Author's Notes: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out! I had a bit of writers' block for awhile and I didn't know what to do.. So yeah, now they're going to Genovia for a week, for that ball. The next few chapters will be centered around the whole trip to Genovia. This chapter's kind of uneventful, but it's necessary in that it's setting up for some of the action that will come in the next few chapters. I wasn't updating because I had a lot of final exams the past week, but now I'm finally finished and it's summer, meaning that I'll have a lot more time on my hands to write, yay!
I'm blown away by the number of reviews I've gotten on this...wow. I can't believe you guys like this that much! Thanks to all of you who've been faithfully reviewing. I love you all, and I promise to have the next chapter out in a few days.
It was the night before Mia was leaving for Genovia for a week, and she was sitting on her bed, going through piles of clothes trying to decide what to take with her on the trip. Michael was seated on the floor of Mia's bedroom at the foot of the bed, staring up at the television, which was playing some silly Lifetime Channel movie.
Everyone who was going on the trip was at Mia's house sleeping over, already packed and ready to go, because they would be leaving early the next morning straight from the Thermopolis' loft. It was late at night, around one o'clock in the morning, and Mia assumed that everyone else was already sleeping. She herself was tired and wished she could go to bed, but she had been so busy getting everyone else ready and settled in for the night that she hadn't had any time to pack for herself.
Kenny was asleep in the room next door with Rocky, Mia's younger brother, which was where Michael Moscovitz was also supposed to be asleep. However, Michael had sweetly offered to keep Mia company while she packed, stating that he wasn't tired. Mia smiled down at his back, watching him. He was yawning, and Mia could tell that he indeed was tired.
"Michael, you can go to bed," she offered. "I'm almost done packing, and I know you're tired. We have a big day tomorrow," she said, stuffing a few pairs of clean white socks into one of her suitcases. She got up from her place on the bed and sat down beside Michael on the floor, touching his hand with hers. "Thanks for keeping me company, though…"
Michael turned to her and smiled. "Hey, at least it meant that I got to spend some time with you today," he said, kissing her softly on the nose. "I mean, Kenny's been hovering around you constantly lately. I barely even get to see you anymore," he trailed off slightly as he put his arms around Mia's slender frame, resting his head on her shoulder.
Mia began to play with a lock of his soft, dark brown hair, twisting it aroud one of her fingers. "I know," she answered. "I really can't stand how he's always around me lately. He's really been suffocating me," Mia said, tilting her head so that it rested softly on top of Michael's.
His fingers began to play with the hem of her shirt. Mia shivered as the tips of his fingers touched her back. "Why don't you just break up with him already?" Michael suggested, his tone of voice tired, fingers still dancing across the soft skin of the small of her back.
She pulled away from him, her face heated. "I wish it was that easy, Michael," she replied, avoiding his sad eyes. "I mean, every time I try to talk about us breaking up, it's like he senses that I want to break up with him and he gets these huge big puppy-dog eyes that make it impossible to be mean to him. I feel like a heartless wench sometimes."
Michael shook his head and laughed listlessly, emptily. "You're not a heartless wench." He leaned back, resting his hands on the carpet.
"I'm not good at this stuff, okay?" Mia's eyes began to fill with warm tears.
Michael sighed. He couldn't stand it when she cried. And even if he was starting to get frustrated with the fact that she hadn't broken up with Kenny yet, he couldn't deny the fact that he did like Mia and he was willing to wait for her to break up with her boyfriend. He just wished that she could do it faster. They'd been unofficially 'together' for the past two weeks, and Michael was beginning to get tired of her dancing around the issue all the time.
It was almost as if she was lying to Michael. As if she didn't really want to break up with Kenny. Michael was beginning to wonder if she was just stringing him along for her own selfish pleasure.
It wasn't good that he was so damn crazy about this girl. She was beginning to impair his judgment completely.
He stood up and pulled her up with him, pulling her into a long hug. "Don't cry, Mia," he said.
