I have one thing to say before this chapter, and that is mwahaha. Enjoy~

I picked it up, looking at it suspiciously. Mikey stared me down and I couldn't back away from the challenge. Not now. I took a deep breath and took a bite.

"Well? What do you think?" But I could tell that he already knew from my face, his tone was victorious.

"It's...okay," I said. He gave me a knowing look. "Alright, it's pretty good," I admitted. I hadn't expected to like the pizza that I insisted be called The Monstrocity. I hadn't even thought I would be trying it. I suppose Mikey might credit that to his persistence and pleading, he had been badgering me for the last couple of minutes, after all.

"And once again victory is mine!" Mikey said pumping his fists into the air triumphantly.

"Again?" I asked, bemused. "Do you often compete in pizza related challenges?"

I had requested that all movie watching at least wait until my stomach stopped trying to eat itself due to lack of any other substance. Mikey smirked as I ate the rest of my slice of his choice of pizza. "I can't let it go to waste," I mumbled defensively. He let me keep some of my pride and refrained from commenting.

"So," Mikey said, changing the subject. I had noticed that he had been fairly upbeat the entire time he had been here and now he was practically bouncing around in his seat. "I looked up a couple of things from those articles you gave me..."

He paused, looking at me expectedly. "And?" I said, giving in to the silence.

He sat up straighter with an air of professionalism. "Mercury was only briefly a hero in New York." It felt like he was reporting the news to me, so I sat attentively, although I did wonder how much of this was word for word from his research. Either way, it was certainly entertaining now. "The origin of his powers is said to come from the fact that he was descended from one of the Greek gods." I waited for him to continue, but apparently this was the moment where I was suppose to react. Which I completely missed. So he went on. "You're dad was a demi-god!"

I couldn't quite muster the same sort of enthusiasm. "Maybe..., but probably not a demi-god. I would assume that he would be several generations down," I pondered. "And that is if it happens to be true."

Yet I could not dampen Mikey's spirits. And as much as I tried to be rational about all of this, the excitement was contagious. "Eh, demi-god applies to any sort of descendent. Which makes you a demi-god."

I wasn't sure how sound the logic was with that, but the idea was growing on me. "Is that why you were following my directions, or orders I suppose, earlier?" I asked archly.

Mikey stood up and bowed deeply to me, "Why of course, oh mighty one!"

I burst into giggles. It took me until I had finished eating to fully stop laughing because even after Mikey had sat back down every so often when I looked at him I would start laughing again.

Plates were soaking, a fluffy blanket had been obtained, and the last kernels of popcorn had just finished popping. I had pointed out that I at least probably wouldn't eat much since we had just finished eating, but Mikey had insisted that the full movie experience wouldn't be complete without popcorn. It did smell very tempting now that it was made.

The giant blanket was more than big enough to cover the entire couch. Mikey sprawled across the couch, leaning back with his arms resting upon its length. I leaned forward with one hand on my knee and the other stabilizing the massive bowl of popcorn that lay between us.

The beginning of the movie wasn't so bad. It was slightly creepy, but the amateur filming style made it seem almost a little cheesy. That didn't last long. As the supernatural started to unfold the video style made everything that much more eerie. I curled my legs up under me and shifted towards the center of the couch so I could wrap myself up in my corner of the blanket. I clutched a small handful of popcorn and nervously nibbled on each individual piece.

I inhaled sharply at the first violent scene, drawing the blanket up and grasped handfuls of it in my fists. I pried one hand loose and reached for another handful of popcorn, eyes still glued to the screen. Instead my hand brushed skin, and Mikey and I both turned to look at each other. His expression was oddly serious and it felt like a long time had gone by even though it really couldn't have been that long. A bloodcurdling scream from the television make me jump and jerk my head back towards the screen, reflexively grabbing onto Mikey's hand. I covered my eyes with the other, peering through the gaps in between my fingers as the goriness continued.

I lowered my hand as the scene changed, along the haunting music playing in the backround predicted that more horrors were coming. I was planning on apologizing and pulling my hand back, but as the music increased in tempo my grip only tightened. I brought my knees up to my chest and pressed myself further into the couch. "Oh my god, how are you not scared of this?" I whispered through clenched teeth. His flippant response was lost on me, but he did squeeze my hand reassuringly. It helped.

I looked back up at him. I discovered that I had shifted much closer to the center of the couch and a result much closer to Michelangelo. Although it had been unintentional, I was comforted by his nearby presence. He looked back to me and our eyes locked once again.

But then I heard the loud thump from my front door. Mikey jumped just as much as I did, and his yelp was even louder. I realized that something innocuous was probably happening in the hallway, maybe someone was moving some furniture into the apartment across the way. I started to laugh as I realized how ridiculous I was being.

"You said you weren't scared!" I accused poking his arm.

"No," he retorted, "I said you had to see one. You're supposed to be scared. That's why they're called horror movies!"

I wasn't done giving him a hard time, but I froze when there was another sound at the door. Furious knocking. "Mikayla? Mikayla! I know you're here!"

