K Darblyne - Unbroken Season 1

Brooke was enjoying the fact that someone else was on the receiving end of everybody’s teasing. “Yeah, I hear she stopped wetting the bed just last week. You’re in luck, Sam.”

“Well, at least my juices are flowing,” C.C. shot back.

“Can we cook with your juices? Then again, why bother? There’s apple juice, orange juice…” Brooke began ticking them off on her fingers as Randi cut her off.

“I heard it was Kool-Aid.” Randi stood up and joined her two sisters.

Brooke chuckled, and then offered, “Capri-Sun… Well… maybe not. That has a sharp, pointed end to the straw.”

Terri threw up her hands in exasperation. “Great, just what Chase needs, something to poke her and suck her dry.”

Opening her mouth to protest, the youngest brunette stopped to think about it. “Ooh…Naughty!”

“Yeah, you think so? Just don’t go running with it in your mouth.” Brooke looked over at C.C.

“Yeah? Well, at least I’d have something in my mouth,” was her quick retort.

“GIRLS, ENOUGH!” Henry was becoming quite aggravated at the behavior of all four of his daughters, especially in front of company.

Mable looked over to Sam and reached a hand out to her which Sam willingly took. “It’s not always this bad dear, really.”

“Nope, sometimes it’s worse,” Brooke admitted, then smiled and winked when Sam looked up at her to see if she was serious.

“Well, Mom, thanks. Dinner was great but I need to get back to the hospital.” Terri said as she walked over and hugged the older woman. “Sam, it was… ah… interesting to say the least. Please, come back and join us again.”

“Yeah,” Brooke seconded readily as she waited in line. “I have a session at the studio in an hour so I need to go set everything up.” The blue eyed woman hugged her mother, depositing a kiss on the older woman’s cheek as she did so. “Thanks for dinner, Mom. It was great.”

“You’re welcome,” Mable said as she stood with one arm each around Terri and Brooke, looking somewhat short compared to her daughters.

“Thanks again for dinner, Mrs. Gordon.” Sam began. “I think I’m going to enjoy having C.C. as a roommate this year.”

“You can have her!” Randi, Terri and Brooke all offered at the same time.

“Hey, at least I have someone to sleep with,” C.C. countered as she stuck out her tongue at Brooke and Terri.

“Excuse me. I’m married, thank you very much. I have someone to sleep with that I can actually have sex with,” Terri defended herself.

“Yeah, but not on duty nights at the hospital. What is that on call schedule this year, Terri… every other night?”

Terri grumbled out her answer. “It will get better. Besides, when was the last time you got some, Chase?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” C.C. placed an arm around Sam’s shoulder. “So, roomie, what’s it going to be tonight…” she paused, wiggling her eyebrows for effect, “…blondes, brunettes or redheads?”

Sam looked up to see the tilt of Brooke’s head as she studied her, waiting for her answer. “Definitely, brunettes,” Sam answered, noticing a slight wink and the subtlest of upturn to the corner of Brooke’s mouth.

“It was nice meeting you, Sam. Please don’t let her warp you too much. You seem like a nice girl just the way you are,” Brooke admitted as she walked over closer to her, the attraction being too great to stay away.

“Well, some things just can’t be helped.” Sam could feel the heat of a blush start as she tried to conceal her embarrassment.

“Oh yeah? Such as…?” Blue eyes looked at her intently.

Sam just smiled at Brooke as C.C. tugged on her arm and asked, “Ready to go?”

Sam looked at C.C. “Yeah, I’m ready.” The roommates moved toward the front door with C.C. in the lead.

It wasn’t more than a step or two before Sam decided to answer. She turned to Brooke and began to walk backwards to the door, “Maybe next time we can talk about that. Bye, Brooke.”

Brooke nodded her head and smiled. “Okay, next time.” The woman’s shoulders sank slightly as the blonde left her sight, the smile fading from her face. Brooke thought for a moment before resuming her steps to the door. Well, if there was any highlight to tonight’s dinner, I’d say that it was Sam.

“…Oh, no. Not me…I’ll be a rainbow in your eyes…”

After an evening of dinner and family fun at the Gordon’s, the roommates returned to their dorm. Anticipating the start of classes the next morning, they looked over their schedules and set their alarms, hoping that the start of a new school year would not be too intrusive of a beginning to their lives as seniors on campus.

With a towel wrapped around her head and her nightshirt on, Sam returned from her shower only to find C.C. sitting cross-legged on top of her comforter, looking over the campus newspaper. The tired blonde sat down on her own bed then reached over to her nightstand, pressing the play button on the cassette player.

Sam unwrapped the towel from her hair. “Do you mind?” She asked her roommate, nodding her head in the direction of the music filtering through the speakers, the familiar rhythm of the drums bringing a smile to the blonde’s face.

“Not at all. Go ahead.” The long brown hair of the girl swayed with the movement of her head as she recognized the beat. If the truth were known, C.C. rather enjoyed hearing the songs once again. They had not graced the Gordon home since Brooke all but banned them after coming home from that last tour. For a brief moment, C.C. wondered what the reason had really been.

“So…anything interesting in there?” Sam asked as she rubbed her hair with the towel.

“Not really. Just the normal early semester bullshit about returning to classes and whatnot,” C.C. answered.

Sam grabbed her own copy and began to thumb through the pages. Her eyes lit up as one announcement in particular drew the gaze of her green eyes. “Ooh. Clueless is playing this weekend. I’ve always wanted to see that movie.”

