It killed me to see her crying. But she did this to herself. I didn't make her make out with Eddie in Central Park. I didn't make her walk around all happy with him on Fifth Avenue. She wasn't even trying to hide it! I mean, honestly! What, a stupid visor was going to hide her identity? I don't think so.

What kind of relationship were we to have if she was going to act like this? I certainly couldn't trust her...wait, she never actually said she wanted one still. Maybe she was trying to break it off with me when she met me in the alley. Great. Well, at least I broke it off first so I wouldn't look like a complete tool. I could still have some self respect.
I threw myself into my schoolwork the next few days. I didn't go online. I didn't take any phone calls. I didn't even go to band rehearsal. Shelia called me on Wednesday night, after I skipped our computer class. "Just so you know, our project is counting as a final. We don't have an exam."
"Okay, thanks. I'm gonna go back to sleep. Talk to you later."
"Hey, what are you doing this weekend?"
"I'm busy," I replied.

"Well, okay...I was just thinking we could do something because you usually are out with that tramp after the shows and now you guys are broken-"

"What right do you have to call her a tramp?" I snapped.

"Well, Michael, I consider you a dear friend and she just broke your heart."

"A dear friend? Right. A dear friend. NO offense Shelia, but if you were a 'dear friend' to me, you would have known Mia a whole lot better than you do. You would have known how fcking happy she made me. But you know nothing. You don't know what it was like when we were alone. How we could joke around so easily. How nice she felt falling asleep on my chest. How she could make the whole world seem right with just a smile and a squeeze of my hand. You have no idea. None at all."

"Michael, I...I have to tell you that I do have feelings for you and it is killing me to see you like this. I mean, she cheated on you. She was making out with a prince in public. Doesn't that make you want to get with someone else?"

"Yeah, you know me so well. I loved that girl. I still love her. I am always going to love her. Don't you understand that? I need to get over this whole thing on my own. I am going to win her back. If she'll have me."

"Michael-"

"And another thing. She's a tramp? Look at you Shelia. You are jumping on me practically with my wounds still fresh. If anyone is a tramp it'd be you. I don't want to see you again, got it?"

"Michael! How can you call me that?"

"How can you call Mia that? I have never shown an interest in you Shelia. Never. Only for Mia. Always for Mia. I don't know where you got the idea that it'd be cool to bad mouth her to me. I'm hanging up now. See you in class."

I sat at the kitchen table and read the paper. I avoided Page Six, the gossip column.I used to like reading it to see what gossip was going on about me and Mia (that she was bringing me to Genovia for our winter break, and the totally false rumor that Mia was carrying my child). It was bound to be talking about the masque next week. I didn't want to hear about Mia and Eddie. "Man...you have got to stop thinking about this," Denis said, taking the sports section from me.
"How am I supposed to do that?" I demanded.
"Read about this whole deal with A-Rod going to the Red Sox. It's bullshit. Throw yourself into school or into work or something. Forget about it for awhile. It'll blow over eventually."
I broke down then. I hadn't cried in front of any one not related to me other than Mia. Denis seemed confused as to what to do at that moment. "Dude..."
"How could she do it to me? I mean, I was so...I was good to her, right?"
He nodded, "Yeah man. You were...you are..."
"Then she cheats on me! She was the only person I had ever thought of...I never even considered looking at someone else. I mean, I had opportunities, remember that chick Lydia? She totally came onto me in my bedroom at that party we had back in September-"
"Man, things will work out, I'm sure. Have you talked to her?"
I shook my head, no.
"Well don't."
That surprised me. Shouldn't he be encouraging me to fix this?
"Huh?"
"Wait until you finish up finals. Then deal with it. Maybe you could go back home for a few days. Get away from here, ya know?"
I wiped away my few tears, "Sorry for breaking down here like this..."
"It's okay man. No problem. We all need that every once and awhile. "Go home and re-group."
"You sure?" I asked, standing up.
"Go ahead. ."
"Thanks..."

