He slowly walked towards her bedroom and stared in disbelief at what he saw. She had turned her bed into a shrine, covered with over a hundred lighted candles. Among the candles he saw a note that said " please forgive me" and set below the note was what looked like a picture frame. He picked up the frame and stared at it. It was his missing photo; the one of him and his grandfather when he was about seven years old, his face now scratched out. He turned at a soft voice.
" So this is what it takes to finally get you up here?"
Nick tossed the frame back on the bed. " What are you doing here?"
Tears streamed down Dariens face. " Fixing things."
" Where's Cheyenne?," he asked in reference to her missing "friend".
" You wanna do her too? Is that it?," Darien cried," I'm not good enough for you?"
" He remained calm, cold, and angry. " Where is she, Darien?"
She ignored his question. " I came back here for you, Nick. My parents tried to take me away, but I fooled them," she said with a small, caustic laugh
Nick glared at her. " Where is she?," he repeated.
Dariens voice turned cold again. " I came back for you and I found you with my best friend."
Nick gave up trying to get an answer out of her. He strode past her and out of her room. She turned after him, tearfully.
" I still love you , Nick!"
" Cheyenne!," he called, ignoring Darien.
" Nick!," she screamed in fury.
" Cheyenne?" He heard a shriek and felt a sudden pain on his back. He turned to see Darien lashing out with a wooden rod. Calm only a few secands ago, she was now brandishing the rod like a madman. Eyes wild, hair streaming, she aimed to hit him again, but he saw it coming and ducked. Continuing to swing the rod, she backed him against the stairways banister. He grabbed the rod and tried to wrench it from her hands. But with a sudden burst of strength, she shoved him over the edge.
RING!
" Oh!," the girls groaned in irritation.
" Damn phone!," Maddy grumbled as she paused the movie and reached for the cordless," Hello?...No, I'm sorry, she's out right now...okay, I will...okay, bye." She hung up the phone. " I had to stop the movie when it was just getting good for that?"
" That's why they invented the pause button," Felicia said," Come on, I wanna see what happens next. Darien doesn't really kill Nick, does she?"
" You'll see," Terry said, re-starting the movie.
RING!
" Agh! Pause it," Maddy said," Hello?...I'm sorry, you've got the wrong number...it's okay. Bye." Maddy shook her head and set the phone back down.
RING!
" Aaaagh! What do you want?," Maddy yelled before picking up the phone again," Hello, Grand Central Station...oh. Hi Mom. Nothing, we were just watching a movie...Well the phone started ringing a lot." She gave her friends a sheepish grin and rolled her eyes at their snickers, then realized her mom was still talking.
"...so do you think you guys will be fine on your own?"
" Oh, yeah, sure, we'll be fine," Maddy quickly replied and hung up. She turned to Felicia and Terry. "" Guys, there's good news and there's bad news. The bbad news is that my parents ran into car trouble as soon as they tried to leave Oklahoma City."
" So what's the good news?," Terry asked.
" The good news is they're staying at a hotel and we've got the house all to ourselves tonight!"
" Whoo-hoo! Yeah!," Felicia cried," Now will you please turn that movie back on before the phone rings again?"
***************************************************
" Woah, freaky the way a movie will always focus on the eyes last," Felicia shuddered.
" Yeah. At least Darien doesn't have a thing for Nick anymore," Terry re-wound the movie.
" Yeah, she just likes her shrink," Maddy said," Man, she's like, got this thing for old guys. It's so gross."
" Can you believe she kissed Nick? That is just so nasty, making lip contact with an old guy," Terry agreed.
" Then there's part when she told him she wanted to sleep with him. Imagine what would have happened if he had?"
" Well, she did accuse him of raping her."
" Come on, she beat herself up and then got semen from the condom from when he and Amy slept together as 'proof'that he raped her."
" You gotta admit that she was very clever about setting something like that up though."
" True. But that was a really mean thing to do either way."
" Well enough of this kind of talk. Who's up for watching the 'Where's the Love?' pop-up video?," Felicia quickly said.
" You know, I heard that if you look closely, there's a part where you can see a bit of Taylor's boxers," Maddy said.
" Maddy, please!," Terry exclaimed," Like we really want to see something like his boxers."
" Now don't be so hard on her. We all know that aside from the fact that she is boy-crazy, you yourself would be ecstatic if it was Isaac," Felicia teased.
" Just like we know you would be hyperventilating if it was Zac," Terry returned.
" Just shut up and watch the video," Maddy told them.
They stared in silence for the first ten or fifteen seconds of the video before Maddy suddenly shrieked," I saw them, I saw them!" She re-wound the video a bit and hit pause. She pointed at the screen. " Do you see? They're red and white candy striped."
Terry and Felica exchanged a glance before they started to snicker.
" What?," Maddy threw up her hands in defense.
" Girl, you're getting all excited over seeing a tiny bit of your boyfriends boxers," Terry chuckled.
" Well now you know what happens when you let me eat tons of sugar within the time period of two hours," Maddy said as she re-started the video.
Can you tell me what you see
Whenever you look around?
" Woah, wait a minute!" Terry darted forward and hit rewind.
" What are you doing?," Felicia asked.
" Watch Isaac closely when they sing 'can you tell me what you see whenever you look around?'," she told them and pushed play.
" Oh my gosh! Did you see that, Maddy?,' Felicia exclaimed.
" No, I'm not really sure what I was looking for," she replied.
" Just watch and see what he does."
Again the video was re-wound.
" Holy shit!," Maddy exclaimed,' He just stared at that passing womans butt!"
