Author's Notes:

I think I really like this chapter. It took me all afternoon to write this. It's really, really long, and the first half is kind of boring, but I think you guys will like the second half. And to answer your questions, no. Mia hasn't asked everyone to go to Genovia yet. But I promise, she will, and later on in the story, they'll be going there. I have no idea how many chapters I have left to write, but it's not over yet, believe me. I've got a lot more ideas of things to do with this. Thanks for all the reviews! Please keep them coming, I appreciate them more than you guys possibly know. Hope you guys like this chapter.


Mia stumbled into the Moscovitzes kitchen the next morning after quickly getting dressed right as she had woken up. The bright, mid-morning sun illuminated the entire kitchen through the skylight in the ceiling. Lilly and Michael were seated at the table, both eating some sort of cereal and not speaking to each other. Michael was staring off into space thoughtfully, and Lilly was scribbling on a piece of paper. Mia yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. It had been a long night, and she'd just woken up after sleeping for about two hours on the Moscovitzes living room floor. As predicted, she hadn't been able to sleep due to the events of last night.

Lilly looked up as Mia entered the kitchen and smiled. "Hi, sleepyhead!" she said, enthusiastically. "Sorry I was already asleep when you got back last night, but I was really tired. I wanted to wait so we could talk about your daaaaate with Kenny. Anyways, how was it?"

Mia had been quite relieved when she had came home with Michael last night and discovered that Lilly was already sleeping. It meant that she wouldn't have to explain why she'd came home at the same time as Lilly's brother and Kenny hadn't walked her home - Michael had. She quickly glanced over at Michael, to find that he was staring fixatedly at the kitchen floor, as he continued to absent-mindedly shove cereal into his mouth. "It was nice," Mia said, weakly, hoping that Lilly would drop the subject. It was making her uncomfortable to talk about last night.

"Mia, give me details! Where did he take you? What did you guys end up doing?" Not noticing Mia's apparent disdain with Lilly's subject of choice, Lilly continued to interrogate her best friend.

Pulling out the chair across the table from Michael and beside Lilly, she sat down, placing her elbows on the tabletop. "We just went out for dinner at this nice Italian place, and then we went to his friend Felix's party for a little while, and then I came home. Nothing really that special," she said.

"Oh, yeah!" Lilly exclaimed. "Felix's party! I was invited to that. How was it?" Lilly asked Mia. Then, she turned to Michael and said, "Michael, didn't you and Judith go, too?"

For the first time that morning, Michael made eye contact with Mia. Michael's eyes were still downcast, and he looked tired, as if he hadn't slept either last night. "Yeah, Judith and I went. It was fine," Michael said quietly, not breaking his eye contact with Mia. It was almost as if he was testing her, testing her to see if he could trust her with the secrets of the events that had taken place last night. "Nothing special."

Mia looked away from Michael's intense gaze.

Lilly finally realized that something strange was going on, and she looked from Michael to Mia and back, suspiciously. "There's something you two aren't telling me," she said, pausing. Luckily, the doorbell interrupted her, and she got up to answer it. "I'll get to the bottom of it once I get back," she yelled, over her shoulder as she walked towards the front door.

Michael sighed. "Thanks for not telling her anything," he said, no longer looking at Mia.

"What are you going to do?"

He looked confused. "What do you mean, what am I going to do? About what?"

"Judith. Last night."

"Oh, that." He let out a deep breath. "I don't know. I don't want to talk about it. Truthfully, I just want to pretend everything last night didn't happen." A silence fell between Michael and Mia, wrought with tension.

He wanted to pretend he hadn't almost kissed Mia Thermopolis. Mia sighed.

At that moment, Lilly reappared in the doorway of the kitchen. "Michael," she said, "Judith's here to see you."

Judith stepped out from behind Lilly. Her eyes were tired, and Mia could tell she had a nasty hangover from drinking so excessively last night. Judith's clothes, normally immaculately cleaned and ironed, were wrinkled and she looked as if she had had a long night and just woke up from a restless slumber. But Mia didn't feel sympathy for her.

And as Michael looked at up her with disgust evident on his handsome face, Mia realized that he didn't feel sympathy for her either. But that was to be expected. "Lilly, I don't want to talk to Judith. Please tell her to go home," he said, his calm voice laced with a dangerous edge.

