Mia slowly stood up, the words that she had just heard still in her mind. So he did like her. That meant she had to find a way to let him know that. Pushing aside a nagging feeling in her brain, she grabbed her half-empty glass of water off of the concrete balcony and slid open the glass door to find Lilly in almost the same position she had left in.
"Hey," Mia said softly.
Lilly looked up. "That was quick. What were you doing out there anyways?" she asked curiously. "I mean, there's nothing out there except that little alley, and I'm almost sure that that's nothing exciting."
"Yeah," Mia agreed, "I was just sort of thinking. I needed a bit of fresh air, I guess you could say."
She was still a bit numb from her new discovery, and it must have showed on her delicate face, for Lilly then said, "Is there something wrong? You look a bit pink."
"No-" Mia began, and then she stopped. "Well, actually, I'm sort of wondering. Could my hair be described as a 'dark brown sheet'?"
Lilly gave her an odd look. "No, not especially. A sheet of hair is straighter, isn't it? Yours is a bit too curly to be considered a sheet. Why do you ask?"
Mia took a deep breath. "Well," she said slowly, "I was sitting outside on the balcony, when I heard the strumming of a guitar."
"Yeah," Lilly said, "That was probably Michael practicing. Ever since we got his room soundproofed, the only way to hear him playing his music is through the glass of his balcony door. I guess he left it cracked open while you were out there, so you could hear him."
"I know," said Mia. "It's not that. It's just-" she stopped for another quick breath. Telling Lilly this was a lot harder than she had expected it to be. "I heard him playing a song, one that he wrote himself, and well, I think it was about me."
Silence took hold over the room for a moment, but was soon broken by Lilly's disbelieving voice. "What? About YOU?"
"Listen, I know it sounds weird, but it sounded so much like me!" Mia tried to make Lilly understand, "It was like about how 'we hide our feelings like you hide your face behind that dark brown sheet of hair,' or something." Mia blushed furiously.
Lilly raised an eyebrow. "You're blushing awfully hard here," she said suspiciously. "Was that all that was in the song?"
"No," Mia admitted.
"Well, then tell me!" Lilly said, in a somewhat exasperated tone of voice.
"Itsaiddon'tyouknowIloveyou," Mia took a deep breath, having just said all that quickly and in one breath, so as not to be understood.
Unfortunately, Lilly wasn't Lilly for nothing. "'Don't you know I love you'," she mused to herself. "That's interesting."
"What is?" asked Mia.
"Mia, don't worry. I don't think that song is about you."
"It's not!" Mia burst. "I just assumed it was!"
"No!" Lilly said, annoyed. "If it's anyone he actually knows, it's about Judith."
Memories of Lilly talking ten minutes earlier came rushing from the back of Mia's subconscious. And he went out for pizza with this girl, Judith. Judith! Mia had forgotten all about asking about her! "Who's Judith?" She asked angrily.
"Um, Judith Gershner, I think is her name," Lilly said loosely. "They're in the school's Computer Club together. She used to have this long dark brown hair that was always getting in her eyes, but then she just recently cut it all off to her chin or something. I guess that's where my pathetic brother got the sheet of hair thing. They've been spending a lot of time together recently, so I always just assumed that they were dating. The perfect nerd couple. I guess its a lot more then that, since he supposedly loves her now. What a sap." She shook her head and went back to National Geographic, not seeing the tears threatening to stream down Mia's face.
"Oh," Mia said, so softly that she was almost talking to herself. She turned her back to face the balcony once more as a single tear escaped the corner of her eye and slowly rolled down her left cheek.
"Listen," said Lilly, "My parents went out to dinner together tonight. They left thirty dollars on the kitchen table for us to get dinner. I was thinking we could pick up Chinese food from Number One Noodle Son, since that's your favorite and all."
"Whatever," said Mia sullenly, trying to hide the pain in her voice. What she needed was a chance to get away from the Moscovitz home, where she didn't have to look at Michael any more. She didn't want to like him. She really didn't. Maybe , she thought to herself, I didn't really like him at all. I probably just liked the thought of having a boyfriend, and Michael was more convenient because he was Lilly's brother. Yes, that was it. I only liked the thought of him. "Hey Lilly," she said, "How bout I go get the Chinese food? Me and Chin Lee go way back, ya know."
Lilly laughed. Chin Lee was the exceptionally large Oriental man who worked at Number One Noodle Son, and Mia was one of his favorite customers. "Okay," she agreed. "Maybe he'll give you extra fortune cookies again! Can you get me the Moo Goo Gai Pan? The money is on the kitchen table." Mia nodded and began to make her way out of the room, side stepping the piles of clothes and other things. "Oh yeah," Lilly continued, "And bang on Michael's door for me and find out what he wants."
At this, Mia paled. Michael. She had forgotten about him. "Sure," she said, not feeling very sure at all. She walked down the hall and stopped in front of his door. It was now or never. She needed to show him just what she thought of him. Knocking loudly on the door, she called out to him. "Michael! Open up!"
She faintly heard scrambling around from within the room, and seconds later the door was opened quickly. "Oh. Hey," Michael said, trying to sound nonchalant. He had just been hiding the evidence of his newest song about Mia, one of his better ones, he thought.
"Um yeah," Mia said, trying to sound as if she had wished this conversation was over before it began. "I'm going to get Chinese. What do you want?"
Michael pretended to think, while looking at her. She, on the other hand was twirling her hair and looking bored with the whole scenario. She so obviously didn't like him, and was trying to show it. Well , he thought, two can play that game. "Get me some fried rice," he said shortly. "And make it quick, I'm hungry." With that he gave a slight bow and shut the door in her face. He stood there staring at the door he had just slammed in the face of his only love, and then slowly walked over to his bed, allowing his muscles to completely give in. He collapsed on the bed, his heart aching. Not loving Mia was turning him into a demon.
Mia stared at the door. Lilly was right, there was no way that the song was about her. It just couldn't be especially after the way he had just treated her. For some reason, however, she couldn't hate him. Maybe it was because she was in love with him.