"like sands through the hourglass... so are the...Days of our Lives"

Christyne's "The Teens"  
Fan Fiction Site

Belle lifted her head. Shawn was obviously yelling at her. His voice sounded awfully muted due to the sheer volume of conversation that was happening throughout the whole hallway. It sounded as if he had called her name. She was so tired of arguing with him. She didn’t want to hear any more of it. She started to walk away.

Shawn’s heart started pounding against his rib cage, and his feet felt glued to the floor. "BELLE! I LOVE YOU!" he shouted. Several people close to him turned to stare at him.

Whatever Shawn was trying to say must have been important, because he kept trying to get her attention. Belle stopped and cupped one hand to her ear to indicate that she couldn’t hear him. He gestured for her to come closer. She held her ground and crossed her arms, angry. If he wanted to talk to her, he could come over to where she was. A myriad of people crossed back and forth in between them like busy ants, making it difficult for them to even see one another. Beads of perspiration began to fall down Shawn’s forehead. He was absolutely stuck in that one spot. His mind was demanding to know just what he thought he was doing. His heart refused to listen. Shawn yelled again, "BELLE! I LOVE YOU!"

Belle shook her head and yelled back, "What are you saying?"

Shawn closed his eyes. This time he was going to have to really yell. As Shawn sucked in his breath to attempt for a third, and hopefully charmed time to tell Belle how much he loved her, Principal Cohen’s voice came over the loudspeaker system. "Students, can I have your attention please?"

Everyone in the hallway had stopped talking just in time to hear Shawn Brady yell at the top of his lungs, "ISABELLA BLACK! I LOVE YOU!"

Principal Cohen continued on with his announcement, but everyone in the hallway was staring at and listening to Shawn and Belle. Mr. Unattached, Mr. I’ll-Never-Have-A-Relationship Shawn Brady was standing in the hall yelling at Belle Black that he was in love with her.

The tears immediately sprang from Belle’s eyes. "What did you say?" she whispered, unable to dare hope that this was Shawn. That her "tough guy" would do this – proclaim his love for her in front of practically the entire school was unbelievable. She could never have conceived of Shawn doing this. He had just made the biggest fool of himself…for her.

"I said I love you, Belle. I have loved you for as long as I can remember." Shawn suddenly found his feet could move, and began walking towards her. She hadn’t started running amok. That was a good sign. It gave him strength. "I am saying that I am completely, desperately, hopelessly and helplessly in love with you, Belle."

He continued to shorten the distance between them, as Belle shook her head. "No, you aren’t."

Shawn smiled warmly, the love in his eyes evident. Belle felt like she could scarcely look at him, but knew that she couldn’t have dragged her gaze from his even if the building had been on fire. "Yes, I do. I love your kind heart. How you always put others before yourself. I love the way you raise one eyebrow and cross your arms when you’re angry. I love the way that you bite your lip when you’re scared, like you’re doing right now."

Belle immediately let go of her bottom lip. This was like a dream, a fantasy. It couldn’t be real.

Shawn took both of her hands in his, and her books fell with a clatter to the floor. "I love your laughter. I love your happy spirit and optimism. I love your sweetness. I even love your compulsive need to shop." Belle half-laughed, half-cried at that statement. "But mostly Belle, I just love you."

Shawn kissed both of her hands, averting his gaze down to the floor. "Do you think you could ever love me?" His voice bordered on desperation. He wasn’t sure he could handle rejection right then.

"Oh Shawn," Belle cried. "I’ve loved you my entire life."

His eyes flew back to hers. That was about the last thing Shawn expected Belle to say. His heart somehow started to beat even faster than it had before. "You love me?" he asked disbelievingly.

Belle nodded yes, the tears making it almost impossible for her to speak. Shawn immediately grabbed her and crushed her against him, holding her as tightly as he dared. How could they have wasted so much time apart? He decided that he would never let her get further than three feet from him the rest of their lives.

"Shawn?" Belle said. "I can’t breathe."

Shawn relinquished his hold, both of them laughing. She looked at up him. All of her eye make-up had been cried off and was now streaking down her face. Her nose was red and running from crying. He didn’t think she had ever looked more beautiful.

"What the hell took you so long?" she demanded to know.

