Okay, yeah, I'm unbelievably late this time. All I can really say is that I'm super, super thankful for all of you who have stuck with me as these updates seem to get slower and slower. I can promise you that this story WILL be finished and I'm trying to get better about getting them out faster like they were in the beginning. I think I'm stressing myself out too bad with trying to make it perfect and bring the emotion out that I've just forgotten how to have fun with it and this chapter definitely reflects that
Major thanks to Brittany, as always, for reminding me that I'm being lazy and I need to get my butt in gear. Not to mention all the great ideas we've discussed over the last week. Can't wait to bring 'em to life...or screen, as the case may be. Seriously owe you a lot...couldn't have made it this far without you!
As for the rest of you, y'all are seriously my inspiration. People tell me I'm good with words, but I can't even begin to express how much you all mean to me. There's no greater feeling than getting a review alert...even if it is to ask me when I'm finally going to update again. For every single one of you who have enjoyed my imagination enough to take thirty seconds out of your day to leave a review, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I also mentioned in the last update (surprisingly I actually remember this considering how long it's been!) that there was a error in the plot. Some of the chapters that either include or mention Sam's family also include Ron's father-who according to the movies went crazy and died. So, thank God for fiction where I have the creative license to bring an old fella back from the dead and return his sanity to him.
Who all is excited for the new one to come out? I know I am!
Standard crap here: I own nothing but my own creativity, and as always...
PLEASE REVIEW!
It was safe to say that by the middle of October, three of the four people living in the house were almost ready to hogtie and duct-tape the fourth person. The boys weren't so bad, they'd taken to avoidance, but Christian wasn't so lucky. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't escape it.
Not a wedding Nazi, her ass! At this point, Mikaela was well and truly beyond wedding Nazi status. Christian loved her best friend, she really did, but there was a point where she couldn't take talking about centerpieces and so many rose petals and color schemes and every other godforsaken aspect of a wedding.
Marriage was the last thing on her mind, and she was being forced to discuss it constantly!
"So what do you think?" Mikaela looked at her expectantly.
"Uhh…I think that sounds great," She tried to sound like she hadn't been completely zoned out. Again. This wasn't the first time Mikaela had caught her off guard.
"Why do you agree to help and then not listen to a word I say?"
"Mik, this is all we've talked about for three months," She sighed. "I don't wanna be mean but there's only so long I can listen to you talk about the exact same thing."
"I just want it to be perfect!" Christian swore she saw red at the over-used excuse.
"It will be perfect. How many times do we all have to tell you that?" She sighed and leaned back against her bed. "You're marrying your high school sweetheart, the guy who loves you enough to risk his life for you! There's no way it could not be perfect."
"Yes there is," Mikaela took a deep breath like she was about to list all the possible things that could go wrong.
"Mikaela, just stop," Christian told her seriously. "You're obsessed and you're stressing yourself out way too bad for no reason."
"I'm not obsessed."
"No, you are. You're so caught up in making every little detail perfect you can't even see what it's doing to Sam," That definitely caught the other girl's attention. "He's convinced he's gonna let you down."
"What?" Her eyes widened. "How?"
"You're planning this grand, magnificent wedding ceremony where every little detail is planned out perfectly even down to positioning rose petals a certain way, and he doesn't know how to meet those expectations," Christian gave her friend a soft smile. "He said it makes him feel like a peasant at a party for the Queen and he's terrified your perfect wedding is going to be ruined because you're marrying him."
"He told you that?"
"Yeah, he's pretty freaked out and he just wanted someone to talk to."
"What'd you tell him?"
"That even if you were all caught up in planning and details and stupid crap, you were still crazy in love with him," She shrugged her shoulders before continuing. "But the sad thing is I can kinda see where he's coming from."
Mikaela leaned back against the headboard of Christian's bed as she took in the words. Did he really feel that way? Had she become as obsessed as her friends were telling her? Sam mentioned the other day she was going to overdo it when it came to planning, but she'd thought nothing of it—he was a guy, how much planning did they do really anyway?
