Hey, everyone! I feel like I haven't done much with this chapter, but I'm planning a little something for the next chapter. I'm planning some peaceful bits for the next chapter, but I'm not sure how long it will last! Muahaha!
QUICK NOTE!
If you have not read the Teen Beach 2 book, you're missing out on some things that weren't included in the movie. One of these moments is briefly mentioned through Devon in this chapter. If you don't know what it is, I have posted it on my Tumblr page in picture form.
Other than that little detail, you should be all set!
Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
Napoli's was even more incredible on the inside than it was on the outside. Of course, the local newspapers had made the restaurant's opening as public as they could, but simple photographs didn't do it justice. The exterior of the restaurant was luxurious; deep mahogany wood with golden trimming that lined almost everything and was illuminated by a simple light system. The interior, however, was like something Struts had never seen before.
The inside had a deep, warm feel to it, almost as though you were stepping into another world. The ceiling was made of glass, four thin metal beams extending between the fragile panes to hold it all together. A chandelier that had to have cost more than her house was hung from the ceiling, giving the entire room a romantic glow. A fountain was settled directly underneath the chandelier, a glowing orb settled in the center between three statues.
Surrounding the seating area were small weeping willow trees that had been potted in large, mahogany columns. Fairy lights were strewn gracefully throughout the restaurant, illuminating the room gently.
The room made Struts like she was strolling through a foreign city at night.
"Is this really where we're eating?" Struts asked skeptically.
Lugnut ran a hand over his hair as he replied, "Yeah. If it's not okay, we can go somewhere else. I jus-"
"No!" Struts interrupted quickly. "No, this is perfect. It's just… Larry, how can you afford this? I'm sure you can't get this kind of money being a mechanic."
"A magician never reveals his secrets, Sher, you know that." Lugnut smirked playfully, guiding her to the maître d stand. "Besides, Miles said he'd pitch in to pay for himself and Giggles when they get here."
"When are they supposed to meet us here?" Struts asked softly.
"I'm not sure." Lugnut shrugged. "They were supposed to meet us here, but Miles said he didn't know where Giggles had gone and was going to ask her parents."
Explaining everything to her family was something Mick hadn't thought would be so difficult. She knew, of course, it would be very difficult for them to understand as it sounded like some made up story you would tell your kids to help them sleep. It didn't take long before Brady reached over and tapped the stammering Mick and stopped her from attempting to explain everything.
"How about you and Butchy take Hudson outside and explain what you can to him and your mom and I will handle the adult conversation?" Brady grinned at his daughter as she hurriedly nodded.
"Yes please," Mick replied quickly, standing from her seat and pulling Butchy up to his feet, handing him his crutches before grabbing Hudson by the wrist and dragging him outside to the backyard. The pair sat down on the steps of the back porch, Hudson sighing as he tried to soak in what Mick had already told them as they waited for Butchy to join them.
"I know this has to be hard to understand," Mick began as Butchy sat on the other side of Hudson.
"Hard was when I had to learn enough Greek in a month to qualify for that surfing trip to Vasiliki in senior year. This," Hudson gestured vaguely to Butchy, "is way more than just hard."
"Believe me, when I first got there, I wasn't entirely believing of it either." Mick toyed with the frayed threads of her jeans, distressing the small rips over her knees.
"I can't believe you kept this from me for three years." Hudson raked his fingers into his curly hair, tugging the coils lightly. "Now you're marrying some guy that's gotta be, what? Almost a hundred years old?" Hudson claimed as though it were simple.
Mick rolled her eyes, stating simply, "He isn't the actor, Hudson. Butchy is only twenty-one; he doesn't age like we do."
"I get that!" Hudson groaned, "I just don't see how he doesn't turn into some 90-something year old man every time he come here."
"Movie magic, I guess is the only way to explain it," Mick sighed. "I can't explain it to you without actually showing you."
"And another thing!" Hudson burst with, "How are you going to get married if he stays young his whole life and you get older as time goes by?"
