Fire
Lois Fogg
Email: SireneCall@hotmail.com
Author’s notes at the end of first part, this is still PG as of now

Chapter Two: Darien

	“I thought you said you’d never been here before!” Raye
exclaimed after we left the store.
	“Well, I haven’t.” I said, sipping my milkshake and skipping
along the sidewalk.
	“You obviously knew him.” She said, obviously wondering
what the hell had gone on in there.
	“Well, not really. But maybe I do!” That milkshake was SO
good!
	“Serena, what on EARTH are you talking about. What
happened in there?”
	“I don’t really know. Isn’t he SO hot! Omigod, I thought I
would just melt.”
	Raye rolled her eyes expressively. “You obviously did. Are you
going to tell me how you know him? What was that whole thing with the
peaches?”
	“That was how I first met him. I didn’t really think he would
remember…but he did!” I sucked more of the milkshake.
	“Serena if you don’t tell me RIGHT NOW what was going on
in there…”
	“Oh, all right. See, I met him two years ago at a fruit stand. He
was selling peaches with his grandfather. I made a total fool of myself,
so I guess that’s how he remembered me. I NEVER thought I would see
him here, although I really, really wanted it to happen. This has GOT to
be the best day of my life.”
	“Serena, you have got to be the weirdest person I have ever
met. Though who could forget those blond meatballs, I don’t know.”
	I guess I was just too happy to get really mad. So instead, I
playfully took the straw out of my milkshake and flicked some at her.
She shrieked and let some of her peppermint ice cream drip all over my
shirt, and then bolted down the street. Forgetting, momentarily, my
handsome devil with the eyes, I chased her down the sidewalk.
	“When I catch you, I’m going to dump the rest of this
milkshake all over your hair!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, to the
evident amusement of several fellow pedestrians.
	“You can try!” Raye shouted.
	We stopped, panting, in front of Peabody hall. To my
embarrassment, when I tried to dump the rest of my milkshake on her, I
realized that I had already finished it. Raye had dropped her ice cream
cone while she was running. So we just stood there and laughed until our
stomachs hurt.
	“All right, maybe I like you, Serena.”
	I pretended to be indignant. “Well, maybe I like you too, Miss
Raye.”
	And we laughed all over again.

	In the cafeteria, one of the girls who had been in the ice cream
store walked up to us. She had long blonde hair, partially tied back with
a red ribbon. She looked nice enough, but I wondered what she wanted
to talk to me about. I had an unfortunate feeling, however, that I knew.
	“Hello,” she said brightly, “My name’s Mina.” And sat down
next to us.
	Raye and I introduced ourselves, still eyeing her warily.
	“So,” She said, getting straight to the point. “I saw you at
Glifford’s today. I’ve never seen Darien act like that around anyone
else…do you know him?”
	I seized upon the name. Darien…I liked it. It sounded romantic,
like my dreamed-of hero of my own romance novel.
	“No, not really.” I answered. “Are you from around here?”
	Mina nodded. “Yep, my dad teaches here, so I’ve lived here all
my life.”
	“So, what is Darien like?” I asked, relishing the sound of his
name on my lips.
	Mina looked at me, confused. “You mean, you really don’t
know him? I would have thought from the way you two were talking
that you’d known each other forever.”
	“I only wish.” I said, pretending to fan myself.
	“Yeah, he IS hot, isn’t he?”
	“Hot,” I spluttered. “More like the most gorgeous guy I’ve ever
seen in my life!”
	Raye suddenly burst out laughing. “You guys are hilarious!
Talk about teenage hormones!”
	We looked at her indignantly. “Come on, Raye,” I said, “It’s
not as if you didn’t appreciate him before. I saw that drool hanging out
of the corner of your mouth.”
	“I did NOT drool!”
	“Oh yes you did!”
	“Did not!”
	“Did too!”
	When Mina started to laugh, the two of us couldn’t help it. For
the second time that day I laughed so hard that my sides ached, dinner
forgotten.

	“Serena, darling! I love you, don’t you know that by now?” his
strong arms gripped me in a steely embrace.
	“Why, Darien, I never knew! All these years you have loved
me?”