"But you're beginning to get frustrated," Mia said through her tears. "I can tell. You're getting sick of us having to hide our relationship because everyone else still thinks I'm with Kenny, I know you are. And soon I think you're just going to give up on me…" She buried her head into his shoulder. "Don't give up on me, Michael."
"I would never do that, Mia."
She released herself from his embrace and began stuffing things into suitcases haphazardly in an attempt to finish her packing quickly. Mia zipped up all the bags and shoved them to the floor. She then began pulling the covers on her bed down and climbing over to her pillows. Once she had climbed under the covers, Mia patted the space next to her on the bed.
Hesitantly, Michael sat down next to her, leaving a considerable amount of distance between them.
"Turn off the lights," Mia whispered to Michael.
He did as she said and turned to the door, ready to leave.
"Michael?" Her voice was still a whisper, so quiet that Michael hardly heard what she had just said.
"Yeah?" He answered, his voice trembling ever so slightly.
"Stay with me?" She asked.
Michael turned around, incredulous. He walked back over to her bed and stood beside her, looking down at her and straight into her eyes. "Are you sure?" He asked, sure that she could hear his heart thumping loudly from inside his chest.
"I wouldn't ask you if I wasn't," Mia whispered. She shifted positions on the bed, pulling the covers beside her down slightly.
Cautiously, Michael sat down on her bed and slid down into the covers, distancing himself a little from Mia. He was sure she wasn't thinking straight. First of all, her boyfriend was asleep in the next room. What if he came in and found them in this situation? Or, worse, what if Mia's parents found them asleep together in the same bed? Mia would be dead.
And, she'd never be allowed to see Michael ever again.
Blocking these terrible thoughts out his mind, Michael settled down into Mia's bed and moved over so that he was closer to Mia and placed his arms gently around her, his head right next to hers. "Is this okay?" He whispered, right into her ear.
She shivered from the sensation of his breath on her ear. "Perfect," she murmured quietly, shutting her eyes and sighing in contentment.
Michael stared at Mia, as if transfixed by her natural beauty. Unable to resist any longer, Michael leaned over and kissed her softly on her perfectly pink lips, delighted to find that they were just as soft as ever. However, this action disrupted Mia's slumber and she awoke slowly, blinking her eyes in confusement as she focused on Michael's form lying beside her, still under the covers. "Michael?" She asked, perplexed.
"Morning," Michael said, with a slow, uncertain smile. "I was just getting up," Michael continued when Mia didn't respond. He pushed the covers back and sat up, but then stopped and looked back at Mia when he felt her warm hand grab his underneath her sheets.
"Thanks for staying with me," Mia said, her voice slightly hoarse as a result of just waking up.
Michael smiled. "But I really do have to get going, before Kenny and Rocky wake up. It's about six in the morning right now, so I should probably get in there and make it look like I slept there. Wouldn't want anyone to get suspicious before the trip even starts..." He trailed off, letting go of her hand and walking over to the door. "See you later."
"Bye," Mia whispered, pulling the covers over her face.
Michael shut the door behind him and tiptoed over to the bedroom right next to Mia's. The door was slightly ajar and Michael prayed silently that Kenny hadn't chosen to wake up extra early that morning. Breathing in deeply, he pushed open the door and peered in, to see both Kenny and Rocky fast asleep in their beds. Sighing in relief, Michael crept over to the bed that he was supposed to sleep in and pulled the covers over him, proceeding to then fall asleep for an hour or so.
He woke up an hour later to find a tall shadow looming over him. Squinting as he opened his eyes, he muttered a curse under his breath. "What the hell is going on?" He asked, blinking open his eyes and sitting up to look around the room. Kenny had been standing right next to Michael's bed and as Michael had sat up, Kenny had retreated slightly and sat down on Rocky's now-vacated bed, his eyes boring straight into Michael's.
