FicWad

A/N: I'M STILL NEEDING TITLE IDEAS! PLEASE REVIEW!!! ALSO, THIS IS A CLEAN CHAPTER, NO SMUT OR ANYTHING, JUST FULL OF ANGST, LOL.

Chapter 3-doubts

The next couple of days, Ethan steered clear of Rachel, not wanting to raise suspicions. Rachel was going crazy with not being able to kiss him or talk to him. Every time he glanced at her in Poetry class, and he did a lot, she would practically squirm in her chair. When the class was over on Friday, he immediately exited into his office, leaving the class to empty. Slightly disappointed, Rachel walked out of the class with the rest of the students. When she got to the parking lot, Margot and Andrew were waiting on her. She’d totally forgotten that she was supposed to hang out with Andrew that night. Margot had her arms crossed and was grinning at her. She walked up to her two best friends and raised an eyebrow at Margot’s happy face.

“What’s with the smile, Margot?” Margot practically bounced as she giggled.

“You will never ever guess who likes you, Rachel! Todd told me over the phone last night, I cannot believe it!” Rachel had no idea to whom she was referring to because the only person she was interested in, wasn’t someone she could talk about.

“Ok…so who does Todd thinks likes me?” Margot giggled again and grabbed her hands.

“Blake Thatcher, Rachel!” Rachel jerked in shock for a moment. Blake was the second most popular guy in school, he was on the basketball team with Todd. He had also been an object of Rachel’s worship up until recently. He was exactly her type, tall, tanned, blonde, and muscular. He also had the whole pouty lip thing going on. She didn’t for a million years think that Blake liked her…the nerd.

“Come on, Margot, there is absolutely no way that Blake likes me! Todd is obviously smoking something!” Margot glared for a moment, but then shook her head.

“I’m telling you, it’s true. Look over at Todd’s car right now! He wants to know if you’ll double with us tonight. I know you have your thing with Andrew tonight, but all three of us can do it tomorrow.” I followed her gaze to Todd’s car and sure enough, Blake was standing at his car. When he saw that she was looking over, he smiled and waved at her. Rachel blushed from the roots of her hair. Blake Thatcher was waving at her and wanted to go on a date with her! She knew that she should be completely stoked, and part of her was…but there was Ethan. He would go ballistic if she went on a date with Blake. As if right on queue, Ethan stumbled out of the school, with the music teacher, Ms. Connor on his arm. Margot saw them and whistled quietly. Rachel’s heart fell completely to her feet and she was flooded with mortification. He had a girlfriend? She was sure that she was misinterpreting this, she had to be. She watched as they stopped in front of his car and Ms. Blonde bimbo reached up and planted a kiss on him right in front of everybody! She turned back to her friends, trying to keep a straight face. Margot groaned and shook her hands.

“Well? Will you come over there and talk to him?” Rachel took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She guessed it didn’t matter who she went out with at this point. She looked back up at Margot, who was waiting very impatiently for an answer.

“I don’t know, Margot, you know how I am when I talk to guys! I wouldn’t know the first thing to talk about!” Margot grinned.

“I knew you were lying when you said you were over him. Come on, I’ll be right there beside you, it’ll be great!” She nodded her head and let Margot lead her over to where they were standing. Todd glanced at Rachel with indifference.

“Hey, Rachel, what’s up?” Rachel shrugged her shoulders, not really believing she was standing in front of Blake.

“Not much.” Blake got off of Todd’s car and walked forward to her.

“Hey Rachel, I’ve missed you in my English class. You could always make me laugh when it came to Mr. Hammond.” Rachel blushed, she hadn’t realized that he’d paid attention to her jokes about the rude balding teacher.

“Yeah, I have to take a honors class now. How’ve you been?” Rachel realized how lame she sounded so she lowered her eyes. She was really surprised by his next statement.

“I’ll be great if you say you’ll go to dinner and a movie with us tonight. I think we’d have fun.” Rachel smiled up at him, the old feeling of the crush coming back up. She didn’t have anything to be guilty about, Ethan was the one kissing someone else! After the speech he’d given her about no one else touching her and he did that! Absolutely no way was she going to let him treat her like that.

“I think we’d have fun too, what movie?” Margot squealed, unable to hide it.

