Episode Nine- The One Where Everyone's In Love and No One's Happy

On the last episode of Cheaterville, Rayen and Damien had a chat, Alessi announced that she met someone online, and Gray and Rayen fought and then kissed.

The kiss lasted only eight seconds. Between the second it started and the second it ended was pure bliss. But not even ten seconds into it, Rayen realized what she was doing.

She pulled away, hurt and wonder in her eyes. Gray had a similar expression, although that strange emotion was mixed in there as well. They both stared at the emotion in each other’s eyes before Rayen decided that she had to say something.

“This is wrong.” Plain and simple, the words flowed out of her mouth. “We were step-siblings for years, and we also have the same brothers….” She paused, looked down a second, as if deep in thought, then suddenly whipped her head back up and cried, “This is some kind of a prank, isn’t it?!”

“No!” cried Gray. “Why would…”

“You hate me!” Rayen snarled. “You tell me that every time you see me! And then you kiss me?! What, am I go into school tomorrow and everyone is going to be laughing and pointing…”

“You have it all wrong!” Gray begged. “I hated you. I’m not denying that! When we were kids I thought you were such a big bully. And then when we aged up I saw your beauty, and to me it was like love at first sight. But I knew I couldn’t love you, because I thought you hated me like I hated you, and it made me frustrated.” He paused a second, and guilt suddenly washed over his face. “So I hated you even more.”

Rayen blinked. “I always kind of liked you too,” She admitted. “Although as a child, I was quite cruel. Too young to understand, I guess. But then when I got older I sorted through my feelings, but then you were suddenly mean to me…. And I was confused and hurt… and…”

Gray grabbed her into a hug, and then both cried for a bit, and before they knew it their lips were touching again. They were soon passionately making out as the sun set and darkness fell. Finally, they pulled away and looked back into each other’s eyes. Neither one saw anymore confusion, just confidence.

Except, both knew no one in their family would react well to this. They called the same man Dad. They were both older siblings to Jack and Damien. They were raised in the same house as brother and sister. They weren’t related, not since Alessi dumped Douglas, but they were, in a way, family. And they both knew that the reaction to their sudden attraction to each other would not be a good one.

So as they headed home, walking hand and hand, watching the stars, they knew that what had happened at the abandoned mine would have to remain hidden there.

Douglas was at the house, hanging out with the boys. Lorelai was in the nursery, tickling baby Cassie. Alessi was on the computer, chatting with her new man. Everything seemed almost normal, or as normal as the Cheaterville house could possibly be. But no one saw the two teenagers release their hands from each other’s when they walked in the door, nobody saw the look exchanged, and nobody noticed the sad smiles they had on their faces as they walked in opposite directions.

The next morning, Gray and Rayen had woken up early to be with each other. They had kissed a little, flirted a lot, until they heard Cassie start to cry from the nursery. Rayen hurried in to tend to her sister, and Gray stood in the doorway, watching how gentle and sweet she was with the baby, and how much little Cassie adored her big sister, “Wayne”.

Gray’s attention was averted from his beautiful romantic interest by a loud knock on door.

It was still early, so Gray was surprised that anyone would come by there house. He trudged over to the door, thinking it was probably the paper girl with some problem.

He was entirely shocked, however, when he discovered a muscular man in a wife beater with an expensive looking piece of jewelry around his neck. Rayen stuck her head out to see who it was, and then quickly hurried back into the nursery and slammed the door while yelling at Gray to run.

The man looked the shaken Gray over. “This where the Brights live?” the man asked. Gray gulped and nodded, afraid of what would happen if he lied to the man.

Suddenly, there came the low thudding sound of footsteps coming from behind Gray. He whipped around and saw his mom running over.

“Mom!” yelled Gray. “Get back!”

Alessi laughed and she slowed down to a walk, before going to stand next to the strange man. Rayen, who was now freaking out, stuck her head back out to see if anyone was still alive.

“Ummm… Mom?!” cried Gray, more confused than anything. “Do you KNOW this guy?!”

Alessi laughed. “Sure do, Gray. This is RainingMan0726.”

Rayen stared blankly at them and simply asked, “What?”

Gray stared stunned at the two of them. “My mom’s new boyfriend…”

“Oh so this is your son?” said RaingMan0726.  “I’m sorry I scared you, kid. You can call me Darshan.” He then turned to Alessi and asked, “I thought we were meeting for breakfast…”

“We are,” Alessi promised. “I slept a little late.”

“You weren’t going to tell me about him before…” muttered Gray incredulously.

“I was going to bring him over for lunch,” assured Alessi. “I just needed to talk with him a little before.”

“We need to get going now if we’re going to get to restaurant before all the seats are taken.” Reminded Darshan.

“Oh yes!” cried Alessi. She quickly pecked Gray on the cheek and then promised, “We’ll talk later, okay?”

Gray shrugged, numb with shock.

“Come on, LessiBear518,” said Darshan as they turned to leave. “Nice meeting you, Gray.” With that, they both walked out.

Gray stood there even after the door closed, his jaw nearly on the floor. Rayen cradled the cooing Cassie as she tried to soothe her new beau. “He’s probably not that bad… I mean, he certainly seemed polite…”

Gray didn’t answer, just stared at the door in shock. He couldn’t believe it.

His mom was dating a criminal.

Is Gray overreacting?

Is Rayen and Gray’s romance doomed to fail?

Is Alessi ditching the good guys for the bad boys?

All will be revealed in the next episode of… CHEATERVILLE!!!!

Authors Note: Hi "everybody"! If someone besides the lovely Maddy is reading this, then I have a fun fact! Maddy wanted Darshan to be orange! Well, he's all good and his skin is a color that actually occurs in nature, but I thought that was an important part to this episode so I dedicated a whole paragraph to it.