Irish Eyes Don't Always Smile (3/4)
Title: Irish Eyes Don't Always Smile
Rating: PG
Couple: Sam/Brooke...Sam/?
Summary: All is fair in love and popularity.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, but I certainly wish I did. Damn Ryan
Murphy and his unrivaled genius.
A/N: Looks like I'm a little under the weather again, but part 4 of this fic is done. I should have it posted over the next two days. I want to thank Karen for getting this beta'd so quickly. This is the sixth story in the "Surviving the
Holidays" series. If you haven't read "Things that Go Bump in the
Night," "Overstaying Your Welcome," "What's So Merry about Christmas," "Out with the Old and In with the New," and "Cupid's Broken Arrows" you might be a little lost.
Thanks to everyone that always leaves such wonderful feedback. I really appreciate it! I really do.
Nicole stood at the door to the kitchen, tapping the glass impatiently. Sam sighed before looking up from her physics book and rolling her eyes. She reluctantly stood from the stool she was resting on and walked over to the door.
“Hey Nicole, come on in.” Her voice held a false cheerfulness. Her mother looked up at her from her spot in the living room. She tilted her head in confusion and Sam pointed to the book in her hand. Jane nodded in understanding and turned back to the video she and Mac were watching. The toddler clapped her hands and giggled loudly as she watched the four guys on the screen singing.
“Hello Mrs. McQueen,” Nicole said, plastering on the phoniest smile that Sam had ever seen. She wondered if parents actually bought it.
Jane looked back at the two girls, clearly startled that Nicole had greeted her. “Hello Nicole, how are you today?”
“I’m fine thanks,” the blonde responded, fake smile still firmly in place. “Might I say that is a lovely blouse you’re wearing. Is it Calvin?”
The older woman shot her daughter a suspicious look and Sam shrugged, looking away.
“It is. Thank you.”
“Anytime,” Nicole replied. Sam rolled her eyes and looked at Mac who had turned at the new stranger’s voice. She blew a raspberry at the blonde and spoke loud baby gibberish, visibly upset.
“Um Mom, actually we’re going to go up to my room and work on the project. With Mac watching the video, it’s going to be kind of hard to concentrate.” The last place Sam wanted to be was alone with Nicole in her room, but her mother kept shooting her weird looks and the brunette knew she’d hover over them and be all…motherly. That was just embarrassing.
Jane reluctantly nodded, turning to focus on her suddenly cranky youngest daughter.
Sam turned and silently led the way to her room, praying that the blonde would just follow without giving her any problems. She let out the breath she’d been holding when she heard the other girl’s footsteps behind her own. She opened the door to her room a crack, making sure that nothing embarrassing was in plain view in the slightly messy room. Grateful that she wouldn’t have to make a mad dash to clean up her room, she threw open the door, stepping aside to let the shorter blonde in.
“Wow Spam, I’m impressed. From the horror stories I’ve heard from Brookie, I expected there to be creatures running around in here. Unless, you’ve locked them away, but is that really fair to do to your own kind?”
Sam gritted her teeth. She wouldn’t let Nicole get to her again. She’d promised both Brooke and herself and she intended to keep that promise. She’d formed a plan earlier that afternoon after school, as she’d insisted that her very reluctant girlfriend go shopping with Mary Cherry and Carmen. She was just going to ignore Nicole and work on their project. The faster they got it done the faster she could be far away from the blonde. She looked around her room for their supplies, but couldn’t find them. Sighing, she remembered she’d left them in Brooke’s bedroom having been distracted by a lengthy makeout session upon her return from the store.
She turned to face the shorter girl, who was still looking around her room with amused interest, and cleared her throat. “I, uh, have to get our supplies from Brooke’s room.”
“Ooo, another torrid night of sneaking around behind Ma and Pa Kettle’s backs?”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Just stay here,” she mumbled before walking out of the room.
The journalist slipped into her girlfriend’s room taking a calming breath and slumping against the wall. For a moment she regretted insisting that Brooke go out. Then she straightened, berating herself for being such a coward. She wondered if she was becoming hormonally imbalanced. This wasn’t like her. She didn’t let Nicole get to her. She didn’t shrink away from confrontation she welcomed it, lived for it. She certainly never let her opponent see that they had the upper hand. She would go in there and work on the project and remain unscathed by the personal attacks she was sure she would endure for the remainder of the shorter blonde’s visit.
When Sam returned to her room, she found the blonde searching her closet. “Do you think we could, oh I don’t know, start this project?”