Another question popped into her mind and there was a pang in her heart so sharp it took her breath away for a second when she realized she didn't know the answer.
Without a word to her best friend, she slipped from the room to go down to their room where she knew Sam was still in bed. On days like this when Leo was working, he usually spent his time in the basement watching TV—too much estrogen on the main level, he always said.
Neither spoke when she climbed onto the bed and lay on top of him with her head right over his heart. It was plain for him to see that she was upset over something and he rubbed her back as he patiently waited for her to talk to him.
"Do you regret asking me to marry you?"
That was the last thing he ever expected for her to say.
"Of course I don't!" He exclaimed. "What in the world ever gave you that idea?"
"Christian told me what you said to her," She finally looked him in the eyes and he saw a scared little girl in place of the confident woman normally staring back at him.
"Baby, I just want this wedding to be perfect for you as much as you do," Sam insisted. "But I feel like I'm so out of place with all this that I'm gonna ruin it."
"You know what's going to make this a perfect wedding?" She propped herself up on his chest so she could look down at him.
"What's that?"
"I'm walking down the aisle to you," Mikaela pressed her lips to his in a soft, chaste kiss. "No decoration in the world could top that."
"Good to hear," He quipped. "For a while there, I thought my fiancée was gonna leave me for the tablecloths."
"Very funny," She said dryly before turning serious. "I'll scale down on all the planning—bring it all back a little."
"You don't have to do that."
"Baby, I'd marry you in a dirty barn if I had to," Her words were no more than a whisper. "My perfect wedding is you and me saying 'I do'. I just got carried away."
Sam touched his fingertips to her cheek and studied her face for a moment, but couldn't find any sign that she was being anything but honest. The words he'd told Christian were exactly how he felt, but that didn't mean he wanted Mikaela to not have the wedding of her dreams.
"There's a party at the bachelor pad," That's the way everyone referred to Colton and Tyler's townhouse apartment. "What do you say we go have a good time with all of our friends and not think about anything wedding-related for the night?"
"You've got yourself a date mister," Mikaela flirted.
Sam hadn't been able to take his eyes off Mikaela from the moment she came upstairs.
In true date fashion, she'd kicked him out of their room and told him to get ready upstairs with Leo and she and Christian took over the bathroom.
Of course, technically that meant the two men spent 20 minutes showering, dressing, and fixing their hair and the rest of the two hours watching ESPN and playing Xbox while waiting not-so-patiently for their ladies to finish so they could leave.
When he saw her in that little black dress, he was half-tempted to carry her back downstairs and skip the party to spend the night in bed but Christian had cleared her throat upon seeing the look in his eyes and they'd all had a laugh at his expense.
Now, as he watched her dancing with her three best friends on the couch, he felt all the built up tension fade away. He hadn't seen her looking this relaxed and carefree in a long time. The wedding had consumed her wholeheartedly over the last several months and he knew a lot of it had to do with keeping her mind off being held hostage by those freaks but it made his heart soar to see her let it all go even if just for one night.
Each day was still a battle for them. So much had happened over the last year and a half or so, and both of them still had the occasional nightmare that woke them up covered in sweat and tears.
"Who's the babe in that sexy little black dress?" Some new guy named Chad was staring at Mikaela hungrily. "Bet she'd love to have some of the Chad tonight. With moves like that, she's gotta be a hell of a ride."
Sam wanted to knock the smirk off this guy's face. He was in one of Tyler's classes and had recently started hanging out with them, but had never met Sam or Mikaela because they hadn't been out in a while. The way she was sandwiched between Christian and Rachel hid the ring on her finger, but the guy was so cocky it probably wouldn't have mattered if he had seen it.
Leo grabbed him by the shoulder to keep him from saying or doing anything to start a fight, and the slight hesitation gave him a better idea. Normally he was laidback and didn't like to deal with confrontation, the wars had been more than enough violence for a lifetime, but when it came to his fiancée there were no holds barred.
