Title: California, Here We Come
Rating: PG to be safe, but most likely G
Disclaimer: I do not own the Princess Diaries……..I own this story, but not most of the characters
A/N: Thanks for the reviews, even the ones that weren't as nice, because they're honest opinions and I appreciate that. Every story needs criticism to get better. I just thought I'd fill you in on why I'm doing it like I am. First, I do have a plot, even if you might not think so. There are a few bits and pieces missing but I have the main idea. Also, I would rather it move a little slow than really fast, because I think you lose meaning when you rush something. I might speed it up a little, but not a lot because I don't want it to be too fast. I know the reality show isn't in the story yet, but I know exactly when I want them to find out and I'm almost to that spot, but not quite yet. I just want to work up to it. I want it to be nicely written. I'm sorry I'm moving slowly, but I've been really busy. Anyway, I know that I don't post too often, but I'm trying. I'm also sorry if the chapters are not as good as before but I've been incredibly tired and exhausted. I promise I will try to make them better and make the plot a little more visible for you. But I will be throwing in some drama and some Michael/Mia-ness as soon as I can, as long as I don't ruin the plot, because I think it will be good. Plus, I don't want to rush Mia and Michael to get together, because they didn't get together right away in the book. And one last thing, no, I don't think guys think like Michael does in my story BUT I'm not a guy so I wouldn't know exactly…..plus, I add some of what I want Michael to think since it is fiction and if I wrote how guys thought, I might need the story rating a little higher at some parts…….Anyway, I'm sorry that I just wrote the longest author's note in history and I'll try to make it up with a long chapter and lots of goodness! Please keep reading! Now, onto the story…..
Mia's POV
It's already Friday, and somehow Kenny never found out about Ryan being my date. The only problem I'm going to have is having him find out AT the party. Is this incredibly wrong? Going to a party with one guy when you have a boyfriend AND a guy that you're in love with, of whom are two different people.
All of us were getting ready for the party. Tina and I had gone shopping earlier that week and chosen outfits. I ended up getting a black halter top dress that went just an inch below the knees. It had a silver brooch in the middle about a few inches above the navel. It accentuated my skinny structure but made it look as though I was more gifted in certain areas. Tina chose a spaghetti strap red silk shirt with lace at the top. She finished it with black pants and red high heels. It made her look a lot thinner, although she wasn't big at all, but it hid her slight chubbiness. Lilly chose a baby blue tank top and some low rise black jeans. Tina made her add a glitter belt to add some more flare.
Tina did my eyes in a smoky look, and I wore black shoes, with only a small heel. I didn't want to look any taller than I already was.
"Mia, you look so hot!" Tina squealed. "Ryan's going to love it!"
"I still don't agree with this!" Lilly exclaimed, crossing her arms. "Going out with one guy when you have a boyfriend and not telling your boyfriend is very wrong."
"But I'm still going with my boyfriend. He's going TOO!" I exclaimed, mainly trying to convince myself.
"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself, not me," Lilly said. "But whatever. Do whatever you want"
Just then someone knocked on the door. It was Boris.
"We're all ready if you wanna go." he said, still not opening the door.
"Ok, we're on our way out," Lilly yelled at him. "Go away!"
I quickly opened the door before Lilly could lash out at me again with the truth. I didn't feel right doing it, but I couldn't let Ryan down, and I couldn't just dump Kenny. It would be too weird.
I saw Michael, Wahim, and Lars sitting on the couch watching TV, while Kenny and Boris stood waiting for us. We walked out and Kenny walked over towards me.
"Mia, you look……amazing….." he said staring at me and making me feel uncomfortable. I had been looking at Michael though, hoping to get some form of approval. When he heard Kenny's voice, he turned his attention to me. I tried to turn my attention away so he didn't know that I was looking, but I was still watching out of the corner of my eye. He eyed me up and down and smiled. Yes! I think that's a good sign.
We all left and I tagged a little behind so that I could be the last one out besides Michael. As we walked out, he leaned over and whispered into my ear. "You look beautiful, Mia." My cheeks felt like they were on fire. "Thanks. You……l……look…..nice….t-t…..too, Michael," I stuttered and smiled. He just returned my smile. We walked the rest of the way in silence. I was completely surprised to the fact that Kenny didn't slow down to walk next to me.
We walked down the halls of the dorm rooms, looking for hers. We knew where it was the minute we hit her floor though. Music was blaring out of a room and people were all in the hall and walking in and out of the room as they pleased. We walked into the room and looked around. People were dancing everywhere. There was tons of food and lots of punch. People were dancing on the table, on the floor, in the hall. They were making out on the couch, and screaming at the top of their lungs. This was the epitome of the word party.
