Cinderellas

Cinderellas Chapter Fourteen (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…you are now a macro, lol. Readers/Reviewers: Sorry my updating has been so slow lately. Seems like I got thrown off rhythm! But *glomp * Thanks!!!


Have you ever been in an accident? I mean, a really bad one. You can feel the car start to skid, hear the tires squealing, but everything is going so slow and you just think “Wow. I guess this is going to be really painful…” Then as soon as everything starts to crunch and the world speeds up, you can’t think anymore and all you are is sound and feeling. Now apply that to prom.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Bobby hissed, on his feet like a shot beside me. “And where’d that dress come from, Rahne?”
“Time and place, Bobby,” St John muttered, rising more calmly but looking furious. “Rahne, what’re you doing here?”
I knew I was tomato red all over. I was embarrassed for thinking Jubilee wanted to make up like this—I should’ve known better. “I…I got a message to meet someone here…” Tabby was prattling on in the background like some great hen, talking about class favorites and just generally babbling, thinking she was cool or something. “I have to go!” I ducked around Jubilee and Bobby and felt St John’s fingers brush against my arm as he tried to grab me, but I was too quick. I was halfway across the empty floor, everyone having returned to their seats in the best sheep style of high school students, and I felt everyone staring at me. I told myself if I cried, I’d kill someone.
“Whoa, wait just a second!” Tabby’s irritating voice bellowed through the PA system. “Rahne Sinclair, here, is actually the subject of our little presentation…”
I froze. I wanted to snap off a witty retort, something about how she’d been watching Carrie one too many times or something, but all I could do was turn around and glare at her. People knew the rumors. I could hear the whispers. I saw Kitty moving towards the stage, followed by Kurt. Jean was already making wild gesticulations over by Principal Kelly and Jubilee was click-clacking her way across the parquet floor to stand next to me. Tabby made a motion to someone behind me and the screen they were going to project the stupid “Senior Memories” slide show dropped down and the first picture came up.
“This is Rahne in the library, being such a good girl,” Tabby sing-songed. The picture clicked. I wondered why Kelly was just letting this play out because, by now, the buzz of voices was loud and Jean’s snarling demands were clearly heard by all, telling him to shut it down, make Tabby get off the stage. I think I even heard the word lawsuit. The next picture came up. I felt the color drain from my face as I saw the now-semi-infamous picture of Jubilee and I kissing in the AV room. Whatever Tabby said was lost in the rush of blood in my ears. I had no idea what I thought was going to happen and I didn’t want to wait and see. I spun on my heels and ran, nearly tripping over my damned shoes. I kicked them off and kept running, out of the cacophony of the ballroom, Jubilee’s shouts at the Brotherhood, everything. I ran down the carpeted hallway leading to the hotel lobby, across the (for Bayville) massive foyer and to the fire exit on the opposite side. I didn’t cry until I made it outside. The graveled drive hurt my feet and the straps on my dress were slipping off my arms as I finally came to a stop at the edge of the parking lot, dropping to sit on one of those concrete bumper things. I hated myself for crying, I hated myself more for running. I did not honestly think the entire school would turn out to be some sort of secret homophobic tribe but the sight of Jubilee and me, so happy and intimate, splashed up there like some joke. Part of it was missing her so much and being so torn about her breaking up with me, and part of it was sheer frustration. I hated whoever had driven us to this and I hated Tabby for being so bitchy and gleeful. “I’m going to fucking kill the Brotherhood,” I muttered to myself. “All by my self…rip them to shreds then stomp on the shreds…”
“That would hurt.”
Great. One of ‘em had caught me crying. “Fuck of, Pietro, or I’ll get an early start.” I didn’t look up at him but I leaned back. He was standing too close to me.
“You didn’t meet me at eight.” He sounded so plaintive I nearly choked.
“You?” I snapped to attention then, in a manner of speaking. He was towering over me, looking a little sad, his hands stuffed in his pockets, not quite meeting my eyes. “You fucking bastard!” I lunged at him and he let me. He just stood there and let me hit him. My knuckles cracked as they struck his jaw and I thought I broke a finger. He just stood there, though, and let me do it. He didn’t try to run or even duck, even though he could have easily evaded me.
“I’m not so good with girls, I guess,” he finally said. “I could’ve done this better.”
“You fucking blackmailed us, fucking ruined our relationship…what the Hell are you playing at?” I was hysterical and he knew it. I was close to hyperventilating again, my breath coming in short wheezing gasps as I faced him down.
“Tabby blackmailed. Todd got the pictures, really. She thought it’d be funny to fuck with you guys like this when she…” He finally looked at me then. “She figured out I have a thing for you.”
“You…” It all sank in. “The dress, the note…you.” I sat down again, hard. “I’m a fucking idiot.”
“You thought it was Jubilee,” he sighed. “Yeah, I kind of thought maybe you would.” His jaw was swelling a little and I could tell he was checking to see if any teeth were loose with the tip of his tongue. “I’m not so good with this…”
I knew it could go one of two ways now. I could stand up, forgive him, slap him on the shoulder and say it’s in the past or I could do what I really felt. I went with the latter. I rose slowly, my aching fingers curling into the front of his jacket. “If I see you or your little slimeball friends within ten feet of us ever again, I’m ripping your throats out.” I bared my teeth and growled at him, shaking him just a little. “You’ve ruined what Jubilee and I had together and nothing you or I can do will fix it. Come Monday, everyone in school who didn’t know already will know about me and her and our lives will most likely be even more of a Hell than they already are.”
“Rahne,” he gasped as I realized I was choking him a little.
“Shut the fuck up, Pietro. Keep your friends away from us or I’ll make you wish your skinny ass was never born!” I dropped him, turning my back on him and heading for the field bordering the hotel. I would turn to wolf form in the high grass and be home by midnight.


A/N It’ll allllllllllll be better in chapter 15