“Relax Mucky, we have plenty of time to work on Glass’ demented excuse for entertainment. This is way more important. You do know it’s not a crime to wear pastels, right? And what’s with all the cargo pants? You take this dyke thing really seriously don’t you?”
“You know, Satan, I’ve been dressing myself since kindergarten and have yet to have any problems. Now if I needed help say, whoring it up for a night, you’d be the first person I called. Since I don’t see that happening in the foreseeable future because I’m extremely happy with my girlfriend, who likes me as I am by the way, can we focus on the reason you’re here? It’s already late afternoon and as I hear it, it’s mighty hard to fly a broom late at night.”
“Well I’m certainly happy to see that you’ve taken my advice and enrolled into witty comebacks 101, but you may want to graduate from the course before you try to go up against me, unless you want a repeat of what happened in the hall two days ago. As for Brooke being happy with you as is, well I never thought she had very good taste when it came to picking out ‘partners.’ After Josh, her choices made me wonder if she was channeling Helen Keller for love advice.”
Sam visibly bristled at the mention of the events in the hallway. Deciding against starting another argument, especially since her nerves were still pretty raw when it came to that subject, she flopped down on her bed, removing random objects from the plastic bag and flipping through her notes. She set up all the supplies before looking over at the other girl expectantly. “Are you actually planning on doing any work? If not, you’re free to leave. I have no problems taking all the credit for myself.”
“Relax Tippy, there’s no need to get all after school special,” Nicole responded sitting on the opposite side of Sam’s bed.
The two worked in awkward silence save for Sam reading the instructions. She was strangely aware of the blonde’s proximity and did her best to stay distant. She could tell Nicole was trying to do the same and again Sam wondered how Nicole could have done what she did to bring her and Brooke back together, when it was clear that she loathed Sam with everything she was. Would she do the same for one of her friends? Sam liked to think she would, but she wasn’t so sure. It just seemed so out of character for Nicole. As far as Sam could see, the blonde didn’t stand to gain anything from the union. So that couldn’t be it. Sam hadn’t written a scathing article on the blondes in over a year and she didn’t have dirt on her arch nemesis, at least nothing concrete anyway. And as far she knew, Brooke hadn’t gone to her friend for help. Maybe it was like Nicole said. Maybe she’d done it simply out of loyalty to her friend. Brooke kept saying Nicole had changed a lot since the accident and maybe she had. Sam wondered if she was guilty of letting her biases get in the way of her ability to see both sides.
Nic suddenly standing moving across the room broke through her thoughts. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking a break. I can only handle being that close to you in small intervals. As it stands I’m probably going to have to burn this outfit when I go home. I’m sure being in your room for this long has caused it to reek of loser.”
Sam rolled her eyes and returned to her work as the blonde looked through her bookcase. They had so much to do still and she had other homework to do, leave it to Nicole to waste what little time she had to spare. She ignored the little criticisms the other girl threw in her direction as she pieced together the complicated data for the project. It was when she looked up to find the blonde holding the copy of her father’s award winning article that she nearly leaped off the bed. Only there was a look in Nicole’s eyes that kept her rooted in her spot.
“You were really close with him weren’t you?” The blonde asked, completely throwing the journalist.
The brunette nodded slowly. “Yeah, we were.”
“When I was younger, I used to wish my father and I were close, but he was always ‘away on business.’ Then when I was thirteen, I had my driver take me to his office and I found out just what sort of ‘business’ that meant.”
Sam sat in stunned silence, unable to process this new bit of information and not sure why she’d been privy to it. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to walk in on something like that. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, not sure of what else to say.
Nicole smiled ruefully, putting article back on the shelf. “Don’t be. I’m not.” She moved away from shelf and sat back down on the bed. “Let’s get this finished. I’m starting to go blind from all the clashing colors in this room.”
The journalist nodded, happy that they’d retreated back to neutral territory.
“Oh and Mucky, if you leak any word of what I just said, I’ll make sure they can’t find the body.”
_______________________________________________
Brooke found Sam asleep among her books and notes, pen still in her hand. She chuckled at the scene walking in and cleaning up the mess before shaking the brunette awake. Brown eyes opened immediately, blinking rapidly in confusion. When she saw that it was Brooke that had woken her, she offered the blonde a sleepy smile.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Brooke returned with a smile of her own. She brushed the dark, unruly locks out of Sam’s face as she sat next to her. “How’d it go?”
Sam’s lips quirked at the question. “Well, there was no bloodshed,” she answered as she sat up.