Lilly looked at Michael, confused. "What the hell is going on here?" she demanded.

"Michael, please. I just need to talk to you. I need to clear things up. I didn't mean to..." Judith pleaded, trailing off and staring at Michael with sad, puppy-dog eyes.

Mia felt herself bristling with anger at Judith for what she'd done to Michael. And then, she had actually had the nerve to come to Michael's apartment, the morning after she had cheated on him with some disgusting big blonde surfer guy, and try to apologize. Mia wouldn't let anyone, even if it was perfect Judith Gershner who cloned fruit flies, do that to her friends. Especially when that friend was Michael Moscovitz, the love of Mia Thermopolis' life. She stood up from the table. "I don't think Michael wants to talk to you, Judith," she said, rudely. "And I really can't blame him."

"Since when are you Michael's spokesperson?" Judith retorted at Mia, equally as rudely. She turned away from Mia, ready to begin pleading with Michael again. "Michael, please. Michael, just talk to me. Let me explain. I promise, there's an explanation for everything. I didn't know what I was doing."

"Seriously, what on earth is going on here?" Lilly screeched. "Would someone please tell me what happened?! Michael, why did you tell me to tell Judith to go home? Mia, why on earth are you defending my brother from his girlfriend?" She turned to Judith. "And Judith, what are you apologizing to my brother for?"

The kitchen fell silent as Lilly finished her tirade. Michael was staring at the floor, avoiding Judith's sad eyes. Lilly's confused face had turned bright red with rage at the fact that everyone else knew something she didn't. Mia was fidgeting with her fingers, shooting glares at Judith. If looks could kill...

Unexpectedly, Michael interrupted the silence and raised his eyes to Judith's. "Leave me alone," he said quietly, his voice completely serious and devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

Judith spluttered, ready to protest.

"Don't." Michael paused, and a silence ensued. "We're done." With those last words, he walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway, into his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.

Judith moved to follow him, but Lilly grabbed her hand and pulled her back. "Don't follow him. I don't know what you did to him to make him this angry at you, but he doesn't want to talk to you."

Judith protested. "But I'm his girlfriend!"

"Didn't you hear him? He just said he's through with you, Judith." Lilly said. "He just broke up with you. Which means you're not his girlfriend anymore." She turned to Mia, dismissing Judith, who then left through the front door. "Now. You're going to tell me what happened last night. And don't even tell me that you don't know, because I heard you defending my brother."

"Lilly..." Mia trailed off. "You're going to have to ask Michael," she continued. "I promised him I wouldn't say anything to anyone about last night, and it's really not my story to tell," she finished. She knew her best friend wouldn't accept that as an explanation. Lilly was out for the whole truth.

Lilly glared at Mia. "Then I'm going to go ask Michael." She walked off towards Michael's bedroom door, and bursted in without knocking. "Tell me what's going on, Michael. I have a right to know."

Mia followed Lilly, and stood behind her in Michael's doorway, leaning on the doorframe.

Michael was lying face down on his bed. "Go away," he moaned as Lilly walked up to him and proceeded to hit him with a pillow that she'd grabbed off the floor. "Lilly, cut it out!" He said, finally jumping up and wrestling the pillow from her hands.

"Just tell me what happened," Lilly said.

"For the last time, Lilly, I don't want to talk about it." Michael was beginning to look angry. "Now would you please, get the hell out of my bedroom and leave me alone?"

Reluctant, Lilly left Michael's side and walked out of his bedroom, grabbing Mia's wrist and pulling her along with her. Once they were in the hallway and had shut Michael's bedroom door, Lilly let go of Mia's wrist. "Why won't he tell me what happened?" Lilly asked.

"Lilly, he just needs some time to himself, that's all. You'll find out soon enough," Mia said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to be home by noon because Grandmere's coming to visit today and we're going out shopping." Mia walked down the hallway and grabbed her belongings out of the living room and left. "See you on Monday at school!" She called behind her, shutting the door.


That night, Mia was sitting at home alone by herself, on the computer, writing an e-mail to her father back in Genovia. Frank, Helen, and Rocky were out for dinner and a movie. Mia had decided against going with them, due to the fact that she just wanted to be alone tonight. And the fact that it was also pouring rain outside, and the moisture in the air would cause her hair to go frizzy.

