The Perfect Candy

Chapter 15: Moon Eyes

A/N: Quick disclaimer: There are references to illegal (in some states) substances in this chapter.

Eleanor flounced into Candice's room and made herself at home on the perfectly made bed. Her sister sat at her spot by the window, the spot Eleanor knew was for moping. Candice looked over at her sister long enough to shoot her an exasperated look before returning her gaze outside. Eleanor knew her sister well enough to know that in Candice's world, everything needed to be just so, and things were meant to occur in logical sequences. She'd been so coddled in her world that few things had ever forced her outside of her organized and predictable existence.

"Are you going to tell me about him?"

Candice sent her a sharp look, "I never talk to you about boys."

"You've never had a boy to talk about," Eleanor returned easily. "Now you do and I want to know about him."

"It was a momentary lapse in sanity. It's over now."

"Does he know that?" The sudden hard set of Candice's mouth and gleam of mutiny in her eyes was answer enough to that, and Eleanor smiled. Sitting with her legs crossed pretzel-like beneath her, she settled in for girl talk whether her sister wanted it or not. "How'd you meet him?"

Candice cast her a suspicious look, no doubt wondering when their precarious relationship had started to evolve. "We've been going to school together for nearly our entire lives."

"Yes, but you'd never met until recently."

"Everyone knows him."

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "Yes, he's the bad boy heart throb, but he's never meant anything to you before now. And I'm sure he'd never noticed you."

"We can't all be as beautiful as you," Candice said with more than a little bite, glaring at Eleanor.

"Is that what you think?" Eleanor asked with a laugh. "I spend an hour and a half on make-up every day. You spend less than a half an hour if that. You've never wanted to be considered beautiful; you just wanted to be left alone."

"And everything was going perfectly well with that up 'til now," Candice spat in disgust, whipping her gaze from the window for good now so that she could glare at her sister. "I like being left alone. I like my life just the way it is."

"You're going to have to get that stick out of your ass at some point, sis. Life isn't always going to go according to your color-coded plans."

"I don't color-code my plans."

Eleanor did her very best not to smile at Candice's child-like tone, but her lips twitched. "I went to school with him too, you know. He's been with some of my friends, and not once did he take any of them anywhere other than the back of their car or an empty room."

Candice's face twisted in disgust, "Thank you so much for the imagery."

"Candice, you can't be so stupid that you don't see that he likes you."

"He likes the challenge and the chase," Candice replied stubbornly. "It has nothing to do with the girl." People thought her sister was a push over because she didn't argue, something that had changed of late. Even before recent events though, Eleanor knew the truth; if Candice decided on a path, that was the path and no one could deter her. Coop had his work cut out for him.

"I saw the way he looked at you after what happened," Eleanor said softly, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from Candice as she looked at her sister searchingly. "I heard how angry he was. That's not nothing."

Eleanor saw the tear on her sister's cheek and knew Candice's feelings ran much more deeply than she was willing to admit. In a move that was so out of character that it surprised them both, Eleanor got to her feet and sat beside her sister, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and squeezing as she set her cheek on Candice's shoulder. "You're beautiful and one thousand times sweeter than I'll ever be, Candice. It has everything to do with the girl."