Out of the Shadows

An Exclusive One-Shot by the One and Only Elyssa Morales

I Love To Hate You Contest

Rules (for all OneShots in the ridiculously happy contest series)

-Has to be a OneShot above 2500 words, and below 10,000 words

-Must be Ridiculously Happy (no angst, tragedy, hurt/comfort. Looking for humor, romance, drama, general etc. Happy endings only please)

-Set in the current world (no sci-fi, supernatural, alternate universe, 200 years ago etc)

-Be realistic (give the reader the feeling that your story could actually occur in real life. Just because it says Ridiculously Happy, don’t go overboard)

-Add the name of the contest in your summary. (In this case add the words 'FOR THE I LOVE TO HATE YOU CONTEST)

-You can submit a maximum of three stories in each round.

Guidelines (for I ‘Love to Hate You Contest’)

In addition to the rules above, here are the guidelines for the 'I Love to Hate You Contest'

-Het pairing, with both girl and boy more than 22 years old.

-Mutual hate relationship for a while between the leads which eventually turns to love.

-Either/ both characters must have an obsession with a beverage of your choice.

THIS IS A LINE BREAK

I’ve never been the type of girl you would consider a hero. As a matter of fact, I’m not even the type of girl you would look at twice. I’m like probably one-third of the female population of the United States: tall, curveless, brown hair and brown eyes…utterly plain and ordinary. I graduated quietly in the top ten percentage of my high school class; I later found that I was secretly voted “the Invisible woman” and a lot of my fellow classmates were wondering if I would even get a job with my unassuming presence.

I did get a job---eventually---in a small, non-descript café not two blocks from my parents’ house, working there part-time while I went to school to become a nurse. I still lived with my family, in the same room I had occupied since the day I arrived home from the hospital, but I gave them a percentage of my salary as rent, seeing as I was an adult and ought to fend for herself instead of mooching off her parents all the time. The rest of my salary went into clothing, the necessaries of life (like fifteen different purses I barely used)…and my weekly binge of Sunkist soda.

Ah, Sunkist…how do I love thee.

Ahem…well…you may be wondering how such an ordinary person (besides my obsession with orange-flavored soda) could have possibly been the hero of this story.

Basically, I can blame everything that happened that day on my enemy, lifelong hate mate and co-worker, Lance Brooks. Yeah, we go way back, as you could have figured out by the above description. We’ve always pretty much been pushed together, since Lance’s mom and my own happen to be best friends since they were kids, and they figured that their kids would end up being all buddy-buddy as well.

Ugh…as if.

As I have previously described, I am utterly boring and not at all an attention grabber. Lance is really buff and has a tan from all his summers spent surfing, these killer dimples and silky black hair. He was also Prom King and a certified ladies’ man. Of course, he was also the one who initiated most of the pranks played on me when I was in high school.

I didn’t exactly do anything to make him hate me, except maybe because I was the only girl who didn’t practically drop dead when he smiled at me. Oh, and maybe for that one time that he asked me to help him cheat on his English project, and I told him to…ahem…do something that wasn’t anatomically possible.

Oddly enough, though, it was because of Lance that I actually got my job at Dennis’s. It happened to be his uncle’s restaurant, and he’d put in a word for me because “it was pathetic watching me laze around doing nothing while the rest of us work our butts off”---his words, not mine.

My parents were all like, “Aww…Lance does care, see, Noreen?” but I knew better…

…Especially when I walked in that Monday morning and saw said Lance leaning on the countertop, wearing a Manager’s badge on his neatly pressed shirt, flirting with a group of girls.

Figures.

However, as always, Lance surprised me. He didn’t pick on me anymore, per se, but was just like that annoying cousin---you know, the one that constantly gets on your nerves but still is fun to be around sometimes?

I still hated him though.

I was trying my best to take orders and help out in the kitchen at the same time. It was surprisingly busy, for Dennis’s at least, but since it was summer break, a lot of kids were using the restaurant to hang out and date and stuff. Pretty girls were walking in and out, mostly to see Lance, and he was on Cloud Nine.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t drive me crazy while he was having the type of his life, though.

“You missed a spot.”

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him and continued to wipe fervently at the already-sparkling countertop, pushing back the sweaty mess that was my hair out of my eyes a few times with my arm. God, I could use a Sunkist right now…cold preferably, right out of the bottle.

Lance, of course, wasn’t daunted by my silence.

“See, right there?”

His thin fingertip touched a corner of the white marble, and I resisted the urge to grab up the butcher knife abandoned next to me, and cut it right off before he even noticed the pain. How dare he add another finger smudge when I was almost done!

“Get lost,” I grinded out, wiping furiously at the spot when his finger finally moved. “Isn’t there some dumb blonde leaning against the counter waiting for you?”

“Not at present.”

Lance straightened up and stretched, purposefully letting his shirt trail up over his tight stomach. I barely blinked, but I could hear Mandy, my fellow waitress, gasp and nearly drop her tray of dirty dishes. She needn’t have bothered. With glasses, braces and Medusa-incarnate hair, she was the only other waitress besides me that Lance didn’t bother to hit on.

“Besides,” Lance sighed, leaning an arm around my shoulder as I stood up and admired my work, “I enjoy your company so much more than those brainless beauties. Sure you’re nothing to look at, but you have…character.”

“Thanks…” I said sarcastically, elbowing him in the stomach and then side-stepping him to grab up my pad and pen. “I think.”

He followed after me as I pushed through the hippy bead curtain his aunt had made to separate the rest of the restaurant from the kitchen, and with a forced smile faced the new customer.