Mia paused from her e-mail writing and leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes. A crack of thunder sounded, and Mia shivered. She didn't much like thunderstorms. Suddenly, as Mia was beginning to doze off, her computer made a beeping noise, and she shook herself back awake, looking around. She had an instant message from LinuxRulz. Michael Moscovitz.

LinuxRulz: Hey, Thermopolis.

Whoa. Michael was messaging her. She minimized the window with the e-mail to her father, thinking that she'd finish it later. Her father could wait.

FtLouie: Hi, Michael.
LinuxRulz: Thanks again for not telling my sister about Judith... and all that other stuff. I know she was really bugging you about it. I don't know why she feels she needs to know so badly.
FtLouie: You can count on me. You're welcome. Are you going to be okay?
LinuxRulz: I'm fine. I'm getting over it, I guess. Judith called after you left. She wanted to know if it really was over, and I told her it was. So I guess we've broken up for good.
FtLouie: Is that what you wanted?
LinuxRulz: I didn't want to be with a girl who didn't respect me enough to not cheat on me. I hope she didn't do it because I was a bad boyfriend or anything.
FtLouie: No, I'm sure she didn't. It was probably just because she was drinking. But I think you made the right choice, breaking up with her.
LinuxRulz: Enough about Judith. I'm sick of thinking about her. What are you doing right now?
FtLouie: Not much. I was just writing an e-mail to my father. Mom, Frank, and Rocky are out at dinner right now. Truthfully, I'm kind of scared of being home alone. I hate thunderstorms.
LinuxRulz: If you wanted, I could drive over and keep you company. I'm not doing anything right now and I'd really like to get out of my house for awhile. Lilly keeps interrogating me.

He was offering to come over. Wow. As if Mia would turn down that offer.

FtLouie: Yeah, sure. That would be great.
LinuxRulz: I'll be there in about twenty minutes. See you later.
LinuxRulz has signed off.

Michael was coming over! Mia signed herself off, and jumped up from the chair. She ran frantically around the apartment, cleaning up quickly and making sure that there weren't Rocky's toys all over the floor or Mia's own underwear all over the floor of her bedroom. Last of all, she checked her hair and makeup in the mirror. She looked fine, but she was wearing a disgusting pair of sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt that was at least three years old.

She threw off her old clothes quickly, right as the doorbell rang. "Coming!" Mia called, and frantically pulled on a clean pair of jeans and a light brown fitted long sleeved t-shirt, with a dark brown sweater over it. Hurrying, she ran down the hallway towards the front door and pulled it open, smiling. Nervous.

Michael was standing there, looking at the floor. His hair was slightly wet, probably from walking from his parking space in front of Mia's apartment up to the front door of her building. He was wearing a pair of gray skateboard shoes, dark jeans, and a gray hooded zip up sweatshirt with a red t-shirt underneath. As usual, he looked amazing. Why Judith had ever cheated on Michael, Mia would never, ever be able to understand. "Hey," he said, lifting his head and smiling half-heartedly at her as she opened the door and stared at him.

Mia blinked, realizing that she was staring. She shook her head, smiling back at him. "Hi, Michael," she said, her voice quivering nervously. She coughed. "Come in," she continued. "It's raining cats and dogs out there, hey?" Mia cringed as she realized how stupid what she had said just sounded.

But Michael just laughed. "Yeah, it is," he said, entering Mia's apartment and stepping out of his shoes as she shut the door behind him, brushing her hair against his shoulder.

"Do you need a towel to dry off or anything?" Mia asked. "You look kind of wet."

Michael shook his head. "No, I'll be fine." He bit his lip. "So...The only plan I had was just to come over here. You were supposed to come up with the rest of it. You know, what we're going to do for the next few hours and all."

"Michael! I'm not good at planning things. Or thinking up things to do." Mia looked at him disdainfully.

"Hey, I'm the one nursing a broken heart, here. You'd think you could make a little bit of a compromise for me the night after my girlfriend cheated on me with some blonde surfer dude." Michael's words were joking, but Mia could tell there was a lot of emotion behind them. At least he was trying to keep himself together.

"Let's watch a movie," Mia suggested. "My choice, though, since you made me decide what we're going to do." She headed down towards the living room, motioning to Michael to follow her. She grabbed two movies off of the shelf where her parents kept their movie collection. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or Beauty and the Beast?" Mia asked Michael. She had figured he needed to be cheered up.

