Abstuce

by hello-romeo

And I know what’s coming next. I mean, any one of my girlfriends would know what’s coming next, because he is Shane and she is Mitchie and this is the highlight of them being together.

"Da, da, da, dum, da, dum, da, dum, da, dummm, da, da, da, dum, da, dum da--"

"Jason, shut up."

"…Dummmm…"

Nate glares heavily at Jason, completely ready to butter-knife-battle-him to the death, so after a moment of thought, I put my hand on his knee. Nate calms down almost immediately, and opts to cross his arms over his chest.

His beautiful, white, probably soft chest…

Yum…

No--bad thoughts, Caitlyn, focus.

"Where's Mitchie?" Ella asks from across the humongous table where she is pouring more syrup on her waffles, "I thought she said she'd meet us here."

And I can't help but silently agree. She hadn't picked up her phone when I called her earlier.

"That's not much of a question," states Nate from beside me, he's been done eating for ages, "Shane's not here either, and it's only 10 in the morning."

Everyone's pretty much quiet after that, busy digesting the information, but it takes Ella a second.

"So…like, you think they're with each other?"

I can't help but smile at her, 'cause even though she was once upon a time one of Tess's plebes, she's actually really grown on me, I mean she's super cute in an idiot sort of way.

Kind of like Jason.

Birds of a feather flock together, you know.

Oh my God, what if--?!

But my train of thought is promptly cut off when I notice Nate is looking right at me, right into my freaking eye balls, and succeeding in giving me the wildest butterflies.

"We should go find them," he murmurs, "Before someone else does."

I know what he's talking about right away, the millions of people who spend all their time searching for dirt on Shane Gray, people that could find out about him and Mitchie and possibly ruin her life.

If I know the two of them (and believe me, I do) they're probably all cuddled up in Shane's huge bed and if it were Ella or Peggy suggesting a trip to go see them I'd be totally suspicious, cause they'd love a chance to torture Shane about his bed head, or else tease Mitchie mercilessly about being in his bed.

But not Nate.

I mean, he's totally and completely sincere. And despite the fact that he's a lot younger than Jason and Shane, he's like always looking out for them.

Like their mom, or something.

Okay, ewh.

Bad image.

But the one right in front of me? The one of him looking down at me and smiling just a little bit so his lips part right in the middle?

Yeah, this is an image I could get use to.

"Right," I say finally, "let's go."

So we do.

X

The man at the front desk lets Nate I without any ID, maybe cause he knows he's Shane's brother, maybe cause he doesn't care.

Either way, we get in without too much of a hassle, we ride the massive up to the 25th floor, where Shane 's too-big-for-just-one-guy room is.

What a diva.

I'd been in there before (cause duh, Mitchie practically lives here) but it never ceases to amaze me. I mean we have money, of course we have money, but we've never had this kind of money.

Shane's apartment is something you'd have to see to believe, calling it "beautiful" wouldn't even be skimming the surface.

I look at the crème furniture (so tasteful, I wonder if Shane was the one who actually picked it out) and the guitar-shaped center table with a huge vase of pretty pink flowers on top (Mitchie, it's so her) and the plasma screen television so big, it takes up more than half the wall, and the ridiculously advanced kitchen with enough food to feed a small country and keep it going for half a decade.

I mean, does Shane even cook?

I tear my attention away from the loveliness that is Shane's apartment and turn to look at Nate, who is in front of Shane's bedroom door and obviously debating on whether he should knock or go right in.

It's so cute, I almost wish I had a camera.

I walk up to where he is and give him a reassuring smile.

Then I turn the door knob.

Shane's room would be a thousand times better than the rest of his apartment if he could just keep the damn thing clean.

There is so much crap (cause really, when it comes to Shane, there's no other word for it) all over the floor that we actually have to maneuver our way through it.

I consider humming the Mission Impossible theme song, but I really don't want to scare Nate away.

The sight of the two of them sprawled across his bed, however, almost makes everything else fly right from my mind.