“You’ve never seen it?” C.C. asked in disbelief. Inwardly, she cringed. She had never been a huge Alicia Silverstone fan herself, but she remembered that Brooke loved that movie. The brunette let a smile creep onto her face as she began to formulate a plan. “Well, maybe we can check it out,” C.C. offered.

“Really?” Sam’s eyes grew wide in amazement. “You wouldn’t mind? I’m sure you’ve probably seen it already.”

“Once or twice, but it’s been a while,” C.C. shrugged her shoulders. “We’ll figure it out later in the week, okay?” She glanced over at her roommate, and by the look on Sam’s face, she knew her answer.

“Great.” The determined smile was almost infectious. “Thanks, C.C., I really appreciate it.”

“No problem.” She placed the paper on the shelf of her nightstand, then nodded her head in the direction of the computer the two girls shared. “I’m just going to check my mail before turning in. Do you need anything on the computer before I do?” The computer belonged to C.C. but she made sure that Sam knew she was welcome to use it whenever she needed.

“Nope. Thanks.” Sam shook her head as she watched C.C. walk over to the desk and log onto the Internet, pulling her first e-mail up to read.

The young blonde busied herself with her hair as she waited for her roommate to finish, then she said what had been on her mind for the last few minutes.

“I really want to thank you for letting me tag along with you to dinner. Your family is very nice, and they really made me feel welcome.” Sam couldn’t believe what a great time she had. She was nervous at first but the closeness of C.C.’s family soon made her feel right at home. Actually, she felt more at ease at their house than she ever did in her own home.

C.C. turned around as she waited for the next piece of e-mail to download. “Oh, you’re welcome, Sam. You’re more than welcome to go with me any time you’d like. I go home quite a bit and I’m sure everyone would love to see you again. Terri even said so, herself.”

Noticing the far away look on Sam’s face, she guessed that Terri wasn’t the sister that the blonde had on her mind. “Brooke seemed to like you,” C.C. added as an afterthought as she turned back around to face the computer screen. She pulled one leg up under her as she began to read her mail.

“Really? How do you know?” Sam asked, wondering why C.C. turned their conversation down this particular path.

The girl tossed her brown hair and merely rolled her eyes as she turned around towards Sam. “Please, you’re kidding, right? I’m closer to Brooke than the others. Not that I don’t love them, too but,” C.C. paused for a second in thought, “I don’t know, Brooke and I have always been tighter. Randi and Terri are the same way. I know her and take my word for it, she likes you.” C.C. watched for a moment as Sam mulled this information over, biting on her bottom lip as she did so.

“She was really nice…” Sam began but was cut off by C.C.

“You can say it.” The brown eyebrow rose slightly in challenge, “And nice looking. I saw the way you looked at her.” C.C. couldn’t help but tease her friend.

Sam looked up, horrified that someone else noticed. “I wasn’t…”

“It’s okay, Sam. No one else noticed, honest. They would have ragged you about it, otherwise. And Brooke was so busy dealing with Mom and all of our shit there’s not enough money in the world that could have bought her a clue. Don’t worry about it,” C.C. assured her roommate and heard the audible sigh of relief.

“I can’t believe you noticed,” Sam shook her head in disbelief as the next song began to play. “I thought I was pretty stealthy when it came down to checking out the babes,” the blonde shook her head and chuckled. “Guess I need more practice, huh?”

“Don’t worry about it,” C.C. stressed to her friend, as another idea formed in her head. “Hey, why don’t you e-mail Brooke and thank her as well?” C.C. turned, from her monitor to see the bug-eyed look of shock on Sam’s face. “Oh, come on, Sam. You’re more nervous around me right now than you were around her this afternoon.”

She got up from the chair and walked over to the closet. After fishing around for a moment or two, she pulled her wallet out of her purse. Upon retrieving a white business card from it, she walked back to Sam, and then placed it into the woman’s hand.

“Trust me, Sam. I wouldn’t tell you to do it if I didn’t think she’d enjoy it. I’m all done with the computer. You can do it right now if you’d like.”

The blonde sat on her bed and gazed into the brown eyes looking back at her. When she didn’t see the teasing gleam that seemed to permanently take up residence there, she slowly nodded in agreement to do just that.

“Okay,” Sam gave in. She got up from her bed and made her way over to the computer via the bathroom, where she placed her wet towel to dry.

Sam glanced down to the plain white card in her hands.

Brownstone Records

“In 7 days, the Earth was created. On the 8th day, it was plugged in.”

Brooke L. Gordon, C.E.O.

Trying not to interfere with her roomie’s thinking process, C.C. climbed into bed and double-checked the time she had set for her alarm to go off. Turning off her lamp, the lanky girl settled into the mattress as she waited for sleep to embrace her. The soft sound of Sam pecking away at the keyboard acted like the soothing sound of rain falling on the roof, lulling her to sleep.

“C.C.?” Sam’s voice was soft as it fell on the girl’s ear.

The sleepy-eyed woman rose up on one elbow to look at her friend across the small room. “Yeah?”

“Is your name really Chase?” Sam asked as she began to giggle. The blonde hit the key marked enter, sending her e-mail then turned around, expecting an answer. Instead, she was greeted by C.C.’s flying pillow.

The C.E.O. of Brownstone Records was always extremely punctual. This Monday morning was no exception. Brooke entered her office at exactly eight in the morning after her customary greetings to the small staff that surrounded her on the office level of the building. Most of them had been with her from the beginning of the company, becoming a second family of a sort during her working hours.

Crossing over to her desk, the tall woman put her briefcase down and moved to the comfortable chair that was only for her. When all of her necessary organizational maneuvering was finished, she sat there glancing out the window. Deep in thought ever since leaving her parent’s house the evening before, she found herself wondering about her life.