The Great Escape
AN: Thank you to RKO.I.F, CrazyWWEFreakJNH, Cena-Wilson-Crazy, TJ Sparkles, xHalosandwings, HappySmiler, xSomeKindaRush, Chain Gang Princess, xTwistedxImperfectionx, Melissa Cristina & Ashleymassarophan1 for reviewing the last chapter.
Thanks very muchly :)
Chapter Nineteen – It's Your Choice
MICKIE
The chill of the November weather hit Mickie sharply as she turned the street corner, and with a shudder she pulled her winter jacket closer around her petite frame, thankful for having thought to wear it this morning.
She clung onto the phone that was clamped to her ear, as if worried she would lose it to the gusty breeze fighting against her, and tried to stay focused on the conversation despite her beautiful surroundings. Even if the cold was horrible the grounds outside the college were not.
Admiring the winter trees briefly, she was only half-listening when Ashley announced an important piece of information. "So yeah, I know Christmas is a month away but I've already decided that I'm going to stay here instead of go home. They allow for accommodating. I mean, it's so much easier to deal with work...and it would be absolute chaos at home, you know? I just—"
But the brunette didn't fall for those excuses; she hadn't the first time her friend had wanted to stay away from her family, and she wasn't going to believe it now. This repetitive attitude, however, was more of a concern. "So what, are you going to avoid Christmas altogether? It'd be like not taking a break—and you definitely need one."
"Oh stop worrying about me. I feel happy in myself for the choice so why shouldn't I stay here? Give me one good reason."
She felt she could give several, the main being that she would be further isolating her stubborn self from her relations; more recently she'd received phone calls from Ashley's parents just to see how she was and how she was coping, which gave evidence that no such calls to home had been made.
Naturally, being a worrier, Mickie bit down on her bottom lip. "I'm sure Ronny wants to see you. It's not every day that you get to see your bro now, is it? And it'll feel weird if I wake up on Christmas day and don't find you stumbling into my room, half-asleep, with my present."
"Oh." A giggle slipped through the blonde's lips. "I see what this is about."
"You do?" She queried as she spotted the grocery store up ahead and moved quickly against the chill. "Because I really don't think you do."
"You just want your present from me, don't you? That's it. Well no worries, Micks, because I'll be sure to give it to you before you leave."
Did she seriously think that this was what she was complaining about? Or was it a clever plan to throw her off the scent of the subject? Either way, she felt glum for the way things hadn't changed in her best friend's mood.
She couldn't help the sympathy in her reply. "It would be nice to have a driving buddy for the journey back."
"What are you talking about? You'll have Eve and Maria—granted they're not as awesome as me, especially Miss. Party Queen, but still. You'll be fine."
"I know I'll be fine." She answered.
It was a real struggle not to add "But I don't think you will be", but she managed to keep it in her head anyway. This time, at least. Her caring side was becoming a little more desperate in its attempt to be revealed and she could tell her patience was wearing thin when it came to these issues; she only hoped she could restrain herself from speaking the utter truth and hurting her friend's feelings.
"Exactly. So stop complaining already."
"Okay I will." The sigh that followed suggested otherwise but neither dwelled on it. "What is it that you want again? I'm here."
The bell just above the shop door tinkled as she pushed it open, and she stepped inside, grateful to be out of the cold weather. Despite its small size, Metley's was a cosy store, and an insignificant smile was brought to her face as she glanced around the colourful place.
"Just a pack of batteries for my speakers please. It's hard to believe I've listened to so much music that I've worn out the device isn't it?"
"Not at all. It's what I'd expect of you, Ash. Batteries it is."
After hanging up, she flipped her brunette hair back, shaking out her tangled curls, and started on her way up the first aisle. She had a million thoughts to consider as her eyes quickly scanned over the neatly-stacked products—so much so that she completely blocked out her surroundings and forgot about the few people scattered around her.
Lately it seemed like her friends all had a problem, and as the mother figure of the group, of course she cared about them.
Maria, though as friendly and bubbly as ever, seemed to be forcing those characteristics out of her personality. She'd worn the same fake smile for at least a week and it was rather unnerving, to tell the truth. Something was definitely bothering the redhead and she couldn't tell what it was.
Unlike Ashley, who was ignoring her problems altogether, Eve had no issue in displaying hers. She was openly hostile towards Mike—the poor guy—and showed no reason for being so. The Latina was also unpleasant to Michelle and Layla, and though this wasn't too bad given the people, it was still unlike her to be such a bitch. Something definitely needed to be done about that mood.
With all this to look into, Mickie felt that her trouble with Phil wasn't as important—though it didn't stop her from thinking about him nonetheless. He was just someone she couldn't erase from her thoughts.
