Crackhead in Love

Chapter Two: Let Me Get Lost

A/N: Wow, thanks for all of the positive feedback! I'm glad that you all seem to like my story and all of your comments were very sweet. Here's the latest chapter…I'll try to get the next one as soon as I can! =)

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Saturday, December 6, 11:30 p.m.

Going ice-skating was an almost complete waste of time. I wonder how Mia is doing. Her tongue was looking pretty bad. Before you get any ideas (which I doubt you can, seeing as you are a journal), I'll explain about what happened earlier tonight.

True to my word, I arrived at the Rockefeller Center about five minutes before the hour. As expected, Judith was standing at the entrance wearing dark red overalls, Rockports, and a ski parka. My eyebrows raised considerably as she waved enthusiastically to me as I approached her. I was wearing my black Converse, jeans, a plain dark blue shirt, and a black jacket. I had tried to make myself look perfectly casual as I wondered what Mia would think. Mia could wear even tattered rags and she would still make me nervous.

"Hi Michael," Judith said warmly, a broad grin on her face. I managed a small smile.

"Hey," I said simply. "Shall we?" Judith nodded and we both walked in. We paid and got our rental skates (I have never noticed before but Judith has surprisingly big feet). I felt my heart skip (yes…skip) when I saw Mia sitting next to Lilly, lacing up her skates. I think that she had her eyes on me for a moment but she was probably staring at Judith, wondering why she was wearing such a ridiculous outfit. But I didn't dare look back. It would've made me feel too panicky. Instead, I looked up at all of the Christmas ornaments. The brightness of all of the lights could've blinded me had I stared at them a bit longer. I glanced back at Mia and saw her talking to my sister.

"Come on, Michael. Let's look for a place to lace up our skates," said Judith, interrupting my hopefully nonchalant staring at Mia.

Yeah, like staring could ever be nonchalant. I sat down on an empty bench and watched Mia from the corner of my eye. I laced up my skates hastily and waited for Judith. After a few moments, we got off the bench and walked over to Mia and Lilly. I was happy to see that Kenny was already on the ice with Boris.

We had a small conversation before we started skating:

Mia: Oh, hi, you guys. Michael (I love how she says my name), I didn't know you knew how to ice-skate.

Me: (smiling slightly, shrugging my shoulders, and hoping I sound carefree) I used to be on a hockey team.

Lilly: (horse-snorting) Yeah, Pee Wee Hockey. That was before he decided that team sports were a complete waste of time because the success of the team was dictated by the performance of all of the players as a whole, opposed to sports determined by individual performance such as tennis and golf.

Me: (my smile long gone) Lilly, don't you ever shut up?

Judith: (cheerfully, finally saying something) I love ice-skating! Although I'm not very good at it.

And Judith wasn't being modest either. She really was sort of bad at it. Not wanting to let her fall flat on her face, I started skating backwards while leading her around the rink. I noticed Kenny trying to imitate us and, to my great delight, Mia didn't seem to be the least bit interested. In fact, I could've sworn that Mia really was looking at me now. She probably thought Judith and I looked so stupid or maybe she thought it was my fault that Kenny was harassing her. I faced Judith, a light sigh escaping from my mouth.

"Do you think you can skate by yourself now?" I asked, a slightly bored look on my face. This made Judith squeeze my hands even tighter. I swear, if I never told her not to, she would've held onto my hands forever.

"Oh, Michael," Judith said innocently, almost airily. "I don't think I'll be able to stay up on the ice unless you help me. I love ice-skating but like I said before, I'm not very good at it." She had a pouty look on her face. I forced a smile.

Ten minutes passed by and I noticed that Mia had finally relented. She didn't look very excited at being pulled around by Kenny though, which I beamed at.

Kenny was OK at skating forward but wasn't very good at skating backward. Then, it happened. Kenny fell down, bringing Mia down with him. It looked like she ended up hitting her chin against his knee and biting her tongue. Mia spat blood all over the ice…and Kenny's jeans (I smirked at this…I just had to). I quickly dragged Judith over to Mia and Kenny. The tourists behind the rails were now crowding together, taking pictures of Mia on the ice. Seeing her looking so helpless made my heart sink.

And, out of nowhere, Lars (Mia's bodyguard…yes, bodyguard…she is a princess after all) came skating over and have his handkerchief to Mia. I looked over at Judith, who had opened her mouth to say something.

"That looks pretty bad, Mia," Judith said, her eyes glimmering with worry. In the end, Judith would always be a caring person. "I think you might need to get stitches. It's lucky you didn't bite the tip off."

Thanks Judith, for the lovely mental picture. Mia soon left with Lars and, as Judith tried dragging me around, I was deeply reminded about how much I despised the Rockefeller Center.

Saturday, December 7

I wonder how Mia's tongue is. I was just thinking about something as I went to sleep this morning (I can never go to sleep before 12:00 a.m.). Now that Mia has bit her tongue, I doubt she can make out (um, French kiss) Kenny…but then again, she may have not progressed that far with him (well, hopefully).

And so, I was spending my Sunday morning in my room, as usual. After finishing up my article on tourist traps and eating a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and cereal, I lay on my bed, looking up at the glow-in-the-dark constellations on my ceiling (the curtains were shut so it was darker than it should have been at 10:49 in the morning).

Phantom Planet played softly as I thought about the Winter Carnival. The Computer Club had decided to design a computer game where you walk through Albert Einstein and all of the teachers are dressed in weird costumes. Judith suggested Mr. Gianni (who, by the way, is Mia's stepfather) in footie pajamas, holding a teddy bear and Reed Stratford, a sophomore, suggested Principal Gupta in a leather dominatrix outfit.

God forbid.

After laying on my bed for a few minutes, I sat up and got out my laptop. I signed on and saw that only Judith, Kenny, and Boris were on.

I really need to make more friends. Before I could put my away message on (to avoid talking to Judith, of course) who should Instant Message me but Judith Gershner? I sighed deeply as I started "chatting" with her.''

SCINCERULZ: Hey, Michael!

CracKing: Oh, hey, Judith.

SCINCERULZ: Ice-skating was fun last night. We should really do it again sometime.

I scoffed at this. Ha!

CracKing: Yeah, it was fun.

SCINCERULZ: Too bad about Mia though.

I bit my lip as I imagined Mia sitting alone in her room, an ice-pack on her tongue. OK…weird.

CracKing: I wonder how she's doing.

SCINCERULZ: Yeah. Are you busy today? Because I thought that we could get together and work on the computer game for the Winter Carnival…

CracKing: Um, I'm kind of busy today.

Which was a total lie.

SCINCERULZ: Oh. Okay.

CracKing: Yeah.

SCINCERULZ: I have to get going. Bye Michael!

CracKing: Bye.

Judith has obviously never heard about playing hard to get.

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A/N: Please read and review! Tell me what you think! Any questions would be fine as well. =)