Michael shot her a funny look as he sat down on the couch in front of the television. "Are you crazy? I'm not watching Beauty and the Beast, and you know it. Ferris Bueller is fine," he said. "It's one of my favorite movies ever. It can always cheer me up when I'm down."

Mia smiled. "That was the idea." She placed the movie in, and then stood, facing Michael, debating where to sit.

He saw her contemplating, and patted the space next to him. "Sit next to me," he instructed. Mia loved it when he acted bossy and the authoritative tone his voice would take on whenever he was politely ordering someone around. And she liked being spoken to by him in that fashion, oddly enough. Mia shivered and grabbed a blanket and then threw herself down on the other end of the couch where Michael was sitting.

It was cold inside, and as they were watching the movie, Mia clutched the blanket around her. All the lights in the apartment were turned off, except the light from the kitchen that sort of shone into the living room, placing a light glow around Michael's face. Mia looked over at him and smiled. His eyes were focused intently on the television screen, and he was hugging his knees to his chest. Mia threw some of the blanket at him and shifted her position on the couch, moving closer to Michael. He then also moved closer to Mia, placing some of her blanket over his body.

They were closer, and Mia could smell his fresh scent of soap. She breathed it in, deeply. Remembering that she was going back home to Genovia in a few weeks for a ball, Mia decided that now would be a good time to ask Michael if he wanted to go. He was her friend, after all. "Michael?" she said, tentatively.

He turned his head towards her. "Yeah?" he answered.

"I'm going back home to Genovia in a few weeks, and..."

Michael interrupted her. "You're going back home? I thought you were staying for a whole year!" His face looked confused, and he looked slightly upset.

Mia felt like jumping up and down at the expression on his face. "I wasn't done yet," she laughed. "I'm going home in a few weeks for about a week. My grandmother's throwing this big ball at the castle at home and a bunch of dignitaries are coming, and a lot of my family. She wanted me to go, and I didn't really want to go, so I said I'd only go if I could invite a few people."

Michael nodded. "Yeah."

"So, my point is, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come?" Mia asked, not waiting for a response before she kept talking. "Frank, Rocky, and my mother are coming, of course. Lilly's also invited, and I was thinking of also inviting Tina Hakim Baba and Kenny. I'm just inviting a bunch of friends. You'd stay at the castle and everything and come to the ball and we'd do some fun stuff for the week. The palace in Genovia's really a nice place."

Again, Michael interrupted her longwinded speech. "I'd love to come," he answered, and smiled at her. "I'm honored that you'd even think of asking me."

"Of course I would, Michael," Mia said, smiling back at him. "You're one of my best friends." Breathing in deeply, Mia leaned towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in towards her in what was just a friendly hug. She couldn't help wishing it was more, though, as she buried her nose into Michael's neck, smelling the soap he used every morning and feeling his soft skin.

After a few moments, they pulled away and went back to watching the movie. Mia's skin was tingling. Minutes later, Mia's adrenaline from asking Michael to come with her to Genovia had worn off, and she'd finally gotten back to concentrating on the movie, when the screen suddenly went black and the DVD player turned itself off.

"What just happened?" Mia said, noticing that the light from the kitchen had also went out. A clap of lightning illuminated the living room, accompanied by the loud rumble of thunder in the not-so-far-away distance.

Michael shrugged. "The power's probably out."

"I hate storms," Mia admitted, in a small and timid voice.

Dropping the blanket from around his waist, Michael got up from the couch and smoothed out his pants. "I have to go to the bathroom," he announced. Looking down at Mia, he smiled. "Will you be okay out here for a few minutes by yourself or do you need to come with me?" He asked, teasingly.

She hit him playfully in the arm. "I'm going to go up to the kitchen and make us some hot chocolate," she replied. "The bathroom's down the hallway and to the left."

Michael left, and Mia got up to go to the kitchen. She went to go get the kettle for the hot chocolate, but then, she realized that the power was out and sighed. Reaching into the fridge, she found a carton of milk and poured some into two cups, adding a little bit of chocolate milk powder. They'd have to do with chocolate milk instead of hot chocolate. She reached for two spoons to stir the chocolate milk with and placed them in the cups and began absent-mindedly stirring one cup.