Her fingers trailed lazily across the products but came to a stop when she came across an impressive selection of batteries. She selected the size that was needed, pleased in herself that she'd found an item on her list without effort, and set about trying to find the other ten things or so.
It was almost twenty minutes later that she stumbled up to the checkout point and dropped—to her relief—the large quantity of useless stuff that had been hurting her arms down onto the conveyer belt. Not allowing herself to rest for even a second, she delved into her bag, hoping to find her purse in there somewhere.
"You know," came an amused tone of voice in the middle of her search. "We do have baskets at the entrance. You could have picked one up."
Somewhat frustrated, perhaps due to her lack of energy, she looked up and shot a pathetic glare in the cashier's direction. He looked oddly familiar for a moment but she soon shook the feeling away; there were hundreds of young, attractive guys around here. "I didn't expect to get so much."
"Customers rarely do—it's funny how you always end up with more than you intended to get, huh?"
"Hilarious." She deadpanned at the very moment she felt her nails curve around her purse. With a sigh of relief she looked back down again, giving a muffled remark to the annoying person in front of her. "I'm not so stupid that I'd intentionally ignore the baskets and carry everything myself."
"Oh I know. If there's something you're not, Mickie James, it's stupid."
Her head snapped up immediately, and her curls came to frame her face a moment later. "How do you know my name?"
The blonde-ish guy shrugged nonchalantly, truly enjoying himself, and began to scan her purchases. "I've seen you around..."
"Where?" Her eyes narrowed considerably. "Because I'm fairly sure I don't know you. At least I don't think so. You do look kind of familiar though." She admitted.
He allowed her to ramble incessantly until he'd packed everything away for her and then finally glanced at her again, giving the silent gesture for her to stop talking. When she did so, he smiled. "You really don't know? You thrashed me in your one of our debate classes; beforehand you said you were so nervous you could—"
"Throw up with worry." She hurriedly finished for him as the light bulb in her mind flickered to on. "Oh my God, yes I remember you! Sorry about that by the way."
"No need to apologize, you were the better person. I was seriously impressed."
Under his smile, she blushed. "That's kind of you, thanks."
"Sure. That'll be $15.86," said the cashier, smiling as a polite employee of Metley's would when she handed him the money and he gave back her change. "We usually offer a choice of black or purple carrier bags—I hope you don't mind but I gave you purple. You seem to wear the colour a lot so I'm guessing it's one of your favourites."
"It is—my absolute favourite actually. But why would it matter about the colour of a carrier bag?"
"You'd be surprised how many college girls wander in here to purchase something and then complain that, although black goes with everything, a black bag simply won't do for her outfit."
"I can imagine the type." Mickie nodded, thinking of Michelle in an instant. "Well thanks. I'd better get back now. My roommate, Ash, is desperate for these batteries."
"Sure. It was nice talking to you."
"Likewise." She smiled and picked up her belongings. After making sure she had a tight grip on them, she smiled again. "Bye."
"See ya."
She made it halfway towards the exit before she decided to stop and turn back. There was something niggling at her and she couldn't leave until she'd sorted it out. "Hi, sorry to bother you again..."
The guy didn't look too bothered, however; he rather seemed like he was expecting her reappearance again. "Yes?"
"I'm sorry, I forgot to ask something. What's your name?"
A chuckle escaped his lips before he settled to give her an answer. "I'm Ted, Ted DiBiase."
For Mickie, the rest of the day was spent in the library studying for a mock test she would have to face sometime in the next two weeks. She was intent on passing it, even if it was only to see how she was progressing in class. Her work was very important to her and with the amount of time she spent worrying about Phil, she felt like making up for it now was a great idea.
Maria, who sat beside her with her own project, felt the very same way. The redhead was hunched over at their table, her eyes focused on the page in front of her and her lips twisted in thought. She, too, was trying to dedicate herself to being a hard worker today.
It was simply a shame that both had other people on their minds and weren't playing the parts they worked so hard to achieve in their outside appearance.
Giving in to her primary thoughts, the brunette of the two tapped her pen on the desk and glanced over to her friend cautiously. "Hey Maria?"
"Yep?" Grateful for the distraction, the young girl returned the gaze. "What's on your mind?" She asked upon seeing her expression.
"Okay." A weary sigh passed through her lips. "I know I should be totally focused on this paper but I just can't get Phil out of my head. It's pathetic of me, I know, but I can't help it. What am I supposed to do?"
"Well personally I think you should talk to him. If the issue is still bothering you so much then it's obvious you still have things to discuss."
She couldn't help but to notice the distant look on Maria's face and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Wait, was this why she had been acting so strange all week? Was there a guy—Randy, she assumed—on her mind right now?
"Hey, what's going on with you?" She asked softly.