“Welcome to Dennis’s, one of the best places to eat here on the Pacific coast. May I help you?”

I shouldn’t even have bothered. It was a tall platinum blonde, and though her sapphire eyes were covered by a pair of fancy D&G sunglasses, I could tell they were focused on Lance.

“Hello,” she purred at him. “I’m not here to order, but I just wanted to know if I could use the ladies’ room for a second? I’ve got a bit of a cut here where some idiot knocked me down.”

And then she flashed her knee at him, and I knew he was a goner. I sighed and moved back into the kitchen before the lips started locking and all the other gross stuff that I didn’t want my virgin eyes to be tainted with.

“Hey, Mandy, I’m going to go and grab a Sunkist, okay?” I called as I grabbed my worn denim jacket off the wall. “I really need it after all that scrubbing.”

She didn’t look up.

“Okay, hurry back.”

I made it in record time, considering that I missed my bus stop once, and got back to the restaurant exactly eight minutes before closing. Peeking through the window, I saw the blonde still sitting in a booth by herself, and Lance apparently mooning over her from where he was taking orders. Geez, he ought to just go over and ask her out already.

“I’m back,” I announced, sticking my tongue out at Lance in an immature signal of greeting.

“Closing in five!” Lance yelled for the customer’s benefit, before sticking his tongue out at me in return, after a quick peek at the blonde to make sure she didn’t notice.

I was busy after that, washing dishes and signing out and turning off lights. By the time I met Lance, Mandy and the cook, Tracey, by the counter, only the blonde was left.

“Um, ma’am, the restaurant’s closing,” Mandy informed her gently. I was checking my backpack to make sure everything was still in it, and didn’t really pay attention to what was going on.

“Oh, that’s alright,” she chirruped sweetly back. “I just had one more question to ask.”

She sauntered up to the counter, not seeming to notice me as I pushed past her to grab my textbook from where I’d left it on one of the tables. I wasn’t surprised; Invisible Girl, remember?

And then, as she leaned forward towards Lance, I heard it: the audible click of a gun.

“Would you be a dear and mind putting your hands up? Oh, and don’t forget all the money in that register.”

For a moment, everything seemed to be frozen. Lance stared in shock at the gun held towards his chest as Mandy nervously began to reach for the register. And then, something in me seemed to lock in place. Without even thinking about it, I pressed down on the fire alarm next to my elbow. The sirens went off at once, and the blonde, startled, whirled around.

Lance took the opportunity and did a classic touchdown, tackling her to the floor. The gun spun out of her hand and I grabbed it, cocking it and holding it at her.

“Gotcha.”

She glared at me angrily.

“How come I didn’t see you?”

I grinned at her in response.

“Invisibility.”

Lance and I stood outside waiting for a taxi after the police had cleared out with the blonde. I was quiet even as Lance hummed along loudly to a Linkin Park song on his iPod. He wasn’t even acting like he’d just nearly been shot by some psycho robber, but me on the other hand…let’s just say my sudden bout of heroism had faded into shock and the desire for a Sunkist as soon as I got home.

“You were great today,” Lance said quietly out of the blue. I jumped and looked up at him. Surprisingly, Lance hadn’t taken any credit for nabbing the chick. He had given it all to me. I knew Lance well, and I knew that he loved to be in the limelight.

“Why did you let me take all the fame?” I asked him softly. “You had a big part in it, too.”

Lance smiled at me, looking a little embarrassed.

“I was kinda actually a bit…proud of you.”

What? I gaped up at him.

“You? Proud of me? Why? We hate each other.”

“Noreen…” Lance sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t actually hate you when we first met. I just started to dislike you because you were always so meek and quiet and never paid attention to me like the other girls did. And when you hated me back, I guess the ball kept rolling.”

“Oh..." I mulled over this for a moment. "So do you want to be friends now or something?”

“Actually..." If Lance got any redder, he could pass off as a tomato in the infamous appetizer soup. "...Um, I was wondering...if you were free this Saturday?"

He peeked at me from under his lashes, in a coy way that once nearly gave the Captain of the Cheerleading Squad seizures. Of course, being immune to his charm, it had no effect on me. His request on the other hand...

"Really? Me?"

He looked surprised at the obvious tone of shock in my voice.

"Why not you?"

I laughed, a bit condescendingly.

"I'm still wondering whether or not there's a catch to your sudden kindness. Is this really all because I happened to save your life from some Mata Hari?"

"Well...yeah."

When I snorted, he got irritated.

"Look..." I said quickly, "I know you're feeling all grateful right now and you're probably looking for a way to pay me back so you won't be indebted to me for the rest of your life, but..."

And then he kissed me. Hard. For a moment, I was just standing there, blinking, as his hands pressed against my face and his lips worked against mine.

It was kind of nice...considering I was being kissed by the guy who'd made my life miserable for the last twenty-four years of my life.

When he let go of me, we were both panting.

"Look," he gasped, "I wasn't just asking you out because I felt like I had to. I asked you because I think you're pretty cool, once you open up your shell, and I wanted to get to know you. And," he grinned at me wolfishly, "...now I know you're a really good kisser too."

I blushed. Oh God, if those kids in high school could see me now.

"So? What's the verdict?"

He looked anxiously down at me. I thought for a moment. Things were going pretty fast---I mean, I'd just let the guy get to second base before the first date---but since he was offering a free dinner...

I turned my face up and grinned up at him.

“Only if I get a Sunkist.”