CHAPTER 58
Serena moped as she walked along the street.
"Take a walk, Luna said, heh...like this is helping at all," Serena muttered passing a large sign that said "DO YOU HAVE TROUBLE WITH YOUR RELATIONSHIP?"
Serena noticing the sign out of the corner of her eye walked for about another quarter mile, before turning and dashing back to the sign.
"Nationally renowned romance counselor Bert Gyric, will deliver a speech on
how to make relationships work and then field questions from the audience..."
Serena read. "That's just what I need. I'll ask him what to do about it."
At their usual restaurant, Steve and Lita sat across from each other sipping some drinks.
"I'm glad you came," Lita said.
"Sure, I think I'm thinking along the same lines you are," Steve said.
"Right...maybe..it's time we faced the facts....that..right now..we're not very romantic..but..that..maybe someday..it'll happen," Lita said. "I mean I like being with you a lot."
"Me too," Steve said.
"So...maybe...we should...just wing it," Lita said.
"Wing it? That's a good term," Steve said.
"Yeah..well..let's go to the hockey games and let's enjoy it. I mean..what have we got to lose?"
"Well as long as we don't run into anyone that looks like your old boyfriend we should be fine," Steve said.
"Yeah," Lita said. "Wait a minute..do you think I would just run off with the first person I saw who looked like that."
"You came after me didn't you?"
"Uh...well...that took some thought," Lita muttered.
"Sure it did," Steve said.
"Hey...we don't have to do this you know.."
"Okay, okay," Steve said.
"So..now that we're back together, what do we do?"
"Go to the video arcade of course."
"Oh..Steve..what a wonderful idea," Lita said dreamily. "It'll be such a special evening."
"Uh..right.." Steve said. She's delusional. This can't be good.
"Rick..It's good to see you," Raye said as her former boyfriend said in the doorway of her room.
"Yeah..well make it quick," Rick said.
"I'm sorry," Raye said. "I should have stayed loyal to you all along. I shouldn't have....done what I did."
"Easy for you to say now that Chad's gone. It narrows your options," Rick said.
"Hey! I'm trying to make up with you," Raye said.
"Too bad. I think you need to grow up a little. Come and see me in a year," Rick said.
"But Rick."
"I don't need a girl who can be blown into another man's arms by a slight breeze," Rick said. Wow..that's a cool term...what am I saying? I'm angry here. He thought.
"But Rick...I realize my mistake," Raye said.
"Well good, then you maybe you won't make it again, but you certainly won't
make it with me," Rick said and turned and walked away. Raye began to cry again.
And in their secluded spot near the water, Mike and Mina sat.
"All right, Mike, you've been avoiding kissing me for a while...I mean I can understand being nervous...but.." Mina began.
"No it's not that Mina..it's..."
"Great another problem...you don't have another sister do you?"
"No Mina, it's just that..when I was young, my sister...the one in prison now...kissed me all the time, I've sort of got this phobia now..I was just...scared of it."
"Well...I won't bit Mike."
"She did...ahem...I know that Mina..it's just these phobias are hard to get rid of."
"Yeah..well...can't you at least try it."
"Maybe...but we've got to do it quickly."
"Okay."
"I mean..I can't have time to think about it," Mike said and began to sweat.
"Fine," Mina said.
"So..don't wait," Mike said.
"Aw..geez," Mina said and grabbed him and gave him a kiss. Mike's eyes widened. Then it ended.
"Woah," Mike said and feinted.
"Hey..I'm the one who's supposed to feint," Mina snapped. "You are such an
absurd person Mike. Still..you've gotta heckuva kiss!"
Later that day Serena arrived at the auditorium where the lecture was to be held. She saw that a large number of women and men, mostly older than her were filing in, some together, some alone.
"Hmm...I'm surprised that the rest of the guys aren't here..they could probably use this kind of thing," Serena said and walked inside. She saw Bert Gyric standing at the stage waiting, and more and more people were coming in.
I hope they don't have bigger problems then I do. Serena thought.
The speech Gyric gave was nothing special. Love each other....show mutual respect all that stuff Serena didn't care about. She had that down to a science. And she didn't notice it. Then came the time to ask questions. About seventy people, Serena included, stood up and bolted towards the microphones positioned around the arena.
"Please...be calm..." Gyric said. People began to ask their questions. Serena had managed to be third in one of the lines. Various questions were asked, and Gyric seemed to have an answer for all of them.