“This is going to be so great! We’re going to go home, drop Andrew off, and change. We’ll meet you at the restaurant in two hours, okay?” The boys nodded and slid into Todd’s car. Margot and Rachel walked back to Andrew, who looked kind of sad, but didn’t say anything. Rachel did a cursory glance around the parking lot, but both Ethan’s and Ms. Connor’s car were gone from the lot.

***************
The four of them had decided to try out Stir Fry, it was a restaurant on the west end of town that none of them had ever tried before. Rachel was seated next to Blake, and she was a complete ball of nerves. The conversation was flowing around her and she felt like she was being a horrible first date. She scanned the menu, not really knowing what to order. When she glanced over at Blake, he looked just as confused as she was. Feeling slightly more comfortable she leaned over to speak to him.

“What are you going to have, I can’t decide.” Blake looked over at her with a sheepish grin.

“Man, I don’t even know what half of this stuff is. I think I’m just going to go with the simple chicken fried rice.” Rachel nodded and chuckled.

“I know what you mean. I think I’m going to try the chili chicken, you can try that to see if you like it.” He smiled over at her and Rachel’s nerves seemed to disappear. They received their food and the rest of the dinner seemed go by without incident. When they got to the movie theatre that was across the street, they couldn’t decide on what to see. The boys wanted to see the latest blood and guts movie, but Rachel honestly didn’t know if she could stomach that. Margot finally conceded and Rachel was out voted. It was a new zombie movie, which was Rachel’s least favorite kind of horror film. When they were walking over to stand in line, Blake reached down and grabbed her hand. He then leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“I’m really glad you came out with me tonight, Rachel. I was afraid that you didn’t like me…you know…because you’re so smart.” Rachel looked up at him in surprise, he’d really thought that?

“Blake, what does that have to do with anything? I didn’t think you’d like me because you’re like super popular.” Blake grinned at her words, he seemed to glow.

“So you do like me, huh?” Rachel blushed and lowered her eyes. They were interrupted when someone cleared their throat behind them. They both jumped, startled and looked ahead to see that the line had moved. Rachel and Blake quickly caught up with their friends. She kept her eyes forward when Blake turned around.

“Sorry about that Mr. Reynolds, guess we were stuck in our own world.” Rachel’s back stiffened at his words and was afraid to turn to greet him. Her worst fears were realized when she heard him chuckle coldly.

“Don’t worry about it at all, it happens when love is in the air.” Blake chuckled and turned back around. He released her hand and placed his arm around her shoulder instead. When the line started moving, he took her hand again and they walked into the theatre. She was relieved when she finally sat down and was away from Ethan. Blake leaned down and put his arm back around her shoulder.

“Wow, Mr. Reynolds and Ms. Connor are totally on a date. That’s so weird to me.” Margot leaned forward from her seat and giggled.

“Yeah, apparently they’ve been dating since the school year started.” Rachel felt herself on the verge of tears, but fought them back. She was enormously happy when the lights went down and the movie started. She didn’t really pay any attention to the movie, she just kept going over things in her head. He’d never said anything about a relationship, so she shouldn’t be so upset about it. Besides, Blake seemed to like her, maybe he’d ask her to prom. She still couldn’t believe that he’d made love to her like that when he had a girlfriend! Halfway through movie, Rachel’s stomach didn’t agree with her and she felt on the verge of being sick. She excused herself, walked out of the theatre, and entered the closest bathroom. Once in one of the stalls, she was able to get control of herself. So what if he was on a date, it didn’t matter! He was an adult, probably used to casual sex, probably even used to seducing students. Walking out of the stall, she went to the sink and splashed some water onto her face. After she was composed again, she exited the bathroom, only to be shoved back in. Rachel was about to scream, but a hand prevented her from doing so. The person shoved her into the handicapped stall, shut the door, locked, and then released her. Rachel thrashed forward until she saw Ethan standing before her, looking furious. The hell with him anyway.

“Mr. Reynolds, what the hell are you doing?!” She said this in a hushed whisper because she didn’t want to draw attention to them. He scoffed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Mr. Reynolds again, is it? What do you mean ‘what am I doing’, what the hell are you doing? I thought we fixed everything on Tuesday and I find you here in that imbecile’s embrace? If I hadn’t cleared my throat, he would have kissed you!” Rachel was absolutely furious! How dare he act all high and mighty when he was on a date himself!