"You tell me," Kenny said, a suspicious tone entering his voice. "Where were you all night?"
"What?" Michael asked, confused. Kenny had been sleeping when Michael had entered, hadn't he?
"Oh, come on, Michael. Don't play dumb. You didn't sleep here all night. I woke up at three in the morning to go to the bathroom and you weren't here. So you must have been sleeping somewhere else, or not sleeping at all." Kenny shot a mean look at Michael, and Michael nearly laughed. Kenny was trying so damn hard to be tough that it was just amusing. "'Fess up, Michael."
Michael bit his lip to keep from laughing in light of the hilarity of the situation, but his hands were shaking with nervousness. What if Kenny actually caught Mia and Michael together one of these days? This was getting way too complicated. "I just fell asleep in the living room on the couch," Michael said, stuttering a little bit. "...So I stayed there all night."
Kenny rolled his eyes at Michael. "You're lying," he said, assertively.
Michael was taken aback, having not expected Kenny to be so straightforward about anything. "I'm not lying, Kenny," Michael lied.
"I know you are," Kenny said, getting up from the bed and smoothing the sheets down. "And I'm going to get to the bottom of this." He walked to the door and stood there for a second, pausing before leaving to make one more statement aimed at Michael. "Stay away from Mia, Michael." He opened the door and stepped out. "I mean that." Kenny pulled the door shut behind him, letting it slam shut.
Michael cringed.
Kenny hadn't been lying to Michael when he said that he wanted Michael to stay away from Mia. On the way to the airport, Kenny had made sure that Mia was sitting by a window and that Kenny was on her other side, despite Michael's efforts to sit beside her. It seemed that Kenny's main goal was to keep Michael away from Mia. And then, as they had been boarding the private plane, Mia had been straying close to Michael, almost as if she hoped to sit by him on the nine-hour flight to Genovia. However, Kenny had always been two steps away from Mia, clinging onto her hand for dear life. And somehow, Michael had gotten pushed out and away from Mia and now there he was, sitting on the plane in a seat by himself as Kenny sat next to Mia, halfway across the plane.
Mia sighed. They had been on the plane for four hours so far, and so far, Kenny hadn't shut up for even five minutes. She had been hoping that her annoyance of a boyfriend would fall asleep sometime during the flight so that she could talk to Michael, but so far, luck had not been with Mia. Mia flipped idly through the pages of the magazine that laid in her lap, looking out the window and away from Kenny.
Mia wondered what was going on. Today, Kenny had been shadowing her even more than he usually did. He was hardly even allowing her to have her own personal space. Which made Mia wonder if Kenny almost knew something was up with Mia and Michael. Mia had caught Kenny shooting mean looks at Michael all morning, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.
"I'm going to go to the bathroom," Mia stated, interrupting Kenny in the midst of a sentence, rising from her seat and throwing the magazine on the floor.
"I'll walk you there," Kenny said quickly, also rising from his seat.
Mia glared at Kenny. "There is no way in hell I'm letting you walk me to the bathroom, Kenny," Mia hissed. "I need some time to breathe, you know. You can't be around me every second of every day. I'm getting sick of this, you know. You're always hovering around me."
Kenny looked slightly guilty. "I'm just getting the feeling something's up with Moscovitz," he retorted. "It's like he always wants to be around you. And he's always watching you," Kenny muttered. "I don't trust it. I don't trust him. Around you."
Mia almost breathed a sigh of relief. Kenny didn't actually realize that Mia reciprocated Michael's feelings. So he just thought Michael was stalking her. She almost laughed at the thought. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she promised, flashing a weak smile at her boyfriend. "Don't worry about Michael. I can take care of myself."
It wasn't like Mia needed Kenny to protect her from Michael.
More like the other way around. Mia needed Michael to keep her sane, from Kenny's controlling and obsessive behavior as of late.
Sometime, and sometime soon, she needed to get some serious courage and just dump the guy already.
