Scandals and Candles Part II (standard:romance, 6182 words)
Author: Noralee	Added: Oct 23 2001	Views/Reads: 5041/3612	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Derek steps into the bathroom while Janie stands trembling in her towel...what happens next?

What happened next took much shorter time to actually happen than to
tell about it. 

Janie’s eyes widened. 

Derek didn’t make a sound.  He came toward her. 

Janie should’ve been thinking. She should’ve been contemplating using
the plunger as a club, thinking about how to dodge Derek and get out 
the door and into a room with a door she could lock.  She should’ve 
been calculating how to aim a knee at his groin. 

But she wasn’t.  Janie’s thoughts were not forming themselves into
words.  She was aware of nothing, nothing except Fear.  Cold, strong, 
overwhelming fear that had her whole mind in its grasp. 

She backed away and soon felt the freezing cold white tiles on her back.
 She pressed as close as she could into the wall, her palms, fingers 
spread, on it.  She began to tremble. 

Derek came even closer.  He came toward her until his chest was almost
touching hers, their eyes locked.  His hands went to the wall on either 
side of her. 

Janie’s head went back until it was pressing onto the wall, so hard it
hurt. 

During this entire time, a span of no more than six or seven seconds,
neither of them had made a sound.  Involuntarily, Janie whispered, so 
quietly Derek would never have heard her if he were more than half a 
centimeter away, “No,”.  The two letters were separated slightly by a 
shudder. 

Almost instantly, Derek seemed to wake up.  He stepped back so quickly
it scared her.  He kept backing up.  “Janie, I’m so sorry.  I’m really 
sorry.”  He slipped out the door and closed it. 

Janie stayed where she was, leaning against the wall.  She realized she
hadn’t breathed in the last few seconds and exhaled, her eyes closed. 

What on earth just happened? 

It was almost twelve o’clock in the afternoon.  Janie knew she had to
come downstairs sometime.  She hadn’t eaten in eighteen hours, and she 
needed to get her book bag so she could start working on her 
Oceanography project. 

She looked down at her jeans and blue camp shirt.  Had she been tempting
Derek, somehow?  Her jeans were never tight, and it was true she did 
wear spaghetti strap shirts, but they were never so big on her you 
could look down them, or so little that you could see every curve.  
Lots of girls wore them these days.  They didn’t mean “slutty” anymore. 


She sighed and went downstairs.  Derek was at the kitchen table, typing
away on a laptop.  He stopped when she entered the room.  “Hey,” he 
said. 

“Hi,” she said softly. 

“Sit down.  If you want, I mean.”  He closed the laptop with a little
click. 

She did, taking an apple from a bowl on the kitchen counter and a sharp
knife from a drawer. 

“I’m really sorry about earlier.  I didn’t mean to do that.  I don’t
know what got into me.” 

“Where’s Evan?” 

“He joined his school’s fall ball team.  Practice.” 

“Oh.”  Janie lowered her eyes and began cutting it into pieces.  “Derek,
do I ever . . . dress the wrong way?  You know, dress like a whore or 


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