"You don't have to tell your husband everything."
"So buy a compact car, who needs a sports car anyway?"
"Hmm....well...see if the hamster can live somewhere else for the time being."
Then it was Serena's turn. She coughed a bit and suppressed her nervousness and then...Axseon and his cohorts ran into the room and started flinging energy at people. Serena dropped to the floor.
Pretend I'm stunned and maybe they'll go away. Serena thought as she heard the screams of the other people being attacked.
Wait a minute. I'm supposed to fight. I can't let anything get in the way of that. Or at least not now anyway. She slowly opened her eyes to see if anyone was watching. As it turned out Cletus, the Hyena creature was looking right at her.
"Well...look who's awake," Cletus said. "Sleep well?"
"Shut up!" Serena yelled angrily and bolted upward jumping right at Cletus and hitting him in the face.
I just charged a human-animal thing in human form. This anger must be making me crazy. She thought and dashed out the door. Cletus whirled.
"What happened?" Axseon said.
"One of the girls was faking it. She attacked me and fled out the door," The hyena creature said.
"Well...follow her....and make up for your mistake."
"My mistake?" The Hyena snapped.
"Go!" Axseon yelled and didn't want to bother explaining that since they were drawing energy out in segments, people shouldn't be falling asleep from one blast.
Cletus hurried out.
"We've completed stage one. All of the humans are partially drained," Dexseon.
"Continue to draw out the energy. The rest of you come with me!," Axseon
said. "I'm curious about a girl who would just attack him right off the bat,"
Axseon said. Axseon, Serpetan, and Infernon were soon heading out the door.
"Moon Crystal...." Serena began to shout holding up her compact.
"HAH!" Shouted Cletus behind her.
She whirled around.
"Heh heh...take this!" Cletus shouted and laughed sending energy waves blasting out of his mouth towards her. She dived awkwardly out of the way and the blasts hit the wall farther down the hall.
The Hyena creature advanced.
"What's with you little girl? Why do you fight me so much?" he asked.
"You don't want to know!" Serena shouted and as if on complete instinct pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall and removed the pin.
"Hah...like that will do any good. Go ahead...try it," Cletus said.
"Okay," Serena said and threw the extinguisher. It hit the surprised creature in the head and knocked him to the ground. Serena hurried down the hall again.
"What happened?" Axseon demanded hurrying around the corner.
"I'm going to annihilate that girl!" Cletus shouted standing up.
"Looks like the hyena here isn't as good as he thought," Infernon said.
"I'll show all of you," Cletus said and followed Serena down the hall. The other three followed. They reached a narrow corridor adjoining the auditorium. It had a large patch of darkness at the end of it where no one had turned on the lights.
"We'll have to move in twos," Axseon said.
"I've got the lead," the Cletus said and started walking. The Axseon walked along with him. Infernon and Serpetan were right after them.
A golden disk flew from the darkness and cut into the hyena's arm. It shouted in pain.
"Hello boys," came a female voice.
"I recognize that voice!" Axseon shouted and started firing their blasts of energy down the corridor.
"Hmm....you missed," came the voice again.
"We'll see about that," Serpetan shouted and lunged forward quickly down the hall. A few seconds later he came hurrying back the way he came a scar embedded on part of his skin.
"Hmm...she has a sword too," he muttered.
"I'll handle this!" Infernon shouted and blasted a wave of flame down the hallway. The flame lit up the darkness revealing that Sailor Moon wasn't even standing there. She peeked out from behind a wall.
"Hello again," she said.
"How about we just rush her!" Cletus shouted and dashed forward. The others followed. Sailor Moon stabbed her moon sword out and caught the Hyena in the leg, he fell to the ground, but Axseon and lunged at her, she stumbled out of the way and ran down the hall. They followed now, with plenty of room to run.
Sailor Moon hurriedly glanced behind her. Three energy attacks came surging at her. She screamed and slid around a turn. Three four creatures followed. Sailor Moon dashed out the door and into the park area beyond. Three creatures kept coming.
I've gotta get away. She thought.
The three roses stuck into the ground in front of the creatures. They stopped quickly. Standing at the top of a tree was none other than Tuxedo Mask.
"Ahh...geez..not that imbecile," Serpetan hissed.
"Our mission's been accomplished, we'll continue this fight later," Axseon said and the three hurried back the way they came.