“That bad, huh?” Brooke moved to lie down, bringing Sam with her. She pulled the brunette closer, wrapping her arm around her waist.
“Actually, it wasn’t that bad.”
Surprise coursed through the blonde. When Glass had announced the project in class, Brooke had known it had the potential to be disastrous, especially given what had happened between the two just days ago. So she’d been reluctant to keep her plans with her friends thinking she should go home and play referee. “No?”
“Nope. How about you? How was shopping?”
“It was great, though Mary Cherry almost got us kicked out of La Perla for trying to shoplift one of the mannequins. I feel like we hit every sale within a thirty-mile radius on foot. Did you miss me?”
“Uh huh,” Sam replied in a distracted tone. Brooke worried that maybe she’d fallen asleep again, but as she peered over the brunette’s shoulder to see her face, she could see Sam was distracted.
“Hey, is everything okay?”
Sam turned to look at her. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”
“You just seem distracted.”
“Oh,” Sam said, looking away thoughtfully. “No everything’s fine. I guess I’m just out of it.”
“Oh…” Brooke laid her head back on the bed, absentmindedly stroking Sam’s hipbone.
“Did you know that Nicole walked in on her father cheating on her mother when she was thirteen?”
Brooke frowned, thrown by the sudden question. “What? No, I didn’t know that.” She lightly grasped her girlfriend’s shoulder, turning the brunette to face her. “How did you find that out?”
“She told me.”
Brooke sputtered. Of all the ways she’d thought Sam had come across the information, it certainly hadn’t crossed her mind that it could have come from the source herself. “She told you?”
“Yeah, it was…weird. So unNicolelike, I’m still not sure why she told me.”
“Hmm…that is weird.” Brooke frowned. What was going on with her best friend lately?
“Yeah…”Sam said as she stifled a yawn.
The blonde chuckled. She leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on the journalist’s lips before moving to stand.
“Hey, where are you going?” Sam asked, grabbing hold of her hand.
“To my room so you can go to bed.”
“No, stay with me tonight. It’s been a while since I’ve fallen asleep in your arms.”
Brooke smiled, feeling her heart swell. She moved back to her previous position. Their lips met in a tender but passionate kiss before Sam moved back slightly, laying her head on Brooke’s shoulder. “I love you, Brooke.”
“I love you, too.”
Rating: PG
Couple: Sam/Brooke...Sam/?
Summary: All is fair in love and popularity.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, but I certainly wish I did. Damn Ryan
Murphy and his unrivaled genius.
A/N: Looks like I'm a little under the weather again, but part 4 of this fic is done. I should have it posted over the next two days. I want to thank Karen for getting this beta'd so quickly. This is the sixth story in the "Surviving the
Holidays" series. If you haven't read "Things that Go Bump in the
Night," "Overstaying Your Welcome," "What's So Merry about Christmas," "Out with the Old and In with the New," and "Cupid's Broken Arrows" you might be a little lost.
Thanks to everyone that always leaves such wonderful feedback. I really appreciate it! I really do.
Nicole stood at the door to the kitchen, tapping the glass impatiently. Sam sighed before looking up from her physics book and rolling her eyes. She reluctantly stood from the stool she was resting on and walked over to the door.
“Hey Nicole, come on in.” Her voice held a false cheerfulness. Her mother looked up at her from her spot in the living room. She tilted her head in confusion and Sam pointed to the book in her hand. Jane nodded in understanding and turned back to the video she and Mac were watching. The toddler clapped her hands and giggled loudly as she watched the four guys on the screen singing.
“Hello Mrs. McQueen,” Nicole said, plastering on the phoniest smile that Sam had ever seen. She wondered if parents actually bought it.
Jane looked back at the two girls, clearly startled that Nicole had greeted her. “Hello Nicole, how are you today?”
“I’m fine thanks,” the blonde responded, fake smile still firmly in place. “Might I say that is a lovely blouse you’re wearing. Is it Calvin?”
The older woman shot her daughter a suspicious look and Sam shrugged, looking away.
“It is. Thank you.”
“Anytime,” Nicole replied. Sam rolled her eyes and looked at Mac who had turned at the new stranger’s voice. She blew a raspberry at the blonde and spoke loud baby gibberish, visibly upset.
“Um Mom, actually we’re going to go up to my room and work on the project. With Mac watching the video, it’s going to be kind of hard to concentrate.” The last place Sam wanted to be was alone with Nicole in her room, but her mother kept shooting her weird looks and the brunette knew she’d hover over them and be all…motherly. That was just embarrassing.
