He tried not to be but he knew that some of the kids in school saw him as a bit of a bore.

When he had moved to Conlan's Glen, no one spoke to him for two weeks. It was as if he were some sort of virus they had to stay away from at all costs. And then Chris came to school. He had apparently been away on some sort of vacation during Jason's first days. Without ever really knowing why, Chris had decided Jason was all right and had invited him to sit with his crowd at lunch. That was the beginning of his new life. Befriending Chris Mason had opened all the doors that had previously slammed in his face. Some of them, like Hannah Bruce and Macy McCormick, undoubtedly would never change their minds about him but he didn't care.

If he were honest with himself, there were only two people he truly cared what they thought of him and that was Chris Mason and Emily McCormick. Chris was his best friend in the world and Emily was... Well, she was something to Chris. Jason just wasn't sure what that was. Which drove him insane. Jason saw the way she watched Chris with adoring eyes and wished that she would for once look at him that way. For his part, Chris was attentive to a point with Emily, taking care to never refer to her as his girlfriend to anyone not even Jason. But lately, he was distracted and barely spoke to her. Even going so far as to spend most of tonight's party with Macy. Everyone had noticed that. It would be the hottest topic after the fight in school. He just hoped Emily wouldn't pay attention.

"Look, I know Dylan can be a jerk," Jason said after a moment. "But man, it was his house and his party."

"And his big mouth that started it," Chris pointed out. "I'm sorry I embarrassed you, okay?"

"I'm not embarrassed, man. I'm just... I don't know. I just don't understand why Dylan's lies bother you so much."

"Maybe because they might be true," Chris answered matter of factly. "It just bugs me, Jase. I even asked Coach Foster about it." Jason's eyes widened in surprise. "Yeah I know. I had to know."

"What did he say?"

"Something about it being untrue that I was on the varsity to get experience for when Ericson does finally graduate." He shook his head, still not buying it.

"Why don't you just ask your dad?"

Chris snorted in derision. "Right. I'll get on that. Of course, I might have to wait until he's finished raking Mom over the coals."

Jason didn't reply to that. He knew Chris' parents' divorce was bothering him. "Emily's going to have a huge bruise tomorrow. You too. What will you tell your dad?"

Chris shrugged. "Nothing. He probably won't even notice. He's got his own life to worry about." Jason didn't have to argue with that. Anyone with two eyes could see that Jamie Mason cared a lot more about his own life than his son. At least Rebecca was concerned with him, Jason thought. They only had each other after all.

Scene 5

"What are you doing?"

Catherine rolled her eyes at the voice. Why couldn't her boyfriend leave her alone for at least a little bit? "I drank a little too much, so I thought I might come out here and barf," Catherine snapped.

"Why are you in such a bad mood? These things are normally your environment," Jareth remarked, fishing something out of his back pocket.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Catherine demanded, sneering at the sight of the pack of Marlboro Reds.

"You know exactly what it means," Jareth replied calmly, lighting up a cigarette.

Catherine rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Jareth why do you have to do that?" she demanded.

"What Marlboro Reds too low class for you?" he asked.

"As usual, you get mad at me and instead of responding in a mature fashion, you make some comment implying that I'm a snob!" Catherine snapped.

"You really have no room to talk about responding in a mature fashion, besides I'm only mad because you've been in a pissy mood since you set your sights on that tall guy," Jareth snapped.

"What tall guy?" Catherine demanded.

"That one with the curly black hair, I dunno his damn name-"

"Damien? What the hell Jareth? You are so insecure!" Catherine snapped, she snatched the pack of cigarettes out of his hand, pulled out of the cigarettes, and broke them all in two. Then, she stormed off, high heels sinking slightly in the dirt of the yard. Jareth dropped his cigarette into the ground and ground it out. She had certainly been less volatile when they were merely flirting. Jareth looked up and was surprised by what he saw. Far in the distance was Darcy locked in an embrace with that Damien guy. When he had approached, Catherine had been peering around the corner of the house in that direction. Had she been spying on Darcy?

Scene 6

"Okay, 1-2-3-"

"What is this a cheerleading competition?" Macy squelched a yelp as she landed on her head with a thud on the living room floor. Her feet made contact with something and she heard the glass on the tiffany floor lamp clatter noisily.

"You all right?" Em's voice floated up from somewhere outside. Macy felt a little disoriented from her fall. "Mace?"

"Other than a broken neck, I'm fine," Macy replied with a groan, but not so loud as to be heard. "It's nearly 4 am," she remarked, before lifting herself to her feet and helping Emily inside. She didn't really need the help though; years of cheerleading had made Emily as agile and coordinated as a cat. They both waited in silence, listening for any sign that someone in the house had woken up to their brief commotion. After a couple minutes they were satisfied and got up. Once in their haven of their room and safely in their beds with no signs of having snuck out anywhere, Emily could not resist from remarking on the night's events.

"Tonight was...certainly...," she began.

"Dramatic," Macy finished affirmatively.

"Yeah," Em remarked.

"How's your face?" Macy asked.

"Fine, Dylan barely got me," Em replied.

"Jason certainly freaked out...."

Emily nodded, "yeah, he's real protective of his friends."

"He's a good guy."

In the darkness, Emily's eyes widened and she could see the expression on Macy's face in her mind. Not wanting to say it, but resolute in her opinion. "I'm glad you like him," she replied warmly.

"Are you sure your face is okay? What will Mom say?"

"I told you, Mace, he barely got me, it was just like his knuckles, I don't think a bruise is going to pop up, besides Jareth or Darce could figure out some sort of BS to tell Mom," Em laughed.

"Our first party of the high school year," Macy laughed, "it was certainly eventful."

"I'm glad you went. They aren't so bad. Its kind of like...outside of the school walls....the various cliques blend better sometimes....well, a lot of the time because they're drunk...but not all the time. I talk to people I have never talked to before."

Emily talked to anybody though, she was trusting and never snobbish. Chris and Jason were the same way. As for their other friends...but then Sadie hated the preps, the jocks, the popular ones. She never spoke to them and she turned her nose up at them as they did her. She thought because she rejected them in the way they rejected her she was better....therefore she was just like them. Macy had never viewed it like that until Chris had called her into question. She did not like Sadie any less for this. After all, Macy herself could be quite like that.

"I saw you and Chris talking at the party."

Macy's eyes fluttered back open as she felt herself riveted from her consuming thoughts. Emily's tone was openly curious, but a little lacking in assurance.

"Yeah, he was asking about you," Macy lied. She didn't have the heart to say 'Chris doesn't like you like that,' and she didn't have the heart to say, 'oh, and I like him like that.'

"Oh," was Emily's short reply, but there was a small smile in her tone. "What did he ask?"

"I'm not telling you," Macy replied rolling over, pretending to sleep.