Chapter 3

"Miguel, we're gonna be late if you don't move your butt!" Kay yelled up to the stairs of Miguel's apartment. She was excited to be going to the first event of the new term. Sophomore year in college, as far as she was concerned, was the time to let loose after a year of learning the ropes.

"You know, you could go without me!" He yelled back.

"You're the one dragging us to this thing; I wouldn't have even heard about it unless you'd said something at dinner last night!"

"Well, now we're both going; I RSVP'ed for you!"

"WHAT?!" Kay yelled back up. "Who does that?!"

Miguel appeared at the top of the stairs. "No need to yell," he smirked. "I can hear you just fine."

"Fu-uuuny," Kay replied. "As I was saying, who RSVP's for someone who they haven't even told about the event?"

"Well, I was going, so you're going, that's just the way it is," Miguel couldn't tell if Kay was really perturbed or just teasing him. He played it safe and went for simple explanations. "I just thought you'd want to go, what's the big deal?"

Kay wasn't sure herself what the big deal was. She just knew that she'd been joking in the beginning of this conversation and that somewhere along the line, she's gotten seriously freaked out for no apparent reason. She decided to downplay until she figured it out. "It's not really a big deal, it's just. don't you think it's kind of strange for you to tell someone that we'll both be attending a get-together when only you were invited?"

Miguel was rapidly becoming bored with the conversation and besides, he still couldn't figure out why they were having it in the first place. "Ummm, no, I don't think it's strange. Let's go."

And off they went. Conversation returned to normal as they walked to the apartment where the party was being held. Or, relatively normal.

"So, what kinda barbeque is this? Just a random thing?" Kay asked.

"Umm. yeah," Miguel responded absently as he waved hello to a beautiful woman walking by. The woman grinned. Miguel followed her with his eyes as she passed by them. Kay smacked him back to reality. She had no claims to Miguel, but she did think it was rude of him to ignore her when they were walking together. "Miguel, you didn't even hear my question. Are you sure this is just a random barbeque?"

"Actually, wait." he paused to think as he focused on what she was saying, "It's a birthday party."

"Oh man, Miguel, who's birthday?"

"Uhh. Hey! How's it going?" Miguel grinned broadly as another woman greeted him.

"Miguel!!! Focus!" Kay was getting impatient. She tried not to let the flirty thing bother her on principle, but when she was attempting to have a conversation, it was vexing.

"Huh?!" Miguel snapped back to the conversation again. "Oh, sorry, it's Charity's b-day. What should we get her?"

"Uh, Miguel, we're on the way to the party, what do you mean what should we get her? Isn't it a little late for that? We're on our way to the party."

Miguel just grinned back. "oh.Hey you!" Miguel winked at yet another woman walking by. Kay always questioned the intelligence of the women at her school when she walked with Miguel. They all fawned over him like idiots. She gave Miguel a good wack. "That's it Miguel Lopez-Fitzegerald, I'm trying to have a conversation with you!"

"Kay, what are you yelling about? We don't need a gift, she'll be gifted by our presence. That's the beauty of the barbeque phenomenon." He grinned proudly at his reasoning.

"Riiiiiight, Miguel." Kay said with resignation. She knew what he really meant. He meant that they were bringing the gift of his presence and everyone would be too excited that he was there to notice they hadn't brought anything. "Okay, so no gift. Where is this thing anyway?"

Her question was answered as Miguel led her around the corner and the sounds of at least 50 kids inhaling burgers, playing baseball, and yelling over loud music greeted their ears.

As they entered the courtyard attached to a huge sorority house, they walked in the middle of a raucous toast of beer cans, just as everyone was cheering the birthday girl. Miguel, ever the life of the party, burst in and joined the cheer, louder than everyone else. The crowd immediately turned from the toast of the birthday girl to Miguel, as every woman in the room rushed over to greet him and the men all sat back to admire his finesse. Kay wandered in behind him and received a few "wussups" from the few people who noticed her entrance.

As the party wore on, the distance between Kay and Miguel slowly grew as woman after woman squeezed in to fawn over Miguel. Finally, Kay gave up attempting to appear remotely interested in the "Miguel, tell us about the time you." conversation and joined some of the guys who were playing baseball at the other end of the courtyard. As she quickly got sucked into a complex series of games, she yelled over her shoulder to ask Miguel to join her. The guy standing next to her snorted and said, "I don't think he heard you. He appears to be distracted." Kay grinned as she assured her teammate, "Oh no, Miguel always pays attention when there's baseball to be played."

The guy smirked. "Wanna bet." He lightly grabs her shoulders and rotates her around.

Kay could barely maintain her composure when she caught sight of Miguel, HER Miguel, with one of their classmates sitting on his lap, slowly rubbing his back. She couldn't help herself, and, acting on instinct, she said, "Miguel, put her down and come play." To her utter embarrassment, he didn't hear her over whatever the woman was busy whispering in his ear. From the corners of her eyes, she took in more smirks from her baseball companions, who obviously had heard her demand. She raised her voice a notch and said, "Miguel, come here for a sec." Still no result, unless even more people turning around to witness her making a spectacle of herself counted. Realizing that she had to get Miguel's attention or look like an even bigger loser-jerk, she yelled, "Miguel! Would you listen to me for a sec?!" Most of the room fell silent as Miguel finally looked in her general direction, and his devotees snickered behind their hands at her.

"Was that you hollering, Kay? What is it, I'm busy" he responded.

Mortified beyond belief, Kay realized what an idiot she was making of herself and weakly replied, "N-n-no- nothing, nothing, umm. nevermind."