Mick took in a sharp breath, having forced that idea to the back of her mind as much as possible since Butchy had first given her a promise ring on her sixteenth birthday. She'd always panicked at the thought of growing old without Butchy, but, as the wedding kept drawing closer and closer, she'd been having more doubts of them ever finding a way for the both of them to live happily with such an age gap growing steadily between them.
"You know I won't entirely believe until you bring me there," Hudson said calmly, interrupting Mick's thoughts as he nudged his elbow into Mick's side. "I'd like to see whatever it is you see in this place."
"Be honest, H, you just want to see what the waves are like," Mick smirked, shoving herself into Hudson as they relaxed into a gentle conversation.
Butchy sat beside them, watching with intrigue as Mick interacted with Hudson almost the same way he had interacted with Lugnut and Miles for years. The conversation between the two seemed to change topics rapidly; Butchy noted that, on occasion, one of the surfers would occasionally say something and, without the other answering verbally, came to a conclusion. It seemed as though they would answer each other almost telepathically.
After a few minutes, the two rose from the steps, leaving Butchy on the top step as they grabbed two water guns and began to fill them with water from the pool. As Butchy made to get up from the steps, Mick came barreling over, throwing a water gun to him. Butchy caught the toy with ease, glancing curiously up at his future wife as her cousin joined her.
"I figured that, since I kept you a secret from Hudson and I kept you from meeting him or anything like that, you guys could get revenge," Mick claimed simply. "You both have weapons filled with cold pool water and I am utterly defenseless."
Butchy shook his head with a smile. "I don't know, babe."
"C'mon, man," Hudson began, confidently marching his way over to Butchy, brandishing his weapon as any good soldier would. "She's giving us a free target! This is how the two of handle things. She kept secrets from both of us, so now we get to show her how we felt with it. I mean, can you honestly say that you have absolutely no problem with her not telling us about each other?"
"Well, I told her she could introduce us when she was ready," Butchy stated softly, still watching the two with intrigue.
Mick shrugged, taking her hair and pulling it up into a messy ponytail. "That doesn't matter to me. If it bothers you that much, just consider this Hudson's way of welcoming you into our family. Right, H?"
"Sure," Hudson agreed as he prepped his water gun, "but if you don't really want to, you don't have to."
Butchy pondered over his options for a moment before he readied his weapon and followed Hudson in prepping the water gun. Mick smiled brightly, watching two of her favorite people as they readied their attack. The weaponless woman took a couple of steps back, raising her arms out to the side in defeat as she closed her eyes.
"Ready?" Hudson asked Butchy, tapping Butchy's arm with the water gun.
"Aim," Butchy commanded with a smile as the both of them raised their weapons so the spouts faced Mick.
The two men looked at each other before the final command was given.
"FIRE!"
Giggles had stayed in the cove for a while - a little over two hours - simply watching the water and thinking to herself. After throwing her rings into the deep blue water, the blonde realized she had just let go of her most important ties to her relationship with Butchy. She still kept pictures as she knew that anyone who knew her, knew she adored keeping pictures of her friends ever since her parents bought her an instant camera for her birthday. She adored everyone.
That was why she gave up her promise and engagement rings.
Mick was one of her closest female friends. Giggles knew that if she mentioned being in a relationship with Butchy at one point, Mick's relationship with Butchy could've fallen apart. Granted, Butchy didn't remember anything about the previous relationship at all; his relationship with Mick had seemingly erased all of the knowledge of his relationship with Giggles. At least, that was what Giggles learned from Miles.
Miles was the only other person that seemed to remember that Giggles and Butchy had ever had a relationship. The more Giggles thought about it, Miles was very nice to her and Mick even though he knew what Giggles knew.
'Maybe,' she thought to herself, 'that's why I agreed to go on that double date with him.'
After sitting for a while longer, Giggles stood and packed her belongings into her picnic basket, making her way out of her little cove and back to her house. Upon arrival, she realized her parents car was gone, most likely having gone to work in the tailoring shop her parents owned and operated. Giggles deposited the picnic basket in the garage, pulling out her belongings and shaking stray sand off of them before going into the house and heading for her bedroom.
