Hidden In Plain Sight
Title: Hidden In Plain Sight
Author: Allison Wonderland
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Sarah sees something in a tabloid that leads her to believe her brother's boyfriend may be cheating on him.
Warning(s): Mentions of drugs and alcohol, homosexuality, consensual sex between two adults of the same gender.
Disclaimer: Mine. Ask if you want to use them.
Note(s): Written for the May 2008 challenge ‘androgyny’ on ah_gayfiction but I had already planned to write it anyway. Part of the Princess Collection, more of which can be found here: http://www.fictionpress.com/u/524927/
Word Count: 1,355
Laptop?
Check.
Pens?
Check.
Notebook?
Umm… Where was… Oh. On her desk of course. Where else would it be if it were not in her bag? Check.
Cell phone?
Okay, that was in her purse. Sarah glanced around her tiny dorm room frantically. Where was her purse? After a moment she located it on her bed.
Her cell phone was still there?
Yes.
And her keys?
Yes.
And the various cards and identification she had to have in order to have access various buildings on campus and to have a free lunch - or at least a lunch paid for by her little brother’s rockstar boyfriend along with the rest of her college experience?
Yes, she had those too.
Nineteen-year-old college student ready to attend the last review session of her freshman year at the top culinary school in the United States before finals started tomorrow?
Nineteen, yes. College student, yes. But the rest… Well, at least finals did not start today.
She placed the strap of her pink messenger bag across her chest so that the bag itself hung at her side, picked up her purse, and left her miniscule room - at least she had it to herself and did not have to share with one or two other people the way some students did; it was one of the many advantages of having a gay brother with a rock star boyfriend.
Cigarettes were the first thing Sarah had indulged herself with the day she had come to New York City. Really, it was not much of an indulgence because she hated the things. It was more of a rebellion. Even though he could not possibly have any idea what she was doing and she would never do it in front of him, Sarah saw each cigarette as a tiny violation of her father’s strict rules, a tiny violation she would not be punished for. It felt good and she thought maybe she understood how Shaun felt when he was with Nicky, as if he were doing something incredible and forbidden, although she imagined for Shaun it had something to do with loving Nicky as well.
Maybe it was because her brother and his boyfriend were still on her mind or maybe it was because she was expecting a call from Shaun later today or perhaps she would have noticed it anyway - it would have been hard not to - but when Sarah paused at the newspaper kiosk on the way to class to buy another pack of cigarettes - she knew she really should quit - the cover of the National Enquirer caught her eye. Specifically, one headline splashed across the front of the tabloid in lurid yellow letters.
TRIPLE FLIP’S NICKY NARCISSUS GOES STRAIGHT FOR BEAUTIFUL NEW GIRLFRIEND.
She was momentarily overcome by a wave of blind fury before she realized that almost nothing printed by tabloids was true. Still, she thought once the initial desire to kill the internationally infamous sex symbol had passed, if it’s true and he’s hurt Shaunie in any way I’ll kill him. “I want this too,” she told the kiosk operator, slapping the offensive magazine - if it could really be called that - onto the counter beside the cigarettes. She did not have time to read it now and could not call her brother to ask if it were true because he and Nicky had - supposedly - been out at some club last night and they were probably still asleep or nursing hangovers but she had every intention of reading it in class. After all, it was not as if a review session was actually important. At least not as important as Shaun’s happiness and if that girl turned out not to be Nicky’s long lost sister or his cousin or something no body guard was going to be able to save his ass.
She hurried to class and slipped into her seat in the still half empty lecture hall, only a few minutes early. Out of habit Sarah took her book out of her messenger bag and opened it to the review section for the chapter the class had recently been studying. She opened the tabloid to the spread on Nicky Narcissus and his ‘girlfriend’ and placed it on top of the book. Sarah ignored the story; it was not what she was curious about. Instead she concentrated on the girl because there was no doubt the man in the pictures was - or had lately been - her brother’s boyfriend.
Though Sarah was loath to admit it, the girl was pretty; there was no denying that. She had honey blonde hair several shades darker than Sarah’s or Shaun’s almost white blonde. Her blue green eyes seemed familiar to Sarah, as if she had seen them somewhere else before. The mystery girl wore a short - way too short in Sarah’s opinion - aqua halter dress that left no doubt that her chest was completely flat. But at least Nicky had not picked her for her breasts, which Shaun lacked too. She was shorter than Nicky - but then the rock star was well over six feet tall and most people were - and probably only about Shaun’s height if she had not been wearing strappy gold sandals with at least a four inch heel.
Sarah frowned, her attention completely captured by the tabloid photo even though the room around her was filling up. This girl…she looked so familiar, like someone she had seen hundreds or thousands of times. Yet she could hardly be a movie star or her name would have been linked with Nicky’s in the headline. She turned her attention to the other picture, a close up of Mystery Girl’s face, and a caption beneath it caught her eye.
“We’ve known one another for just a little over a year,” claimed Triple Flip’s front man, “we met in Las Vegas at the last concert of the North American tour and have been together off and on since then.”
It was the same day Sarah and Shaun had met Nicky. They had spent practically all night with him. There had been no time at all for him to meet anyone else so he had to be mistaken about how long they had known one another.
Sarah stared hard at the close up picture. She looked frightened but sort of happy too, or at least she was smiling. Her smile seemed familiar too and so did the-
She picked up the magazine and held it so close to her face that it was almost sitting on the end of her nose.
Nicky’s so called girlfriend had freckles. Not many, just a tiny sprinkling across the bridge of her nose in a very…unique pattern. It can’t be, Sarah thought, there’s no way. Except now that she had seen the freckles she could see other things that were just as familiar. The eyes for one. She should have known those eyes anywhere, not just thought them sort of familiar. The high cheekbones, the nose almost exactly like Sarah’s own, the heart shaped face.
There was no way.
Except that it was!
She caught sight of the headline again and her hand flew to her mouth to stop the giggle that threatened to escape. Sometimes being friends with an internationally infamous rock star had its advantages, not just the advantages of a free ride through culinary school but of knowing secrets no one else knew, even when they were hidden right in plain sight.
Secrets like how Nicky Narcissus had not gone straight at all but was still as gay as he had always been.
Secrets like how his ‘beautiful new girlfriend’ was none other than Sarah’s brother Shaun.