Chapter 8
Mimi sat playing solitaire on the computer at DotCom. It was such a sad
indication of what her life was becoming, she sighed. Ever since Ghoul Girl had
come to town, it seemed like she and Belle never spent any time together. Mimi
was wallowing her sorrows in a chocolate milkshake.
Brady pulled the door open to DotCom. He had been playing a game of touch
football that had lasted for about an hour longer than he thought it would.
Belle had called him on his cell and asked if he would stop by DotCom to see if
her purse was there. She thought she had left it there while on yet another
shopping venture that afternoon. Brady went over to the counter and asked the
cashier if a purse had been turned in earlier that day to the lost and found.
The cashier asked, "Do you know what it looks like?"
Brady shrugged. "I’m pretty sure it looks like a purse. And there will
probably be girly stuff inside."
The cashier gave Brady a withering look and headed to the back. Brady turned
around and leaned against the counter. He surveyed the cafe and spotted a woman
sitting in a booth by herself. Hello, he thought. What do we have here? The girl
had her head leaning to one side. She ran her fingers up her neck lightly and
pushed her shiny chestnut brown hair back behind her shoulder. She looked
vaguely familiar to Brady, although he couldn’t quite place where he knew her
from.
Brady walked over to the table. "Have I seen you somewhere before?" he
asked.
Without even looking up at him, Mimi replied, "Yeah, that’s why I don’t
go there any more."
Brady stood there, stunned for a moment. Talk about being shot down¸ he
thought. He rocked back on his heels to make his retreat. Mimi looked up and saw
white blonde hair and the same twinkling blue eyes as Belle’s…
"Brady?" she asked.
Brady stopped and looked at Mimi. So he did know her. But what was her name?
"You know me?" he sat down in the booth across from Mimi. "What,
did I make your dreams come true one night?" he smirked.
"Hardly. No, unfortunately I just never forget a face. Although in your
case I’d be willing to make an exception," Mimi retorted.
Brady’s curiosity was stirred, as well as his intellect. This girl was fiery,
spunky. He liked it.
He looked for a way to try and have a civil conversation with her. His dad was
always saying to go with the compliment. Her perfume had hit him as soon as he
sat down – definite added bonus. "Is that Obsession I smell?" he
asked
"It is, and yes, you do smell," Mimi grimaced, playing on his choice
of words. She was tempted to plug her nose. Brady had apparently been playing
hard at something. His hair was matted to his head with sweat. "What, do
you shower once a month?"
Brady smiled at her. "That an invitation?"
Mimi opened her mouth in shock.
"Oh, come on," Brady teased as he drummed his fingers on the table.
"I can tell you want me."
"I want you to go away. Does that count?" Mimi stared back at Brady,
who didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Fine, she thought as she rolled her
eyes. I’ll leave.
"What, you’re leaving? Don’t tell me I scared you off." Brady
smiled a crooked half-smile as Mimi started gathering her things together.
Mimi glared at him, placed her hand on the table and leaned over towards him.
"Let me give you a little friendly advice, Brady. Grasp your ears firmly
and pull – you might just be able to remove your head from your ass."
Brady started to laugh as an irritated Mimi shuffled out of the booth and headed
for the door. "Wait," he called after her. "Aren’t you going to
give me your number?"
She turned and glared at him. "It’s in the phone book."
"Are you at least going to tell me your name?"
"That’s in the phone book too," Mimi retorted and walked out of
DotCom.
Brady sat chuckling to himself. It had been a long time since he’d met someone
like that. Who was she, and why did she seem so familiar to him? Maybe he’d
have to start visiting DotCom a little more frequently.
Outside Mimi placed her hand on her stomach, as if to calm it by her touch.
Brady Black. She’d had an enormous crush on him since kindergarten. He had
never even so much as glanced at his kid sister’s best friend. Until three
minutes ago, anyway. As Mimi headed home, she realized how little she had
actually talked to Belle lately. She didn’t even know Brady was home for the
summer from his freshman year in college. He hadn’t been home for a couple of
years; he had elected to stay at boarding school year round to practice football
during the summers. It didn’t surprise her that he didn’t recognize her.