	“Of course, my dearest, sweetest love. How could I have
otherwise? You are my one and only, the sun in my sky. I love you more
than life itself.”
	“Oh, Darien, this is more than I’ve ever dreamed. I love you so
much. Who could have known that peaches and strawberry-chocolate
milkshakes could have brought us together?”
	Suddenly he burst into song:
		“A little bit of Monica in my life, a little bit of Rita by
my side, a little bit of Jessica, here I am…”
	“Why, Darien! How could you! All these women? And why,
incidentally, do you sound like Lou Bega?”
“Serena, you idiot, will you wake up?”
“But Darien…why are you being so mean to me?”
Raye grabbed me roughly by the shoulders and propelled me
off the bed. I sat up indignantly, expecting to stare into a pair of blue
eyes, but seeing a pair of fiery brown ones instead. Suddenly I
remembered where I was and winced. Oh my, that had to be the world’s
most cliched dream. I didn’t think I was so unoriginal…
“Sorry Raye.” I said, rubbing my bottom. On the clock radio,
Lou Bega was still singing about his many women. Well, at least Darien
wasn’t a player like that, I thought to myself. But why was I having
dreams about him at all? I dismissed it and suddenly looked at the clock.
“My god, Raye, you have achieved the impossible.”
“And what’s that?”
“You woke me up on time.”

	The rest of freshman week went smoothly, although I didn’t get
a chance to go to the ice cream place. Half the time I was desperate to
see him again, and the other half all I wanted to do was run away. I
really couldn’t explain why I felt so desperately about him. It was just
that he made me feel so gooey just thinking about him. Sometimes I
thought that it was just because I was a horny teenager, but other times it
seemed like there really was a deep connection between us. I didn’t
mention this to Raye. Even though we got along pretty decently now, I
knew that she would just laugh at me. She still thought that I was so
childish. Instead I talked to Mina, who, as it turned out, had a dorm on
our floor. It was a single, and I was amazed that she had been so lucky
as to get one her freshman year.
	“Well, I would sure say there’s *something* between you two.
Whoo-hoo, talk about sexual tension!”
	I blushed, and stared at the tree above us. We were sitting
outside, enjoying the beautiful day. It was so nice outside now, but I
knew that it got a lot colder in Cambridge than it did in Washington.
	“But…I’m scared to see him again. I…don’t know what will
happen. I don’t know what I want to happen.”
	“Well, you’ll never know until you try, will you? You can’t
mope around all day pining for him. You have to take control!” Her eyes
looked rather starry, and she stared into space with a dreamy smile on
her face.
	“I just think that it’s *so* romantic. I’m willing to bet that you
are destined lovers!”
	“Oh, come on, Mina.” I said, but still I felt excited at the
notion. I wanted him so badly that it scared me.  “So tell me what you
know about him.” I said, eager for some ammunition at least, before I
confronted him again.
	“Well…he’s a junior, and he’s worked at that ice cream place
as long as he’s been here. Obviously I noticed him the minute I came
here because he’s so…” Mina made a suggestive noise accompanied by
a hand motion that made the two of us burst into explosive giggles.
	“All right, all right. I got that part…what else?”
	“I don’t know if you’ll like this…” She hesitated.
	“Like what? What is it?” I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
I didn’t want to know anything bad about him. As he was now he was
perfect—what would I do if she ruined my image of him? What would I
do to myself? Still, I listened.
	“He’s sort of…a player.” Player? For a second the word sat in
my head without a meaning, and then I remembered Lou Bega. How had
my subconscious known? Or was it just coincidence that I had had a
dream about that a week ago?
	“How much of a player?” I asked, my voice catching. This
couldn’t be happening.
	“Well, I don’t know if it’s all his fault. See, girls just throw
themselves at him. They don’t care that he uses them. To tell you the
truth I don’t think that he’s ever liked a single one of them.”
	It would have been better to find out he had a girlfriend. How
was I, an innocent yuppie who was a member of the VLC [Virgin Lip
Club] not to mention the VC [Virgin Club] supposed to make a guy like
Darien fall in love with me? It was hopeless even before I started. Wait a
second, fall in *love* with me? What was I thinking? But hadn’t that
been my aim all along? Wasn’t that what I really wanted?
