I DO NOT OWN ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S.
Lola's Point of View-
I followed Mike down the hall where his room was stopping right behind him and suddenly trying not to bump into him.
"You aren't claustrophobic are you?" Mike asked turning around before he reached above his head pulling at the tiny string that was hooked up so it won't dangle.
"Nope…" I said shaking my head no as he pushed me back to stand against the wall as he pulled the door open and he pulled the step ladder type thing down for us to climb up.
"I'll go first…" Mike said as I let him slide between me and the stairs watching him climbing the ladder up into the dark attic seeing him flick the light on and clear the ladder area allowing me to climb up behind him being careful so I won't bump my head climbing where he had climbed following him around the attic but made sure I looked over other containers and things that were held in there to see what they had because I was sort of nosey.
"You guys sure keep a lot of things up here." I said.
"It's mainly holiday things…we have a storage unit for everything else…" Mike said as I saw him pop open the top to one of the bins looking in. "Here is one." Mike said as he pulled it off the other two blue bins that were in that area.
"You guys really do go out on all holidays huh?" I asked as I walked over looking over a box that was a blow up Santa for the front yard.
"We always go balls to the wall on everything we do." Mike said as I was trying so hard not to laugh.
"You want me to take that down?" I asked as I headed over to the bin he just slid aside.
"Will you be able to without falling?" Mike asked as I looked at him then to the bin then to the stairs.
"I'll figure it out." I said as I grabbed the bin picking it up carrying it across the attic to the staircase that would take me down to the main house. "Where is it going? The front yard?" I asked.
"Yeah, the front yard would be fine." Mike said as I nodded setting the bin down momentarily trying to figure out how to take it down and found a way carrying it down trying not to lose my balance and fall now that I had extra weight to carry but I successfully got to the bottom floor. "You good?" Mike asked from up in the attic.
"Fine…" I said back up as I regrouped my baring on the bin so I won't drop it and carried it through the layout of the house that I remembered to the front door opening it to let myself out shutting it behind me setting the bin aside turning back around walking back to the door standing in front of it contemplating if I should knock or if I should just let myself back in. I gave in and just knocked on the door lightly waiting until Claire made it to the door.
"Why are you knocking?" Claire asked.
"I didn't want to just walk in the house without permission." I said sheepishly.
"Girl, get in here…our house is your house, you are welcome to come in and out as you please…" Claire said as I still felt awkward just going in and out without some sort of permission.
"Thanks…" I said as I found my way back to the attic climbing up the ladder into the attic seeing Mike sitting on the ground flipping through what looked to be a comic book. "What's that?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, it's an old comic I had…it was a Christmas comic…" Mike said.
"There is a thing as a Christmas comic?" I asked.
"Yeah, it was Santa fighting evil monsters…loved it as a kid…" Mike said as he closed it and stuck it out for me to look at which I obliged because I had to see this for myself.
"This would be insanely awesome for a kid…Santa is badass…" I said as I just flipped through it.
"I would hand it down to my son or daughter if they were into comics…" Mike said as he continued pulling things out.
"Shouldn't we be looking for Halloween not Christmas?" I joked as I tossed it to a pile of things he had pulled out of the open bin.
"Yeah…we should, I got distracted." Mike said.
"We all get distracted at some point…" I said shrugging bending over helping pick things up putting them back into the bin in which they had belonged.
"Lola." I heard Claire's voice say jumping out of my skin not expecting to hear it, "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you…what do you need for that pie?" Claire asked.
"Right…I'll be right down…" I said as I turned to Mike, "You got this?" I asked.
"Yes…kiss?" Mike asked pointing to his lips as I rolled my eyes bending over pressing my lips to his for a kiss. I stood up making my way to the ladder heading down it following Claire to the kitchen looking at the things she had making a list of things she didn't have and I didn't bring with me that was needed when I caught Mike walking past the kitchen carrying yet another bin out of the corner of my eye.
"That everything you'll need?" Claire asked.
"Absolutely." I said nodding and smiled.
"I'm off to the store then…" She said as I walked with her out to the front porch where I saw Mike sitting in the rocking chair his dad sat in last time I was here.
