Reception

Chapter 5 - Call Waiting

"Whoa," came an exclamation to their right.

Damien was the first one startled, causing him to bump into Sarah. Sarah reeled back, holding her now head-butted nose. Damien's eyes grew wide as he realized he had just done what he had wanted to do while he and her had been enemies.

Oh the irony.

"What're you two doing?!"

Sarah turned, hand still creating a temporary shield from further assault over her nose, to face Hollie. It wasn't just Hollie, either. There were at least three other people with her, with more coming into the room every moment.

"What'em I doing? What are you doing?" Sarah snapped back. It didn't come out as powerful as she had wanted it to, though, due to her muffled mouth.

"I'm attending a party," replied Hollie, grinning almost evilly, "but it seems like you were having a party all of your own."

Damien, still at a loss for words - most likely due to pure shock - found himself walking away from the situation. His head swam - partially due to the head-to-head contact he had just experienced, and partially due to confusion and emotion.

"Where're you going?" Sarah called after him.

"I need to think for a bit," he replied, not bothering to meet any one of the onlookers, or even Sarah, in the eye.

Sarah removed her hand from her nose and sighed with relief as she saw that it wasn't bleeding. However, someone would start bleeding. "Hollie!"

"What?!"

"You ruined everything!" she screamed, pointing at her friend, "I was this close! This close to kissing him!"

The realization found Hollie in Sarah's words. "I'm... I'm sorry, Sarah, I didn't mean to make light of it." Hollie looked down at the floor. However, it wasn't like her to keep moping over any one particular subject. She was resilient that way. Most people, though, just thought that behavior cold. "I'll help you get back to that moment, I promise."

Sarah studied Hollie's eyes carefully. When she found no hidden agenda, no joke, no teasing, she finally let her guard down. "I, seriously, Hollie, was so close. I could feel his breath, I could almost taste..." she paused, looking down, her face flushing and burning with heat.

Almost on cue, Michael came into view, his black hair slightly tousled, "What's going on?"

"I almost had a dreamy moment, then Hollie fell from the sky," mumbled Sarah.

With a sheepish grin, Hollie gave a shrug, "That's why she can't have nice things."

Michael laughed, which, in turn, cause Sarah to relax a little. However, her face was still bright red. She wondered if this is what people in the movies felt whenever they were deeply "in" to someone. With a swift movement, Michael gently grabbed each of Hollie's two shoulders and span her around, giving her a slight push and leading her into the family room. "You and I are going to fix this for our Beloved Sarah."

"Do I have to?" she whined.

"You said you would from the start!" said Sarah, despairingly.

"I thought it was going to be later; not tonight!" she yelped, still being shoved into the living room.

*****

Damien needed to think, that much was clear to him. The problem was just what did he need to think about? Did he feel something for Sarah? He supposed so, or else why would he be kissing her?

He remembered her words. It was just a test. It was a test to determine if there was "anything there."

Damien was so deep in reverie he didn't even notice that he had already found his way outside to the back porch of the house. It was an enormous house, even by a "rich person's" standards. The backyard sprawled into a garden, hugged tightly by vines that had long since grown out of control. The vines didn't create a sense of chaos, however. The feeling was more like, to Damien, wonder. Along the sides of the yard - because even a rich person had boundaries to their property - were cobblestone sidewalks and walkways, each winding through to meet at certain points in the center of the garden. The garden sported fountains and statues of every kind, old relics from before his time.