rated * non-traditional
Unexpected Love
By Hilary
“STOP FOLLOWING ME!!!!!!” seventeen-year-old Trixie Belden yelled.
“I just want to talk!” nineteen-year-old Jim Frayne replied, his frustration beginning to show.
“YEAH!? Well, I don’t want to talk to you!!” Trixie yelled back.
“We need to talk,” Jim persisted.
Trixie stopped walking and turned to glare at Jim. “What is there to talk about? I saw you making out with that girl!” Trixie yelled, tears filling her blue eyes.
Jim walked so that he was in front of Trixie. He reached out for her hand, but she pulled it away.
“It wasn’t like that!” he said.
“Yeah! Well, why don’t you explain it to me!? I’m blonde so I must be too dumb to understand what I saw!” she replied, a nasty, challenging tone in her voice.
“Ok, thank you. I was sitting in the library, and she came up to me. She sat down and started crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she gave me her whole life’s story. I offered to go for a walk with her. When we got into the park, she came onto me. She kissed me, and I tried to stop her…..” Jim started.
“Yeah, well, you obviously didn’t try hard enough! Don’t even try to lie to me! I know that you enjoyed it! I saw that same look on your face when you kiss me!” Trixie interrupted.
“That wasn’t what happened!” Jim said angrily, his face was very red.
“Face it, Jim. It’s over! We were never meant to be together! I don’t know why I let people convince me that you liked me. I even thought that you loved me. I know now that having one girl doesn’t satisfy you. I gave you a chance when I saw you with one of your classmates. That’s more than what anyone else would’ve done. I can see now that I should’ve let you go then. I would’ve saved myself a lot of pain,” Trixie said. She turned on her heel away, leaving Jim to stare after her retreating form.
Trixie walked as far as she could before her vision was too blurred from the tears to see where she was going. She sat down on the ground and put her head in her hands and cried. A few minutes later she heard footsteps behind her.
“I told you it’s over, Jim!” she said angrily.
“I’m not Jim,” the owner of the footsteps replied.
Trixie knew at once who was standing behind her—Ben Riker, Honey’s annoying older cousin.
“What do you want, Ben?” Trixie asked, frustrated.
“Nothing, I just saw you sitting here, and I thought you looked sad, so I thought that I’d come down here and see if you’re okay,” Ben replied. Ben was staying with the Wheelers for the summer holidays.
“Yeah, well, now that you know that I’m not okay, you can go.”
Ben sat down next to her. “I know that you don’t like me, but I have changed,” he said. “Is there anything that I can do to make you feel better?”
“Yeah, you could go jump off a cliff!” Trixie replied nastily.
“Look, I didn’t come down here to be insulted. I came down here because you looked sad and lonely, and since neither Honey, Diana, Brian, Mart, nor Dan are here, I thought that you could use a little company. Maybe I should just go back,” Ben replied, obviously hurt at Trixie’s words. He stood up to leave.
“No! Wait!” Trixie said. Ben sat back down.
“I would like some company,” Trixie said.
“Okay, and, while I’m here, would you like to tell me what’s wrong?” Ben asked.
“Well, Jim and I broke up.”
“What! Why?”
“Well, I was walking through the park the other day, and I saw him in a very tender embrace with another girl! That’s the second time he’s done that! I gave him a second chance the first time because I thought it was just a one-off thing, but it clearly wasn’t,” Trixie replied. Another tear fell down her cheek.
“He clearly didn’t know how lucky he was to have you,” Ben said comfortingly. “How about I take you down to Wimpy’s, and I’ll shout you a milkshake?”
“Ok, that sounds nice, thanks, Ben,” Trixie replied.
“That was so funny how the milkshake came out your nose!” Trixie cried in hysterics as she and Ben walked back to Ben’s car. They had finished their drinks, and Ben was going to drop Trixie home.
“Funny for you maybe! I’ll still have milkshake coming out of my nose for a week!” Ben replied. He opened Trixie’s door for her, and she climbed in. He climbed in the driver’s side and they set off.
When they arrived back at Trixie’s house, Jim was waiting on Trixie’s porch.
“Looks like he hasn’t given up yet,” Ben commented as he pulled the car into the driveway. Jim saw the car and walked over to the driveway.
“And you thought that I was bad! Looks like you move on pretty quickly!” Jim raged. Ben climbed out of the car to try and calm Jim down.
“And you! You just couldn’t wait to get your hands on Trixie! As soon as you found out we had a fight, you went straight over to Trixie and started sucking up!” Jim yelled at Ben.
“That’s not what…” Ben started to explain but was cut off when Jim’s fist made contact with Ben’s jaw.
“JIM, NO!!!!!” Trixie screamed as she climbed out of the car as quickly as she could. She ran to Ben’s side. His mouth was bleeding, but that wouldn’t stop him. He wiped the blood away and took a swing at Jim, knocking Jim flat to the ground.
“STOP IT BOTH OF YOU!!!!” Trixie yelled. Both men stopped fighting. “Jim, go home! Ben, come inside, and I’ll get you cleaned up,” Trixie said forcefully.
“This isn’t over,” Jim warned Ben as he walked away to Manor House.
“OUCH!!! That stings!”
“Well, keep still and it won’t!”
“You try keeping still when you have someone putting antiseptic on a cut on your face!”
“It’s even worse if you don’t have this done!”
“Well, I’d prefer to take my chances!”
“While you’re in my house you’ll do what I say!”
“Okay.”
As Trixie was cleaning Ben’s wound, their eyes met. Trixie stopped cleaning and leaned into Ben. She closed her eyes and leaned her face towards his…
BANG!