I looked to my side and saw Kenny there.
"Hey Mia. I was just going to go and check out the party. I actually wanted to look around alone. Maybe we can meet back up later. You don't mind, do you?" he asked.
Was he serious? What happened to Kenny? My boyfriend Kenny? Where'd he go? It's not that I'm complaining, but this is just too weird.
"Umm, no, that's alright. Go ahead, Kenny."
"I don't want you to be sad or lonely, are you sure?"
"I'm sure, Kenny, go on," I said, smiling and feeling a little relieved.
He walked off and I breathed a breath of relief. Maybe this will be easier than I thought.
Michael smiled and walked over towards me. "Hey Thermopolis"
"Hey Michael," I said rubbing the material of the sides of my dress between my fingers.
"Do you wanna maybe go somewhere and talk?" he asked, looking deeply into my eyes.
"Umm sure," I said as he grabbed my hand and started to lead me away.
We looked everywhere trying to find an empty room. We finally found one. Michael removed his hand from mine and reached for the door. We were about to enter when we were interrupted as someone wrapped their arms around me from behind. I jumped and screeched a little.
I turned around to face Ryan. "Hey Mia."
"Oh, hey Ryan."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's alright. I just didn't know you were there."
"Come on, let's go dance," he said, grabbing my hand.
"Actually, Michael and I were just about to talk."
"In a dark room? Alone?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Well, we needed privacy."
"You were going to ditch your date like that," he said pouting at me, giving me a puppy dog look. He was so gorgeous when he did that.
"No, I was going to find you later."
"Well, then you can just talk later. I love this song," he said, pulling me along.
Michael looked hurt and upset as I was dragged away.
"We'll talk later, I guess," I called out to him. Then I mouthed a "sorry."
As I was being dragged off, I saw a peppy blonde come and latch herself onto Michael again. That girl was really starting to annoy me. Who did she think she was anyway? Claiming some guy that she didn't even know. My thoughts were soon over though, as Ryan wrapped his arms around me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he pulled me closer. It was nice. It was very nice. I will admit that it wasn't as nice as holding Michael, but we all know that's not going to happen again. I guess I'm glad that Ryan interrupted us from talking. Michael would have just let me down, and I would have been upset all night. At least now I can have fun with an awesome guy THAT ACTUALLY LIKES ME!
"I'm glad you came with me tonight, Mia," he said, breathing into my neck.
I looked up at him and smiled. "I'm actually glad too."
Which I was. Maybe not as glad as if it had been Michael, but I was still glad. I was having fun. Ryan smelled really nice and he was a great dancer, not to mention gorgeous.
"Why did you invite me though?"
Ryan slowed from dancing a bit. "What do you mean why did I invite you? I invited you because I wanted to. I invited you because you're pretty and funny and cute, and I like you."
I blushed for about the millionth time since I've been in California. I'm surprised that my cheeks haven't just stayed red. They've probably been red more than they've been flesh colored on this trip.
I just smiled and laid my head back on his shoulder and began to sway more to the music. When the song finished, we pulled apart and went to find a place to sit. While we were looking for a chair, I saw Kenny. I immediately felt guilty, but then I saw him laughing and smiling with another girl. Seems like both of us are having good times, but with other people. I saw an empty seat next to Kenny and this girl, so Ryan and I went to sit down by them.
Kenny spotted me and stopped smiling and talking. Something was really odd about him tonight.
"Oh, hey Mia," he said, not meeting my eyes.
"Umm Hey Kenny," I replied, glancing at him curiously.
I sat down and Ryan plopped down next to me.
"What's up guys?" Ryan asked, looking at them.
"N..N..Nothing's up. Why would anything be up? Does it look like somethings up? Why'd you ask?" Kenny said, stuttering.
"Kenny, are you alright?" I asked, looking at him like he was crazy.
"Everything's fine. Why wouldn't it be?"
Ok. Kenny is definitely not the best at hiding problems.
"Ummmm I don't know, because you won't look me in the eye and you keep stuttering."
He looked up and pretended to look me in the eyes but he was really focusing on my nose or the wall behind me.
"Everything's fine." he said, giving a breath of relief.
"Ok then," I said standing up and starting to walk away. I turned around to say something else, and noticed that Kenny was holding this girls hand.
I gazed at their hands and then looked up to Kenny's eyes. "What's going on, Kenny?" I asked again.
He looked away ashamed. "Well….I…."
"Go on," I said pointedly.
"Well…..We met at our first day of classes. Her name's Tayuya. She's actually from Japan originally but she came here from New York too. She only lives about 30 miles from where we live. She loves anime. And well, we just hit it off right away. She asked me to be her date to the party and I accepted. I didn't know how to say no."
