A Touch of Heaven (2 page)

"You know Kim, maybe you need to look into
hooking up in a threesome situation until you find your stud. It
will cut back on the time you spend hunting Mr. Right," Courtney
said without looking up. She scanned their old high school
yearbook, idly flipping through the pages. Her voice barely made it
over the roar of laughter from the others.

"Oh, now there's a plan," Amy chimed in.

"Or—you can just wait until Saturday and see
if Travis is still available," Courtney grinned.

Courtney Logan, the vainest girl Paige had
ever met, still preened like a princess. Even in pajamas, Courtney
looked ready for a night on the town.

Paige watched her when she turned her head
and looked at everyone, grinning before turning the book so the
others could see. Her perfectly manicured fingertips tapped loudly
on the picture of Travis and she tossed her over-bleached hair back
across her shoulder before going back to the book.

"Oh please," Kim sneered. "He stands me up
for the Prom for some stupid family gathering and you expect me to
just invite him back into my bed? No, thank you."

"Good lord, Kim!" Megan squealed. "His
grandmother died. I can't see faulting him on something he had no
control over."

"Well, I spent good money for that dress
only to have icky Randall fawn all over me like I was Aphrodite
herself all evening! Travis Hardy can bite my ass."

"Speaking of icky… guess who I just found?"
Courtney said in a sing-song voice, smiling wide before turning to
look up at the girls.

"Who?" Amy asked, swallowing the last bit of
her wine before motioning to Megan to refill her glass.

"Why, it's Paige's very own, one-man
cheering section."

Paige felt her heart lurch in her chest. Her
friends all jumped up from their seats and ran to Courtney's side
to see the guy no one had seen in ten years. She smiled, looking
away briefly, before watching them practically fall in the floor
laughing.

"Come on guys," Paige said, shaking her
head. "He wasn't that bad."

"Holy shit, I wonder if he'll be at the
reunion," Amy asked, "I so want to see him again!"

"I wonder what he did after high school?"
Kim asked staring down at the picture. The scrawny, curly brown
haired boy staring back at her from the page sent her into another
fit of giggles.

"I bet he's some janitor somewhere, still
writing that ridiculous poetry and stealing glances at the ladies
over those wide-framed dorky glasses," Courtney laughed.

Paige continued to smile before standing and
walking to the kitchen to grab another bottle of wine, listening to
the others talk about Colin.

It was true he hadn't been the most popular
in school. He was the one guy everyone targeted for their punching
bag. Not literally, but the punches they threw at him were just as
bad.

On any given day, someone would humiliate
him. His tall, gangly frame stood out amongst the Californians. His
complexion, almost a pasty white color, made him look sickly and
his mop of curly brown hair always hung around his ears and over
his forehead. He stayed to himself and rarely spoke to anyone…
besides her.

In the two years he'd attended Riverdale, he
never missed the opportunity to speak to her. She found it cruel
how people treated him but at the time, felt powerless to stop it.
She stood by and watched so many of her friends taunt him and call
him names and even though their actions were childish and immature,
she did nothing to stop them.

She hadn't thought of him in years, the last
time being when she was feeling rather lonely and in her "poor me"
mood. She'd pulled down her memento box and looked through the
poems he'd written her. After all these years she didn't have the
heart to toss them out. Nerd or not, Colin Gregory held a special
place in her heart. He was without a doubt, the sweetest guy Paige
had ever met.

Everyone attending Riverdale High knew Colin
had a major crush on her. Anytime anyone saw him, he was either
staring at her or scribbling in his journal. And everyone knew what
he wrote about. Almost daily someone would snatch the journal away
from him and read it aloud. Poetry and stories filled the pages.
Most of them were about true love and beauty so rare Paige couldn't
help but smile.

She knew most of what he
wrote was about her and at the time she'd laughed along with the
others because it was the cool thing to do. It wasn't until the day
she found out her jock boyfriend, Lance, cheated on her that she
found a small note tucked into her locker. The words,
"
He will never be good enough for
you
," struck her like a bolt of lightening.
She took the time to really examine Colin then and what he wrote
for only her.

From that moment on, every time she found a
new poem, she secretly read the verses until she'd practically
memorized them. Reading between the lines, she could see the
heartfelt words he wrote just for her and she finally looked at
him.

She didn't see the boy everyone thought him
to be. She saw the boy he wanted her to see. She saw a kind soul
who, even though countless people taunted him daily for his
affections toward her, never stopped trying.

The laughs and jokes at his expense didn't
stop and even though she'd laughed and gone along with her friends'
teasing of him to keep up appearances, a part of her liked the
thought of him caring so much for her. And he did. She could see it
in his written words and the way he looked at her.

Colin Gregory had been in love with her.

"Hey Paige," Amy yelled from the living
room, "Remember when he asked you to the Prom?"

Paige turned her head, smiling back into the
other room when their laughter continued and the memory came back
to her. She didn't know how many times she wished she could go back
and change the events of that day. She could still see the tears in
Colin's eyes. The pained expression on his face, when the entire
room burst into laughter after someone overheard their
conversation, still haunted her.

He was the butt of jokes for weeks after
that… all because of her. They laughed and called him names and
Paige did nothing to stop them. She never defended him or offered
to help and a piece of her died every time someone made his life
hell because of her.

She liked Colin. Not as
much as he liked her, but she liked him. He wasn't the
quintessential jock with good looks and a body to go along with it.
He was quiet and shy and, even if she admitted only to herself, had
the most amazing blue eyes of anyone she'd ever met. He wasn't
terrible to look at either, but at the time, anyone not wearing the
latest fashions was considered less than desirable. His
geek
status alone put him
in the no-touch zone. He never should have registered on her radar…
but he did.

