Secrets and Intentions

By C-N

Feedback: No kidding! Yes please!

Rating: Don't have a clue

Can you keep a secret?

Nicole was sitting in a café reading, as Brooke came storming in and sitting down next to her.

"Can you keep a secret?" Brooke put down her purse on the table, waiting for an answer. It would have been obvious to even the most casual observer that she herself most certainly couldn't keep one, because of the eagerness that she was displaying in wanting to tell Nicole.

"You know me. Of course I can," was the platinum blondes casual reply, as she sipped some liquid from her mug of hot, black coffee. In truth, probably nothing was further from the truth than that. Or rather, it could have been true in the few cases where Nicole actually *wanted* to keep a secret. She couldn't think many times when she did, though.

"You can't guess who I saw doing what!" Brooke seemed to bounce up and down slightly in her chair, obviously very excited.

"Hmmm... probably not. Unless it involves Mary Cherry and three or ten football players." Nicole was in fact quite interested in hearing what Brooke had to say, but couldn't keep herself from playing cool.

"Ewww... no! But..." Brooke started, but stopped again and took a deep breath. She looked Nicole straight in the eyes, as she calmed herself down. It was as if she would say it incorrectly if she didn't relax. And she wanted the impact of her secret to be maximised.

"I saw Sam kissing another girl! Behind the gym after school." Each sentence was followed by a short pause, to let everything sink in. "*Really* kissing, not just a peck on the cheek, I mean we're talking proper tongues in mouths and hands all over and slurping and..."

"Yes, I get the picture." Nicole smiled slightly and looked out the window of the café. "I get it." She drank some more coffee. "So, Spam is playing for the home team." she said slowly. "Interesting. Who was she kissing?" She turned to look at Brooke again, her eager eyes matching her impish smile.

"I... I don't know. I tried to see, but it was too dark. I was following Sam to talk about Harrison, when I almost ran into them. But I didn't want them to see me, though, so I doubled back and met Mary Cherry. She told me that you were going to be here from seven or so."

"Did you tell her everything as well?"

Brooke had realised immediately following her encounter with the kissing girls that Nicole would want to know about it first, but that hadn't stopped her from talking to Mary Cherry, telling the Texan all about Sam and Sam's girlfriend, as well.

"No. I wanted to tell you fi..."

"Good." Nicole interrupted her. "We'll have to see what we can do with this information and what kind of interesting implications it will have." She put her mug down on the table. "I have to go home now, though." She rose and paid for her coffee. Brooke walked with her out into the street and while she followed her to Nicole's car, both agreed that this news, this trump card in the war of popularity, should be guarded carefully.

"It must be used in the most effective way." Nicole climbed in to her car.

"Talk to you tomorrow." Brooke waved good bye and went in the opposite direction as the car drove off. As she walked homewards, she realised with a start that things were going to be different at home now. She shivered as she thought about their shared bathroom.

While driving, Nicole picked up her cell phone and pushed the speed dial button for Sam's number. There weren't many secrets that Nicole wanted to keep. But her Sam was definitely one of them.

Out of secrets

"I am not sharing the bathroom. Not with her." Brooke crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. Her father Mike, and Sam's mother Jane stood and watched her, speechless. Jane looked slightly worried and Mike seemed crest fallen.

"But, but, I thought you both had started getting on well?" Jane began.

"Yes, it was only last week when the both you said that everything was ok." Mike was exasperated. He had really thought that things were turning out well.

"Mom. Mike. It isn't about that." Sam leaned against the opposite wall from Brooke in the hallway. "She caught me kissing somebody." She felt so scared, but she knew that she had to do this. Every second since Nicole had called her last week, the tension in the house had been building. Now it finally had burst through all flood dams.

"Kissing? Was he a university student?" Mike sounded a bit cross, but even to himself he obviously still failed the grasp the whole picture.

"Or was it a 'somebody' called 'Josh'?" Sam's mother looked sternly at her daughter.

"No!" Both teens echoed at the same time.

"I broke up with him ages ago!"

"And that is why you can't share a bathroom with Sam?" Mike felt his grip on the situation slip even further from his grasp. If it ever even had been there. He felt panicky.

"No! You don't get it. Neither of you does." Brooke looked angry and disappointed. "She was kissing a girl."

"Oh, ok." Mike knew about this. Now he felt his footing getting firmer. This was familiar territory. Fighting about a girl. About a girl. A girl? A Girl?? Suddenly his footing didn't seem that solid after all and a large void was opening beneath him. He looked at Jane for some desperately needed support.

"Yes! I kissed a girl! And I have done it loads of times before! And I will do again!" Sam was shouting by now and she felt tears running down her cheeks as she stormed into her room slamming the door behind her. She felt raw and dirty and as if her whole life had been exposed for everyone to see and examine and comment on. There was nothing left that was just hers, she was all out of secrets.

All good intentions

The knocking on the door was very insistent as Mike headed towards it. "Yes, I'm coming. Hold your horses!" He hurried and opened it. Very surprised, he looked straight at Nicole Julian.

"Uh, hi Mr. McQueen." Nicole looked down at her shoes. It was very difficult for her to do this, but she had to, she knew that. It was for the best for all involved. She had thought about it over and over again and she couldn't find another solution. It was all good intentions.

"Hi Nicole! Oh, I am sorry, but Brooke is grounded and is not allowed any visitors. So..."

"Yes. I know." Nicole felt her voice falter. "But it isn't... I mean, I don't want... uh, I..." She straightened up and suddenly regained some of her characteristic aura of power. "I want to see Sam. I need to tell her something. It won't take long and it is really important."

"Oh." Mike looked confounded. "Well, I suppose that is all right. But I'm not sure if she wants any visitors. She hasn't been, you know, very sociable the last few days."

"I know that too. But please, let me try." Nicole didn't like asking for permission for things, but this was important. There was just this one way to end the problem and it had to be done as soon as possible.

"Yeah. Sure. Uh... I'm sorry! Come on in!" Mike let her in through the door and closed it behind her. Sam hadn't spoken to him or Jane or Brooke for two days. She hadn't gone to school either, and Mike couldn't blame her. As he followed Nicole up the stairs he thought that he really had no idea how to tackle all that had been revealed.

"You." Sam had opened the door at Nicole's knocking.

Mike had really no idea how to tackle the sight of Nicole passionately kissing Jane's daughter, either, but it was something like that happening right in front of him. Right at this moment.