As she was stirring, Michael came up from behind her and stood right beside her, his warm arm pressed against hers. "Is this for me?" he asked, quietly, and when Mia nodded, he began to stir the mixture around with the spoon that was inside the cup. "Thanks."

"I forgot that the power was out, so we couldn't have hot chocolate," she said, laughing a little at her own stupidity, turning towards him and lifting her cup to her lips, taking a small sip.

Michael watched her as she spoke, and then took a sip of his own milk, not breaking eye contact with Mia. He gulped it down, and set his cup down on the counter beside him. "You've got some on your face," he said, softly, laughing.

She looked slightly mortified. "I can't even drink properly," she muttered, and wiped at her face with her hand, missing the chocolate milk completely.

Michael laughed. Nervous and trembling, he stared into her gray eyes and lifted a finger to her face, wiping at the spot where the chocolate milk had spilled onto her soft skin. He didn't know what overcame him at that moment. It might have been the fact that Mia was looking more gorgeous than she had ever looked before in her life, the way the light from the moon was shining down into the kitchen through the slightly open window, and the smell of the rain in the air. The lightning illuminating her face for brief moments.

And she didn't know what had overcome him when he was taking a step closer to her, whispering her name. "Mia," he said, softly, his eyes still locked with hers.

She breathed in deeply, her breath completely uneven. His finger was still laid on her cheek, and he curled his other fingers out so that his whole hand was pressed gently to her face. Michael brought his free hand up to her waist, and pulled her in closer to him, much closer. He could feel her heat radiating from her to him.

Mia was shocked, but she kept her eyes locked with Michael's intense gaze. Hesitantly, she brought her hands up to around his waist, gripping her fingers around his gray hoodie. "Michael?" she asked.

Ever so slightly, Michael shook his head. And then, and then, he leaned down towards her and closed his eyes, his long eyelashes dusting his cheeks and hair falling over his forehead.

Mia knew this all too well, from the previous night.

And this time, she wasn't making the mistake of pulling away. Not this time.

She closed her eyes and waited, feeling Michael draw himself nearer to her. Mia's body tingled with anticipation. He really was going to kiss her. And when their lips finally met, Mia felt her whole body radiate with a feeling that was completely unbeknownst to her before this perfect moment.

Michael was running his hand through her hair, his lips pressed to Mia's. She could hardly believe this was happening. Mia ran her hands up and down his back, and then finally brought them up to rest around his neck, pulling him in even closer to her. His hands were weaving themselves through her hair, and Mia thought she had never felt anything as nice. Except maybe his lips against hers.

She felt his tongue gently press against her lips and she gladly opened her mouth. Mia felt as if she was floating on air. Michael was leaned up against her and his hands moved down her back to her waist, hugging her to him as he continued to explore her mouth. This was nothing like kissing Kenny.

Kenny. Mia's boyfriend.

Reluctantly, Mia tore herself away from Michael's lips, moving her head back quickly. A flash of lightning illuminated the kitchen then, and Mia could see Michael's face, clearly. He was confused. A lock of hair had fallen into his eyes, and Mia gently removed one of her hands from his neck and pushed it away, softly. She stared at his lips. The lips that had just kissed hers. They were a perfect shade of pink. And Mia finally knew just how perfect and soft they were.

He smiled down at her, his hands still firmly gripping her waist. "The good news is," Michael said, softly, "all the chocolate milk's gone from your face."

Mia felt as if her knees were going to give out any second, so she was thankful that Michael's arms were still wrapped tightly around her. "Thanks," she responded, quietly.

Michael leaned in again, swiftly, and kissed her lips gently. Quickly. And then he pulled away, smiling at her, his eyes looking deeply into hers. An expression of confusion crossed his face. "What's wrong, Mia?" he asked, concerned, his hands tightening their grip on her waist in a comforting fashion.

But being with Michael like this wasn't comforting her anymore. She stepped back from Michael, causing him to let go of her waist. His hands dropped to his sides, and Michael broke eye contact with her to stare out the open window at the pale moon in the dark night sky, running his hands through his hair, his eyes suddenly turned sad and distant.

"Kenny," she whispered. "My boyfriend."

Michael shook his head.

"How could I do this to him?"