	I buried my head in my hands, and let out a muffled groan.
	“I told you that you wouldn’t like it.” Mina said
sympathetically, putting her hand on my shoulder. “But don’t worry, I
saw the way he looked at you. You’ve got a chance. And I, Mina the
incredible matchmaker, will make sure that you win!”
	I looked into her shining eyes and felt a sinking sensation in the
pit of my stomach again. Oh my, what *have* I gotten myself into?

	Chemistry was a pain in the royal ass. I didn’t know why I had
signed up for it in the first place—besides an effort to please my father.
He was always stressing the importance of a ‘well-rounded’ course load.
Damn it, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in my life, but it sure as hell
wasn’t Chemistry! Already a week of classes had been enough to make
my head hurt. And on top of all that I had to come in for extra lab hours!
It was pure torture. At least my Shakespeare class was going well. The
teacher was extremely hard, but I loved Shakespeare with a passion that
even rivaled hers. I had noticed, however, a peculiarly quiet blue-haired
girl who was in both of these classes. She seemed to comprehend the
material in Chemistry much better than I, and after a week of torture, it
occurred to me to speak to her after class. Maybe I could get her to help
me with some of it. So I loitered outside the door of Chemistry, waiting
for the girl to finish up whatever conversation she was having with the
teacher. She looked more animated talking about the ‘Joys of Chemistry’
(I made a gagging sound at the thought) than I had seen her before.
Wow, she definitely looked smart. Of course, I was at Harvard. By their
standards, I was probably a clinical idiot. Oh well. While I waited, my
mind wandered—well, guess where? I just couldn’t seem to help it,
every time I had a free moment, I thought about him. This obsession was
really getting out of hand, but that knowledge couldn’t seem to stop me.
I had actually gotten up the nerve to go to the shop, but the only person
there was this acne-ridden kid who couldn’t make a decent milkshake. I
had left disappointed. I guessed that Darien only worked in the evenings
anyway, after classes. Since then I had been too busy—and too scared—
to go down there. I was so involved in my thoughts that I nearly missed
her when she left the classroom.
	“Excuse me,” I said hurriedly, blocking her way out the door. I
was beginning to feel like a big idiot. “Hi, my name is Serena Johnston.”
	She looked surprised, but pleased. Maybe this plan would work
after all. “Hello, my name is Amy Mizuno. You’re in my Chemistry and
Shakespeare classes, aren’t you?”
	Yay! She remembered. I smiled brightly and nodded. Now,
how was I supposed to ask her to save my butt in Chemistry? It would
sound a little weird.
	“So…you like Chemistry, don’t you?” I began, imagining
myself like some cunning detective, subtly gaining information.
Actually, I must have been about as subtle as a jackhammer because
Amy burst out laughing.
	“Yes, I do. But I *have* noticed your perpetual expression of
doom in class. I was beginning to feel so sorry for you that I would have
approached you soon if you hadn’t. So, you want some help?”
	I blushed, but shrugged my shoulders philosophically. I should
have known that I couldn’t fool anyone if I tried.
	“If you could help me, I would owe you my life.” I said
earnestly, grabbing her hand and pulling it to my chest. “You would
have pulled me from the depths of despair…”
	I would have gone on, but Amy had started laughing again.
“Now I see why you’re good at Shakespeare. What are you doing taking
Chemistry anyway?”
	I made a sour face. “My father.” I said darkly, and she nodded.
	“Well, I’ll help you through this, on one condition.” She said,
smiling slightly.
	“Anything!” I said earnestly. This was turning out better than I
had thought it would.
	“You have to promise to read scenes from Shakespeare with
me.”
	I looked at her with an expression of adoration, and then
jumped in the air. This called for a celebration. I looked at my watch,
and was pleased to see that it was already five o’clock. This had been a
lab day, so it ended late.
	“What do you say to getting milkshakes from Glifford’s to
celebrate?” I said, looking at her. If I saw him today, it really would be
perfect.
	She looked a little nervous, like she would refuse. “Oh come
on! You know you want to…let’s have some fun!”
	She smiled at me, shyly. “Well, all right. Come on.”
	With a laugh I grabbed her hand and we sprinted all the way.

