Chapter Two
Buster was talking to Lindsey in the dining room of the model home about his plans to try and resurrect his army career when the two siblings heard the slam of a door. A few moments latter they saw Maeby franticly rush down the stairs. She ran to the door, but then rushed back into the dining room.
"Did you hear George Michael leave," she asked in a frantic voice.
"That was George Michael?" said a surprised Buster, "that's odd cause in the army we're trained to identify people by the way they open and close doors, and that was really more of a mother closing door after being sent an accurate birthday card door closing sound then a George Michael closing door sound," Buster said, oblivious to the distress that Maeby was clearly in.
"Oh God, I did something really bad," Maeby explained, the pace of her words quick and speedy while her head fell into her hands.
"What did you do?" asked her mother, realising that this was one of those moments that she had read about where mothers were supposed to show compassion to their children.
Maeby looked up, her eyes darting between her oblivious uncle and curious mother. She knew that she could not tell them the truth, that would just be to humiliating for George Michael; not to mention it would risk the information about how they kissed coming out in the open, so instead she silently prayed that her mother's indifference to her life would prevail over her duty for Lindsey to be informed about her daughter's world.
"Oh, he told me something and I laughed at him. It's nothing," she explained.
"No, tell me," Lindsey insisted.
Maeby knew she had to do what she did best and lie. "Oh, well, George Michael told me that he's planning to run away to Mexico and-"
"He's what!" Lindsey yelled, standing up so fast that her chair fell back. "Why the hell is he running away to Mexico?"
"I don't know," Maeby replied quickly. "Something about him being sick of his family and wanting to get away."
"No, he can't go to Mexico," Buster exclaimed, also rising from his chair. "Do you know what they do to people as weak as George Michael in that country? They use his but hole for drugs Maeby. His but hole. Trust me Maeby, I've been to Mexico and I know what it's like."
He hadn't and he didn't.
Lindsey was already running after George Michael and was in the front lawn of the model house, screening the landscape for any sign of their supposedly runaway nephew. Both Buster and Maeby had rushed after her and as they came onto the lawn Buster screamed.
"What?" cried Lindsey.
"Oh nothing, I thought I saw a wasp and mother says that I'm allergic to anything that can cause me pain," replied Buster, his hands moving protectively up to his chest.
At that point Lindsey screamed.
"I knew that was a wasp and not a fly. Get away from me!" yelled Lindsey's brother as he desperately tried to bat away what was in fact a bright speck of dust from his head.
"No!" Lindsey cried. "Look, the stair car is gone, George Michael must have taken it to get across the border."
The stair car had in fact been borrowed by Gob when his usual mode of transport had run out of battery. George Michael had in fact stormed out of the front door only to take a furious walk around the house in anger and was not in fact making his way to Mexico.
"We can take my car," Lindsey said. She did in fact make her way back inside to get Michael's keys for Michael's car. "Maeby, stay here," her mother ordered. "If Michael comes home, explain everything to him, but tell him not to panic, me and Buster have things under control." And so, with that the two adults raced after a kid to stop him from reaching the border to get to Mexico, a kid who was in fact in the backyard of the house that those same two adults had just raced from.
After storming out of the house, George Michael had found himself circling the house, seething at the way Maeby had laughed at him. He felt humiliated and worthless and just did not want to see his cousin at that moment. After all, it wasn't like she wasn't blameless either for the feelings he had developed towards her. She had kissed him, and then tried to get him to kiss her again. In fact, she had started this all of when she had kissed him the first time they had met, he had fallen for her ever since. And now, when she finally found out about just how much and how long he had been in love with her, she laughed at him like he was nothing. Hearing the commotion at the front of the house he wandered over to see what was happening. His father's car was driving away at high speed, leaving tire marks in the sand behind it while Maeby looked on with a look of stunned disbelief on her face.
"What's happening," he asked.
