We decided not to tell any of our friends. We didn't want any bad luck. "Mia, I have my bachelor party tonight. What do I wear?" I asked, holding two different shirts.
"Where are you guys going?" she asked, looking at my clothes.
"I dunno. Nolan is in charge of it."
She gave me a look. "Strippers?"
I shrugged, "I have no clue. The green one or the black?" I asked.
"Well don't you think you should find out?" she demanded.
"That's why I'm asking you. Green or black?"
"I mean if there are going to be strippers there or not."
"Mia it's a bachelor party. What do you think is going to happen?"
"Michael…just don't get totally smashed, okay?" she said pointing to the green shirt and walking away.
"Our fearless leader," Nolan started at dinner that night. "Is finally taking that ball and chain that we thought didn't really exist, and is finally getting married."
He had started drinking before and was clearly incoherent.
Nolan started shaking his curls to the beat of the music behind us, forgetting his speech, so Tony took over.
"Michael, we, as your best friends, promise to not let you do anything that will get you in trouble with the little lady back home-"
"No, we promise to not tell her about the little things that would get you in trouble!" Nolan said laughing.
I rolled my eyes and took a big sip of my drink. The next stop was to Hustler's. The record company got us into the VIP area, much to my chagrin. I sat in the back with Tony
as some of the guys got some lap dances. It's surprising that I ever found any of that appealing. "Shocking huh?" Tony asked.
"What?" I asked, drinking my beer.
"How immature it seems now that you have got the real thing."
I nodded. Mia definitely would not like the idea that I was seeing some semi nude girls shaking their things within arms reach. "What can I get for you sweetheart?" a waitress asked.
"He'll have a Jack and I'll have another Bud."
She winked at me, "Hey, aren't you the groom?"
"Yeah," I said, barely audible.
"Ladies!" she said waving her arms around. "I have the groom right over here!"
After that I was dragged to the main stage where I had three girls hanging all over me. All my friends were laughing and screaming. It's hard to believe a few years ago I would have loved this. Now I just wanted the stage to collapse so I could get the hell out of there. Then I could go home and cuddle up to Mia and have some nice cold pizza.
MIA:
Michael had his night of fun with his friends, but he came home fairly early. He told me that it wasn't really his thing. That he'd grown out of that kind of thing. I was strangely excited that seeing naked girls didn't attract his attention anymore.
But what about my night of fun? Shameeka and Tawny decided to merge their great minds together to throw me a bachelorette party.
We went to a nice dinner and then to a club. And when I say a club, I am talking about the 'Hunk-o-Mania Revue'. I had mentioned that I had never been to such a place and they thought that it was strange that in this day and age a girl wouldn't be in touch with her sexuality enough to go to a male strip club.
I have to say this much…I really love Michael's body but DAMN…some guys spend more time at the gym than I could ever even imagine. And men normally don't fawn all over me but I won't lie, I liked it. I didn't really like getting the lap dance, however. I don't like people getting that close to me…I need my personal space bubble.
The girls kept trying to get me to drink. "Mia I know you know how to have a good time," Tawny said, handing me a drink. "And Cosmo's are your favorite."
I smiled, "I'm just having my orange juice," I replied.
"Mia, put the damn drink down and get drunk. Michael drank at his thing now it's your turn," Tawny argued.
Lilly noticed that I was holding my stomach as I said no to the alcohol. "Mia, here's an orange juice and gin," she said, wiggling her nose. That was our secret thing when we were younger. She was lying.
I smiled appreciatively and drank the juice from her. But she and I got tired fairly early and left the others at the club. I called and asked Michael to pick us up. The club wasn't really in the best of areas.
Michael came quickly and took the two old pregnant ladies back to their homes.
"We only have two days," I said softly as we laid in bed that night.
"Are you nervous about your speech?" he asked, twirling my hair.
"I guess. The press conference is taking place tomorrow at the Plaza in the Renaldo Tea Room. It'll be shown live to the people of Genovia."
"Is your dad coming here for it?"
I felt a pain in my stomach. My father and I hadn't spoken since that day I left. "I have no idea."
I struggled all morning with what I should wear. Shameeka came over and helped me choose a grey skirt that flared, and a white cardigan sweater. I kept my hair held back with a ribbon. I stared at myself in the mirror. This would be the last time I would look at myself and see Princess Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Grimaldi Renaldo. A few hours from now I would just be Mia Thermopolis. And tomorrow I would become Mia Moscovitz.
Wow. I sat down and thought about that fact. I was really going to be a wife from now on. I would be a mother in a few months. I looked around our room and how very Michael it was. I was going to have to Mia-nize it when we had a chance to really live here again.
