Chapter eight: You and I
Just a few days later Mike and Trixie had returned from their honeymoon. Mike made the unsurprising and somewhat disappointing announcement that he was going to move to San Francisco with Trixie. This move had been an event that they were expecting ever since Mike had proposed to her, but one that they were not anticipating. It was surely going to mean the beginning of a lot of changes to come for the group of four guys. However, Mike did provide them a glimmer of hope that their friendship was far from over. He said to them that this move would only be temporary until the two of them were able to find a place in LA.
The whole time the guys were helping Mike pack his belongings, Peter and Davy seemed to be going out of their way to purposely avoid each other. A couple times they appeared almost startled when they couldn't avoid coming near each other. They crossed the room from opposite sides to drop something into the same box but stopped cold before each other. It was clear, especially when they tried not to make eye contact with each other, that there was a cloud of sheer awkwardness between them. This did not go unnoticed by the other two Monkees. Mike and Micky turned to each other after taking a minute to watch the erratic behavior of their two friends.
"Wonder what's gotten into them." Mike whispered
"I don't know. They've been acting really strange ever since you left on your honeymoon."
"Hmm… something musta happened between them that they don't want us to know about."
"It had to of been the night I was at Donnie's. Because when I came home the next morning they had already begun to act strange. You should have seen the way they greeted me."
"How was that?"
"They were just really happy to have me home. A little too happy."
Mike snickered "And you didn't ask them about it?"
"I didn't know how! I just thought they'd go back to acting like themselves after a while. But they didn't."
"Hmm well let's not worry about it unless they keep it up."
After a little bit of helping Mike pack, and trying to avoid each other, Davy and Peter separated themselves from the other two. They quietly went into their bedroom, closing the door behind them.
"Ok we really need to talk about this." Said Davy
Peter nodded "Right."
There was a wave of awkward silence once they had finally made eye contact for the first time in a few days. The eye contact, however, did not last long at all as they abruptly turned their eyes away from each other. Davy nervously fixed his hair that suddenly felt out of place while Peter looked down and shuffled his feet.
"Do you remember what happened the other night?" Peter asked, his voice squeaking a little
Davy shook his head "Do you?"
"No! God I was hoping you would have remembered."
"What are we going t' do?"
"I don't know, Davy." He paused with a sigh "How about we go about as normal and try to remember what happened?"
"Sounds good. I can manage tha'." He nodded "And in the meantime let's try not to freak out about this anymore."
"Deal."
Right then they both jumped once they heard someone pounding on the door.
"Alright you two in there!" Micky shouted while disguising his voice "This is the cops! We have this place surrounded! Come out with your hands up!"
Peter walked over to the door and cracked it open with a timid expression "I'm sorry officer! I know that libary book is a week over due! Don't arrest me!"
Davy burst out laughing behind Peter "Libary!"
Peter snickered and opened the door some more while Micky began to laugh along with Davy. Peter's dimples showed up at full force as he grinned.
"What did you want, Mick?"
"We were wondering if you were going to come back out here sometimes to help us finish the packing."
"Oh yeah sure."
Peter and Davy took a look at each other before leaving the room. They were going to try their hardest to keep their deal with each other and not freak out any more about the other night.
As the four of them finished up the packing they began to reminisce about all the times they shared together in the beach house. Some of the events that they recalled, they had to admit were so crazy that they couldn't believe they had actually taken place. Micky had made a comment that those events would have only happened on television.
"Hey remember the time when Davy got conned by some little kid into taking his horse?" Asked Mike
"And Davy brought the horse inside the house and we had to try to hide it from Mr. Babbit!" Micky started laughing "I want to know how in the hell did you get the damn thing inside?"
"I 'ave to tell ye, it sure wasn't easy."
They all laughed for a moment as they pictured Davy's struggle with getting the horse into the house without anyone knowing it.
"Hey!" Peter exclaimed "Remember when Micky got that fake monkey's paw and we thought it caused him to lose his voice right before that gig audition?"
Micky laughed "I can't believe you guys didn't realize that I actually had laryngitis!" He paused to try to control his laughter "That's why I had lost my voice!"
"Well you have to admit it wasn't so bad t' have Micky unable to speak for a while." Said Davy
"Yeah I bet it… hey!"
Another bout of laughter waved over three of the four guys. After a couple seconds Micky gave in and joined them in the laughter. When the laughter died down they went back into talking about some of their fond and not so fond memories. They reminisced about the time when there was a small flood that caused Davy and Peter to move into the upstairs bedroom with Mike and Micky while repairs were being made to the downstairs bedroom. Peter reminded them about how he had to convince them on letting him bring his gong onto the bedroom. This also reminded them about the time the four of them had been woken up by two strange men coming into the house with a coffin.
"Now that" Mike stated "had to be the strangest thing that ever happened to us here."
"Especially when the séance began." Davy replied
Micky looked at Peter "Hey Pete did you really learn how to read when you were fifteen?"
"Oh!" Peter chuckled "No. I just like to play dumb sometimes."
"Ah so the dumb act actually is an act! It all makes sense."
"Speaking of act. I just happened to remember the time when Micky's acting skills came in handy."
"What time was tha' Mike?" Asked Davy
"Remember when your grandfather showed up and we all had to pretend like you were some big shot star?"
"Oh yeah!" Davy's face brightened up "Micky's acting got a lot bettah that day. Tha' was the best butler character you've evah done, Micky."
"Thanks Davy. But Peter was the butler. I was the chauffeur."
"Hey yeah." Said Peter "Where did you even get that great car?"
Micky grinned proudly "I managed to pull a few strings with a connection or two."
"Please, Mick, spare us the details." Said Mike
"Well that's not much fun."
"Maybe for you, Micky." Retorted Peter
Mike was about to say something but a car horn just outside stopped him. He softly smiled and picked up a box.
"Well fellas. I'd love to stick around and keep talking about all these memories with y'all. But my," He paused and his smile broadened "My wife is here. I have to go now."
The other three each picked up a box and followed Mike outside. Trixie sat in her car waiting with a smile. She waved at all of them before they packed the boxes into the car. Mike went back inside to get his acoustic guitar. Then with the guitar in hand, he hopped into the front seat and gave his wife a kiss. The other three guys were sad to see him leave but they smiled to show that they were happy that he was beginning his new life with Trixie. They all said their goodbyes to Mike and Trixie (each of the three guys gave Trixie a kiss in the cheek) and then the car pulled out of the garage. Micky, Davy and Peter watched the entire time as the couple drove away until the car had left their sites. Then with a bittersweet air enveloping the three of them they turned and quietly went back into the house.