Shawn shook his head in disapproval. "Such language from my perfect girl," he murmured. He gently wiped the tears off her face. More than anything, he wanted to seal this moment with another one of her soul-searing kisses.

"I’m going to kiss you now," he informed her with an endearing smile.

"You’d better," she replied, and his mouth moved against hers in what Belle decided was the sweetest, most loving kiss imaginable. They were completely oblivious to the explosive cheers and applause that went up from the extremely large crowd that encircled them, totally lost in their embrace.

**************************************************

Chloe sat in her bedroom, trying to ignore the butterflies that were swirling around in her stomach. Philip coming over is NOT a big deal, she told her stomach. She’d practically run home though to change, run a comb through her hair, and touch up her make-up. Just so that she’d have more confidence, she kept assuring herself. Definitely not because she was trying to impress Philip.

Chloe heard the knock at the door, and her heart started doing jumping jacks in her chest. That had to be him! She leapt up off the bed but to her dismay, heard her mother answering the door.

Never in his entire life had Philip been so eager to do homework. He rapped loudly on Chloe’s front door. The door swung open and Philip had hoped to see Chloe standing there, and was very let down that it was Mrs. Wesley instead. Uncomfortable memories of her coming to his house to ream his father out started running through his head. He stuck his hands in his front pockets and tried to smile. "Hello, Mrs. Wesley."

"Can I help you?" Nancy asked, as if she didn’t know him. "Oh wait, Philip Kiriakis. I hardly recognized you without there being a headless chicken on my doorstep," she said sarcastically.

Philip was at a loss. Fortunately Chloe came to his rescue.

"It’s okay, Nancy. Philip is my husband now. You can let him in," Chloe stated.

"Your what?!" Nancy gasped, and backed away from the door to look at Chloe, holding a hand to her heart. Philip took that opportunity to get inside the house, and then closed the door behind him.

"Husband. Don’t worry. It’s only for a project at school. We’re ‘married’ for our Lifeskills class," Chloe replied, as she began descending the staircase. She stopped at the bottom step and smiled at Philip. "Hi," she smiled shyly.

"Hey," he responded with a dimpled grin.

"Looks like we should probably go up to my room so that we won’t have somebody hovering over us the whole time," Chloe told him.

"Hey, where’s our baby? You aren’t supposed to leave him alone." Philip scolded.

"Baby?!" Nancy said, still grasping onto her chest as if she might fall over and die from a heart attack. She thought she could actually feel her blood pressure rising.

"Upstairs. Come on. I’m sure she’d love to say hi to her daddy," Chloe said slyly, knowing just how much this was bothering Nancy and loving every second of it.

Philip willingly obliged and followed Chloe back upstairs. Nancy turned and yelled, "Craig!"

As Chloe started to enter her room, Philip placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Wait a second, this isn’t right."

Chloe gave him a quizzical look, but before she could say anything Philip had placed his arm under her legs and swept her up in his arms. "Have to carry the bride across the threshold," he smiled, giving her one of his infamous wicked grins.

"Philip, put me down right now!" Chloe exclaimed as Philip carried her into her room.

"Come on, Chloe. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve carried you," he reminded her, much to her chagrin.

"Philip!"

"Okay, okay," he laughed. He gradually lowered the arm that he’d tucked under her knees, letting her slide down the front of his body. When her feet finally touched the floor, he let his arm slide down her back until it rested on her waist, and he held her against him. Her arms were still wrapped around his neck. Chloe knew she should move, but was wildly enjoying being so close to him. Their breath intermingled as they stood staring at each other, their bodies flush against each other. Philip hoped desperately that Chloe couldn’t feel his heart pounding in his chest. Every time he touched her…it was like magic. He’d never felt anything like it before, and wanted to feel it over and over again.

Chloe finally took a shaky step back. She had to remember not to do that again. She couldn’t think when Philip got that close to her. "Don’t you think we should get started on the project?" She walked over to her backpack and pulled out the packet Mrs. Morris had given her.

"Sure thing, Mrs. Kiriakis," Philip’s eyes fairly sparkled.

Chloe stopped what she was doing to glare at Philip. "Don’t call me that. Even if I was stupid enough to get married to you, I would never change my last name."

