Queen Takes Bishop: April

Fandom: Popular

Series: Three Times Table

Title: Queen Takes Bishop: April

Author: Carla

**** The rest hasn't changed since the first part ****

Enjoy

You amaze me sometimes with your boldness, your strength. An inner strength many wouldn’t even suspect you capable of. So when I find you waiting for me at the bus stop I’m both surprised and not surprised. In the weeks since that first day in the lunchroom you’ve continued to stop at my table to chat, you’ve stopped me in the hall to see how my day is going. Occasionally you’ve even sought me out in the library. But this is a first, you waiting for me at the bus stop.

And what you want, what you suggest, that’s also a first. A first I’m very nervous about but of course I agree. You want me to have lunch with you. You want to confront Nicole with the fact of our friendship. Actually nervous isn’t an adequate enough description; fearful would be more in line with the truth. But at the same time I’m not, I know you’ll look out for me. I trust you when you say you’ll protect me from Satan’s forked tongue.

So when lunchtime comes and you invite me to sit with you I do. Granted it’s with a sense of trepidation, but when I feel your knee pressing against mine most of my anxiety flies right out the window. I love that about being with you, how a simple touch can soothe me, make everything okay. Or almost okay because it’s obvious my hand, the one holding my spork, is trembling. You whisper to me that everything is going to work out, that you love me and if I really don’t want to we don’t have to do this. You’ll tell Nicole on your own, sometime when you two are alone and I am nowhere to be found, out of the direct line of fire.

But I couldn’t possibly abandon you that way. I want to be worthy of you, your loyalty and your faith in me. Like Nicole is, or so you’ve said she is. She’s your best friend you must see something there. Even if no one else can. It comes to me as I watch you both, the look of determination on your faces as you argue. She loudly, you quietly. Until you stand, then I am afraid because romantic notions be damned I don’t want to see you come to blows over me. Not with Nicole whom I am quite certain would not ‘fight fair’. Also I have this vague suspicion that she is freakishly strong for her size.

I begin to stand, acquiescence leaves an acrid taste in my mouth but it will be worth it to avoid an all out confrontation. It’s become obvious, to me, this has moved beyond forcing the issue of our friendship with Nicole. Somewhere along the line it’s become ‘more’ than that to you, only Satan’s Handmaiden doesn’t know it, yet.

She catches on though when you run your hand through my hair, down the side of my neck to my shoulder.

Your words confirm her sudden realization and when she shrieks her displeasure the whole school hears it. Just like the whole school hears your palm connect with her face moments later. Your voice carries throughout the suddenly hushed cafeteria, reminding everyone just who is who in your complicated relationship with Nicole. Reminding her just how much she needs you. What you don’t catch is the flicker in her eyes, the brief second or two when the shadow of shattered dreams crosses her face and explains her to me better than you ever could.

You sit your choice clear to all. Nicole storms off and you murmur that she will be back. I nod my head in agreement because I know it’s true. I saw it in her eyes. Nicole loves you…desperately.