Chapter 45
"No!" was the strong cry that came from the other side of the door.
"That settles it. Get out, Brady," Belle commanded.
John came up and put a hand on his son’s shoulder. "Come on, son. Let’s
go back to your room and you can tell me what’s going on here."
Brady whirled, his frustration and tension out of control. He permitted his
father to lead him out into the hallway. Brady could see Marlena heading back
down the hallway towards her room. Then all of his attention was focused on
Shawn. Ice blue eyes flashed and bored holes into Shawn. "Why weren’t you
sleeping in here? Were you in Belle’s room?"
John’s eyes narrowed at Shawn as well. Brady was breathing heavily, itching to
do something to release his feelings. "Were you in Belle’s room? Answer
me!" Each word Brady said rose in intensity and anger.
Shawn said nothing. He couldn’t deny it, and he certainly didn’t want to
antagonize Brady in the state that he was in. Brady lunged towards Shawn,
wanting to rearrange his face. The cynic in him would have laughed at his double
standard if he’d been thinking rationally. John caught Brady from behind,
gripping firmly onto his upper arms.
"Enough!" John roared. Brady instantly relaxed, knowing better than to
push his father once he’d been provoked. John came around in front of Brady,
placing himself between the two boys. "Shawn, I think it would be a good
idea for you to go home. I’ll call your parents and let them know to expect
you. Would you be able to take a taxi?"
Shawn swallowed nervously and then nodded. "Fine. I’ll call the doorman
and ask him to get one for you," John said, crossing his arms. "And I
think it would be a good idea if you and Belle took a break for a little while.
I’m very disappointed in your actions tonight, Shawn. I thought we could trust
you."
John put an arm around Brady and led him back to Brady’s room. The burning
candles and soft music did not escape John’s attention. Neither did the shards
of glass and scattered roses that littered the bed. It didn’t take much to
figure out what had happened here. Brady sat on the foot of his bed, covering
his face with his hands.
"Son," John began, unsure of how to broach the subject with Brady.
"I need to know how far you let this go."
Brady’s head jerked up in surprise, unable to believe that his father would
probe about something so completely personal. "What?" he asked in
disbelief.
John came over peered down at his son. "You’re 18. Mimi’s underage. Her
parents could press charges if you…if the two of you…"
"Mimi’s 16," Brady replied, shocked at what his father was
insinuating. "She’s a year older than Belle, and only two years younger
than me. Her parents couldn’t possibly…"
"They could if you kept going when Mimi said no," John said gently.
"Dad!" Brady practically yelled, his fists balling up in anger.
"I did not rape Mimi!"
"No one’s saying you did," John tried to soothe him, holding his
hands in front of him palms out as if to placate Brady.
"Nothing happened, okay Dad? Nothing happened. Yes, I wanted something to
happen. I thought she did too. But I was wrong. Apparently I was wrong about a
lot of things tonight," Brady said in a self-mocking tone, putting his face
back in his hands.
John sat down on the bed next to his son and put his arm around his shoulders.
**************************************************
"Can you open the door, Mimi?" Belle asked quietly. She heard some
movement on the other side of the door, and the fan in the bathroom being turned
off. A soft click indicated that Mimi had unlocked the door. Belle let herself
into the bathroom and saw Mimi wrapped up in a large towel, sitting in the
bathtub.
Belle went to the side of the tub and crouched down on the floor next to it. She
studied Mimi for a few minutes, waiting for her to speak. Her impatience got the
best of her and she blurted out, "Do you want to tell me what happened
here?"
With red bleary eyes, Mimi looked at her best friend and matter-of-factly
announced, "I almost had sex with your brother."
"What?" Belle exclaimed; nothing could have surprised her more.
"How? What?"
"Three excellent questions," Mimi sighed, wrapping the towel around
her tighter as if she could somehow keep the world and Brady away from her with
it. "Meow – cat’s out of the bag."
Mimi looked over at Belle who was sitting on the floor with her mouth literally
hanging open. "You didn’t know anything about this at all, did you?"
Belle slowly shook her head no. "Well, that look on your face makes perfect
sense then. I really thought you guys would have suspected something by now.
Guess Brady and I are better at keeping secrets than I thought."
"Mimi, I don’t even know what to say to you right now," Belle
finally replied. Silence filled the room with only occasional drips of water
from the showerhead splattering on the porcelain beneath to break up the quiet.
Belle cleared her throat and said, "Can I get you anything?"
Mimi almost laughed, but winded up brushing more tears off of her face.
"Can you get me back the last half hour of my life to do over?"
Belle shook her head slowly. She was having conflicting emotions – most of her
was devastated by her best friend’s pain, but another part of her was furious
that Mimi and Brady had been having some kind of relationship and no one had
bothered to tell her anything about it. Two of the people she cared most about
in the world were carrying on under her nose and she hadn’t had a single clue.
She felt like she’d been played. Belle tried to shrug those emotions off and
focus on Mimi’s needs.
"Why do I feel like I’m in a bad episode of Felicity?" Mimi asked,
leaning her head to one side against the wall.
"I don’t know if it’s like Felicity. Maybe more like Dawson’s Creek.
Or Roswell," Belle smiled. At least Mimi was cracking jokes now. That had
to be a good sign.
"Roswell," Mimi scoffed. "Brady could definitely be an
alien."
"When we were little Brady used to tell me he was from outer space."
"Well, that would explain a lot, wouldn’t it?"
Both girls fell silent again, letting several more minutes pass by. Mimi shut
her eyes and then murmured, "It feels like the end of the world. But I
guess if you consider the big picture…"
"Not so huge, huh?" Belle replied gently, reaching over to brush some
of Mimi’s hair out of her face.