AUTHORS NOTE: Just so you know, Isaac really does do that in the "Where's the Love" video. That part was edited out from the version on TT&MON though. Hehe...my suspision is that they noticed it too. But if you recorded it off of MTV or watch the pop-up video, you really can see Isaac watch some lady when she passes by when they sing the part, 'can you tell me what you see whenever you look around?'.
" I know, can you believe it?," Terry said.
" So are you gonna kill him?," Maddy asked.
" If so I'll wait until after our date," Terry grinned wickedly," The nerve of that boy, looking at that womans butt."
" You know Maddy, you should never tape over this. This would be a good way to get back at Taylor or Isaac if any of us ever get mad enough," Felicia smiled.
" Believe me, I won't. This is good revenge material and may come in handy some day," Maddy replied.
" So anyway, do you want us to help you when you kill Isaac?," Felicia asked Terry.
" Nah, I think I can do it myself."
" Ugh! Look at the girls they're comparing the guys to," Maddy interupted.
" They think Isaac looks like Chelsea Clinton?," Felicia gagged," Not even!"
" More than Taylor looks like Marcia Brady," Terry said.
" Although there is some resemblance between Zac and the Olsen twins," Maddy pointed out.
" Let me see that again," Felicia pushed rewind," Hey, there is! But I still don't think Isaac and Taylor look anything like Chelsea and Marcia."
" All the same, I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at then the same way again. How would I explain it if I accidently called Taylor 'Marcia'?," Maddy grinned.
The girls giggled at the thought.
" Well I don't think I'll have that problem because I wouldn't know whether to call Zac 'Mary-Kate' or 'Ashley'," Felicia laughed.
" Or what about when I go on my date with Isaac tomorrow?," Terry giggled," I can just imagine: We've had a great evening and we're at my door. He's about to kiss me and I say,' I had a great time tonight, Chelsea.' "
The girls were rollong on the floor with laughter by now. After a few moments, they lay there, out of breath, but letting an occasional giggle exscape.
" Chelsea!," Felicia exclaimed.
More giggles..
Maddy sat up then.
" Truth-or-dare time!," she declared," Felicia, truth or dare?"
" You sure like to say this kind of stuff out of nowhere, don't you?," she quipped.
" Yeah yeah, so are you gonna take truth or dare?"
" Truth," she decided emedietly.
" Okay, would you ever let Zac feel you up?"
" I'm not gonna answer that!"
" It's either that or do a dare, and you know how my dares are," Maddy reminded her smugly.
" Okay, okay. I guess I probably would if it was the right moment and all that stuff," Felicia turned bright red," All right, back to you Maddy. Truth or dare?"
" Truth."
" Did it make you horny to have Taylor laying on you and kissing you?"
" That's even worse than what I asked you!"
" I don't think so! I told you, now you tell me. So did it?"
Terry had been told of that afternoons incident by then. She noticed Maddy's discomfort and saw her face's color darken. She waited for her answer, blue eyes wide, and bit her lips to keep from laughing out loud. Maddy saw her.
" Oh stop it. It's not funny!"
That did it for Terry. She fell back on the floor and burst into peals of laughter.
" Yes it is! I mean, Felicia and Zac actually caught you guys going at it!"
" Dork, we were just kissing," Maddy muttered.
Still laughing, Terry flipped her off.
" Watch it or I'll break that finger off. And in answer to your question, yeah, I guess it did, a little. Terry will you stop that?," she said as Terry started laughing even louder.
" Come on, Terry. Calm down," Felicia nudged her.
" Yeah, and besides, you're up next," Maddy added.
" Uh-oh," Terry sat up, suddenly calm," Okay, do what you will."
" So is it truth or dare?"
" Dare. And none of that toilet paper bikini crap."
" You're no fun. Fine, then I want you to call up Isaac and either confront him about what we saw in the 'Where's the Love' video, or you have to invite him, Zac, and Taylor to come over here."
" I don't know about either. If they came over here and the parental units found out, we would be dead."
" But what they don't know can't hurt them," Maddy grinned slyly.
" Oooh, you bad girl," Felicia told her.
Terry thought for a moment. " You have a point, and I guess it would be fun if they could make it I'll ask them over."
***************************************************
RING!
Taylor looked up from his book with a groan. It was just getting good, he didn't want to leave the book to answer the phone now.
RING!
He sighed and picked up the phone. " Hello?"
" Hey Tay!"
" Terry? Hi. I thought you were at Maddy's?"
" I am. Speaking of Maddy, I heard you two had fun today."
" Terry!," he heard Maddy shout in the background.
" Hey, be nice," he pretended to sound hurt," I've already had to endure enough teasing from Zac and I'm about ready to kill him. He's driving me crazy."
" So what else is new?," Terry chuckled," Anyway, is Ike there? I need to ask him something."
" Sure, hold on. IKE!"
" TAY! Keep the volumn down. I value my eardrums," Terry said, rubbing her ear.
" Sorry. Here's Ike."
" Hello?"
" Hey Ike."
" Hi Terry. Aren't you hanging out with Maddy and Felicia?"
" Yeah, we're still hanging out. I was just wondering; would you guys like to come over and hang out for a few hours?"
" It's 9:00 at night."
" Well your parents are going out tonight, aren't they?"
" Yeah, they are." He remained thoughtfull, then brightened. " They're gonna be out half the night. We could ask the sitter to take over once the little kids are asleep. Erin crashed a couple hours ago, so we don't really have to worry about her busting us. We could come over for a few hours."
" Won't you have to convice Zac and Tay?"
" I think they'll like the idea. Tell you what: unless we call you before then, you can count on us to be there in about thirty minutes."
" Great, see you then," Terry said and hung up the phone.
" Well?," Felicia asked her.
Terry grinned. " They should be here in about half an hour."