Philip shrugged his backpack off and threw it onto Chloe’s bed. "Don’t worry Chloe. I’m sure they won’t take away your membership card to the ‘Feminist Women of America’ if you take your husband’s last name."

Chloe rolled her eyes. He was exasperating. "I’m not taking anyone’s last name."

"Okay," Philip said. "Fine by me."

Chloe sat down on the floor with the backpack and project packet in front of her. She started pulling her other books out, unconsciously creating a small defensive wall around herself. Philip took a seat next to her, on the other side of the schoolbooks. "So…what’s first?" he asked.

Chloe held the paper out in front of her. "Well, according to this, you are an artist that manages to bring in about $9,000 a year," she continued reading, "And I am the vice-president in charge of marketing at an international corporation, and bring home $75,000."

"So I’m a kept man?" Philip laughed. "I could definitely get used to that." He leaned against Chloe’s bed and placed his hands on his stomach, resting comfortably.

"More like a gigolo" Chloe scoffed. "Obviously you’re using me for my money."

"Well, if you didn’t marry me for my money…" Philip’s voice trailed off suggestively as he winked at her, "You must have married me for the sex."

Chloe gasped and stared at him in shock. "You know, for all we know our marriage could be in trouble. We may not even be having sex. I hear lots of married couples don’t do it."

Philip shifted his position by placing one hand on the floor so that he was leaning in towards Chloe. He flashed her an impish grin. "You know as well as I do that we’re not one of those couples."

Flustered, Chloe looked away from him, and gave her full attention back to the page in front of her, even though the words were blurring together. She didn’t say anything.

"Besides, the honeymoon was obviously a rousing success. We have the baby, don’t we?" Chloe continued to stare at her page. The thought of her and Philip on a honeymoon…don’t even go there! she told her wandering mind.

"Don’t tell me I’ve actually rendered you speechless. I didn’t think that was possible," Philip joked.

Chloe’s voice cracked, she cleared her throat and then proceeded, "Could you please take this seriously?"

"How am I supposed to take it seriously when you’re sitting there looking so beautiful?" Philip gently teased. Chloe closed her eyes, as if to shut Philip’s words out of her mind. What was he doing to her?

"We’re supposed to draw up a budget based on our salaries," she finally said.

"That should be pretty easy," Philip shrugged. "We could plan it out on a spreadsheet in Excel." He looked around. "Don’t you have a computer?"

Chloe shook her head no. "That’s okay. We’ll go to my house and do it in my room." Philip smiled at his overt suggestion. "I have a computer there."

"Fine. Have it your way," Chloe said.

"Oh, I intend to, Chloe. I intend to," Philip responded, furrowing one dimple and raising a single eyebrow. Chloe knew that Philip was talking about more than just the project, but she chose to not acknowledge it and glared at him.

Philip started picking up Chloe’s books and putting them on the bed. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I recognize that look," Philip said. "Just trying to remove all the blunt instruments so that you don’t try to knock any sense into me." Chloe immediately remembered the conversation while they’d buried the bird…how she told him she’d hit him over the head if she thought it would knock some sense into him. Chloe started to laugh.

Philip stopped what he was doing and looked at her appreciatively. Her laughter had a rich, musical quality to it that warmed him from the inside out. He wanted to hear it again. He reached up onto the bed and picked up their baby doll.

"Hey little guy," he said.

"What makes you so sure it’s a boy?" Chloe asked. Philip raised one eyebrow. "If you have to ask me that question, you and your mother need to have a talk."

Chloe blushed. "No, the baby is gender-neutral. I checked. I assumed it was a girl."

"Typical," Philip responded, loving the way his teasing made her get all flushed. Philip made googly eyes at his pretend baby and chucked it under the chin. "Kootchie-koo," he smiled.

"What are you doing?" Chloe asked as if she thought Philip was insane.

"I’m tickling our baby," he said matter-of-factly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for him to be tickling a doll.

"You are aware that it’s an inanimate object?" Chloe tried to ascertain.

"Well, I think some kids at school might say the same thing about you, but I bet you laugh when you’re tickled," Philip said, with a gleam in his eye. He put the baby on the floor and started to crawl over to Chloe. Chloe figured out too late what he was up to.

to be continued....