As knowing looks flew around the room, Kay got back down to her game as Miguel continued to bask in the glory of his admirers.

Soon, the hostess announced that cake was about to be served. Kay attempted to sit close to Miguel, reminding herself that it was quite rational to want to sit near the person who brought her to the party. Her attempt was successful. relatively. Despite the fact that she landed a chair right beside Miguel, she couldn't compete with the two women who placed themselves neatly on either of his legs. Throughout the entire cutting and eating of the cake, Kay found herself having to repeatedly call Miguel's name to get his attention, with most of the party realizing she was calling him before he did.

An hour or so later, Kay, being relatively used to sticking out had managed to turn the embarrassing situation into one of camaraderie with the guys at the party, who had long ago learned not to attempt to compete with Miguel for womanly affection. In fact, Kay was so used to being shunned by women because of her friendship with Miguel and being ignored by men as a woman because of her less than spectacular physical appearance that she naturally fell into buddy mode at most events, and was beginning to be comfortable with at least having a place playing baseball.

Miguel, who after three hours of fawning, was growing bored of hearing about himself, began to wonder where Kay was hiding. A quick search around the baseball field and he spotted her in the position of short stop, heavily engaged in a bout of trash talking and with the man on base. He felt an uncomfortable sensation as he watched his best friend playing their game with other guys and decided that it was time to head home. After some careful maneuvering, he managed to disentangle himself from the devotees and make his way over to the other side of the field.

"Hey Kay," he called on his way.

She didn't look up, although every fiber of her being was instantly and carefully attuned to his exact location and his approach.

"Kay!" he called a little louder, coming up directly behind her.

She carefully maintained the banter of trash talk with the other players, pretending not to notice his presence.

Miguel found himself growing extremely perturbed at her lack of reaction. After all, hadn't he just left a group of women vying for his attention to speak with her? He tapped her on the shoulder, a little harder than he intended to get her attention.

"Hey!" Kay protested as she lost her balance and the man on base began stealing home as she regained her composure. She turned around to face Miguel, a scathing remark hovering on her lips.

She was met with his broad grin and a wink. "I think it's time to go, don't you?"

Her retort died on the spot. Mentally, she bolstered herself, telling herself to have some respect. "Actually," she replied, "I was doing so well here, I thought I'd head back with these guys to the campus diamond to play for a little while longer."

Miguel was astounded, but always smooth, "Why would you do that? Aren't we going to have one of our all night batting competitions?" He pouted.

Kay melted inside, hardly noticing the smirks that were forming on the faces of all the devotees. "Umm., well, I thought."

Miguel knew he had her. "I thought so too. Grab your coat and I'll see if I can find our hostess so we can say good-bye."

Kay, recognizing when she was done for, stood up and said her goodbye's to her fellow players. As she gathered her belongings, she looked around for Miguel, who should have returned by now. Not seeing him, she asked the woman standing next to her if she'd seen where Miguel went off to. Intent upon her visual search, Kay didn't see the sneer appear on the woman's face. But she heard it in the response.

"Lost track of him, did ya?" The woman asked. "Seems like no matter how hard and desperately you try, you can't keep his attention for very long."

Kay responded, a lot more casually than she felt, "Yeah, it's funny though how I'm the one he always comes and leaves with."

"I wouldn't bet on that today," the woman responded. Kay slowly followed her pointed gaze. Miguel was in an archway of the sorority house wrapped around the birthday girl with the hostess giggling nearby. Kay, disgusted by the entire afternoon's events, marched over and tapped Miguel on the shoulder.

"Said our goodbye's yet?" she asked in a bitter tone.

Miguel whipped around, almost dropping poor Charity, and grinned at Kay. "Yup, I think that just about did it." He cheerfully waved to the mini- crowd watching his spectacle and walked out with Kay trailing behind him.

"You always have to get in that last little bit of scandal, don't you," she asked him, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"Sure do," he responded happily, completely unaware of her facetiousness. "You know, I thought our presence was a good gift and all, but nothing really compares to the gift of a good Miguel hug, right, Kay?"

"Whatever you say," she responded, unmoved by his cheerfulness.

"Hey Kay, you know, I'm actually kinda tired now." Miguel began.

"You're what? Miguel, you dragged me from the game because you said we were going to bat, and now you're 'too tired'?" she protested, already predicting where this conversation was headed.

"Well, you know, it sounded like a good idea at the time." Miguel hedged.

"Yeah well, playing with those guys sounded good to me, and now I can't." Kay whined.

She hated whining, but Miguel appeared to bring it out in her. She decided to embellish for added effect. "Besides, I think one of those guys was interested, " she began.

Miguel snorted. "Interested in what?"

"Me, you moron!" Kay yelled at him.

"Oh, hehe, yeah sure Kay. Umm, sorry I ruined that for you," Miguel smirked, pretty sure that the guy was NOT at all interested in the homely Kay.

"Good-bye, Miguel," Kay was suddenly extremely tired of his company. They were almost to a short cut to her place.

"What do you mean, don't you want me to walk you the whole way?" Miguel was a bit taken aback by Kay's abrupt farewell.

"Miguel, you never walk me the whole way. We walk in the direction of your place, and I end up cutting back around three blocks to mine. I'm going to take this short cut and I'll see you tomorrow."

Miguel, reassured by the 'see you tomorrow' decided he could let a little moodiness slide.

"Okay Kay. G'nite." He said the words to her back as she rushed home, knowing, as always, that things would be better in the morning.