May, 1987

"Whoa, it looks like Michael and Lisa had a fight," Lindsay said, watching Michael storm out of the room. She pulled away from Roger. "I'm going to go see what happened."

"Seriously?" he said.

"It will only take a second!" she said over her shoulder as she hurried away. She wove through the crowd to the doors, opened them and went out into the hallway. She saw Michael at the end of it.

"Michael!" she called after him. He turned around.

"Oh, hi," he said. She hurried over to him, her heels clicking on the marble floor.

"What was that about?" she asked when she reached him.

"Oh, you saw that?"

"Yeah, what happened?"

"Uh…I don't really want to talk to you about it."

"Oh," she said, slightly hurt. She sat down on a nearby bench. Michael sat next to her. "Wait, me specifically?"

"Yeah…"

"Why? Was it about me?"

"Uh, yeah, it actually was."

"It was?" she repeated. "Well, now you have to tell me!"

"I'd really rather not…"

"Michael!"

"Ugh, fine," he groaned. "It's just, it's kind of awkward. Okay, apparently she—and everyone else, I guess—apparently some people think there might be something…inappropriate going on between us."

"Oh," she said. "Oh my god."

"Yeah," he said, laughing weakly. "Crazy, right?"

"Yeah, crazy… Who's saying that?"

"I don't know, she just said everyone."

"Oh my god," she said again. What had she been thinking, flirting with him so openly in front of everyone earlier? She realized she'd kind of wanted people to know that Michael had feelings for her without really thinking about what that would mean. She kept forgetting that other people would think their relationship was disgusting. Also discouraging was how freaked out Michael seemed to be. "Well, screw them," she said. "Who cares what they think? Really," she said when he looked unconvinced. "We're close. There's nothing wrong with that. If they want to make it into something it's not, that's their problem."

"Yeah, I know," he said.

"Good," she said simply.

"I can understand why some people might think that, though," he said, looking extremely embarrassed. "You know, with the way we act sometimes."

"What do you mean?" she laughed.

"Uh, well, you know," he said, his face turning red. "Like, when you sat down you touched my leg." She raised her eyebrows. "Now, I know there's nothing weird about that," he said quickly. "But other people might not get that, so…maybe we should try to avoid that kind of thing when we're in public."

"Okay, got it," she said. "No touching."

"Right," he laughed. There was an awkward silence. He laughed again. "So how is your night going?"

"Uh, better than yours, but not by much."

"Really? Why not?"

"I don't know. I just don't know Roger very well, so it's not that fun. He's kind of pissed at me, too, actually. I sort of ditched him to come talk to you."

"Oh. Thanks. You should go back, I'm fine."

"No, I don't really want to," she said, smiling warmly at him. He smiled back. She leaned back against the bench and sighed. "You wanna go home?"

"Yes," he said immediately.

She laughed. "Okay, let's go," she said, getting up. Michael stood up, too.

"What about Roger?" he said.

"Oh yeah…it doesn't matter, let's just go."

He laughed. "You should probably at least tell him you're leaving so he's not looking for you."

"Ugh, fine," she groaned. "I'll go find him, you wait here."

"Okay," he said as she left.