"Is that all the decorations?" I asked.
"Pretty much." Mike said as I walked over sitting on the ground Indian style beside the one I carried out earlier popping it open and begun pulling out things from the inside seeing what each thing was and trying to picture where it would go in the yard.
"You guys do have a lot of decorations…didn't you guys do that haunted house that one year?" I asked.
"Yeah, we did it one year here at our house then rest of the years my dad's shop did it…."
"That shop has always been there?"
"No, he has shops elsewhere but this is the only shop he works at religiously and has more control over since it's in our backyard." Mike explained.
"I never went through the haunted house, I should have though…"
"Why don't we do one at the shop? We have all the materials still and they are just dusty which is an easy fix…" Mike suggested as I shrugged.
"You got to ask your dad, I'm up for the challenge and it may draw more customers into the shop if we do it…we haven't done an haunted house at the shop since graduation…." I said.
"I'll go ask right now…I have to go in there anyway to go into the garage to get a ladder." Mike said as I nodded as he stood up making his way into the house as I continued shuffling through the things and trying to separate it from what needed to be hung with the ladder and what could be put up without the ladder until the garage door opened and Mike emerged with the ladder.
"What'd he say?" I asked curiously.
"He thinks it's a good idea…" Mike said.
"It seriously is, we need to start publicizing it and I have a few decorations I could bring in to decorate the shop…"
"We have more than enough here, just got to think what we need for the shop so we won't use all of the decorations here…." Mike explained as I nodded looking at the decorations I already pulled out and trying to think of how to do this shop decorating.
"We can't really do the maze until the night before because it'll have to be dark and need a black tarp and such…" I said.
"True but everything else could be set out now…I think spider webs…rats…anything gross…" Mike said.
"Well, those fake spider webs we may have to buy, it's not re-useable is it?" I asked.
"How can it not be re-useable? We have been using ours for years now…" Mike said as he propped the ladder up against the covering of the porch before he went up the couple steps to join me on the porch.
"Well, I've never used the fake webs so you'll know more than me."
"Did you just say I'm smarter than you in something?" Mike asked smirking.
"Don't get used to it." I said sarcastically as I looked up at him as he smiled as well as he sat down beside me wrapping an arm around me.
"So, what do you say we put these aside for the shop and we go hang these festive lights up?" Mike said pulling a box of what was to be Halloween lights.
"Alright…" I said nodding as he got back to his feet helping me to my feet following him off the porch as I held onto the box and the ladder as he climbed up onto the roof of the porch before I tossed the box onto the roof with him as he opened it and begun unraveling the lights. "Is there a plug in for it? I think we need to get an extension cord." I said louder for him to hear me.
"We will…" Mike said as he got to his knees leaning over the edge.
"What are you doing?" I asked concerned about him being that close to the edge.
"I'm going to put the lights onto the hooks we have nailed into the side of the roof." Mike said as I walked closer to the edge looking up trying to see said hooks finally seeing one knowing what he was talking about now.
"Those are pretty neat…" I said smiling as I never thought of that before.
"It comes in handy around holidays and we need to hang up lights." Mike said smirking.
"I bet…" I said smiling putting my hands on my hips watching him slide the cord into the hooks leaving the lights that had skeleton faces, pumpkins and witch heads on it to hang between each hook. "Those are some lights, I wish I had some of those." I said.
"Where will you hang them? No one is going to see them in that apartment complex of yours." Mike said.
"Where do you live?" I asked curiously.
"I have bought a house in LA so I could decorate mine at least." He said.
"Well, pin a rose on your nose…" I said rolling my eyes trying not to take offense to it because let's be honest he makes more money than I am worth. "I still decorate, at least my door and a little on the inside." I said.
"At least you decorate." Mike said as he slid to the next hook watching as the strand of lights was getting shorter and shorter. He hooked the end of it before he got to his feet walking across the roof to the ladder as I grabbed it holding it for him as he climbed down it to the ground.
"You ever do those ladder matches?" I asked leaning against the ladder.
"I have done a couple…it's not as bad as it seems and don't worry about me, I know that look you just gave me." He said pointing at me not knowing I gave him a 'look.' "I haven't gotten hurt doing one yet, I'm a pro and I know my bodies limit."