"Nice of you to show up," Sailor Moon snapped. Tuxedo Mask jumped out of the tree and landed in front of her.
"I'm sorry.." Tuxedo Mask said.
"For what?" Sailor Moon snapped again.
"What do you mean what? For hiding from you like I did."
"Oh...that..right." Sailor Moon said. With the battle and all, her mind wasn't very focused.
"Sailor Moon....I.." Tuxedo Mask began as a sirens began to wail in the distance.
"We need to talk somewhere, but not here," Tuxedo Mask said.
"Fine....let's go," Sailor Moon said.
Soon they were standing on a pier that Darrien liked to frequent quite often. They were both back in human form.
"Before we go to far with this, let me tell you the truth and then we'll talk about what a jerk I've been okay?" Darrien asked.
"Fine talk," Serena said indignantly.
Darrien began.
Minutes later his story was almost complete.
"So...you met when you were in your first year of high school?" Serena, now calm, said.
"Yes...she was an orphan too...so we had something in common, but we didn't date....we were just very good friends sharing a common bond," Darrien said. "But after that year, she disappeared....but then she called me up last fall, and asked for my help. Apparently she was having all sorts of trouble moving into a house of hers. So I went, sure we ate out, and sure I lived there, but it was only as friends. Serena, you know I wouldn't cheat on you," Darrien said.
"Well...I'm open minded on matters like this," Serena said. "As in, I'll believe anything is possible."
"I don't blame you," Darrien said and laughed. "Serena...once again I've gone and let you down and I'm very sorry. The truth is that Ellie is a good friend of mine, a friend I worry about hurting as much as I worry about hurting you. So..I wasn't sure how to go about doing what I'm about to do. Serena..I love you," Darrien said. "And I always will."
He stopped and looked at her. She looked at him as expecting something more.
"What?" he asked.
"That's all?" Serena asked.
"Isn't that enough?"
"Somehow...I just don't think it is," Serena said. "Considering the anguish you put me through."
"I know...but I mean what I say," Darrien said.
"You'd better," Serena said.
"Would you like me to prove it?"
"Sure."
Darrien gave her a hug.
"That's not enough," Serena said with a smile.
"Oh, I get it," Darrien said and the two kissed.
"But what are you going to tell Ellie?" Serena asked.
"The truth," Darrien said and sighed.
"I hope so," Serena said.
"Ellie must think that I'm her boyfriend. I'll have to set her straight."
"You'd better," Serena said seriously.
"Don't worry," Darrien said. "But she can be easily hurt. I have to tell her carefully."
"Do it anyway you want. Just as long as you do it," Serena said not caring in the least for Ellie's feelings. Ellie was the delusional one, not her.
"Serena..I'm sorry I had to put you through this. I swear I'll set things right," Darrien said.
Serena nodded.
"Now I just have to explain to the scouts why I let them down those few times," she said.
"We're both going to have
"Where have you been Darrien? I've been looking all over for you these past few days" Ellie said standing outside Darrien's apartment as he walked towards it.
"Uh...why don't you come in Ellie, I need to talk to you" Darrien said nervously and unlocking the door.
"I know what this is about...you were worried about upsetting your little schoolgirl friend and so you took some time to think about things, but now you're here to tell me how much you love me right?" Ellie said falling into a trap others had fallen into before.
"Actually Ellie. I already talked to Serena and told her the truth..and that I loved her," Darrien said.
"Darrien...I've always liked your sense of humor, but....I don't think it's appropriate.
"Ellie don't get into denial, I'm not your boyfriend, I'm just a good friend of yours. Serena and I have been together for over a year now," Darrien said.
"What?" Ellie said.
"I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea Ellie. I really am," Darrien said.
"You jerk! You lead me on!" Ellie said.
"Ellie I didn't!"
"Don't try to blame me for your two-timing problems!" Ellie said and slapped him. Darrien didn't try to stop her. She then turned and stormed out of his room beginning to sob.
"Ellie! Wait!" Darrien shouted knowing full well it was probably useless. He followed her out the door. Ellie hurried down the stairs. He kept going. A rain was falling as she hurried out of the lobby and into the night. Darrien stopped at the door and merely watched her.
It always rains at times like this. He thought and turned away.
CHAPTER 51 CHAPTER 52 CHAPTER 53 CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55 CHAPTER 56 CHAPTER 57 CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59 CHAPTER 60 CHAPTER 61 CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63 CHAPTER 64 CHAPTER 65