Behind Closed Doors

[swfc]

Loved the flashback. Thank goodness there was a flashback. Altho, I didn't see that one coming at all.

Aw, Clare's so forward..... No wonder.... Heehee... Update soon, Alison.

[allibaz91]

Lol thanks swfc, much appreciated! The flashback does drag on a bit though I'm afraid *blushes* I got kind of carried away with it lol

I'll update later today if i get a chance

[allibaz91]

Lol here we go - I dont think I'll be online for the next couple of days so I'm updating now!

Sorry the flashback does drag on, but it will all make sense later on

Chapter 11

Peter and his ‘mystery girl,’ as she was then, had spent the next five minutes or so in the empty room, making out passionately. But just when he was getting comfortable with her, she pulled away from him. At first he was worried he might have upset her, but his fears had been unfounded. She had smiled shyly – for the first time, she didn’t seem so sure of herself; she wasn’t over-confident; she didn’t take charge. Instead, she took a step back, looking him up and down, still with that bashful smile on her face. She then held out a perfectly manicured hand and looked him properly in the eye.

“I’m Clare,” she had said, smiling. “Clare Brody. It’s nice to meet you.” He had been more than a little puzzled, but she had seemed so genuine he had ignored it.

“Peter Baker,” he had said, even though she already knew more about him than he had realised. He grasped her hand, and felt his stomach lurch at the sensation. This was more than just a physical attraction – he knew just from that handshake, there was something special going on here. His whole arm tingled at being this close to her; touching her – even though they had just kissed, this seemed like a monumental moment for them. There was a connection – she had felt it too, he was sure.

“Listen, I …” Clare had said quietly. “I’m sorry. For how I acted – I know you must think I’m some kind of a scrag, but I’m not like that – I’ve never done anything like this before, seriously. And I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t … well, you know, don’t be a guy.”

“Don’t be a guy?” Peter had repeated, laughing. “That’s going to be difficult, I’m afraid.”

“No!” she had said, also laughing at herself. “No, just don’t … well, you know better than I do what guys are like. You’ll go and tell all your friends about the skank, who doesn’t care about anything but – well, that – and I’ll get a bad rep a week in. I’m saying, I’d prefer you didn’t, because that’s not who I am, really, and I don’t even know why I did it –”

“Hey …” he had finally understood. “I would never – I mean, that’s not … I wasn’t planning on telling anybody about it. I mean, whose business is it except ours?”

She had been shocked, to put it mildly. Then she had smiled shyly again – she was so cute when she got embarrassed – and she had kissed him softly for just a moment.

“Thank you,” was all she had said after that. She had smiled into his eyes, sparking off fireworks in his mind, and then she had given him a swift peck on the cheek, and was gone. Just like that – she had turned and left the room in almost silence, closing the door behind her. And that was that. He had tried to follow her, but by the time he had gotten outside she had done one of her famous disappearing acts …

“G’day, mate.” Peter’s roommate, Eric, had greeted him casually as he arrived in their room after searching in vain for Clare for almost two hours. He hadn’t heard him.

“Pete!” Eric had said, jolting Peter out of his daydream. He had to find her somehow.

“Huh? Oh, uh, sorry, I was somewhere else,” Peter had replied distractedly.

“So I see. Anywhere nice?” Eric had joked, throwing dirty clothes in a laundry bag.

“You have no idea …” had been the reply. Eric clearly noticed Peter’s strange behaviour, as he stopped what he was doing and looked his new friend up and down suspiciously.

“Ah,” he had said a few moments later. “It’s a girl. Man, you don’t waste any time.”

“What makes you think it’s a girl?” Peter had gotten defensive – he had promised Clare he wouldn’t tell anybody about their little rendezvous, and he intended to keep his promise.

“Hey, I wasn’t criticizing,” Eric had assured him quickly. “But it’s obvious – you’re acting weird, and you have a goofy smile on your face, and there’s no way it’s about school.”

“Well, it’s nothing really,” Peter had lied quickly. But he had never been a good liar – Eric had seen right through that.

“Yeah, right,” he said, as there was a knock at the door. “Oh, my sister’s coming over to meet me – would you mind grabbing that while I get rid of these clothes?”

“No problem,” Peter had said, glad of the change of topic. Eric disappeared into his room with his laundry, and Peter had opened the door, only to find Clare standing there. She had smiled widely at the sight of him, and bit her lip shyly.

“Peter Baker,” she had said, smiling. “Fancy running into you here.”

“You’re funny,” he had replied. “Listen, I know you wanted to keep all this private, so I should probably warn you, my roommate’s just there, and he’s expecting his sister …”

“Clare!”

Peter had turned around, surprised, as Eric had come through the main room to the door and embraced Clare happily, who looked a little embarrassed but continued to smile.

“It’s so good to see you again!” Eric had said, grinning. Clare had avoided Peter’s eye.

“It’s great to see you too,” she had said in what was clearly a forced tone. Peter looked between the two of them, lost, until Eric interrupted his confused thoughts.

“Pete, mate, I’d like you to meet my sister, Clare.”

[Sarah_Lewis]

Ali that was awesome cant wait for the next update!! =]

[Lilone]

awwww their so sweet.

This just gets better and better

[swfc]

Aw, that was brilliant. Love the flashbacks. Lol... Peter's face must've been funny when he found out about Clare being Eric's sister. Loved that chapter. It was hillarious and sweet in a way.

[allibaz91]

Thanks very much guys, I really appreciate the feedback!!

Chapter 12

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me Eric was your brother!”

“Ex stepbrother, actually, and I didn’t know he was your roommate!” Clare had snapped.