"Do you ever get hurt?" I asked.
"Occasionally, it's bound to happen for you to get bruises, bones to be broken, concussions or other minor injuries like getting cut open. It comes with the career, I signed up for this and that is why we all had to train to do this to try to prohibit said injuries."
"I'm still going to worry about you." I said looking to the ground pushing a strand of hair behind my ear from being nervous and awkward feeling the way I felt about him doing what he does. I felt the softness of his finger gently lift my face up by the bottom of my chin to meet my eyes with his pearly blue ones.
"I won't expect any less from you." He said smiling, "And I know I will worry about you."
"I'm not doing anything reckless like you." I said.
"Still doesn't mean I can't worry, and you work with that damn ice machine." He said.
"How's your burn?" I asked curiously.
"It's fine thanks to my amazing nurse." He said smiling, "Shall we get back to work?" He asked as he nodded to the bins that had things for us to go through yet and things to decorate. I followed him onto the porch where we went through rest of the bins putting them in piles of what was to go inside and what was to stay outside and what was to be took to the shop for the haunted house we were going to do last minute. We decided to hang the spider webs in the tree walking out to the tree where we both climbed up into the tree like we were kids spreading the fake webs over it until we saw Claire pull up looking up at us in the tree.
"How is it coming?" Claire asked.
"It's going…only got a few more things to do…" Mike answered as I looked up at the higher branch that Mike sat on before I looked back down to Claire.
"Well, why don't you guys take a break and help me carry these bags in?" Claire asked.
"We'll be down in a minute." I said as I started scooting to the trunk of the tree to climb down to the next branch when Mike just begun climbing down where he sat. We got to the bottom branch jumping off landing on our feet before dusting ourselves off.
"You sure I don't need to worry about you?" Mike asked smirking as he rested his hands on my hips.
"I think that is the only time you would need to worry, I don't climb trees or ladders as often as you." I said smirking as he rested his forehead against mine with a smile plastered on his face before he pressed his lips to mine for a kiss
"Nah, I'm still going to worry." He said smiling before he gave my lips another peck before he grasped my hand leading me to the car that had its trunk open pulling out a few bags to carry into the house setting it down in the kitchen where Claire was unpacking the other bags that she had carried in.
"Mike, do you think you can decorate rest of the way while Lola makes her pie?" Claire asked as I looked over to Mike not sure what to say.
"Yeah, no problem…" Mike said as he shrugged it off, "You have fun…" Mike said as he walked over resting a hand on my back as he leant in pressing his lips to my cheek for a small kiss before he made his way through the kitchen and back out front feeling bad for not helping him rest of the way but I don't think there was much left for him to do.
"Do you bake often?" Claire asked as it drew my attention away from my thoughts and staring aimlessly at the cabinets.
"Not as often as I hope." I said smirking as I went back to pulling items out of the bags, "I usually just bake around the holidays to help my mother out so she doesn't have to bake the cookies or pies and one less thing for her to worry about." I said shrugging as I crumpled the bag putting it in the pile she was making.
"It starts out as that then when you get married and have kids or step kids, it's more than just the pie and cookies." Claire said as I nodded as I knew she was right, I knew Mike didn't have any kids so I didn't have to worry about step kids right now if we ever got seriously as I glanced out the window in the kitchen to Mike that was standing next to the bin reading over the back of a box as he looked confused. "Have you ever baked a full meal for like Thanksgiving?" Claire asked.
"Nah, I don't have a big family, it's usually just my parents and my siblings and I…"
"How many siblings you have?"
"One, and they are married so it's very rare to get them up here for the holiday." I said honestly as I begun opening the things I needed for the pie.
"Well, why don't you and your parents come over here for the holiday? We will have plenty of room for everyone and you can help me bake, what do you say?" Claire asked as I let out a sigh as I begun to contemplate it.
"I don't know Claire, my parents don't know about Mike and I yet so it will depend…" I said honestly.
"Well, you are welcomed here for the holiday and your parents are invited…now teach me how to bake this pie." Claire said as I nodded showing her step by step of how my mother taught me how to bake the pie.