"Mia, are you ready?" Michael asked, poking his head into the room.
I turned and forced a smile. "Yeah. Just give me a second, okay?"
He nodded and went back into the kitchen to wait for me.
I thought about everything that I was giving up. I would not have a say in what happened in Genovia anymore. Which honestly is a good thing; having a say that is. Most people in the world have no say in what happens in their respective countries.
I am not responsible enough to handle an entire country. All I want is Michael and our baby.
We took a cab to the Plaza. I saw Lars waiting for me at the front door and I wove. "Hey Lars!" I exclaimed.
He lifted me up and spun me around. He hadn't seen me in almost a month. "Hello there Princess. A big announcement today?" he asked, looking at Michael as he paid the cabbie.
I half smiled. "Yes."
"What is it?" he asked.
I laughed. When he first became my body guard he would never be so familiar with me. He would agree to find the news when everyone else did. "You'll see."
"Good or bad news?" he asked.
I looked at Michael as he came over to us and put his arm around me. "Definitely good news," I replied.
"Then shall we?" Lars asked as he opened the side doors for us.
A make up woman touched me up before I went to the podium. I listened to the mix CD that Joshua gave me to listen to before any big speeches. It was supposed to psych me up. And it always gave me luck. Hopefully I won't be humming I Want if That Way while answering questions.
"Mia," Michael said, lifting my headphones off of my ears.
"Yes?" I asked.
"I just wanted to say…you can change your mind if you want. I know this is hard for you and I don't want you to regret anything."
He kissed my cheek and patted my bottom. "Well, whatever you decide, good luck."
Great. That is JUST what I needed.
I started to go out to the podium when I saw him standing off to the side. He was wearing regular clothes, not his typical suit and tie. He looked normal. He had a sweater and khaki pants on. He looked like he did in private.
He didn't know I noticed him off at the edge of the reporters.
I wanted to keep it that way.
"Ladies and gentlemen," I started without a single stammer. "When I was fourteen years old I was brought into the Plaza, to this room and given the biggest news of my entire life. Before that day, October second two thousand, I was just a regular New York girl. I was a freshman in high school who was trying to figure out how to make the cutest boy in school to like me. And my biggest problems were passing algebra, whom my mother was dating…and how to get my best friend's older brother to see me as something other than a geeky freshman," I said. I took a deep breath. I saw Michael blushing off to the side. "I was like any other teenager. If you asked me on October first what I wanted to be when I grew up I probably couldn't answer you. No fourteen year old could really, honestly tell you. I know I wanted to just handle passing my freshman year of high school.
"But now that I am a twenty five year old woman I have had a world of experiences. I have gotten to volunteer in a third world country. I have been given the opportunity to travel to places that every person would ever want. I know in my role as Princess of Genovia I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime. In the years that I have lived among the people of Genovia I have fallen in love with the country. With the people. And they have given me an opportunity that most people would imagine as very glamorous. A lot of people would probably give anything to be in my position. My position has been one that I have grown to love.
"However along the way I have lost myself. I lost that fourteen year old that I know is still in me. And I understand that everyone must grow up and mature. But I think that part of that growing up is finding who you are. And from the day I found out I was a princess I stopped finding out who I was. I was told who I was and what I was to do with that idenity.I was simply the Princess of Genovia. I was no longer Mia Thermopolis.
"I therefore am abdicating from my position as Princess of Genovia." The media started buzzing and yelling out questions. The press secretary quieted them down so I could explain further.
"A lot of you may be wondering why now. And others may be accusing my fiancé of making me make this decision. But then you don't know me. A long time ago I brought this idea up to another man who told me that it was okay to leave this title behind me and to live a quiet life. But at the same time I was still trying to make everyone else around me happy even when it was not making me happy. But in the past few months I have been taking a hard look at myself and realized that I didn't like who I was becoming.
"I had gone away for a few months last year, as many of you know, and found that fourteen year old again. I laughed and acted like a young woman my age would. And I realized that I wanted that to be my life. I wanted to be like any other person. I wanted to find myself and choose my own career. And when I told my fiancé my plans he was not sure if I should or not. He told me that I should think about this more. And I have. I have thought about this for quite some time. Before he even came along.
"And so he supported me. And my mother has supported me. And I fully hope that everyone else can learn to support this decision and to respect my privacy. If any of your questions are pertaining to who told me to do this then you may want to leave now considering I just answered that."
"The princ- Miss Thermopolis will now take questions for the next ten minutes," the press secretary said, holding back tears.
I smiled lightly at him. He had been the one to moderate all my press conferences.
"Miss Thermopolis, you say that you have been considering this for quite some time. What exactly gave you the final push to do so today?"