Chapter 10

"Come in." Elspeth called, and Shawna poked her head around the door.

"Morning roomy..." she managed with a grin. "How's things this morning?"

"Absolutely fantastic." She giggled in response. "Bri's in the shower, she'll probably be finished in a minute. How was Marcus' couch?"

"Confusing." Shawna admitted, throwing her bag on her bed. "But that's for later... I take it things went well?"

"Oh, Sho', waking up this morning pressed up against someone... it just seems to make last night even better."

"Honey, have you got... Argh!" Briana appeared from the door to the bathroom, naked, then flinched back in when she realised Shawna had arrived.

"Oh God!" Shawna sat stunned as the door slammed shut. "Was... that... fuck!"

"Damn!" Elspeth shot up off the bed, running to the bathroom, which was locked. "Bri? Bri?"

"I'll go, I'll be back later... sorry, El!" she sped up as the door opened, and Briana appeared, this time with a towel wrapped lopsidedly around her chest.

"So now you know." She said, her jaw quivering with suppressed tears.

"I'm sorry, Bri, I thought you heard her come in." Elspeth muttered, wrapping her up in a hug.

"I... I don't know what to say." Shawna offered, staring anywhere but at her chest. "Um... you'd never know... you know... normally..."

"I've had lots of practice covering it up."

"I should go... let you get dressed." Shawna carried on towards the door, but Briana grabbed her wrist.

"It's your room... I can dressed in the bathroom. I just... it's not you, OK. I just... it feels awkward when anyone finds out. I pushed El away at first..."

"Oh, that was what that was all about."

"Part of it, yeah... but, well, I mean Tony knows, and Marcus. It was going to come out eventually, the amount of time we spend around each other."

"Was it... an accident?"

"No... cancer."

"How did Marcus take you telling him?"

"He was amazing." Elspeth cut in. "She had a hospital appointment, he gave her a lift and stayed with her through everything, perfect gentleman throughtout."

"He's just too fucking perfect, isn't he." Shawna felt guilt driving tears out. "Even after his mum he can still do that..."

"His mum?" Bri stopped at the door to the bathroom with her clothes. "What's his mum got to do with it?"

"She died from breast cancer, about eight years ago." Briana went white. "Oh, he didn't even tell you, did he?" She shook her head. "Damn that bloody... oh, why can't he fuck something up just once?"

"Why?" Elspeth asked, trying to laugh in the face of the tension, hoping to dispel it.

"Because then I wouldn't feel so bad when I do." Shawna flopped down on her bed, her good mood from the morning gone.

"Look, I should go round there later," Briana said, after a moment, a little colour returning. "I didn't know... I owe him more thanks than I knew."

"He won't care... fucking Saint Marcus."

"Well... I think I'll go anyway..." she decided, closing the door with a confused look to Elspeth.

"Sho', you're not making a hell of a lot of sense, you know." She sat down on the edge of Shawna's bed. "What's going on?"

"I gave in, alright. I slept with Hope this morning... I... I knew he liked her."

"He does? Wow... I didn't think there was ever going to be anyone but you."

"Well there isn't now, is there..."

"What happened?" Briana reappeared, having dressed quickly, and Shawna clammed up.

"You know if you tell me I'll just go and tell her later." Elspeth pointed out, and Bri nodded, not entirely sympathetic.

"What have you done?" Bri asked, taking a seat in the easy chair.

"Exactly what you no doubt expected, Bri..." she began, and then went on to relate the previous evening, and that morning.

"Well... it doesn't sound like Hope was going to give Marcus much of a chance." Elspeth pointed out, though Briana still looked vaguely disapproving.

"I know, Bri..." Shawna told her without needing to look. "I've been telling myself the same thing all morning..."

"Well, inadvertently, you might just have saved him some trouble." Briana finally managed, with a shrug. "If she's that... mercurial... I'm not sure how Marcus would handle her."

"Thanks, Bri." Shawna managed. "It doesn't actually help at all, but... thanks... It should still have been her choice."

"Actually, this time, it sounds like it was Hope's choice."

"That doesn't make me feel any better either."

"Well, if you're going to carry around this guilt with you, it's going to strain things with you and Hope."

"I'm not sure there is anything with me and Hope, that's half the problem." Shawna rolled over to face them, the tears stopped, and a more serious expression. "She's... she's gorgeous, you know that, and she's got incredible fingers."

"Ewww!" Elspeth grimaced. "Too much information, OK... no details." Briana giggled and rubbed her back with a shrug for Shawna — she didn't understand that squeamishness either.

"Last night she was... amazing. Sexy, smart, funny, quick... this morning she's, I dunno... harder, sharper. Claws and teeth rather than warm and fuzzy."

"So ask her to tone it down."

"You don't ask someone to change to suit you... you go out and find someone that suits you."

"There has to be compromise somewhere," Briana argued. "No-one's perfect. I'm going to have to have a word with El' here about her biting... she's got incredibly sharp teeth, you know. I'm sure I've got teeth-marks on..."

"BRIANA!!!!" Elspeth turned scarlet, slapping her arm, and Bri and Shawna both laughed.