I mean, as clichéd and stupid and lovesick as this sounds, they look so incredibly made for each other, like without Shane, there's no Mitchie and vise versa.

They're facing each other, as if even in sleep they just have to be as close as possible, and her head is bent against his naked shoulder, he has one hand across her lower body and the other under her neck. His head is pulled away from the rest of his body, I imagine their legs tangled under the blankets.

Maybe Nate felt the tugging at his heart too, maybe not, but either way he marches right over and pulls the curtains open, effectively getting the two of them to groan aloud.

Mitchie sits up first in a white tank top and hisses at Nate, actually hisses at him, her eyes still half closed from grogginess, the sight is so funny that I actually double over laughing, and after Mitchie sees me, she slams her body back on the bed, pulling the covers over her head.

Shane is sitting up, though, and while he's not hissing, or anything he's definitely pissed. He gets up and stretches, and although I totally don't see him that way, I watch happily, cause he is ripped.

He then walks over to Mitchie's side of the bed and shakes her gently, I mean really, really gently, like he's afraid he's going to break her or something.

When she doesn't even stir, and Shane gets impatient, he rips the blanket off her head, ignoring her surprised little shriek, and proceeds to pick her up with practiced ease.

He puts her feet carefully on the ground and stands in front of her. Mitchie makes this little sound in between a groan and a "but Shane-yyy" and closes her eyes again. She leans her head against his forearm.

Shane rolls his eyes, but he's totally amused. He turns his back on her and bends slightly. This is all the initiative she needs, she hurriedly climbs onto his back and he piggy-backs her out of there.

I watch the open door for a second before turning to Nate, who's looking at the door as well, but his look has less to do with amusement and more with bewilderment.

"What the hell was that?!"

I laugh quickly before linking my arm with his and leading him out the door so that we can wait for them in the kitchen.

"She's not much of a morning person."

And as we walk out the door together, the same, but so different from the way Shane and Mitchie had, I try not to be so bitter over the fact that he seems completely disinterested.

X

We've only been in the kitchen, sitting in the thousand dollar dining table for about five minutes when Shane comes to join us. I notice his hair isn't straightened and he's wearing casual clothing.

Shane walks past us and opens a cabinet, there is so much unhealthy food in there, I get cavities just looking at it. It doesn't seem to bother him much though, cause he's ripping open a box of brownies and looking for the one with the most sprinkles.

Mitchie breezes in right then and plucks the brownie right out of his hand.

She shoves it back in the box and shoves the box back in the cabinet and pulls out a bowl and spoon from the different cupboards and drawers as if she does it everyday.

And you know what? She probably does.

She then pulls out a box of Cheerios and puts it in Shane's still extended hands. She grins at him cheekily.

"Breakfast first, then you may stuff your face with acne-inducing junk."

He opens his mouth to say something, but she kisses his cheek before he can and then turns to glare at us.

Huh.

I wonder why.

"Thank you, so very much for that lovely wake up call."

"Any time buddy."

"Uh, no, not anytime. Actually, I'd love it if you never did it again."

"Awh," I say totally milking it cause Mitchie almost never looses her temper "But you look so cute in your little boxer shorts."

She blushes slightly but can't say anything, cause Shane comes over, mouth full of cereal and says

"My boxer shorts, actually."

I raise my eyebrows at the implication and Mitchie blushes again, deeper this time and tells him to shut up.

"It's okay, Mitchie, we all wear our boyfriends boxers from time to time." I say.

Nate stiffens from beside me and I'm so surprised that I managed to make him jealous, totally without trying making him jealous that I completely forget to milk it.

Darn.

Luckily, there's something completely else to focus on as Mitchie fusses with her hair in the reflection of the toaster.

"Does my hair look weird?"

The question is completely directed to us, or well, me, but it's Shane who answers.

"It always does."

And just as she whips around retort, he grabs her roughly and kisses her on the mouth.

I can imagine that kiss to be all lips and teeth and tongue as he picks her off the ground and places her small body on the counter top, making himself comfy in between her legs.