"Oh," Maeby exclaimed, wheeling around to face George Michael, surprised at the sound of his voice. "My mother and Buster are driving to the Mexico border because I told them you were fleeing the country."
"Why did you tell them that?" George Michael asked. Internally he sighed at another one of Maeby's lies.
"Because they asked why you stormed out so I had to make up something quickly," she explained, her words flowing fluently out of her as is if she was desperate to show how completely transparent she was with him.
George Michael exhaled some air. "Fair enough," he grumbled, not looking her in the eyes. He wanted to start yelling or something because he knew that was what he expected of himself after the way she had just embarrassed him, but he felt weak and so was deprived of the ability to stand up for himself, so instead, he just lowered his eyes to the ground and allowed for an awkward silence between the two cousins to engulf them.
Maeby cleared her throat, "look, George Michael, I'm sorry. I really am, its just that when I saw the letters I did find it kind of funny. I mean, you had even tried to draw me."
"Really!" George Michael said, his voice getting louder, "because it sure as hell wasn't funny to me!"
"I know," she said calmly, "and I 'm sorry." A look of genuine regret was on her face. "Do you accept my apology?"
George Michael knew that Maeby had not deliberately meant to hurt his feelings. His anger towards her was just a cover for his embarrassment, so he decided to accept her apology. "Yeah, sure. I'm just, well a little bit embarrassed, that's all," he confessed.
Maeby looked at him sympathetically. "I think we need to have a talk." She entered the now empty house, beckoning for George Michael to follow her.
George Michael followed Maeby into the kitchen, and the two sat down at the small table on the high stools that were incredibly uncomfortable as well as dangerously shaky.
"So," Maeby began, looking at her cousin in an oddly relaxed manner, "how long have you felt this way about me." The unperturbed way she asked the question was the result of her decision that she was going to be honest now. Totally honest.
"I guess since you first kissed me on the boat," George Michael said, and to his surprise he found himself not sounding nearly as nervous as he thought he would. Something about Maeby's relaxed expression and tone had helped relax him in turn so that he felt he could speak freely.
"Well that makes sense," she replied. "What about when you were dating Anne."
"Oh, I still liked you then," he said, again in that unusual casual manner. "Ever since the second time we kissed my feelings have felt like more I suppose."
Maeby lowered her eyes to a small scratch on the table, put there by Buster after he foolishly attempted to grab a fruit juice box that was lying on the counter with his hook. They had both kissed each other for the second time on the sofa in the living room, but it was their first real kiss because it was their first romantic kiss. But she, not George Michael, had been the one to suggest they do it again, only to be stood up by him. They hadn't discussed that kiss that never was, accept in a mention of it when Maeby pronounced doubts about her fake (now real) marriage to George Michael. She guessed that if she was asking George Michael to pronounce all his feelings to her, she should do the same.
"I was really angry when you stood me up that time," she exclaimed, not looking at his eyes.
There was a deep, almost mournful silence, and then:
"I didn't mean to stand you up, its just my dad saw me in the stair car where I had fallen asleep and so he drove of with me and by the time I woke up we were miles out. I'm sorry, I should have explained that to you, but I guessed you just would never want to discuss what happened between us ever again, so…."
There was another uncomfortable silence, but with this new revelation Maeby rose up her head and looked at him in the eyes. "I wish I had known that. I guess one of the reasons I laughed at you when I found your notes was that it proved that you were always more into me then I was into you. Until now I thought that I was just the sad sap with feelings for my cousin. She gave him a smile. "But I guess we both are."
George Michael gave a small, nervous laugh. "Well, that's just the problem isn't it. We're cousins so nothing can ever happen between us I suppose."