The blonde abandoned her items on a chair by her dresser before going into her closet and changing into a pale blue, tea length dress befitting of a dinner at Napoli's. After making sure she was ready for a night out with some biker friends, she made her way to the living room to relax until Miles came to get her. Giggles headed for the far side of the room, pulling a book from a bookshelf and moving to sit in a chair by one of the front windows.
After Giggles had begun reading, she found herself immersed in the story, not noticing how far deep she had gotten until a knock sounded on the front door. Without looking up from her book, Giggles yelled to the person, "Come in, Miles."
She heard the door open and close, footsteps and jingling chains approaching her without a word from the person. "How did youse knows it was me?"
Giggles glanced up at him curiously. "You knocked. If it had been my family, they'd have come right in. Besides, if it had been the surfers, they would've been raiding my cupboards for food already. You can drop the fake accent by the way, we both know that isn't your actual voice."
"Alright," Miles claimed, sitting down in the chair across from Giggles. "So, Gianna, how's today been?"
"Fine," she claimed simply. "I decided to write out my feelings and then threw it into the water by Stingray Shores."
"Does that make it any better?" Miles pondered cautiously.
Giggles set her book down, crossing her arms over the table that sat between them. "The note? Not much, but I guess it felt good to get all of it out. I think throwing my rings away kind of sealed the deal, though."
Miles cocked an eyebrow, slowly repeating her, "Rings?"
"Butchy had given me a promise ring not long after we started dating. Then, he gave me an engagement ring when things started to feel permanent." Giggles stared at her hands for a moment, the feeling of her bare ring fingers seeping in slowly. "Makes me wonder how he could forget it all."
"Wish I had an answer for you, GiGi."
The pair sat in silence for a while, simply embracing the silence before Miles stood, making Giggles watch him. He had cleaned up pretty well, Giggles noted - a simple, black suit, a red shirt and Mick's red and blue bandana wrapped securely around his wrist, as it always was.
"Well," Miles said with a smirk, holding his hand out to Giggles. "Are you ready for this date to be over with?"
The explanations Mack and Brady had to give to Brady's best friend and his wife had gone almost as well as Mick's explanation to Hudson had. Jamie had been primarily confused about the entire 'other world' thing, yet after being reassured that Mack and Brady been to this world and promised to bring them there as soon as possible, she seemed more okay with it. Her husband, Devon, on the other hand…
After Mack pulled out her phone and showed off pictures of Lela, Tanner and the rest of the crew, finally come to the realization that he had, in fact met some of the people from this other world.
"Hold up! That's the dude that up and disappeared at the dance!" Devon exclaimed as he looked over a picture of Mick and Butchy. "I knew I knew him from somewhere, I just didn't know where."
Mack and Brady glanced at each other before meeting Devon's gaze. "You remember that?" Brady asked hurriedly.
Devon nodded. "I thought I was imagining things 'cause everyone else was still dancing and paid it no attention. I blamed it on the punch..."
"Wait a minute," Jamie began worriedly, "What do you mean by 'disappeared'?"
Mack decided a quick explanation would do and began a short tale as to how the movie started to self-destruct because there were no leads to hold the movie together, Brady occasionally adding his point of view every once in a while. Once they had finished the rest of the conversation, they heard the back door open and three different voices laughing and chatting, the occasional clinking of Butchy's crutches against the hardwood of the kitchen floor alerting them to the three young adults.
"You're kidding me!" the older adults heard Hudson exclaim incredulously.
"Nope," Mick answered.
Hudson laughed, "You're dating a surfer, how are you scared of water?!"
"I'm not anymore!" Butchy insisted emphatically, "She even taught me how to surf a while ago."
The group of three entered the living room and headed for the stairwell. Jamie, however, made them stop. "Hudson, why is your baby cousin soaking wet?"
"'Baby cousin'?" Hudson repeated, "She's only three hours younger than me!"