Jane reluctantly nodded, turning to focus on her suddenly cranky youngest daughter.
Sam turned and silently led the way to her room, praying that the blonde would just follow without giving her any problems. She let out the breath she’d been holding when she heard the other girl’s footsteps behind her own. She opened the door to her room a crack, making sure that nothing embarrassing was in plain view in the slightly messy room. Grateful that she wouldn’t have to make a mad dash to clean up her room, she threw open the door, stepping aside to let the shorter blonde in.
“Wow Spam, I’m impressed. From the horror stories I’ve heard from Brookie, I expected there to be creatures running around in here. Unless, you’ve locked them away, but is that really fair to do to your own kind?”
Sam gritted her teeth. She wouldn’t let Nicole get to her again. She’d promised both Brooke and herself and she intended to keep that promise. She’d formed a plan earlier that afternoon after school, as she’d insisted that her very reluctant girlfriend go shopping with Mary Cherry and Carmen. She was just going to ignore Nicole and work on their project. The faster they got it done the faster she could be far away from the blonde. She looked around her room for their supplies, but couldn’t find them. Sighing, she remembered she’d left them in Brooke’s bedroom having been distracted by a lengthy makeout session upon her return from the store.
She turned to face the shorter girl, who was still looking around her room with amused interest, and cleared her throat. “I, uh, have to get our supplies from Brooke’s room.”
“Ooo, another torrid night of sneaking around behind Ma and Pa Kettle’s backs?”
Sam rolled her eyes. “Just stay here,” she mumbled before walking out of the room.
The journalist slipped into her girlfriend’s room taking a calming breath and slumping against the wall. For a moment she regretted insisting that Brooke go out. Then she straightened, berating herself for being such a coward. She wondered if she was becoming hormonally imbalanced. This wasn’t like her. She didn’t let Nicole get to her. She didn’t shrink away from confrontation she welcomed it, lived for it. She certainly never let her opponent see that they had the upper hand. She would go in there and work on the project and remain unscathed by the personal attacks she was sure she would endure for the remainder of the shorter blonde’s visit.
When Sam returned to her room, she found the blonde searching her closet. “Do you think we could, oh I don’t know, start this project?”
“Relax Mucky, we have plenty of time to work on Glass’ demented excuse for entertainment. This is way more important. You do know it’s not a crime to wear pastels, right? And what’s with all the cargo pants? You take this dyke thing really seriously don’t you?”
“You know, Satan, I’ve been dressing myself since kindergarten and have yet to have any problems. Now if I needed help say, whoring it up for a night, you’d be the first person I called. Since I don’t see that happening in the foreseeable future because I’m extremely happy with my girlfriend, who likes me as I am by the way, can we focus on the reason you’re here? It’s already late afternoon and as I hear it, it’s mighty hard to fly a broom late at night.”
“Well I’m certainly happy to see that you’ve taken my advice and enrolled into witty comebacks 101, but you may want to graduate from the course before you try to go up against me, unless you want a repeat of what happened in the hall two days ago. As for Brooke being happy with you as is, well I never thought she had very good taste when it came to picking out ‘partners.’ After Josh, her choices made me wonder if she was channeling Helen Keller for love advice.”
Sam visibly bristled at the mention of the events in the hallway. Deciding against starting another argument, especially since her nerves were still pretty raw when it came to that subject, she flopped down on her bed, removing random objects from the plastic bag and flipping through her notes. She set up all the supplies before looking over at the other girl expectantly. “Are you actually planning on doing any work? If not, you’re free to leave. I have no problems taking all the credit for myself.”
“Relax Tippy, there’s no need to get all after school special,” Nicole responded sitting on the opposite side of Sam’s bed.
The two worked in awkward silence save for Sam reading the instructions. She was strangely aware of the blonde’s proximity and did her best to stay distant. She could tell Nicole was trying to do the same and again Sam wondered how Nicole could have done what she did to bring her and Brooke back together, when it was clear that she loathed Sam with everything she was. Would she do the same for one of her friends? Sam liked to think she would, but she wasn’t so sure. It just seemed so out of character for Nicole. As far as Sam could see, the blonde didn’t stand to gain anything from the union. So that couldn’t be it. Sam hadn’t written a scathing article on the blondes in over a year and she didn’t have dirt on her arch nemesis, at least nothing concrete anyway. And as far she knew, Brooke hadn’t gone to her friend for help. Maybe it was like Nicole said. Maybe she’d done it simply out of loyalty to her friend. Brooke kept saying Nicole had changed a lot since the accident and maybe she had. Sam wondered if she was guilty of letting her biases get in the way of her ability to see both sides.
