Chapter Fifteen: Overdrive

Gretchen glanced down at her phone and anxiously tapped her pen on the table. She reminded herself that Mike was always late, but it did nothing to ease her fear that he had decided to chicken out at the last second and show her up. But why would he do that? She wondered. After all, he had been the one to invite her. She had gotten the text from him on the drive back from visiting Karen.

"Can we talk?" it had asked, because apparently even in texts, Mike was a man of incredibly few words. It was so unexpected that she almost swerved off the road.

"He probably realizes he was being a massive douchebag and wants to apologize," Regina suggested. "Personally, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction."

After Gretchen had told Regina about her epic fight with Mike (which had to be postponed until after seeing Karen – in fact, Gretchen had almost forgotten about the whole thing until Cady asked whether she had a boyfriend), Regina had taken an immediate and very visceral dislike to Mike, which Gretchen didn't think was quite fair, especially since she had had a similar protective reaction about Jason back in high school. Gretchen had tried to defend Mike, who had clearly been in a bad place, but Regina was adamant about it. So was Cady, for that matter. "He has no right to treat you like that," she had said.

"Seriously," Regina added. "He sounds scary. Like he probably has major issues. How well do you even know the guy?"

"Not at all," Gretchen admitted. "As he was super quick to point out. He was SO awesome at the international potluck, though," she added, remembering how he had listened to her fears about not mattering in a way no one else ever had.

Cady and Regina looked at each other warily. "You deserve better, though," Cady said. "That's all we're saying."

Gretchen had taken her time responding back to Mike. After thinking it over for nearly 48 whole hours, she typed up a long response, but realizing how desperate it sounded, she quickly deleted it and responded with a simple "Ok."

"Could we meet at the library tomorrow?" he asked, responding back within seconds.

For some reason, Gretchen was touched by the way Mike actually took the time to write out the entire words "library" and "tomorrow" instead of resorting to text speak. She typed an excited-sounding response asking about time and exact location, but then took a deep breath, closed her eyes and deleted it. Let him put in the effort, she decided. "Ok," she texted again.

Sure enough, Mike quickly responded with. "12 work for you? At the coffee shop?"

"Sure," she responded.

It was 12:11 now. Gretchen chewed on a hangnail – a habit her mother was always telling her was disgusting and looked around the library again, just to make sure she hadn't somehow missed him.

"Hey." Even though Gretchen was mad at him, she still felt slightly weak at the sound of his nervous-sounding drawl. "Sorry I'm late," Mike said, delicately taking the seat across from her. He bounced his legs up and down and his eyes darted back and forth – as if he was about to bolt like Domino whenever anyone not named Gregory approached him.

No, it's okay! No worries! Gretchen probably would have said less than a month ago, but now she held her tongue. She gave a slight smile – bordering on icy, she hoped - and nodded. "So, what's up?" she asked.

Mike sighed. "Um, so…Simon told me about your friend. I'm really sorry. How is she? Is she going to be alright?"

For a moment, Gretchen was taken aback, but then she remembered that she had texted Simon to let him know why she wouldn't make it to Rainforest Biology. As Mike's roommate, it made sense that Simon would mention it – although Gretchen couldn't really guess what the context would have been. Whatever the case was, the concern in his voice melted the block of ice around her heart. "She's okay," Gretchen said. "Or, well, not okay okay, but she's better."

"That's good," said Mike. He looked down at his hands and chewed his lip.

Again, they were silent. "How are you?" Gretchen asked.

"Awful," Mike mumbled. "I mean, I feel like a prize douche."

Gretchen couldn't help laughing. "A prize douche? That's a good one. I'm gonna' tell Regina about it. Not in reference to you, though," she added. "She doesn't need more ammunition."

"So, she's mad at me?" Mike asked, wincing in a rather adorable way, Gretchen had to admit.

"Yeah," said Gretchen. "Pretty mad…" She dragged off when she noticed tears welling in Mike's eyes.

"She should be mad," Mike muttered. "She should hate me…"

"Well, only because she doesn't know the whole story," Gretchen said. "I mean, you know, your side of the story."

Mike cleared his throat. "Look, I'm sorry," he said. "I had no right to yell at you like that. You were just trying to help. It's just…" he looked around the room as if expecting someone to help him finish the sentence. "I hate being the center of attention, is all. And I hate that I looked like such a wuss in front of everyone…"

"Oh," Gretchen said, annoyance seeping back in. "You mean having a girl stand up for you insults your manhood or something?" She had meant it as a joke, but quickly realized how snide and hateful she must have sounded by the openly hurt look on his face.

"No," said Mike, before Gretchen could even apologize. "No, I guess what I meant was…I don't care that looked like a wuss in front everyone in the class. Whatever. I don't care what they think. But…I guess…I hate that I looked like a wuss in front of you." Mike's ears turned a deep scarlet and the blush quickly spread not only to the rest of his face but to his entire head and all the way down his neck.

Gretchen was pretty sure it had nothing on how she must have looked, however. She felt like she had swallowed a whole city's worth of fireworks that all erupted at once, filling her with scorching heat and charging electricity. "R-really?" she stammered.

He swallowed. "Ever since that day at International Club, I really…I really couldn't stop thinking about you," he said. "Even with all this family shit that came up."

Gretchen couldn't stop smiling. She couldn't even speak.

Then, he was kissing her and she took in the scent of his aftershave lotion with a faint hint of coconut.

"Wow," she said when he finally pulled away. She knew it was epically cliché and cheeseball beyond belief, but she couldn't think of what else to say. Never had she ever experienced such a kiss – it was so sweet and simple, yet somehow so explosive.

"Yeah," Mike agreed quietly. "Wow."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Gretchen was wondering how she would explain her new relationship to Regina and Cady. She couldn't see them approving after their earlier conversation. And yet, Gretchen didn't really care. Let them think what they wanted.