“Ethan, let me out of this stall or so help me, I will scream my head off!” He sighed and ran a hand through his hand again.

“I just don’t understand what’s going on, Rachel. Are we together or what? If you want to see other guys that’s fine, you’re young and I understand, but don’t shut me out completely, okay?” Rachel was flabbergasted at what he was saying. He was allowed to date, but she wasn’t? This was absolutely ridiculous!

“As far as I’m concerned, there is no ‘we’ at all. You give me some big speech about how crazy about me you are, but I think it was just a screen so that you could get into my pants! I mean, you do realize that you’re here with a date, and you preach to me? Who the hell are you that makes you so special?” Ethan looked completely caught off guard at her outburst and she didn’t feel the least bit guilty about it. He groaned and walked forward, taking her waist. He continued to walk until he had her pressed up against the stall wall.

“Rachel, Natalie and I are just friends, nothing more. I’m completely nuts about you, you should know that! I know it’s insane, but I just can’t stay away from you. Look, I’ll call you tonight, I can get your number from the directory and we’ll talk. Just…don’t let him kiss you, okay?” Rachel had almost caved until he said the last part. He must think she was really gullible to fall for that.

“Right…and have you kissed your date today, Mr. Reynolds?” She made sure to put emphasis on his name. She saw him flinch at her words, but she couldn’t be sure it was because she used his last name or the reference to the kiss.

“Rachel…things are a bit more complicated then they seem at the moment, you wouldn’t really understand.” Rachel felt her heart being ripped into shreds when he said that.

“Because I’m just a kid, right? Listen, as far as I’m concerned the whole thing that happened between us was a huge mistake. We’ll just forget anything ever happened and get through the semester. Meanwhile, you can go straight to hell.” After stating this, she shoved by him, picked up her purse that had fallen, and walked out of the bathroom completely. She just hoped that she could survive the rest of the semester.

That night when they dropped her off at home, Blake walked her to her front door. She let him lean down and capture her mouth in a sweet kiss. She waved goodbye to him as he drove away, but once they were out of sight, she threw her front door open and ran up the steps. She ignored the call from her mother and flopped down onto her bed as the sobs overtook her. She was so thankful that she’d been able to hold them back for as long as she had. When her mother opened the door and sat down on the bed next to her, she couldn’t seem to stop crying. Her mother leaned forward and began to stroke her hair.

“Honey, what happened? Did that boy try something with you tonight?” Rachel couldn’t help the hysterical chuckle that escaped her lips. She sat up and looked at her mother, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“No, Blake was the perfect gentleman. It’s just…the boy I really liked, mama…well he doesn’t like me back at all and I found out the really hard way tonight.” She knew that she couldn’t say much more on the subject, and she welcomed the comforting hug her mother pulled her into.

“Oh sweetie! I didn’t know that you had a crush or anything! Do you want to tell me about it?” Rachel didn’t raise her head at all, just the words flow from her mouth.

“Well, I’d been flirting with this guy at school and we’d been hanging out. He told me that he liked me and wanted to date me, but I saw him kissing someone else after school today! Then at the movies, he cornered me telling me I was mean for going out with Blake, when he was there with the same blonde bimbo he’d been kissing earlier!” Rachel continued to sob as her mother continued to pat her head. Even though it was something that parents do to little kids, Rachel found enormous comfort that her mother was there for her.

“Honey, boys are so different from us. They don’t understand how they’re actions can hurt us. You just go on with your life and you’ll be better for it. I know that’s not what you want to hear, honey, but you can’t let a guy treat you like that.” Rachel lifted her head and tried to clear her face some.

“I know and I told him he could go to hell for all I care.” Her mother chuckled at her words.

“Well, good for you! Listen, I know you have plans with your friends tomorrow, but do you want to maybe cancel and hang out with your old mom?” Rachel smiled really big and nodded.

“I’d like that a lot.” Her mom smiled and hugged her again.

“Good, we can eat lots of junk food and watch stupid girly movies all weekend.” Rachel giggled and agreed. It was just what the doctor ordered. She just hoped that she didn’t fall apart come Monday afternoon when she walked into his class.