MIA:
I stopped trying to call him after a week. I kept e-mailing him though. "Mia, just let it go..." my mother suggested. "I mean, he'll come around when he realizes he was wrong."
"I don't want him to think that I am letting him go, though."
Mom sat next on my desk; I was in my desk chair. "Mia, you kind of crushed his ego. Believe it or not, Michael does have one. I know he seems perfect, and he sort is, for you. But how do you think it felt for him to see those pictures in the magazine? And then seeing them again in some other magazines? How do you think his friends from school reacted? He looked like an idiot. You have to have some patience. If it's meant to be, it will be."
"Mom, why are you being so understanding of him? You should be mad that he isn't answering me."
"No I shouldn't. Mia, want to hear why your father and I really ended?"
"Wasn't it because you were pregnant and you didn't want to get married? You didn't want to foll-"
"That's what I tell you. Truth of the story is like this...your father and I had dated throughout my freshman year of college, he was a big senior. So it was a big deal. I was only eighteen and dating the big man on campus. I didn't even know he was a prince until way after we got together."
"So?"
"So," she started, licking her lips, choosing her words carefully. "So he uh....told me in the December of my freshman year about who he really was. We went to Genovia to meet Clarisse, or the Queen, whatever," she said rolling her eyes. "And I really did fall in love with Genovia. I seriously pictured myself there. But," she said, with her lip quivering.
"But?" I asked, seriously confused. This didn't sound like my mom at all.
"Well, not really a but just yet...we made love while we were in Genovia, he had told me he loved me," she explained. "Sorry, I know you probably don't want to hear about your mom and dad doing this, but bear with me. I mean, you were concieved before that obviously...but this time we made love, not just sex."
I nodded.
"We went back to the States...stayed together, happily for another month or so. He had even talked to me about getting married. I was actually thinking about accepting a proposal from him...but then I discovered I was pregnant. I didn't tell him at first...I had..." she said, standing up and turning away from me, "I had thought about destroying the pregnancy because I didn't think his mother would approve..."
I sat there in shock. Okay, so maybe my views on the woman's right was a little skewed now.
"And I told him about it. He was so happy about my pregnancy. We stayed together for a little big longer...but then he started cheating on me, or I thought he was... near the end of my pregnancy."
This was way too much to digest.
"I had seen pictures of him...with some blonde girl over spring break. He kept trying to explain to me...the truth...but I never let him."
Okay, so I could do two things. One would be I could be all adult about the situation and realize that this was taking a lot for her to tell me and I could be all understanding and listen to her. OR I could be a self absorbed teenager and say, "So shouldn't I just keep going then?" I asked. "I mean, so Michael and I don't have regrets?"
"Michael isn't like me. He'll come around again."
She was looking out the window with her back to me. "Mom, it's okay. I'm not mad..."
"I'm sorry Mia...so sorry...I was just so afraid..."
"Do you still love Dad?"
She didn't answer me for awhile. "I did...for a long time. But I kept myself busy. He kept himself busy. And then I met Frank. He's changed my outlook...I have always been happy, don't get me wrong. But Frank makes me happier in some ways. We have a simpler love, you know what I mean?"
"I love you Mom," I said leaning into her.
"You too, Kid," she said, turning to kiss my forehead. "Everything will work out, I promise."

I went to Michael's gig that night. I knew he didn't want to see me so I didn't sit in my regular spot. I noticed that Shelia was sitting there and had a big grin on her face. Lilly sat next to her. She knew I was there and knew where I was sitting. She kept looking over at me and making funny faces to make me laugh.
I stared at Michael as he took stage. Usually his face was a little red from his pep that he and the guys did before each performance (something that no one other than the five are privy to). But he looked cold and tired. And then he started singing. He sounded...terrible. This was the worst I had ever heard him sing. He didn't even make eye contact with the audience. He stared at something in the back of the bar. He told me once that he did that when he was nervous. He would find one thing to focus on, and then would ignore everything else. He had told me usually that focus was usually on me, but what was it on now?
I looked around. I didn't see anything in the back of the bar. He played Stay Away, and sounded kind of good during it. He sounded full of conviction. But the next song...it was strange.
He did a new version of that song 'I'd do Anything', by Simple Plan. It usually sounded upbeat and happy, but he made it his own. It was sad. It was almost like he knew I was sitting here in the bar...but he stared at the one point in the bar.
I left before he finished up his set. I didn't want to see that Sheila hanging all over him when he got off stage. I had lost him.

MICHAEL:
I had posted a picture of Mia in the back of the bar so I could focus on her while I sung. It was the first time she hadn't been at my performance, other than that one time she'd gone away with...with him...and those times she'd been too busy with her royal duties to come (I now assume that was code for being out with Eddie).
I went straight home after my performance, ignoring Sheila's invitation to see a movie. Apparently my little blow up the other day didn't mean anythign to her.
I went into my parents empty apartment. Lilly had told me that they had gone to my aunts house in Jersey for the evening and would be back really late. I raided the refrigerator. I started thinking about what Mia would be doing right now. I didn't want to though. She was probably going on a ritzy date with Eddie.
Who was I kidding? I mean, honestly. Eddie can give her everything. That ring I gave her for her birthday would be totally insignificant next to the things he could give her. She would probably end up tossing it out.
I saw a video tape on the counter. The words YUKI SAN attracted my gaze. That was a Rooney song. Denis was obsessed with them. I picked it up and brought it into the living room.
I slid it into the VCR...this was the first time in a long time I had watched a video. Usually DVD's were the way to go. Music started playing.
Then Eddie's stupid face appeared on the screen. He was mugging for the camera and was bouncing his head to the beat of the music. Then a shot of him and Mia walking down the street. Her shopping. Him mouthing the lyrics to her. Her not even listening to him. Then the familiar shot of them kissing in Central Park. And then her running off and jumping around, dancing like a goofball. Then they were in some expensive looking shop...and Denis...with that horrible hair cut!
It all made sense now. She had been telling the truth...but that still didn't explain why she didn't tell me about Eddie...or about this video.
She looked really pretty in the video though. Her hair was pulled tightly back in a bun. She looked amazing when she looked directly in the video during the end credits. Why'd she have to look so damn good?
I went back to my own apartment early the next morning to finish studying. I was still trying to figure out how to deal with the news I had just gotten the night before. Why hadn't Lilly told me? Had she left that out on purpose? Was this one of her sick psychological experiments?
I got a knock on my front door around four that afternoon. "Den, you got that?" I yelled out. "Den, I'm in the middle of something, get the damn door!"
No answer.
I got up and looked out the peephole. What the hell was he doing here?