	The shop was empty when we walked in. Our eyes met to the
sound of the chimes of the door, and my light blue met his dark for what
seemed like an eternity. I didn’t breathe. He was surprised to see me, but
pleased. And that momentary hint of pleasure made me delirious. My
hands were shaking. My body felt tight with that strange mixture of
pleasure and discomfort that I had so dreaded for two weeks. If he could
do this to me just by staring in my eyes, what would it be like to have
sex with him? I was shocked at myself for even thinking such a thing
and dismissed it immediately. With a wrench so forced I had to muffle a
gasp, he tore his eyes away from mine. For a second I saw his face
unmasked, confusion plain, but almost before I could really believe that
I had seen it, the mask was back in place. He was the Darien I
remembered, cool, calm and subtly mocking. Amy looked at us
curiously, wondering if she had only imagined what she thought she had
just seen. Carefully, I walked to the counter, nearly unwilling to trust my
legs. They were shaking.
	“So, it’s the milkshake girl.” He said, obviously having
recovered. “It’s been a while. I hope the last one was to your liking?”
	I tried to look haughty, but had the sneaking suspicion that I
failed. “I’m back, aren’t I? And it certainly isn’t because of your dreamy
eyes.”
	He laughed outright. I felt the curious pleasure of actually
having scored a point. Unfortunately, I knew that I was a liar. As much
as I loved milkshakes, he was the real lure. Of course, he didn’t have to
know that, did he? His head seemed swollen enough as it was.
	“So, you’re usual,…” He paused, and I realized that he didn’t
know my name. How silly, I thought. All this time I’d known his and he
never knew mine. At least he wanted to know it, I thought. That was a
start.
	“Serena.” I said calmly, controlling my breathing against the
frantic beating of my heart. He must be flirting with me, because that
look in his eyes could melt stone. “And, yes, my usual.”
	Amy looked much like Raye had the first time we came here,
and she looked at me with a genuinely confused expression.
	“I’ll explain later.” I mouthed to her, when Darien’s back was
turned. Amy took her vanilla milkshake, and I took my strawberry-
chocolate. Feeling the irresistible pull of it, I took a sip, aware of
Darien’s following my every move. Against my will, I closed my eyes,
and realized that he had done it again.
	“Darien, you’re incredible!” I exclaimed after I had swallowed.
Suddenly I realized what I had said and blushed to the roots of my hair.
Oh my, so much for cool, calm and collected. He raised his eyebrow,
and smiled at me.
	“I’m glad you think so. Tell me, is it just my magical ability
with strange milkshake flavors, or my dreamy eyes that makes you say
so?”
	“Ooohh,” I growled, so mad that I seemed to have lost all
power of speech. “You, you,”
	“I, I, what?” He said, daring me.
	“You are SO annoying.” I huffed finally, aware that I had lost
this round, badly. I knew it, but all I seemed to want to do was toss my
shoe at him.
	“Serena,” Amy said, looking around warily. Other people had
entered the shop during our fight and they were staring at us. “Let’s sit
down, OK?”
	I looked at her sheepishly. “Sorry.” I muttered, and avoiding
eye contact with Darien, we sat down. He looked unruffled, and
periodically, he looked at me and smiled in that smug way of his. I
bridled, but felt oddly flattered that he would notice me so much. Maybe
it was true again what Mina said—there *was* something between us.
The store was incredibly crowded now; it seemed that lots of other
students had decided that it was time for some ice cream. Or a glance at
Darien, I thought, looking at some of the ditzy girls blatantly flirting
with him. As I sipped my milkshake distractedly, I felt an irrational
jealousy. He barely paid attention to most of them, and even the ones he
did pay attention to, he didn’t treat the way he treated me. I could see
how he was a player, but I was really beginning to doubt that he had
ever loved a woman.
	“Serena? Are you all right?” Amy was saying, breaking me
from my reverie.
	“Oh, sorry Amy. Yeah, I’m fine.”
	“Who is he, anyway?” She whispered, although there was no
need to. Over the din, Darien couldn’t have heard her if he tried.
	“This guy. I don’t know. I’ve only seen him two other times in
my life. It’s just…strange.”
	“I should say so. He is cute, though, isn’t he?” She said,
blushing into the table.