I'm sure that Mikey's look of panic was identical to my own and it would have been comical if my mind hadn't been racing a mile a minute. "It's not my roommate. It's one of my friends... I'm so sorry, she didn't tell me she'd be coming!" I whispered frantically . I whipped my head back and forth looking around the room for a solution. "This way," I directed, ushering him towards my bedroom. "It'll just be a moment, but I'll get her to leave." He looked a little too dumbfounded to really protest as I pushed him into the room and shut the door.

I could hear the sound of the door unlocking as Christina used her key to open the door.

I tried to look nonchalant as she entered. She gave me an annoyed look.

"Did you not hear me?"

"Um, sorry. I was... in the bathroom. It was just taking me a little longer to get to the door..."

"Uh huh," she said, giving me another suspicious look. She looked around the room slowly, examining every little detail.

Since we were young, Christina had always told me she wanted to either be a fashion designer or a detective. She refused to listen when everyone told her to have a backup plan or that those were two vastly different careers. I had no doubt that she would succeed with either path. Of course, it came with drawbacks, such as now when she entered her "Detective Christina" mode.

"So why are you here?" I asked in hopes of distracting her. "I didn't know you were coming over"

Alas, it was too no avail. "I had a couple more things to show you... What is this?" I had paused the movie and screen was frozen on a closeup of the protagonists face twisted in an expression of absolute agony. "Are you watching a horror movie?" Christina asked in fascination, well aware of my adversion to the genre. She let her eyes wander over the blanket on the couch, the giant bowl of popcorn that was way more than one person could eat. "Are you on a date?"

My eyes grew wide and I shook my head back and forth frantically. I could tell my friend was unconvinced by my silent protest. That may have been because even as I shook my head "no" I wasn't able to think of any actual words to say. Perhaps it was because of the traitorous laughter that nervously bubbled it's way out of me. The most damning piece of evidence, however, was how my face flashed from the usual pale glow to vivid crimson.

"Oh my god, you are! Is he still here?" She started looking around the room again, even though there was no real place to hide in the living room, even looking in the tiny hallway closet.

"Yes!" I said through gritted teeth, changing my strategy. I knew she wouldn't let this go until I gave her the answer she was looking for. I didn't have time to think of any other answer as she started moving closer to my bedroom door. "I am...on a date. So maybe you can leave now?" I asked pointedly. I tried to sound stern and demanding, drawing myself up to look as tall as possible. A sort of useless strategy by the way, Christina was pretty tall and she had a good 5 inches on me.

Christina raised her eyebrows suggestively. "Are you hiding him in your room?"

I hid my face in my hands, feeling my face grow steadily warmer. "Christina!"

She finally took pity on me. "Alright, alright. I'll leave. Let me know when it's 'safe' to come back over." She said with a deep dramatic sigh. She flung her bag back over her shoulder, but threw me one last smile before she left. "Have fun," she said with a wink. "I'll talk to you tomorrow I suppose."

I stood there for a couple of minutes more to make sure she had really left and to give my face time to cool down from its fiery red glow.

I opened the door to my room, apologizing as I entered. "I am so sorry about that...Hello?" The room was completely empty. It was incredibly confusing. I walked further inside, glancing around corners even though I knew there was no where inside there that was big enough to hide anyone.

"Yo," said a voice from behind me.

I jumped and turned around to see Mikey had somehow ended up behind me. I stared at him, mouth open, but unable to form any words. In the end I couldn't actually come up with much to say about the situation. "I think this gave me a bigger heart attack than that movie did," I finally sighed.

"Nah," Mikey grinned, "we haven't even reached the real scary part of the movie yet."

"I guess we'll have to see," I said dryly, walking back into the living room. "Again, really sorry about all that. I'm just going to lock the deadbolt."

Before I could even head towards the door it opened once again. "Duh, I totally forgot to drop this off. This is it, I promise, I'll leave you to enjoy your... date..." Christina trailed off, staring at Mikey. The three of us stood frozen in place.

I had a familiar urge to bang my head against the wall. It was a little concerning that the feeling was becoming so normal.

And thus ends today's episode of "let's see if we can get Mikayla to burst into flames from mortification."

Wow, I really meant to get a little more into the story with this chapter, but I kept wanting to add more detail. And I have a infuriating (for ya'll at least) obsession with cliffhangers it seems. But this a minor cliffhanger! Just wait until we get into more serious situations. XD

Thank you again to lizzybudd and REDpanda for being amazing reviews. :) Perhaps my 1.5k average words count will turn into a 2k plus average. I know the 30 other people who have this on their alert list are out there somewhere :P

I realize things are a little slow moving at this point, but things are picking up in a couple of chapters :) (Actually, I was thinking about this the other day and compared it to a roller coaster in my head, one with a long slow climb)

I've been trying really hard to show this in my writing instead of telling it, even in Mikayla's voice, but basically she and Mikey are (unknowingly) on the same page. Something like "I kind of have of thing for this person, but there's no way they could possibly like me and I'd really like to stay friends, but wow your eyes are amazing, and ugh I'm making this awkward." So I hope that helps explain things.

As alway, feedback and reviews encourage writing and brig me everlasting happiness :)