"Seriously... don't ask her to change how she feels, ask her to change how she acts... a lot of Hope's aggression is fear masquerading as strength."

"You think?"

"I remember it well, I do it myself." She admitted.

"You should stay over more often." Shawna decided. "You're so much nicer today than you are normally."

"That's not me staying over," Bri admitted. "That's recognising signs of you caring about someone other than yourself."

"I do!"

"I know... but I hadn't really seen it before... this thing with Hope and Marcus is getting to you, though..."

"It is... He is so frustrating. I wish he could just go out there and find someone else, you know. It's... I know it sounds like I'm whining about me, but I don't want to be responsible for that much... devotion, you know. I'm not perfect, I'm not worth all that. Why can't he just open his eyes and find someone who is worth that sort of worship?"

"Like Hope?" Elspeth asked.

"No, no I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Just... she's — it's not because I want her for myself, you understand?" Elspeth nodded, but it was Briana that spoke.

"Is it because Hope's obviously not worthy either if she'll go with you?"

"Well, if she's willing to tease him like that, then drop him on a moment's notice, you know... yeah, he deserves better than that."

"Like who?" Elspeth wondered.

"I don't know... I don't know anyone who might... Lorraine, maybe? Corrine?"

"Lorraine's got a crush on Tony." Elspeth interjected. "We could talk to Corrine, though... she's nice."

"She's twee." Briana interjected. "She's got no sense of humour, she's got no real personality at all."

"I liked her." Shawna put in. "She's a bit quiet, but... I'm with Elspeth, I think she's nice."

"Quiet?" Elspeth looked back and forth between them both. "Is she quiet with you two?"

"I've not spoken to her much," Briana put in, "just the few times she meets you guys at hockey on the way to choir."

"Same here," Shawna commented. "She's in my ethics class, we sometimes talk, but not much."

"Hmmm."

"I know that 'hmmm'." Briana leant forward. "That's the 'I know something you don't know' hmmm."

"Well..." Elspeth began, picking imaginary bits of lint from her trousers, "the only other person Corrine's been quiet around is Phil Thompson."

"Didn't they date for a while?"

"Yeah... it seems Corrine always gets tongue-tied around people she's attracted to."

"Wow... we keep trying to set Marcus up with all the bi- girls." Shawna pointed out, with a giggle.

"Who else do we know?" Briana explained.

"So, Corrine, then?"

"Yep." Briana agreed, and Elspeth nodded.

"Are you going to come round with us, see Marcus?" Elspeth asked.

"No... if I start crying it's just going to be awkward for him if I try to explain it in front of everyone... I'll talk to him later, when it's just the two of us. I think Tony'll appreciate the space, too. I'm not sure he'll be there yet, anyway, he goes ice-dancing on a Sunday morning."

"OK... we'll see you later. Cheer up, yeah." Elspeth patted her arm as she stood, and she and Briana left her to her contemplations.

"What did you make of that?" Elspeth asked, as they reached the stairwell.

"I never realised she was so... insecure." Briana seemed astonished. "There's... I don't know how it works in her head. She doesn't think she deserves anything, but then puts on this big 'God I'm wonderful' act every time she goes out. I don't know if she's arrogant, paranoid or what..."

"We could ask someone doing psych, but that list consists of Shawna, for me."

"And Corinne."

"Yeah, and Corrine... we needed to talk to her anyway."

"Later, though. You'll see her at choir today, won't you?"

"Yeah... listen... do you think we should be interfering like this?"

"With Marcus?"

"Yeah... I mean... I'd like to see him happy, too, but... he kind of has to make his own choices, doesn't he?"

"He will be. We're just... improving his selection. We're not forcing him into anything..."

"OK."

"You came." Marcus seemed genuinely surprised as he saw Tony, Elspeth and Briana claim their seats in the front row of the sparsely populated stand.

"Well, to be honest, we didn't know it was even on until we saw Tony on his way out this morning." Elspeth said, looking around. "Um... I know this is going to sound stupid, but... Where's the ice?"

"You wanted a drink?" Marcus seemed confused.

"No... Tony said you were competing today."

"Yes." He admitted, hesitantly. "I shouldn't need ice, I'm not in the contact bouts until this afternoon."

"Contact bouts?" Briana joined the confusion. "Shawna said you were ice dancing?"

"Ah..."

"Ice dancing?" Tony cut in. "Dude, you told me this was jujitsu — I came to see someone get their arse kicked, not frozen."

"It's jujitsu, Tony, I promise you."

"So... what's going on?"

"Jujitsu competition. Kata sequences this morning — that's my specialty — and then one-on-one and team sparring competition this afternoon."

"And where exactly does ice-dancing come into this?" Elspeth wondered.

"I took this up back at home about two years three month... a little over two years ago. Shawna saw me on my way out, checked on the board to see what was on, and got it into her head that I was ice-dancing — it was the only thing on the board she could imagine me doing."

"And you didn't set her straight?"

"She seemed really enthusiastic about it, so..."

"And she still doesn't know?"

"I figured she'd have guessed by now, but... apparently not. Listen, I have to go get changed, I'll see you guys later. Thanks for coming." He made his way off somewhere beneath the stand to the changing area.