	“Don’t say that too loud,” I said, just loud enough for Darien to
hear me if he was listening. “If one more girl tells Darien that he’s hot I
have a feeling that his head will explode.”
	I didn’t dare look at him, but in the corner of my eye, I saw him
smile and wink at me. I felt irrationally happy, and sucked down the rest
of my milkshake. Amy realized what I was doing and laughed to herself.
	“Serena, you are crazy!” She said. I had to agree with her.

	A week later, Amy, Mina and I were sitting at a table at the ice
cream parlor, Chemistry books before us. When I had told Mina that I
had found a genius to explain Chemistry to me, she had invited herself
along. She was in the professor’s other class, and was having as hard a
time of it as I was. Darien and I had already concluded round one of our
merry war, and I had resigned myself to making cutting comments every
now and then loud enough for him to hear. By this time Amy had heard
the entire story and Mina had enlisted her for help in her matchmaking
efforts. Unfortunately, Amy was a taskmaster, and refused to allow me
to drift into my own happy dreamland. Darien watched the proceedings
with amused interest, obviously wondering when I would give up. I was
distracted by everything. Darien played the most incredible music, and
every five minutes I interrupted Amy’s patient voice with an “Omigod! I
love this song!”
	Despite all that, we got some work done. I was really glad that I
had introduced myself to Amy. Not just because she was a genius, but
also because she was a great friend. In the week that I had known her, I
had introduced her to Mina and Raye and the four of us had become
inseparable. It was strange, because we were all such different people,
but we got along well. I couldn’t seem to imagine college life without
them. Raye wasn’t with us because she—wisely, it seemed—had opted
to take biology.
	After I had heard enough about combustion reactions to last me
a lifetime, I slammed my hands down on the table.
	“All right, that’s it!” I said, interrupting Amy who looked at me
with a stricken expression. “Sorry Amy, but I can’t take this any longer.
I’ve got a better idea.”
	“And what’s that, Serena?” Mina asked, with something
conspicuously resembling a sweatdrop above her head.
	With a mischievous smile, I reached into my backpack.
“Voila!” I said triumphantly, pulling out a copy of The Taming of the
Shrew.
	“You *did* say I could read Shakespeare with you.” I said to
Amy, with a grin on my face.
	“Well, true…but, we haven’t gotten very far…”
	“Come on, Amy, lighten up!”
	“Well, all right, but I haven’t brought my copy.”
	My face fell, realizing that my plan would fall through. I just
couldn’t handle any more chemistry! I was going to go crazy! And then,
when I least expected it, Darien came to my rescue.
	“Well, you know,” He said with something like shyness in his
voice, although I never would have expected it. The three of us turned
around and stared at him. He had been listening to us the entire time. To
give him credit, he couldn’t avoid it. We were practically screaming.
	“I think I may have a copy with me.”
	I beamed at him. “Do you? Oh, that’s fantastic! Could you
please let Amy use it? Please, please, please?”
	“Serena,” Amy said in an undertone, “don’t worry, I think he
will let us use it.”
	“Oh,” I said, blushing again. Why did I always have to do
stupid things in his presence? He gave me one of his rare genuine
smiles, and the world spun. Then he went to the back storage room, and
we could hear him rustling around back there.
	“Wow, girl,” Mina said, leaning back in her chair. “You’re got
it bad, don’t you? Hey, don’t look at me like that. I see those goofy
smiles you give him when you don’t think he’s looking.”
	“Shut up!” I said, in a loud whisper. “Do you want him to hear
you?” I said frantically.
	“Hear what?” He said easily, ducking under the counter. I
glared at Mina and she looked back sheepishly.
	“Nothing,” I said, attempting to take the book from him.
Unfortunately, to do so I had to walk uncomfortably close to him. For a
prolonged moment I smelled the intoxicating scent of his cologne and
felt my arm brush against his well-muscled chest. My breath caught
when he took my hand, refusing to release the book.
	“What do you say?” He asked, his face dangerously close to my
own.
	“Please?” I squeaked, my voice barely audible. From this close
I could see how his own breathing was almost as ragged as mine. After a
moment he released me, and walked to the counter again, pretending like
nothing had happened. Amy stared at me in awe and Mina winked so
obviously that I was tempted to throw the book at her.