“Oh, this is just perfect …” Peter and Clare were having a whispered but rather heated argument in the living area while Eric took a quick shower – thankfully, he didn’t seem to have picked up on the somewhat awkward vibe between the two of them.

“I don’t see what difference it makes,” Clare said tartly. “It’s nothing to do with him – like you said, whose business is it what goes on with us, except for our own?”

“That was before I realised I was your brother’s roommate! Eric’s a mate – one of the few really good ones I’ve met here, and now I find out you’re his sister!” Peter hissed.

“Okay, first of all, what I do in my personal life has got nothing to do with anybody else, let’s get that clear,” Clare had said, clearly struggling to keep calm. “And second of all, he’s barely even my brother! All right, my mother was married to his father for like, two months, a million years ago, and I didn’t even live there – I was at boarding school. The only reason we’re in touch now is because I ran into him at orientation and we found out we would be going here together, so we figured we should at least try and be mates.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Peter had insisted angrily. “He thinks of you as his sister, and if he finds out about what we’ve been doing, he’ll think I’ve betrayed him! It’s a guy thing – there’s a code, and you can’t go near your mates relatives or exes without their okay!”

“And what exactly have we been doing, Pete?” Clare had gotten angry then. “We kissed, yeah, for like five minutes in an empty lecture room, get over it!”

That had hurt. Peter couldn’t believe what she was saying – she had seemed so nice.

“So that’s it, then? That’s all I ever was to you? Just some random guy who happened to be there in the empty lecture room? What happened to never having done that before?”

“I haven’t! I already gave you my word – the fact that you would even question that –”

“What?” Peter had interrupted. “Shows that I don’t know you? Well guess what – I don’t know you, Clare! That’s the problem! Every time I try and get close to you, you shy away, like you don’t want to know! Excuse me for being a bit confused here!”

“It is not my fault that you have trust issues,” she had snapped. “And yeah, okay, maybe I don’t go around shouting how I feel for everyone to hear, but I also don’t just go around kissing random guys just for the sake of it! And no, to answer your earlier question, that is not all you were to me – I honestly do care for you, and I thought you cared for me too!”

“I do care for you, Clare …” Peter had said, feeling guilty, but she wasn’t listening.

“No, you don’t care for me – or at least, not as much as you do for my stupid brother in there! Maybe we haven’t known each other for long, and maybe I don’t know you very well yet, but the point is I would like to! The point is, I think I could be …” she had stopped.

“You think you could be what?” Peter had asked her quietly, moving closer to her, but she had pulled quickly away from him, shutting down completely.

“You know what, forget I said that,” she had said. “Let’s just pretend this didn’t happen.”

“No, I don’t want to forget it – I’ll tell Eric right now if that’s what it’ll take to show you that I really do care for you too,” he said desperately – surely he hadn’t lost her already?

“Don’t!” she had said, louder than she probably meant to. She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t,” she repeated quietly. “Please. I can’t deal with him right now.”

“Clare, I don’t know about you, but I know I felt something between us – I can’t explain it, but it’s something I’ve never felt before. I don’t want to risk losing that. Please, just … just give me a chance, I’ll do anything. I just want to try this – to see if it really is what I think it is. Don’t throw it away without finding out.”

Clare had looked at the ground, tears in her eyes. He had stroked her cheek softly.

“Peter … we don’t even know one another,” she had tried to reason with him. “I mean, maybe, we could have something – but we’re not losing anything, if we don’t try. You can’t lose something you’ve never had. And I … I’m no good with relationships – I’m moody, I’m demanding, I’m bossy, I’ll never admit when I’m wrong, I won’t apologise after a fight …”

“Who says we’re going to fight?” he had replied, moving nearer to her carefully.

“Are you kidding? We haven’t even had a date yet and we’ve already had our first fight!”

“Well, maybe, but I don’t care. Surely it’s worth finding out if we do have something together, rather than regretting it later? All I’m asking is for a shot – one date.”

She bit her lip, and he saw that she was considering it – she was beginning to weaken.

“One date?” she had repeated, looking unsure. He had smiled encouragingly.

“One date,” he promised. “And, you know, if it doesn’t work out, you can announce to the entire Academy what a fool I’ve been over you. Scout’s honour.”

“You were a Scout?” she had asked, scoffing. He had grinned at that.

“Well, no. But you get my point. But there’s a catch too – if you do have a good time, then you have to give me the chance to take you out again. Come on. What do you have to lose?” She didn’t seem to have any response to that. At least, no verbal response.

She had moved into his arms, kissing him gently on the lips, almost as though she couldn’t help herself. He held her close, kissing her back for a few moments, until she unlocked her lips from his, but didn’t move out of his embrace. As he kissed her face, she replied.

“One date,” she had confirmed. “And we’ll see what happens after that.”

“One date,” he had agreed. “Thank you.” She had closed her eyes and sighed peacefully, and then she had kissed him again tenderly, relaxing in his arms. They had forgotten where they were, or what they had been fighting about – all that mattered then was each other. And they stayed there, wrapped in one another’s arms, in total bliss. Until the peace was shattered; the moment was gone; the silence was broken.

“What the hell is going on here?” Eric demanded.

Next update won't be straight away as I'm back to school tomorrow, but it will be as soon as possible!

[Sarah_Lewis]

Ali that was awesome!! =]] Update again soon

[allibaz91]

Lol thanks very much Sarah_Lewis, I really appreciate all the lveoly comments

It's nice to have faithful readers like you, swfc and Lilone lol

I'm working on the next chapter as we speak - if I finish it soon I may post it tonight

[swfc]

Lol... That's such a classic Peter Baker line!!

That was awesome. I can't wait to see how they explain to Eric about what's happening. It's going to be very, very interesting....

Btw, Alison, anything to do with Peter/Clare, you've definitely got an avid reader here.