YAY CHAPTER 9

It's shorter but I'll make it up to you guys, Chapter 10 will be up tomorrow ;D

Paige's POV

I'm filled with an overplus of emotions. I can't talk because I'm still deep in thought. I'm forced to collect myself and comprehend everything that just happened in such a short amount of time. My heart is heavy and light simultaneously. What have I gotten myself into? I didn't know events like these can happen in a span of 6 days. I'd rather live in a soap opera because my real life is more dramatic than soaps could ever be.

I stare outside the car window. My cheeks are still warm from the crying I did. The continuous empty roads seem to calm my thoughts for time being. Two hours ago, Miz admitted he was in love with me. Two hours ago, I was so close to hating his guts forever.

But I could never bring myself to that.

Didn't I want this to happen? Then why do I feel like shit?

I lift my head from the window to look at him. He's focused on the road, which is lit up with only a pair of headlights. Sympathy reads across his eyes. I want to know if he regrets his words. I want to know if what he feels for me is real. I don't want to be hurt if he doesn't mean it. I'd rather take a hundred bumps in a row than be heartbroken through a lie.

Besides, I'm too young to know what being "in love" means. I've got the rest of my life to figure it out but fate decides now?

I want to believe him. I do believe him. Please let me believe him.

"I love you..." I say quietly, hoping he didn't hear.

But he did. Miz grabs my left hand and squeezes it again. This time he brings it to his dry lips to kiss, "I love you."

"Miz, can you explain what love is?"

By the wrinkle in his face, he's caught off guard.

"Well...love is...love. It's letting another person know you'll be there for them through the good and bad. Love is having trust in someone who they will never leave, or hurt them." That reply was like he was reading my unsaid worries.

"Love is what I have for you. Know that's real, Paige. Like I said, I can't explain what I feel. It's just there and I call it love."

Mike loves me. That's enough...right?

"I don't know if I can do the same for you, Miz. I want to but you're—"

"I'm married," he gives a sigh, "I'm hoping, with time, you can love me as much as I love you..."

Frustrated, I yell, "Miz, you can't say I don't love you!"

I lower my voice, "I love how you make me feel so free, how you let me be myself. How you turn me bright red at a drop of a word. I've never had a guy make me completely obsessed with him. I love you, I really do—"

"Then I don't understand why—"

"I can't fully love you because I wasn't yours first..." There. There's the truth.

I continue, "Someone else stole your heart before me. I know her name, her face, her story. And I don't know what you see in me to think that I could ever be better."

A giant weight lifted from my shoulders. These were the exact words I've been repeating to myself for the last 2 silent hours.

"Wow...Paige..." He shakes his head, questioning it all.

I control the lump in my throat while the sound of the road beneath us overlays silence.

"...My love isn't reusable, Paige," Miz breaks the lingering quiet. "You gave me a reason to love like new. It was never second-handed. I love from a new space in my heart that you opened. You two are nothing alike, please don't compare you to her. The space you made for me to love you just so happened to be bigger."

My heart is so weak. These words are what I needed to hear, what I needed to believe him. I could cry but I'm dry short of tears. No more for tonight, please.

This love is real.

"Thank you, Mike—for that space in your heart... I love you."

"I love you too, Saraya-Jade." He grabs my left hand again, as his warmth transcends through my skin.

Every fiber of my being is gone of doubts.

Michael Mizanin loves me.

And I'm in love with him.

Aww, they're in love. So what do you think is going to happen between Miz and Maryse? Or between Miz and Paige? Keep reading and reviewing to find out :)