The words George Michael spoke hit Maeby like a bombshell. She didn't know why. After all, it was the exclamation of a simple fact she had known for a long time. They were cousins, and nothing she could do would change that, so they could never be together. A sudden feeling of helplessness came over her, like she was trapped in a situation not of her own doing. Ever since she was a little girl, Maeby had hated that feeling. The feeling of being dependent on someone else, and their being nothing she could do to overcome that. The feeling that it did not matter what action she took, it would always turn out the same because the result had been predetermined by someone else. By something stronger then her. Some people liked that feeling, yet Maeby knew what that feeling really was. Cowardice. Cowardice at not being able to accept that you were in control of your actions. And yet, Maeby was now in that very same situation. She was suffering from that same helplessness because, what could she do?
"What about you, when did you start having feelings for me?" George Michael asked.
Maeby considered refusing to answer, but that wasn't fair. He had told her, so she would tell him.
"I started feeling jealous when you were spending all your free time with Anne." In her heads she rolled her eyes. "But it was only after I kissed you that I started to realise the true feelings I had." Maeby who was so good at lying felt strangely liberated by the frank nature of the discussion she was now having with George Michael. She had always lied as a mark of resistance against her parents so as to prove her independence. Now however, it was by telling the truth, the embarrassing truth, that she was showing her true courage and her true independence. "I was so jealous" she said with a laugh, "that I tried to get you to see me snogging Annyoung at the hospital the time Pop-Pop had that supposed heart attack."
George Michael upon hearing this piece of information could not help but laugh along as well. "I wonder whatever happened to Annyoung?" he questioned.
As a matter of fact, he was currently assisting the FBI in investigating the Bluth company. This was easy for him to do as his growing up in China, he had developed a strong ability to spy on his fellow citizens for subversive traits, a special skill that had rendered his internal 'subversive monitor' of the charts when he had entered the Bluth family.
"You know," Maeby started, speaking slowly so as not to scare George Michael and giving him a sly look of mischief that he had come to know so well, "we never really did finish that kiss on the couch."
George Michel gulped internally. "No. Well, I suppose we kissed at that wedding-"
"But that was just for show," interrupted Maeby, an impatient tone wedded into her voice. "We never got to kiss privately, you know." Maeby knew what she was doing, but she figured that if she did get that kiss with him that she had been dreaming about for a long time, maybe then her feelings would go away. And if not, well, what har could one kiss do.
"Well," said George Michael, the sound of his voice dropping while his eyes transfixed themselves her lips, "I suppose that could work."
"Ok," she said in a whisper.
Maeby, very slowly, leaned in. The two cousins paused as they prepared to kiss, but George Michael had a small, but sure smile on his face, and this, reassuring Maeby gave her the courage she needed to lean over the table to reach George Michael's lips. She felt her heart racing at a million miles per second, like it had when they had been on that couch all those months ago. It was when their lips touched that Maeby found herself feeling the happiest she had ever felt. The taste of George Michael's lips on hers. It was exquisite. Without quite planning it, her tongue moved into his mouth, and he opened with an equal amount of passion and hunger. Now he was touching her cheek as he kissed her, and it was so exquisite that she could not help but allow a soft moan to emulate from her as the kiss depend. After about a minute the two broke apart. They sat there, lips not touching each other but so close together that Maeby could hear George Michael breathing. She found her eyes locked in his, as if a connection had been created that could never break. She saw her reflection in his eyes, and, for the first time she found herself thinking she was beautiful. It was a feeling she had never felt before because she had never really been told, but George Michael had told her with that kiss. She felt like she was an adult, not a sixteen-year-old teenage, but an adult, as she sat there, absorbed in his eyes, George Michael's eyes. She felt adult, and alive and happy. She prepared to lean in for a second kiss, desiring nothing more then to feel that feeling again, but then an interruption destroyed that prospect entirely.
"Whoa, now that is unexpected!"
Both George Michael and Maeby spun round to look at who had spoken, George Michael starting up from his chair almost breaking it in the process, fear jolting in both their hearts at who had caught them. There, standing in the doorway, back from his meeting, was Gob, a look of utter delight plastered onto his face. Never had his grin looked more malicious then now.
