You and Me

Shredding magazines had become a hobby of Mike's. It may have started with one of his more short-tempered alters – he wasn't even sure which one – but even as Mike, after a series of disastrous interviews, ripping out articles he didn't like had started to offer catharsis. Neatly tearing the paper into strips was preferable to losing control and throwing things, so instead of letting an alter take over and cause more damage than necessary, Mike had taken to destroying the magazine himself before his rage took over and made a bigger mess.

Zoey picked up a page that Mike had removed from the magazine, but hadn't yet shredded. "What's wrong with this one? It seems nice enough. Nothing about us breaking up or anything. I don't even see anything about your MPD on here."

"I don't know if it's wrong for this to bug me," Mike said. "But... do you remember that interview? We talked about our relationship for a few minutes, but you spent a lot of time talking about how you started selling dress patterns."

"Is that the one where you talked about your film auditions?"

"Yeah, that one. Do you see anything about any of our solo stuff on that page?"

Zoey skimmed through the rest of the article. "You're right, I don't... it's just about us together. I don't even remember saying half of this stuff."

"Aside from the one we all gave before we started on Total Drama, have you ever been asked to do an interview on your own?" Mike asked.

Zoey shook her head.

"I did a couple of times, but they seemed more interested in my disorder than anything else about me," Mike responded as he tore a page into halves, then quarters. "I feel lucky when interviewers actually ask about ME, even if it never gets published. Most of them don't even pretend to care about who we are, just about potential drama between us. Doesn't that bother you?"

"I never really thought about it, but you're right," Zoey responded, looking over the page in her hands in hopes of finding a quote she actually said. Once she failed at that task, she started tearing the page in the same manner as Mike. "It's always about you and me. And while I like the sound of you and me... you're right. We're our own people with our own futures. Sometimes the fans ask about us, and I really love that. Why don't these official interviewers ever care?"

"No drama means no sales," Mike said, tossing some bits of paper into the trash can he had set up next to him. "Who cares that I might get my first part in an indie movie when they can twist my words to mean I'm beating you or something?" Mike took a few deep breaths and focused on keeping control. While he'd learned to brush off the interviews that just ignored his life outside Zoey or talked about them breaking up, he would never feel anything aside from anger and nausea at the abuse accusations.

"I still feel happy seeing stuff about us in the media," Mike continued. "Some people have really accepted us as a couple, and I don't that to stop." He threw away the last page, then leaned against Zoey and tried to relax. "I love the idea of you and me. But I still wish that just you or just me could have the spotlight every once in a while."