touch-me-not & forget-me-not

Chapter 7: don't know

Dani's POV

  "Gosh, you smell like sex," Lisa said, wrinkling her nose. "Sex has a smell?" I asked. "Do you purposely use men cologne?" She asked. "No?" I replied, confused. "Well it smells like you just dumped the whole bottle on yourself so I'm assuming that you just had sex with some guy," she observed. I nodded and sat down across her.

  "I'm so glad you could meet me," I said. "You should be. Laurie told me what you did," Lisa said, frowning at me. "It's... A long story, she doesn't know even half of it," I sighed.

  "Now onto the matter at hand. I think it's a good idea but it could go really wrong in seconds," she said sadly. "I just want to apologise, show her I really am sorry," I said. I put my head in my hands. "I feel really bad," I said. She reached across the table and patted my arm. "I know you are. If you weren't serious, I wouldn't even be here at all," she said.

  "But that's not what I meant," she said. I arched an eyebrow, "Oh?" She smiled sadly. "Laurie has been known to... Overly panic. Don't stress her out too much. She goes into shock and cries and worst comes to worst... She faints," Lisa said. I bit back an insensitive remark and nodded. "What triggers this panic attack?" I questioned. "Anything really," she shrugged.

  "Maybe nightmares?" I suggested. "You know about them?" She asked. "She just started freaking out one night," I said. "What did you do to help?" She asked, leaning in, suddenly becoming more interested. "I tried calmed her down?" I answered. "Yeah how?" She asked. "We... Might have cuddled a bit," I admitted. "Seems like the real her to want to. Laurie was a cuddly little kid," Lisa smiled.

  "Advice? Take this slow yeah? Save me a front seat though. I'll need to intervene if things go south," She said. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," I sighed. She squeezed my arm and gave me a small smile. "Lauren. She's a tough one to crack but you're slowly chipping away her walls she built around herself," Lisa said.

  "I'll see you at the auditorium or wherever," she said. She got up and hurried out the door with a quick wave. Okay, Laurie. Let's see how well you can improvise.

Lauren's POV

  The stupid acting thing is literally in another 5 minutes and we haven't even practiced the scene once before everything happened all at once. Weren't even on speaking terms yet.

  A teacher walked up to me and passed me a microphone. I stared at her. "Oh right, sorry," She laughed. She took away the microphone and looked around for Dani. Dani pushed open the backstage door and the teacher rushed over and pushed the microphone into her hand.

  "Hey Adams," she muttered. I ignored her like I should have from the start. "I have Liz and the gang a front row seat," she said. So I can hear their jeers? Sure.

  "Now, the moment we've all been sitting here for. Danielle Nicole Cimorelli and Lauren Christine Adams performing their edited version of that dreaded scene we all had to do," the student emcee said. This earned a few laughs from the audience. Dani blew into the microphone, cause a loud screech. I covered my ears. The audience protested and groaned at the high pitched sound. "Call me Danielle one more time. I dare you," she threatened. "It's Dani please and thank you!" She said. The audience's murmurs faded out as the lights dimmed. The spotlight followed us as I walked out onto the stage, Dani a few steps behind me.

"Cassidy! You have to listen to me!"

I stopped and folded my arms, looking at the ground.

"You have to understand where I'm coming from."

I reluctantly turned around and faced her.

"Oh, Cass."

I shook my head.