She never told anyone what she thought of
him. Not even Meg. Her friends would have had her committed for
even thinking it. Colin was a social leper at the time and even
though her personal life was in shambles, she would have given
anything to have someone actually hear what she had to say. Having
someone around who actually cared about her would have been a
Godsend. And she knew Colin would have listened. He would have
clung to every word and offered her the world to make it
better.

She tried talking to him after school the
day he asked her to the prom, but the minute she approached him, he
gave her a weak smile and said, "Don't worry, Paige. I know where I
stand with you, now. I always thought you were different from them.
I guess I was wrong."

He turned and walked away from her then. She
stood there alone and watched him leave while she held the poem and
rose he'd given her. His words stung and reminded her of the person
she didn't want to be. She watched him walk away and knew she had
finally broken him.

It was the last time he ever spoke to
her.

No longer did she find him staring at her,
or find the unsigned poems slipped into her locker. No matter how
many attempts she made to talk to him, he walked past her like she
didn't exist. Much like she had done to him. It hurt to be treated
that way. She knew then the hell they made his life.

She never told a single person she called
his house two days before prom, only to have his brother tell her
to never call back. Their treatment of Colin was unfair—even hers.
No one knew him. They never wanted to. And now, ten years later,
they still laughed at the boy who'd worn his heart on his
sleeve.

She sighed heavily thinking about it all.
She hated treating people like inferior beings but when she heard
the laughter coming from the other room she knew some things would
never change, especially with her friends.

She turned and walked slowly back into the
living room before making her way to the sofa and sitting down. She
stared at her friends, their snickers over Colin having died down
to an eerie silence. "Okay, what gives?" she asked, sipping her
wine.

"Oh, nothing," Courtney said, flashing a
completely fake smile.

Paige noticed the sly looks her friends gave
her before she lifted one eyebrow and sat up in her seat. "Really?
Because it looks like the four of you just found out your boyfriend
cheated on you."

Megan smiled, turning her head towards
Paige. "It's the King and Queen Prom photo," she said, quietly.

"Oh," Paige said, needing
no more explanation. The memory of her and Lance posing for the
picture and dancing to their song flashed back in her mind. She
hadn't thought of him in years and she liked it that way. It took
her a long time to get over him, but she did. Apparently her
friends didn't think she had—or thought she
shouldn't
have.

Leaning back in her seat, she took a big sip
of her wine, hoping to clear her mind of memories she'd just soon
forget. She would have fun this weekend if it killed her. She
needed this more than anything she could think of.

* * * *

Chapter 3

"Oh God, why didn't someone make me stop
drinking last night?" Amy asked, covering her eyes to try and block
out the light in the room.

"I told you to slow down on the wine,"
Courtney laughed. She pulled the curtains back, filling the
once-dark living room with light and Amy practically screamed
before ducking her head under a pillow on the couch.

"Geez Court, don't you get tired of being so
damn happy all the time?" Kim asked, stumbling into the room. "All
that smiling has to be bad on the complexion."

"Oh, actually I read smiling was very good
for the facial muscles," Courtney smiled.

"Yeah, so did I," Megan said, raising her
hand and covering her mouth before she yawned.

"Is Paige up yet?"

"I haven't seen her."

The front door opened and Paige smiled
before saying, "That's because I heard of a stray being at the
airport ahead of schedule."

She entered the apartment with Heather right
behind her. She dropped Heather's numerous bags just inside the
door, grunting in relief. She watched the prima donna stroll across
the room like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Heather!" The room sang in unison.

"You're early! We weren't expecting you
until later tonight," Megan said walking over and giving her friend
a hug.

"Yeah well, I told Ben if he didn't get his
shit together and stop screwing up my light, I'd kill him slowly by
telling the world how dickless he really is."

"No way!" Amy yelled. "Tell
me you
did not
sleep with him."

"No, I didn't sleep with him," Heather said
rolling her eyes before she flopped down on the sofa and stretched
her arms out across the back of it. Her long brunette hair was
pulled into a complicated twist at the back of her head and her
make-up flawless. The short black dress she wore exposed her long
shapely legs and her spiked heels complimented the outfit. She
looked every bit the star she was and she made sure everyone around
her knew it at all times.

She looked at the faces around the room,
making sure all eyes were on her before she smiled and said, "I
just fucked him and left him lying there basking in the
Heather-haze of love."

Laughter once again erupted
and the girls sat down to hear how life in the Big Apple was
treating their now very famous friend. Everyone listened intently,
riveted to tales of the actors Heather had been romantically
involved with, and the biggest point of interest, of course, was
how well they
performed
.

"So, what have I missed?" Heather asked,
slipping off her shoes and pulling her feet up on the couch.

"Not a whole lot," Amy informed her.

"So you haven't left me out of
anything?"

"Nope, just multiple bottles of wine and
scary stories," Courtney said.

Heather raised one eyebrow. "Scary
stories?"

"Yes, as in Travis Hardy," Kim spat out,
rolling her eyes.

"And Randall," Courtney reminded her.

"Ewww," Heather said, her face twisted in
disgust at hearing the two names.

"Oh, and let's not forget, Colin," Amy
chimed in with a giggle before everyone in the room laughed.

Paige smiled when every girl in the room
turned to her and she found herself laughing along with her friends
at the mention of his name. She couldn't understand why, after ten
years, she still felt like a sixteen year old girl being pressured
into being a royal bitch toward someone who was probably a really
nice guy, no matter how dorky he seemed.

"Oh my God, I wonder if he'll be at the
reunion?" Heather asked, smiling.