"Oh, don't worry about me," smiled the bubbly girl and pushed her problems aside. "It's a minor issue—I just haven't seen Randy for a while, that's all."
"Don't you have classes together?"
"Yes...but basically, I've been avoiding him. Kind of like how you are with Phil." A shrug lifted the mood. "But that's a story for another day, eh?"
Mickie didn't think to push the issue; it was clear that, despite being upset over the situation, Maria didn't want to talk about whatever was going on. So she allowed thoughts of her guy to speak for themselves. "I don't know what I would say to him if I did though. I mean, I broke up with the guy and practically ran away from him afterwards. He's called me, you know...texted me the occasional time. I haven't replied."
"You see? This is avoiding the issue and you really need to deal with it. We've all got our problems but they're sorted out when you go through them." The student looked elsewhere for a moment before re-focusing on the conversation. "Oh and hey...it seems like you've got that opportunity now."
"What do you mean?"
Though the question was asked, she had a sinking feeling she knew exactly what was being insinuated and so she followed her gaze over to the corner where, predictably enough, her ex-boyfriend stood. He looked concentrated on the aisle of books, looking for something in-particular, and therefore probably didn't see her gaping at him with fear. For this, she was grateful.
"Go on," urged Maria a moment later, almost pushing her to her feet. "Trust me on this. After you've talked to him and said what's needed to be said you'll feel much better in yourself."
She doubted this but under that very impression, she put one foot in front of the other and began on her way over to the guy. This would take a lot of effort and bravery on her part, but she had to know where she stood in their relationship—even if it was she who messed things up for the both of them.
She stopped in front of Phil, briefly running a hand through her curls when he failed to notice her sudden presence. "Hey," she spoke up, and then regretted doing so; not just for the nerves running through her body, but for the way this was reflected in her voice.
He acted differently towards her. There wasn't that half-smirk on his face that she'd come to really like as he turned to her; instead, he simply stared at her, as if expecting her to say something significant to him. "Yes?"
"Um..." Was there any point in trying to have a normal chat with him? No, she didn't think so, but she wasn't allowing herself to believe this. "So how are you?"
"I was feeling good before you came along." He answered with a sarcastic smile and leaned against the bookcase. His full attention, unnervingly enough, was on her now. "Why are you pretending like we can actually talk like this, like I like you enough right now to talk to you?"
She swallowed lightly. In the circumstances he wasn't being impolite at all, but she felt her defence mechanism fire up to protect her. "You don't even like me anymore?" She demanded.
"Give me a reason why I should." Phil shrugged, and raised an eyebrow as she opened her mouth, only to promptly close it again. "Exactly. You and me had a good thing going and then you, for no reason I can understand, just ended things. How am I supposed to feel?"
"I had my doubts about us, is all."
"Doubts that you didn't tell me about." He pointed out matter-of-factly. "What was such a big deal that you had to avoid me altogether? I'm not gonna lie, Mickie, I didn't like you for cutting me out of your life like that."
"What? I haven't cut you out of my life at all."
"It sure feels that way. I called, I left you messages—you didn't return any of them." There was a moment or two of silence before he shook his head, standing upright again. "You know what? Forget about this. I thought I liked you, but I don't know what to think anymore. All I know is that I can't take looking at you right now."
These words stung.
He was the first guy she'd truly liked and found herself interested in, and now he didn't like her anymore. Perhaps that was how he felt when she broke things off, she realized.
And suddenly she knew the full extent of what she had done.
"Wait!" She exclaimed in panic as he went to walk past her, and pressed her hand against his arm firmly to stop him from leaving. As his eyes turned on her again, she knew she couldn't allow her inner thoughts to take control of her and stop her from speaking the truth. "Phil, I had my doubts about us because I really don't know you that well. You were my first proper...well, boyfriend I suppose. I really liked—like—you but it's strange to be with someone you know so little about."
"This..." He trailed off for a moment. A beat later, he chuckled bitterly to himself. "This is why you broke up with me and suddenly started avoiding me?"
"Pretty much, yes."
"Mickie," he called her name and moved her hand away to place his own on her shoulders. He looked at her deeply and so intimately that she had to force herself not to look away under the weight of it. "You learn these things when you're in a relationship. You don't think when people get together it's because they know absolutely everything about each other, do you? Because honestly, where's the fun in that?"
She considered this for a moment. "But—"
He cut her off. "Listen to me. I liked you despite not knowing a lot about you. You amuse me and you have a way of making me want to be close to you. If I'm like that with someone I barely know, you should take it as a good thing." He could see the sadness in her expression and placed his hands back to his side. "But since you're so insecure...I'm going to leave you with this. This is your choice. If you want to be with me, let me know. Because I like you, Mickie James. I really do. But I'm not waiting around for you."
So there's the next chapter. Please review :)
Up next is the girl's chapter.