Gone were the braces and the glasses; she’d grown out of the baby fat. Had
Brady actually been interested in her? Or was he just trying to torture her? And
when had he become such an insufferable jerk? Mimi began to ponder as she
continued down the street.
******
Dr. Evans smiled as Chloe rattled off everything that had happened to her that
week. She’s sounding so much like a normal teenager, she thought.
Chloe finished up and looked at Marlena. "Well?"
"It is obvious to me that you’ve made some great strides emotionally and
physically. You’ve really opened up to some people this week. I think that is
wonderful." Marlena patted Chloe on the knee.
Chloe smiled shyly and looked down. "That’s not all."
"Really? What else has happened?" Dr. Evans asked.
"I’m going to the dance tonight. With a date."
"You don’t say?" Marlena smiled. "Anyone I know?"
"Actually, yes. I’m going with Shawn Brady." Marlena tried to hide a
small frown. Shawn? She thought that Shawn and Belle…Shows how much mothers
know about these sorts of things, she sighed.
"Do you have feelings for Shawn?"
"Shawn’s a nice guy. I’ve been tutoring him in Trig. I figured he just
wanted to, you know, thank me by taking me to the dance. I’m not really
interested in him," Chloe replied. Knowing how Belle felt about Shawn, she
could never even think about being interested in him. Besides, it was kind of
hard to be interested in Shawn when all she kept dreaming about was Philip
Kiriakis’ arms around her. Stop it! she told herself. Chloe fidgeted in her
seat. She hadn’t told Dr. Evans everything that had happened that week –
Philip taking her hand, Philip holding her while she cried, licking that batter
off of Philip’s finger…Chloe restrained herself from covering her eyes. She
still couldn’t believe that she had done that. It was so unlike her, but
Philip had challenged her, and she’d never backed down from a challenge in her
life.
Marlena looked at the clock on the wall. "I think we’re about finished up
here. I also think that you’ve come far enough that we don’t need to be
doing this on a weekly basis. What would you think about going to say, once a
month?"
Chloe eyebrows rose in one surprise. "Really?"
Dr. Evans smiled as she looked over her appointment calendar. "It is very
obvious that you don’t need weekly sessions any longer. Look at you! You even
took me up on my challenge from last week. I’m so impressed by how much you’ve
changed."
"Thanks to you, Dr. Evans."
Marlena looked Chloe in the eye. "No, thanks to you, Chloe. You. You’re
in charge of your life, your needs, your emotions. It was your strength that has
pulled you through this. You can do or be anything you want to, Chloe."
Dr. Evans stood up to escort Chloe to the door. "Now, you go home, get
ready, and you have the time of your life tonight."
******
Mimi went to answer her front door. "You," she breathed.
Chloe stood on the front porch, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
She anxiously tucked her hair behind her ear, then pushed her dark glasses up
the bridge of her nose.
Mimi folded her arms. "And just what do you want?"
"I wanted to know if I could come in and talk to you," Chloe said
softly.
Mimi sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "And I would want to listen
to anything you have to say because…"
"Please, Mimi."
"Fine, whatever. But don’t touch anything," Mimi warned.
Chloe followed Mimi into the house. Mimi headed into the mauve and blue casually
decorated living room and sat down on her couch. She gestured for Chloe to sit
in one of the wingback chairs. Chloe nervously perched on the very edge of her
seat.
"Well?" Mimi asked, irritated.
"Belle is my best friend," Chloe began, rubbing her hands together.
Mimi winced, as if Chloe had put a knife in her heart and turned it. "Well,
thanks for the news flash."
"No, you don’t understand. Belle is my best friend, but you, Mimi, are
Belle’s best friend."