He moved across the room wordlessly to where the girls were still wrapped up in their own little world and reached a hand out to take hers. Mikaela turned to him and a bright smile lit up her face while he helped her down. Something about the possessive look in his eyes kept her from asking what he was doing as he led her back over to where Chad still stood with the guys.
Chad, under the impression Sam was helping him out by introducing him, instantly put on his most charming smile and held out his hand for her to shake. She went along with it and barely kept from laughing when he lifted her hand to kiss the top of it.
Mikaela didn't get the chance to say anything before Christian was sidling up next to her and slipping an arm around her small waist.
"Baby, why'd you leave?" Her eyes were bright with amusement. "You know how bad I miss you when you're not there."
She'd been the one closest to the boys and had heard Chad's comment so she knew what Sam was doing and had decided at the last minute to play along.
Chad looked like he'd just won the lottery and Christian had to bite her lip to keep from ruining the whole thing. Quick thinking had her face forming into a pout towards her best friend and the new boy was absolutely eating up every second of it.
"Sam was just introducing me to Chad," Oh, what the hell? She may as well go with whatever her best friend and fiancée were doing. "But you know I can never stay away from you for long."
"Pleasure to meet you," Chad gave her the same charming smile.
If she opened her mouth the laughter would start, so Christian just flashed him a seductive smile.
"Chad here just mentioned he bets you'd love to have some of him tonight," Sam's eyes glinted evilly. "Seems to think you'd be a hell of a ride."
He at least had the decency to look away for a moment as his lewd comments were repeated, but when their eyes met again there was no trace of anything but sheer confidence.
"Oh, honey, I am a hell of a ride," She smiled sweetly.
"Best ride of my life," Christian interjected dreamily and his eyes blazed with desire.
"Back off my woman!" Sam playfully yanked Mikaela away from her best friend and she doubled over in laughter at his words.
"No need to get jealous," She gave him the meanest glare she could pull off but the smile threatening to break through ruined the effect. "I only kissed her once!"
"Chad, this little home wrecker here is Christian," She stuck out her tongue at Sam. "I already introduced you to this one but I must've forgotten to add the part where she just so happens to be my fiancée."
"Hey! She's my lover!" Christian cried indignantly.
Leo was laughing his ass off without even trying to hide it, Colton and Andy took swigs of their beers to hide their smiles, Tyler looked like he couldn't decide whether to laugh or be pissed off at the way Sam had handled his friend's comments, and Chad looked mortified.
To diffuse the situation, Tyler and Mikaela looked at each other and silently agreed to separate the boys. Tyler dragged Chad outside so he could smoke a cigarette and Mikaela pulled Sam to the bathroom.
"You're an ass sometimes Sam Witwicky," The smile on her face belied the angry words that came out of her mouth.
"He needed to learn real quick to watch what he says about you when I can hear him."
"I love when you get all possessive."
"Mine," He pushed her up against the door and attacked her neck with his lips.
"All yours," She whispered breathlessly.
"Do you have any idea what it does to me when you wear this dress?" Sam groaned against her ear.
"Why do you think I wore it?" Her eyebrow quirked flirtatiously and his lips smashed against hers passionately and she lost herself in his heated kiss.
One of his hands blindly reached for the doorknob to twist the lock without ever breaking their kiss and she couldn't help but giggle at the way he had instantly turned back into that hormone crazed 16-year-old boy he'd been with the way he was attacking her mouth and blindly reaching for her but then she felt his rough fingers sliding up the inside of her thigh and that shy boy was replaced by the confident man he was now.
"Can you be quiet?" He whispered against her neck sending shivers down her spine.
"Can you be quick?" She turned the tables on him, her hands already expertly pulling at the button on his jeans.
Sam almost lost it at the fire in her eyes and sexy little grin when he pushed her dress up around her waist just to find she wasn't wearing underwear. He lifted her by the back of her legs and set her on the countertop. Mikaela pulled his head down to kiss him just as he slid inside and she moaned at the feeling that never seemed to amaze her.