	“Well, come on, Amy, what are you waiting for?”
	She shook off her shock and grabbed my book, walking to the
middle of the floor. I realized, during the ensuing scene, that I was using
his book, and it smelled like him. I only managed to keep half my mind
on what I was doing. To top it all off, I grew more and more indignant at
Shakespeare’s overtly indignant comments. At the end of scene, Darien
and Mina were practically in tears they were laughing so hard. So was
the rest of our audience, consisting of various amused students.
	“The highlight definitely had to be when you said ‘I just can’t
believe that she would agree to kiss him in public after all she did to
him,’ and then refused to finish the scene!” Darien said, looking at me
incredulously.
	“Well, it’s true! What kind of self-respecting shrew would take
that kind of crap from a guy?”
	“I don’t think he was giving her crap. If anything, that last
scene shows how much they genuinely love each other.”
	“You can’t be one of those saps who thinks that this play is
anything other than a sexist story of female domination?”
	Darien laughed outright. “I guess I am, then. Because this sap
thinks it’s anything but a…what did you call it? ‘sexist story of female
domination’.”
	I spluttered and my voice rose several decibels. “You’re telling
me that a man who starved, gorged and made his wife look like a fool is
genuinely in love with her.”
	“Yes,” He said, challenging me again.
	“Well, tell me, Mr. Romance. Make a case for Petruchio’s
love.”
	“With pleasure,” He said. By now we had a sizeable audience.
Mina and Amy were pretty used to our antics, but everyone else just sat
and stared. I looked at him, secretly exhilarated.
	“When you first meet Kate, she is all fire. She doesn’t listen to
anyone. You know that she is beautiful, but no one can get within three
feet of her without getting a chair tossed at his head. Petruchio, however,
is not looking for love or beauty or even peace of mind. He is looking
for money.”
	“Exactly!” I interrupted, “Money is by no means a motive for
love.”
	“Isn’t it?” He asked, looking at me, but talking to everyone.
“Petruchio would never have met Kate if she hadn’t been rich. He would
never have dealt with such a shrew. Yet, because she was rich, he came
to love her.”
	“If he really loved her, he would never have changed her into
this docile, submissive creature.”
	“Did he really change her? Oh yes, I know you’ll point to that
terrible monologue of hers at the end. But take it in context. Petruchio
wasn’t rich, hence the reason why he needed a wealthy wife. However,
he had come to love and trust Kate so much that he wagered all of his
money against every one else’s that she would listen when he called.
And Kate loved him enough to pretend to believe it. They’re teasing
each other.”
	Darien looked so passionate as he said this, until I was nearly
persuaded despite myself. I began to see what he saw as the romance in
the play, but still, I refused to concede my point just yet.
	“But why would a shrew like Kate ever fall in love with
someone who dominated her? Petruchio exercised total control over her.
Even if they are teasing each other, she would never tolerate it in the
first place, if Shakespeare had been true to her character.”
	“She had finally found someone who could equal her in fury.
She had finally found fire to match her fire, but in this case, the fire
didn’t go out, it just made a bigger one. Kate didn’t want someone who
would cringe and just listen to her. She wanted someone to stand up to
her. She enjoyed fighting with him,” He smiled at me. “She enjoyed
their merry war.”
I thought I was going to choke. Wasn’t that exactly how I had
thought of our relationship? Was he saying that the way we fought—it
was the same thing? And suddenly I understood Kate. Suddenly I knew
that she really had loved Petruchio, not hated him. Because he was the
only person who stood up to her, just as Darien had said. The tension in
the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. I agreed with him now,
but I could not admit it in front of all these people. I stared at Darien
with a pleading look in my eyes, although I could not expect him to save
my pride.
“Of course, I do admit one thing had to be true for the whole
scenario to work—one that Shakespeare didn’t mention.” He said
finally, still not relieving the tension.
“What’s that?” I asked, unsure of where he was heading, but
forced to trust him.
“Petruchio had to be damn good-looking!” The tension blew
out of the room and everyone collapsed with laughter. I was laughing
too, but Darien held my eyes with his, telling me in no uncertain terms
that he knew what he had done.
He had saved me, for the second time that day.