Devon snickered next to his wife, "You used to hold that so far over her head, Hud."
"You didn't answer the question, Hudson," Jamie stated, her arms loosely crossed over her chest.
Hudson gaped incredulously at his mom while Mick started giggling behind him, "Hudson's being mean to me, Auntie Jamie!"
Butchy watched in astonishment as Hudson whirled around to face Mick. Mick squealed in surprise and ran up the stairs to her room, Hudson only a couple of steps behind her.
"You snitch!" the whole group heard Hudson screech.
The parents of the younger two then turned to Butchy who was still watching the top of the stairs, most likely listening to make sure that Mick and Hudson were on civil terms. He had never really seen this kind of interaction between relatives. Mick had told him that Hudson was like her brother growing up, but he knew from how he and Lela acted with each other that Mick and Hudson's dynamic had to be something that only happened in modern times.
"So, Butchy," Mack started, crossing her arms over her chest as she fought back a smile, "why is my daughter soaked? I saw her leave the house perfectly dry."
Butchy turned to the four people who were sitting on couches, staring at him. "W-Well, we-"
"Don't answer that!" Hudson and Mick yelled in unison from the top of the stairs.
Butchy glanced up the stairs, then back to Mick and Hudson's parents, then back at Hudson and Mick, both of whom were smiling at him and motioning for him to join them upstairs. Butchy smiled at them before turning back to Mack, Brady, Jamie and Devon. "Sorry!" With that, Butchy ran up the stairs and followed Hudson and Mick into Mick's room and closed the door.
Mack and Jamie shook their heads, small smiles gracing their faces. Devon snorted as the laughter he had tried so hard to hold, came bursting out. Brady soon joined Devon in laughing before he got up, grabbed an old DVD that he had converted from VHS a long time ago, and slipped it into the DVD player.
They were going to watch Wet Side Story.
Mick had chosen to change into her pajamas after turning the TV on for the boys and leaving them to talk. When she came back from her bathroom, she grabbed a set of pajamas for Butchy to change into. Hudson was showing Butchy something on his phone and both of them were so focused on the conversation that they never saw Mick take up her camera and click a picture of the both of them. Once they noticed Mick, they got up from the end of her bed and moved to different chairs in her room.
"Are you guys okay?" she asked suspiciously, running a towel over her damp hair.
"Yeah," both boys answered.
"I was showing Butchy here some old pics of us," Hudson proclaimed confidently.
Mick shrugged, tossing her towel into her hamper and flopping herself onto her bed so her head dangled over the side. "Are you staying the night, Hud?"
"I think. Want me to ask?" Hudson asked from his perch in Mick's papasan chair.
"No," Mick started sarcastically, "I want you to get up and declare yourself the prettiest girl at the party. Yes, I want you to ask!"
Hudson rolled his eyes at Mick, yet, decided to follow her words. He rose from his seat, poised himself into the most ballerina-like pose he could, then declared in an overly snobby tone, "I am the most gorgeous being you have ever laid your eyes upon, mere peasant! I am no meager 'pretty girl', I am your ruler and you shall treat me as such."
Mick rolled onto her back and gave Hudson a look before stating, "I apologize Your Royal Pain-In-My-Ass! I did not know it was backwards day!"
Hudson flipped Mick the bird before sticking a finger into the side of her neck and wiggling it. Mick squealed, attempting to wiggle away from him and smacking at his arm until he decided to let it go. With a laugh, Hudson turned and left the room, leaving Mick and Butchy alone for the first time since they left Wet Side Story.
Butchy smiled at Mick before rising from his seat and slowly making his way over to Mick's bed. Butchy sat on the other side of the bed, resting his crutches against one of Mick's nightstands. Butchy eased himself onto the bed, moving next to Mick and laying down next to her. "I love your family," he said softly.
"Yeah, I love them too," Mick agreed teasingly. "Now you see why I love your friends and family so much. They're so different from each other, but they work so well together. It's nice to see the differences between our families."