It wouldn't be long before one of their friends was banging on the door to use the only bathroom in the apartment so they both knew they couldn't take it slow or hold back.
The fact that all of their friends were just on the other side of the door only a handful of feet away from them only served to increase the arousal buzzing through them. This would be the first time they had snuck off to have sex in the middle of a party, even though technically that wasn't her reason for taking him to the bathroom, and knowing that they could be busted any moment made their movements harder and faster.
"Sam," She moaned quietly against his ear and he tightened his hold on her hips.
"I know," He panted and sucked at a part of her neck.
She fought him off, not wanting him to leave a mark, and kissed him again when she knew she couldn't stay quiet much longer. Soft moans audible only to the two of them filled the room as they moved closer and closer to their peaks.
It didn't take long for them to fall over the edge, she first and him moments later, and her body slumped against his to catch her breath.
"Did you really have to mess up my hair?" Mikaela groaned looking into the mirror for the first time and her fingers combed through her hair trying to make it look like they hadn't just had a quickie in someone else's bathroom.
"I love you," Sam just smiled innocently. "You still look amazing."
"Jackass," She muttered rolling her eyes.
Mikaela left the bathroom first, as Sam still had to clean himself up, and it had already become obvious enough what they'd been doing—just because of how long they'd been inside the locked bathroom—and she didn't want to give them more ammunition against them.
Christian was sitting on the couch in between Colton and Leo when she snuck back in the living room hoping nobody would say anything and she sat down on the other girl's lap.
"Did you two seriously have to have a quickie in my bathroom?" Tyler groaned overdramatically. "I brush my teeth in there!"
Of course she couldn't be lucky enough to get away without some remark being made.
"It's not my fault he can't keep his hands off me," She shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly.
"How is it that we could hear you on the first floor of a three-story house when you're on the top floor, but in a tiny apartment where we're 20 feet away we don't hear a sound?" Balie was never going to let her live that night down and she chunked a rubber coaster at her.
Sam came out of the bathroom in time to see the coaster completely miss its target and the room laughed at Mikaela's bad aim and slight embarrassment. She had no problem talking about their sex life, but it bothered her to no end when people commented on hearing them.
"I hate you," She growled at him when she noticed his presence. "This is all your fault!"
The petulant comment only served to send the group of friends into an uproar and Sam bit the inside of his cheek to keep from joining in. He knew she wasn't really mad, but he didn't want to push it.
"Well that sucks because I love you," He walked over to where she was and bent down to kiss her but she pulled away after a couple seconds.
"Nope, that's all you get," She smiled teasingly. "Go away."
When it looked like he was going to protest her dismissal, she pushed against his chest only to giggle when he stumbled backwards. Sam glared at her mockingly but left anyway to go get himself another beer from the fridge in the kitchen.
Colton started shamelessly flirting with Mikaela almost the second he'd turned his back, but he wasn't worried—seriously, it was Colton. And he was drunk. This always happened when he got drunk. After a while he would move onto Christian and then to Balie until finally he stopped on Rachel who never failed to tease him until he got all kinds of hot and bothered and then she would leave him high and dry.
Happened the same way every time.
Well, minus the one time he took too many shots of tequila and tried to flirt with Leo—who couldn't decide whether to go into shock or have a heart attack—but it had taken all of about two seconds to realize he was being serious rather than goofing off and Tyler was dragging his buddy off to the bedroom to put him to bed.
After that particular night, Colton took a hiatus from drinking for a while. He was still so mortified that he still refused to even look at a bottle of tequila much less think about drinking it.
"Hey, look, man I just wanted to apologize about earlier," Chad approached him while he was standing alone. "I had no idea she was with you or I wouldn't have said anything."
"Nothin' to worry about," He shrugged dismissively. "I probably should've handled it better."