“Trixie! I’m home!!” It was Trixie’s fourteen-year-old brother Bobby.
“Grrrrr!” Trixie said as she began cleaning Ben’s wound again. “In here!” she called out to Bobby.
“Oh…sorry,” Bobby said as he bounded into the kitchen, “I didn’t mean to disturb you,” he said as he saw the look on Trixie’s face.
“Hey Bobby!” Ben said as cheerfully as he could. He had felt something, sparks maybe, when Trixie leaned in close to him.
“Hey Ben!” Bobby replied. “Trixie, Terry and Larry invited me over to their place. Is it okay if I go?”
“Yeah, sure! What time will you be back?” Trixie replied, trying not to sound too eager to get rid of him.
“Umm…..is seven o’clock okay?”
“Sure, be home by then!” Trixie called as Bobby went racing out of the house.
The next day Trixie was outside picking some flowers to put on the dining table when she heard someone come up behind her. She turned around and saw Ben.
“Hi,” they both said at the same time. They laughed. After what nearly happened yesterday, they both felt awkward about being near each other. Trixie noticed that Ben’s wound had started to heal.
“You look better,’” Trixie said, standing up straight and brushing the dirt of her skirt.
“So do you,” Ben replied. He took a nervous step towards her.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Trixie suggested.
“Sure,” Ben replied.
“I just need to put these inside.”
“Okay, I’ll wait.”
As Ben waited for Trixie outside, he kept thinking about what nearly happened last night. Would Trixie have kissed him if Bobby hadn’t come in, or would she have pulled away? These questions he couldn’t answer.
“You ready?” Trixie called out as she walked out to meet Ben.
“Sure am,” he replied. He put his arm out, and Trixie put hers through it.
Up at Manor House Jim was watching Trixie take Ben’s arm. “She’s mine! How can he even think of taking her away!?” Jim yelled. He stormed away from the window.
“About last night,” Ben said as he and Trixie sat down under an apple tree in the Belden’s orchard.
“I’m sorry,” Trixie said. “I suppose my emotions got the better of me. I’m sorry if I offended you.”
“No! You didn’t offend me!”
“I didn’t?”
“No, I was wondering if you felt there may be something between us…”
“Yeah, well, there is a tree root sitting between us...”
“No, I mean chemistry-wise.”
“Oh.”
“If you didn’t, well, that’s okay, but I was kinda hoping you did, because I certainly did, but if you didn’t then that’s okay because I’ll just forget that I felt anything and…..” Ben began.
“Oh! Shut up!” Trixie laughed.
She leaned her head in towards his. They both closed their eyes. Their lips brushed. They both pulled back and looked at each other’s face. Ben leaned in again and kissed Trixie a bit more firmly. Trixie felt that this was so right that she deepened the kiss.
Jim was looking out the window again and saw Trixie kiss Ben. At first he thought nothing of it, then, when Trixie deepened the kiss, he knew that this was definitely wrong.
Trixie and Ben pulled apart, both in need of air.
“Will you go out with me?” Ben asked.
“Did you really need to ask?”
“So, that’s a no then?”
“I said yes.”
“Good.” Ben leaned in and kissed Trixie again.
“I can’t stand this anymore!” Jim said. He ran out of Manor House and headed for the Belden orchard.
When he got there he saw Ben kiss Trixie again.
“STOP IT!!! SHE’S MY GIRLFRIEND!!!!” Jim yelled. He ran over and pulled Trixie away.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” Trixie said angrily as she pulled her arm out of Jim’s grasp.
“Go away, Frayne! You lost her, remember?” Ben said. He stood up and took Trixie’s hand.
“Trixie? You still love me, right?” Jim gulped, ignoring Ben.
“Yes, but only as a friend. You have to let go, Jim. You cheated on me, and we broke up. I’ve found someone else now, someone I can trust,” Trixie said.
“But, I love you, Trixie! I love you!” Jim cried, refusing to let her go.
“It’s over, Jim!”
“No!”
“Yes, Jim, let go, move on with your life.”
“Can we please try again? Please Trixie! Give me one more chance!” Jim pleaded.
“No, Jim, we can’t try again! I’m with Ben now, I can trust him and I love him. You have to move on!” Trixie said. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at Jim. She knew that he did love her, but she couldn’t take him back because she didn’t love him.
“But I really love you, Trixie,” Jim tried once more.
“Look, Jim, there’s obviously no other way to get through to you so I’m just going to say it,” she took a big breath, “I don’t love you anymore!”
“What?”
“You heard me, I don’t love you anymore!”
“Jim, I think you better go home,” Ben said.
“You stay out of this! It’s entirely your fault that she says she doesn’t love me!” Jim yelled at Ben.
“No, it isn’t!” Trixie yelled at Jim. “It’s your,” she pointed to Jim, “fault! You went and had an affair with another girl--no--woman!”
Jim went silent. He looked from Trixie to Ben and back. A tear fell down his cheek.
Jim wiped the tear away and ran off home.
“You okay?” Ben asked Trixie. They were sitting in Trixie’s room on the floor.
“Yeah,” Trixie said sadly.
“You know, I love you Trixie. I mean it.”
“I love you, too.”
Trixie laid her head on Ben’s shoulder and started to cry. Ben patted her head and tried to comfort her.
The End
*Author’s notes:
These characters are not mine and I am not receiving anything for this (except the satisfaction of knowing people will read my story ;)
Any similarities with any other stories are completely unintentional.
Thank you to Franollie (Jill) for editing this story. ~~*Sarah*~~