I listened and nodded. I started feeling pain. I couldn't be from him dumping me. I've been trying to break up with him all along. Maybe it was because I was actually getting dumped. My first boyfriend dumped me. Or maybe it's that he actually liked someone more than me. Am I not good enough for anyone? It didn't seem like it. I don't know why it hurt me, but it did. I guess I'm more emotional than I thought.
"Mia, I didn't want to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. I loved you."
He looked so sorry. He looked horrible. Why am I such a horrible person? Here I am trying to think of ways to get out of this relationship when he was so devoted to me. He loved me and now he's hurting just because he thinks he's hurting me. My eyes started tearing up. I wasn't really that sad from the breakup. Actually, I was tearing up because I was thinking about how horrible of a person I've been since we've been together, only thinking of Michael.
"Mia, please don't cry……" he said, looking at me.
That just made me cry more. I couldn't take it anymore.
"It's ok, Kenny. I understand. It's over."
I can't believe how horrible of a person I am. I couldn't take it anymore, I just ran off crying.
Michael's POV
I was so angry that Ryan dragged Mia off like that. I really wanted to talk to her. I'm also a little frustrated with Mia that she didn't put up a bigger fight to stay with me. Who am I kidding though? Mia was probably just happy that he took her away. She's too nice, and she probably feels horrible about talking about it. She doesn't want to break my heart when she tells me that it meant nothing. But that's fine. I don't care what she says. I want her to know that I meant it.
Then not only did Mia leave, but Krissy showed up. I don't know what this girl's problem was. Didn't she get the picture that I wasn't interested. But whatever. I wasn't going to let Mia leave with another guy and just sit around waiting for her. I was going to do something to. Since Krissy wanted me to dance with her, I did. I danced with her for a while and then we walked to a different room. I spotted Ryan and Mia sitting on the couch next to Kenny and an Asian girl that I didn't know. I saw Kenny looking embarrassed or was it ashamed? I couldn't tell. But then Mia looked upset. She turned around and started to walk away. She looked like she was about to cry. I saw Ryan start to follow her and I turned around and was about to leave, but Krissy grabbed my arm.
"Let go," I said pulling my arm away. I got my arm away but before I could turn around, she pushed her lips up against mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. I pulled away and looked at her like she was crazy. Her gaze was focused behind me though. I turned around and saw Mia there with tears flowing out of her eyes. Ryan also looked quite shocked.
Mia turned and started to run. I turned to follow her, but Ryan held his arm out. "Don't you think she's gone through enough?" he said, glaring at me.
"I don't know what happened, but I'm going to find out." I said, trying to push past him.
"No you're not," he said stepping in front of me. "I know what happened and you don't, so why don't you let me talk to her? If you wanted her, then you shouldn't be kissing other girls and making her cry even more. Stay away from Mia."
He turned around and followed her. I wanted to punch him. He was right….well just about me not knowing what had happened. I had no idea what had happened. Did it have to do with me? I wasn't sure. What if Mia was mad at me? What if she wanted to talk to Ryan? Plus, if I punched Ryan, that just might make things worse with Mia.
"Just let her go," Krissy said. "She doesn't deserve you."
"You don't even know her!" I shouted.
"I know she cheats on her boyfriend and that she's not good enough for you. See?" she said, holding out a picture of me kissing Mia on the beach. It looked very scandalous, both of us making out, dripping wet, on top of one another in hardly any clothes on the beach.
I snatched the picture from her. "And what exactly are you doing with this?" I asked angrily.
"Keeping you away from her. If you want her reputation with the press to stay good, then I suggest you stay away from her. And Don't worry, I have more pictures where that came from."
"That's called Blackmail."
"I just call it looking out for what's best for everyone, especially me"
"What are you up to? You little……"
"Now, let's dance!" she said pulling my arm.
"I'm not going to dance with you."
"Fine, whatever. You'll change your mind soon enough." she said smiling evilly. "and stay away from Mia."
"Whatever."
I was so ticked. I was angry at myself for even dancing with Krissy. I was angry at whoever made Mia cry. I was angry at Kenny for being Mia's boyfriend. I was angry at Ryan for following Mia, when I should have been with her. And mostly, I was angry at Krissy for doing this to me. I had to find some way to get back at her.
There has to be some way………
A/N: Hmmm I totally wasn't planning on some of the stuff that happened in the story, but I just typed and it came out. I had a slightly different approach planned, but oh well. The MTV show will reveal itself soon if everything goes as planned……now pleeeeeeeease review! So sorry about the long wait! I tried to make the story long though…….now click the button and review! I just had to update…….FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS MICHAEL lol I got that review and was like, I just have to update now!