They made small talk for a couple minutes but frankly Sam felt awkward about the whole situation. He'd seen the look in the other guy's eyes earlier, Chad had wanted to beat the hell out of him for making a fool of him, and now he was acting all buddy-buddy. Maybe he just wanted to fit into their group—he had just moved from Oregon to go to school in Philadelphia and probably didn't have a lot of friends—and Sam didn't have a problem with him, but it was just weird.
"Rachel!" Sam interrupted the girl's flirty banter with Colton (had he really made his way through all four girls that fast?) knowing it wouldn't lead to anything.
She eyed him warily but made her way over to where he and Chad stood in the doorway of the kitchen anyway.
"Chad thinks you're hot," He said bluntly. "You kids have fun."
Two sets of eyes gaped at his retreating back, but really it was a win-win situation. Rachel would no doubt get laid and he had an excuse to quit talking to Chad without seeming rude.
It wasn't long before people started leaving. Some of them would stay until the sun started coming up before they'd decided it was time to go to sleep, but it was getting close to three as it was. For as tiny as the apartment was, there always seemed to be a crap load of people at the boys' parties and Sam would swear he met someone new every time they came, even if that person had been there before. There was always a beer pong tournament going on outside on the patio and that was where the majority of the people were. Colton and Tyler alternated between hanging out with the ones outside and the ones who weren't into the fierce drinking game—which was mostly their close circle of friends.
Andy and Balie were the first of their group to leave. He had to work the next afternoon and she was trying to get him home before he was too drunk and ended up with a hangover. Christian and Mikaela had both stood up from the couch to give the other girl a hug when she said she was leaving and Sam saw the perfect opportunity to tease them. He waited until Balie left before walking up behind them and threw an arm around each of their shoulders.
"What's a guy gotta do to get you two to kiss again?" He received a slap from both sides for his cheeky remark.
"I think you got enough action tonight," Christian said dryly.
"A man can never get enough action," He denied.
"Suppose it's a good thing you're not a man then," Mikaela matched his cheeky grin with one of her own.
"Maybe I should go find Chad then," His eyes twinkled playfully. "Seemed to think he was man enough for a sexy little thing like you."
Sam even pretended like he was going to search for the boy in question, but she grabbed the back of his shirt to stop him.
"Get back here you big baby," She rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"Someone's feisty tonight," He teased giving her a pointed look.
"Nope," Mikaela shook her head and slid her arms around his neck so they should chest to chest where she could look up at him. "Just happy."
Christian sensed a private moment coming on and slipped away so as not to intrude but the couple didn't notice her quiet exit.
"Glad we came?" He inquired softly.
"Yeah, it's been a great night," She gave him a flirty little half smile. "Especially the part where my fiancée got all possessive and took advantage of me in the bathroom."
"Definitely the highlight of my night," Sam dipped his head to kiss her tenderly and felt her yawn against his lips when she pulled away.
He took that as their cue to leave and they started their own round of goodbyes with the friends that hadn't already gone home. Leo had taken Christian to dinner before the party and weren't quite ready to leave yet so Sam just told them he'd see them the next day and walked an already half-asleep Mikaela to the bright yellow Camaro parked at the end of the driveway.
When they finally crawled into their bed a little while later, she fell asleep as soon as she curled into his side and laid her head on his chest but he found himself unable to drift off so easily. All things aside, the real highlight of his night had been to watch her truly enjoy herself for the first time in a long while. It seemed she'd taken his plea to heart and completely pushed the wedding out of her mind for the evening. Whether she realized it or not, the big event had cause quite a bit of tension among all of them and it was a relief to escape it even if just for several hours.
He knew she'd be back to thinking about it constantly tomorrow, but they'd finally managed to reach a sort of compromise. It wasn't until he lay there with her sleeping form in his arms that he felt at peace with everything. There was a good chance she'd allow herself to become obsessed with all the planning and trying to make it perfect but the thought didn't fill him with fear of letting her down like it had been lately. At the end of the day, it didn't matter where it was, when it was, how extravagant or how simple—the important part was that he'd be waiting for her to walk down the aisle to him and they'd both say "I do".
There was no way he could let her down when those two simple words would make both their dreams come true.