Mimi narrowed her eyes and looked at Chloe. "Excuse me?"
"I know you don’t like me for whatever reason, Mimi. You think I’m
weird, I don’t fit in, dress funny, stop me any time here," Chloe weakly
joked.
Mimi sat there silently.
"I love Belle, Mimi. And I know that you do, too. And I know that she
adores you. She’s always talking about how much time the two of you spend
together and all the fun things you do." Chloe took a deep breath. "Do
you think that we could possibly, for her sake, try to get along? She’s been
going through some stuff lately, and I think she needs all of her friends."
Mimi was startled. "Is Belle okay? What happened?"
"No, Belle’s fine. Just some guy stuff. I just think right now she could
really use you as a friend, and I don’t want to be in the way of that."
Mimi thought for a minute. Chloe had never actually done anything to her. She
didn’t have any reason to hate her. Mimi had just picked on her because the
rest of the crowd did. But now Shawn and Belle really liked Chloe, and Philip
wasn’t saying anything bad about her. Jan and Jason were another story; they
still totally hated Chloe…
Chloe watched Mimi. The only sound in the room was the soft ticking of the clock
above the mantel.
Chloe stood up, shaking a little bit. "It was really hard for me to come
here, Mimi. You have no idea how much. This was obviously a mistake."
She started for the door when Mimi called out, "Wait, Chloe."
Mimi walked over and stuck her hand out. "For Belle’s sake."
A slow smile spread across Chloe’s face. "Belle and I were talking about
spending the night at her house after the dance. Do you want to join us?"
"Sure," Mimi said, doing her best to return the smile.
"I know that things won’t be okay between us anytime soon, but I do hope
that they’ll get better," Chloe said. "I’ll see you at the dance,
and then Belle’s tonight, okay?"
Chloe left, and as Mimi shut the door behind her, Chloe grinned. Dr. Evans would
have been so proud.
******
"OOOOWWWWW!" Chloe screamed as Belle yanked another strip of wax off
Chloe’s face. "Seriously, why don’t you just kill me and be done with
it?"
Belle sighed impatiently as she applied more wax to Chloe’s left eyebrow.
"Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you have to suffer to be
beautiful?"
Belle smoothed a strip of cloth on top of the wax and yanked again. Chloe
shrieked.
"No pain, no gain, Chloe."
"What, now you’re going to quote platitudes at me?" Chloe moaned as
she rubbed the reddened skin.
"Just wait, I’ve got a million of them," Belle laughed.
Belle turned around to her desk and grabbed a bowl with a brush in it. Chloe
eyed it warily. "What is that green stuff, Belle?"
"It is an avocado facial mask that I’m putting on you."
Chloe shook her head no. "Uh-uh. You’re supposed to eat avocados, not
wear them."
Belle stamped her foot. "Chloe Lane, I am in charge here and you are going
to do what I tell you. Now suck it up and act like a woman."
Chloe thought of saluting Belle, but didn’t in case Belle smacked her for it.
Brady stuck his head in the door. "Give it up Belle, you’ll never make a
silk purse out of that sow’s ear. Speaking of purses…" Brady threw
Belle’s purse on her bed.
Belle and Chloe both glared at Brady and he backed away. "Okay, okay, I
know when I’m not wanted."
Belle finished carefully applying the mask to Chloe’s face. She set a timer
for twenty minutes, and began applying a no-frizz formula to Chloe’s hair.
"I was thinking soft waves hanging down all around you. What do you think?
Up or down?"
"Down’s fine, Belle."
"Yeah, I think it will go better with that dress we bought," Belle
said thoughtfully. Belle began wrapping Chloe’s hair with spiral curlers.
Belle stepped back to see Chloe sticking her fingers and toes straight up to let
her nail polish dry, with green goop all over her face, and pink curlers
sticking out every direction on her head. "You’re going to look
amazing." Belle giggled. "Tonight you’re going to be my secret
weapon, Chloe Lane."
to be continued...
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