Nic suddenly standing moving across the room broke through her thoughts. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking a break. I can only handle being that close to you in small intervals. As it stands I’m probably going to have to burn this outfit when I go home. I’m sure being in your room for this long has caused it to reek of loser.”
Sam rolled her eyes and returned to her work as the blonde looked through her bookcase. They had so much to do still and she had other homework to do, leave it to Nicole to waste what little time she had to spare. She ignored the little criticisms the other girl threw in her direction as she pieced together the complicated data for the project. It was when she looked up to find the blonde holding the copy of her father’s award winning article that she nearly leaped off the bed. Only there was a look in Nicole’s eyes that kept her rooted in her spot.
“You were really close with him weren’t you?” The blonde asked, completely throwing the journalist.
The brunette nodded slowly. “Yeah, we were.”
“When I was younger, I used to wish my father and I were close, but he was always ‘away on business.’ Then when I was thirteen, I had my driver take me to his office and I found out just what sort of ‘business’ that meant.”
Sam sat in stunned silence, unable to process this new bit of information and not sure why she’d been privy to it. She couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to walk in on something like that. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, not sure of what else to say.
Nicole smiled ruefully, putting article back on the shelf. “Don’t be. I’m not.” She moved away from shelf and sat back down on the bed. “Let’s get this finished. I’m starting to go blind from all the clashing colors in this room.”
The journalist nodded, happy that they’d retreated back to neutral territory.
“Oh and Mucky, if you leak any word of what I just said, I’ll make sure they can’t find the body.”
_______________________________________________
Brooke found Sam asleep among her books and notes, pen still in her hand. She chuckled at the scene walking in and cleaning up the mess before shaking the brunette awake. Brown eyes opened immediately, blinking rapidly in confusion. When she saw that it was Brooke that had woken her, she offered the blonde a sleepy smile.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Brooke returned with a smile of her own. She brushed the dark, unruly locks out of Sam’s face as she sat next to her. “How’d it go?”
Sam’s lips quirked at the question. “Well, there was no bloodshed,” she answered as she sat up.
“That bad, huh?” Brooke moved to lie down, bringing Sam with her. She pulled the brunette closer, wrapping her arm around her waist.
“Actually, it wasn’t that bad.”
Surprise coursed through the blonde. When Glass had announced the project in class, Brooke had known it had the potential to be disastrous, especially given what had happened between the two just days ago. So she’d been reluctant to keep her plans with her friends thinking she should go home and play referee. “No?”
“Nope. How about you? How was shopping?”
“It was great, though Mary Cherry almost got us kicked out of La Perla for trying to shoplift one of the mannequins. I feel like we hit every sale within a thirty-mile radius on foot. Did you miss me?”
“Uh huh,” Sam replied in a distracted tone. Brooke worried that maybe she’d fallen asleep again, but as she peered over the brunette’s shoulder to see her face, she could see Sam was distracted.
“Hey, is everything okay?”
Sam turned to look at her. “Yeah, everything’s fine.”
“You just seem distracted.”
“Oh,” Sam said, looking away thoughtfully. “No everything’s fine. I guess I’m just out of it.”
“Oh…” Brooke laid her head back on the bed, absentmindedly stroking Sam’s hipbone.
“Did you know that Nicole walked in on her father cheating on her mother when she was thirteen?”
Brooke frowned, thrown by the sudden question. “What? No, I didn’t know that.” She lightly grasped her girlfriend’s shoulder, turning the brunette to face her. “How did you find that out?”
“She told me.”
Brooke sputtered. Of all the ways she’d thought Sam had come across the information, it certainly hadn’t crossed her mind that it could have come from the source herself. “She told you?”
“Yeah, it was…weird. So unNicolelike, I’m still not sure why she told me.”
“Hmm…that is weird.” Brooke frowned. What was going on with her best friend lately?
“Yeah…”Sam said as she stifled a yawn.
The blonde chuckled. She leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on the journalist’s lips before moving to stand.
“Hey, where are you going?” Sam asked, grabbing hold of her hand.
“To my room so you can go to bed.”
“No, stay with me tonight. It’s been a while since I’ve fallen asleep in your arms.”
Brooke smiled, feeling her heart swell. She moved back to her previous position. Their lips met in a tender but passionate kiss before Sam moved back slightly, laying her head on Brooke’s shoulder. “I love you, Brooke.”
“I love you, too.”