Mimi whirled on Belle, causing Belle to retract her hand. "Aren’t you
listening? I just said it feels like the end of the world. Like I’m wallowing
in a black hole of despair. Like my life will never be okay again. Like I want
to just go somewhere that there are no people so I can be totally alone to
suffer in my misery."
"Hate to tell you Meems, but…people? They’re kind of a planetary
epidemic."
Mimi’s face softened and Belle could see the corners of Mimi’s mouth start
to curve up, as if she wanted to smile but was resisting.
"Stop trying to make me feel better," Mimi ordered, pulling the towel
around her even tighter.
"It’s what I do, Meems. I can’t help it. I want everyone I care about
to be happy."
Marlena came up quietly behind the girls. They both turned to look at her and
Marlena had to stop herself from going over and gathering Mimi up in her arms.
She looked so sad – just so completely heartbroken. Marlena had gone to her
room to change her clothes so that she could drive Mimi home.
"Are you all right?" Marlena queried. "Can I get you anything?
Tea, maybe?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Mimi practically wailed.
"Tea is not going to make this better."
Marlena came over and sat on the edge of the tub. "I’m sorry, sweetie.
You’re obviously very upset, and I just wanted to help."
"No, I’m sorry Dr. Evans," Mimi replied, feeling thoroughly
chastened. She couldn’t quite meet Marlena’s direct gaze. "I shouldn’t
have snapped at you like that."
"I understand. It’s okay. I came in here to see if you wanted a ride
home. If you do I’ll let you…" Marlena stopped for a moment and then
cleared her throat, "I’ll let you get dressed and then I’ll call your
parents to let them know that I’m bringing you home."
Mimi nodded. She desperately wanted to be in her own room, in her own bed, and
far, far away from Brady Black. She never wanted to see him again. She wasn’t
sure she could deal with the utter and complete humiliation if she was forced to
see him. She didn’t know how she’d ever look at him again without hearing
his laughter in her head.
"I’ll be waiting for you downstairs." Marlena stood and left the
girls in the bathroom. Mimi and Belle also stood up and Belle put her hand on
Mimi’s elbow to help her out of the tub.
"Are you going to be okay?" Belle asked. She’d never seen Mimi like
this in all the time that she’d known her.
"I’ll be fine," Mimi said, more as if to reassure herself than Belle
as she stepped onto the soft bath mat. "It only hurts when I breathe."
**************************************************
"Hello?" Chloe murmured into the phone.
"Did I by chance catch you in bed?" a husky and charming voice asked.
"Philip?" she queried, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and picking up
her alarm clock. It was 10:30 in the morning.
"The one and only," Philip replied in a flippant tone. He couldn’t
believe how excited he was to talk to Chloe. He just saw her last night. Well,
he hadn’t just "seen" her. He had kissed her, too. Repeatedly. Just
the memory of those kisses was enough to plaster a huge grin on his face. He
could hardly wait to ask for an encore of last night’s performance.
Chloe sat up in her bed, trying to rouse herself. She didn’t want to sound
like a sleepy idiot on the phone with Philip. "What’s up?"
"The sky."
"Philip, how old are you again?" Chloe laughed, feeling more and more
awake with each passing second.
"Old enough to know better but young enough to do it anyway," Philip
quickly joked back. There was nothing better than getting to hear a laughing
Chloe first thing in the morning, and it was even better knowing that he was the
reason for her laughter.
"So…was there a purpose to this call besides waking me up from much
needed beauty sleep?"
"You don’t need beauty sleep," Philip told her, leaning back in his
chair. "You’re always beautiful."
"Ah, but you haven’t seen me sleep-deprived yet," she replied.
"I’d love to see you sleep-deprived," Philip said in that masculine
tone that somehow managed to send shivers down Chloe’s spine. Neither one
missed his obvious meaning. Chloe wasn’t sure how to respond and simply sat
there saying nothing.
"I actually did have a reason for calling you," Philip said, his voice
laden with the Kiriakis charm and confidence. "I was wondering if we could
get together today."
Chloe’s gaze fell onto her nightstand and the book that was lying there on top
of it. "You know, Philip…Nancy gave me this book. It’s called ‘The
Rules.’ I’m ashamed to admit that I did read it. And according to this I’m
not supposed to go out on a date with you on a Saturday unless you call me by
Wednesday to ask me. It apparently makes me seem desperate if I say yes."
"Darn it," he sighed playfully. "Can’t we break the rules? I
mean, if there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you’re not
desperate." Philip had to smile to himself at that because if there was
anyone that felt desperate in that moment, it was him. He wondered what Chloe
would say if she knew that.
Chloe held the book in her hand and tried breaking the book in half.
"Sorry, can’t break ‘The Rules.’ I have been able to bend it a
little."
Philip laughed at Chloe’s play on words. He was so intrigued by her
intelligence, her witty comebacks and somewhat distorted sense of humor.
"So if you bent the rules, does that mean you can see me today?"
Chloe took her covers off and stood up. "Hold on a second, Philip."
Philip heard the phone being put down, some movement and then a loud slam. Chloe
picked the phone up and said, "Okay, I’m back."
"What did you just do?"
"I threw ‘The Rules’ out the window. So, what time can I expect you
today?"
"Would 11:30 be too early?" Philip chuckled.
Not soon enough, Chloe thought. "11:30 it is."
"Great. And Chloe? There’s one more thing."
to be continued...
Home Page My Fics
Fan Fics by Others Fan Art
Guestbook