Butchy stayed silent, making Mick turn to him, her eyebrows knitting together. "You haven't met all of my family... I haven't told you about my father, have I?"
Mick shook her head a little before staring up at the ceiling like Butchy was. "No, but that's okay. You haven't told me much about your family at all and that's okay with me, Butchy. If you don't want me to know about them or if you don't want me to meet them, that is perfectly fine. I know you have your reasons and I won't push you to tell me anything."
While neither said anything for a moment, a sense of an unanswered question lingered in the air. Butchy turned to Mick, propping himself up on one elbow. "I want to tell you why I don't talk about them."
"You don't have to," Mick insisted. "If it makes you uncomfortable-"
"No," Butchy interrupted, "I should've told you a while ago. As my wife, you deserve to know."
Mick stayed silent this time, allowing Butchy to come to whatever conclusion he needed. The biker rolled onto his stomach, crossing his arms on the bed in front of him. With a deep sigh, Butchy wrangled his thoughts and focused on the conversation at hand.
"My father is in prison," Butchy began. "I was thirteen and Lela was nine. We were sent to live with Uncle Tony and Aunt Frankie. I think our father was put in for vehicular homicide or manslaughter, something like that."
"He killed someone while driving?" Mick asked in shock.
Butchy nodded solemnly, taking in Mick's expression as he continued, "Mom."
"Your mom?" Mick repeated, "Did he kill your mom? Was she in the car?"
All Butchy did was nod, swallowing thickly and tucking his head down until his forehead rested on his crossed arms. Mick couldn't find the words to say as she rolled over and wrapped an arm over Butchy's back in a small hug. "Baby, I'm so sorry," Mick said softly, squeezing Butchy as tightly as she could.
"He was drunk," Butchy stated, "He was always drunk, but I can't forgive him for killing my mom. She was brilliant and loving and always tried to protect us from finding out that our father loved his alcohol."
"She sounds like a wonderful person," Mick said softly as she sat up a little, reaching a hand up to card through his hair. "But, Biagio, just because he was drunk, doesn't make it any better. If you don't want to forgive him, don't. I probably wouldn't if I were in your position."
Butchy lifted his head, turning to Mick with a hurt look in his eyes. "I want to forgive him for Lela. She loves to see the best in everyone. How do I tell her about this?"
Mick paused, unable to come up with an answer to that question. "Maybe we should talk it over with my parents. They come up with good answers to hard questions. Besides, you know they'll always be there for you and Lela."
"I know," Butchy agreed softly. "That's why I love them so much."
"They love you too," Mick smiled before continuing, "but they don't love you as much as I do."
Butchy smiled at Mick as he turned onto his side, opening his arms for Mick to snuggle into him. As Mick curled into him, an electric tingle ran from his arms where her skin brushed his, into his chest and settled in his rib cage, almost enveloping the area surrounding his heart. Butchy made a face as the unusual feeling burned into him. Mick, on the other hand, had jumped from the sensation, having felt the same thing. She sat on her feet, pressing the heel of her palm into her chest to rub the burn away.
"Did you feel that?" Mick asked hurriedly, hoping it had been just another one of the electric zaps she had been getting ever since the two of them had started showing a romantic interest in each other.
"The sting or the burn?" Butchy asked in return.
Mick nodded to herself. "Both. At least it's not a medical thing since we both felt it."
Butchy laid back, taking a deep breath of air and relaxing into the cushions of Mick's bed. "I've gotten little zaps here and there over the years when we touch, but I think they're getting stronger, Mickie."
"I think so too," she agreed, laying back down and resting her head on Butchy's arm. "I don't know what it is, but it feels right, even when it burns."
Butchy hummed in agreement.
Not a moment later, the door to Mick's bedroom popped open and Hudson burst in. "Butchy, dude, they're all watching your movie without us!"
Mick and Butchy spared a glance at each other before shrugging and rising from the bed, Butchy grabbing his crutches, and they both followed Hudson downstairs to the living room.