They break apart for a second, and they're looking at each other with half-lidded eyes and big smiles, and Shane says

"Good morning,"

And Mitchie giggles and then whispers "Good morning…"

And they are once again sucking face.

His one hand is massaging her thigh and hers are holding his face in both hands, and they just start making these little noises, like whimpers and small moans before Nate finally looses his patience.

"Do you mind? You have company!"

And I can tell almost right away that they heard because although the kissing hasn't stopped, it's so much slower than it was a second ago, and Mitchie is holding Shane's head even tighter and Shane is wrapping his arms completely around Mitchie's waist.

And finally, they sort of seem like they are going to pull away, they are still clutching at each other, and Shane has resorted to just tugging on Mitchie's lower lip with his own.

There are these wet smacking sounds as they finally pull away. Mitchie and Shane still have their eyes closed, but their lips are no longer touching, they are still hugging each other tightly and Mitchie is still on the counter top.

Her forehead rests on his, they have finally started opening their eyes.

And I know what's coming next.

I mean, any one of my girlfriends would know what's coming next, because he is Shane and she is Mitchie and this is the highlight of them being together.

They move their heads away so they can properly look in each others eyes, and Mitchie places her hand on Shane's cheek gently, lovingly.

Then she looks straight at him, probably penetrating his soul, and she keeps her face totally serious, and she says

"I love you."

And Shane, who you'd think would grin or kiss her again or say something totally vulgar (cause hi, he's Shane)

Looks straight into her eyes, probably penetrating her soul and says, his face totally serious,

"I love you."

And the way they do that, they way they say "I love you" like it's the last one they will ever say, or the way they are so serious about it, or the way they just look at each other, no lust, no want, just love, in the way that makes your heart hurt and your head ache scares me and makes me dizzy at the same time.

It makes me realize that love like that is not just in the fairy tales and it makes me want it more than anything else.

And the way they're looking at each other right now? As if cast under a spell, or something? Oh, god, it makes me--

"Oh, God, please, I'm going to get cavities, guys."

And just like that, the magic is broken and Shane is lifting Mitchie off the counter top and onto the ground Mitchie is blushing and fixing her hair while Shane goes back to his cereal.

I glare at Nate, like really glare at him because he just interrupted the single most beautiful thing you'd ever see in your life.

Didn't he understand girls sit there and coo and "awh" about romances like Titanic and The Notebook and we had an actual romance like that, one made for the movies, right here in the same kitchen?

Didn't he get that Shane and Mitchie were less like a couple and more like one person? That every one of their kisses were shared as if they meant the world and all of their "I love yous" were precious?

And I'm sure I wasn't so much mad at him for interrupting as I was for him not seeing the magic, but I'm Caitlyn and sometimes I do things without thinking much.

So I grab him by the shirt collar, get one decent look of his eyes widening, and slam my mouth onto his.

Kissing Nate for the first time is sort of like that feeling when you're drowning in a pool, and someone finally pulls you to the surface.

That first breath of air?

That was Nate.

I hadn't even known I'd been drowning until I'd kissed him, my mouth moving desperately over his until finally (finally, finally, finally,) he began kissing back.

For the first time (other than producing music, of course) I felt totally in sync with something, like the entire world may have been crumbling beneath our feet, and I wouldn't have known.

And then we separated.

I stared right at him, right into his chocolate, chocolate eyes and then this awesome thing started happening--his lips started to curve upwards, and them mine did, and then he was leaning forward, and then it was happening all over again.

Dude, I could have like died from happiness.

It sort of got me thinking, I don't think any love could amount to the love Shane and Mitchie have. Maybe because no two people could amount to Shane and Mitchie, I'm not sure, but either way, I'm willing to try to get that kind of love.

I'd try it with Nate.

Speaking of Shane and Mitchie, I assume they are gaping from somewhere in the corner.

Hey, the world could have been crumbling beneath our feet, I wouldn't have known.