| Micah's Story Chapter 12: Gains and Losses **Disclaimer** Woohoo the site is almost working again! Yay! Um, This is just to say for the twelfth time that I don't own any of the important characters, and anyone from the city of Middleburg Heights is mine, but no one from the movies is. Hope you like it, and please R/R!! The next morning, I woke up, and was still tired. I didn't know what to expect from everyone, because I didn't know how many people had been alerted to what Marie and I had done. I was used to living in a small town, and knew that news traveled fast there. Walking into the kitchen, Danny looked at me and smiled. "What are you smiling at, blondie?" I asked him with a small smile. He only stared back. After I ate, Danny said that I had to go with him so we could pick out tuxedos for the wedding. I told him that I didn't care what they looked like as long as they were black. I didn't really care about much anymore. I had lost my friend, and I had possibly lost every single one of them, just to get closer to Marie. Even that hadn't worked. her words from yesterday afternoon had hurt. "Pretend to kiss me, Micah" she said with a smile. "Please do it." Closing my eyes, remembering how close we had been, how much I wanted to kiss her, I could almost feel her. Danny's voice had brought me back to reality. Snapping my eyes open, I looked at where he was standing in a black tux, all decked out. "Pretty nice, huh?" He said smiling. I nodded. "What size are you, Micah?" I told him, and he ordered two tux's, one on his size, one in mine. Walking out of the store, Danny looked at me. "Micah, what's wrong? You look sad. You can tell me. Please? I won't say anything." This was the part where I was supposed to go to my dad, and ask him what to do. This is where my Mom tells me that everything is going to be all right. But no, I didn't have either of those people to talk to. I was alone, with no one but Danny. I sighed. "you really wanna know, Danny?" He nodded. "OK. It started out with me going to the park with Marie and her friends the second day that we were here. I met her boyfriend, Dave," Telling him everything, not leaving out a single part, I finished twenty minutes later with "Even after Jenny said that she liked me, she still told me to pretend. Ant then, she went off to find Dave to tell him that she loves him, and wants to take him back. How is that fair?" Danny looked at me. "I didn't know that you had that dream. I had it too. so did Lacey, for that matter. You had it in the early evening, and we had it that night. That is strange. Getting on to Marie, I don't think that you did the wrong thing. You liked her, and wanted to help her. She's your friend. Dave will not change that. I hope for your sake, that she won't leave you out in the cold, because you need each other. If you want, I could talk to her for you, and see what's going on." Shaking my head I told him No, that it was my problem, not his. He had to concentrate on his wedding. sighing, he stood up. "OK then, let's go." Walking to the car, we didn't talk. On the way home, we stopped at McDonalds, and got lunch for everyone. Setting the food on the table, I didn't say a word. We ate, and Lacey asked me to be the one who walked her down the aisle at her wedding. "Marie will be one-." She stopped suddenly as if she had been kicked. I realized that Danny had probably kicked her under the table, and I told her that I would be happy to walk her down the aisle, and smiled. She smiled back. "I'm glad, Micah. It'll be fun. You've never been to a wedding, have you?" I shook my head. "Ooh! That's even better!" She began to tell me all about what happened. After about an hour, she was finally done, and by that time it was almost two PM. Excusing myself to clean up my mess, I poured all of my garbage into the can, and walked over to the window. I saw Dave going into Marie's house, and smiled. "Good for her. She made her choice, and I'm happy. Maybe I'll see her sometime soon, and we can talk." Walking away from the window, I answered the phone. "Hello?" "It's Joe. What's up?" "Nothing, you?" "Notta lotta. You want to go and play basketball or something?" "I guess. I'm not doing anything right now, anyway. What time?" "Meet me at the park in about twenty minutes. There'll be about five of us there, so it'll actually be fun. "'Kay. I'll be there. Bye." Hanging up the phone, I went and put my shoes on. Yelling to whoever was home, I said that I was leaving. On the way to the park, I thought about my situation. I still had friends. Either they didn't know, or they knew, and didn't care. I hoped that it was the latter, because I didn't want to lie anymore. When I got to the basketball courts, everyone stopped playing and waited for me to join them. After a long game of 3-on-3, we sat down to rest. Chris looked at me, and asked me what it was like to be going out with Marie. "I'm not really dating her, it was a joke so she could have Dave back." They nodded. Joe told me that they all knew, they were just testing me to see if I would lie to them. "I only suggested it in the first place to make her happy. She's so, I don't even know what it is, not innocent, but naive, I think describes her. You just want to hug her, and it's almost impossible to tell her no. So, I did what at the time seemed right. I decided to help her. And when I fell for her, it backfired, because she still wants Dave, and I know he wants her, so I'm screwed." I looked down. "Micah, come on. She likes you. I know it." Joe said kind of reassuringly. "We all do. Dave is all wrong for her. You two are perfect. You just have to tell her." I looked up. "If she likes me so much, then how come last night she talked to him for two hours before she got home, and right before I left to come here, he went into her house. I think that if she's happy, then I'm going to have to deal with it." Getting up, we all played another game, and it was almost six by the time we all left. Saying good-bye and walking home, I thought about a lot. by the time I got back, I realized that maybe Jen had been wrong. If she had been, then I could accept that. I was Micah, the Chosen one. I had lived through tougher times then this, and I could take it. When I got back to the house, dinner was almost on the table. By the time that I washed my hands, it was being served. Cory was over again, and I was getting to like the little guy. We had become friends because he had been over so much, and it was nice to have someone almost my age to talk to that was a guy. After dinner, Cory was sitting on the couch, Danny and Robbie were out in the backyard setting up the sleeping bags because the boys (Danny and I were included) were going to camp outside that night. There was a knock on the door, and I wen to get it. Opening it, I was looking away, talking through the window to Danny. When I turned around, my stomach churned. Standing in the doorway were Dave and Marie. He had his arm around her waist, and she was leaning against him much the same way she had with me. She was wearing a short light blue halter with a pair of black shorts, and she looked like she was out of a magazine. Perfect. That was the only way to describe her. Standing there, next to Dave, looking like that, she made me want to smile. So I did. "Hey, Micah." She said softly. "Can we come in? Or would you rather we go to the treehouse? I think that we need to talk." She smiled slightly, and looked at me with those big blue eyes. I wanted to melt. "Treehouse." I said. We the three of us began to walk, past Danny. Past the sleeping bags. Past Cory and Robbie. Up the steps nailed to the tree, and finally into the treehouse. sitting down, the three of us looked at each other. After a few seconds, Marie looked at me right in the eyes, and repeated what she had said before. "Micah? I think we need to talk." Micah's Story Chapter 13: Chosen One She looked at me and again repeated what she had said. "Micah? I think that we need to talk." Nodding slowly, I looked straight at her. What was this girl going to do to me now? In the time that I had been to Middleburg, she had turned my world upside-down. She showed me that there could be friendship, and no sacrifice. She was one of my closest friends. I hoped that she and Dave hadn't come to tell me that they were back together, because that would be like rubbing salt in a wound. Clearing her throat, she started talking. "You told me last night, to go to Dave, and tell him what we were doing. To tell him that I still loved him. To tell him that we never were going out, that it was all a ploy for me to get him back by way of jealousy. Well, I found him and we talked." Here it came. I could just feel it. She was going to bring what little hope I had crashing down to the ground. "Dave wants to say something, I think." She smiled. "Micah, I know that we didn't get off on the right foot. I started in on you the second day that you got here. I apologize. You didn't deserve that. Marie told me what happened to you, and I understand why you are afraid to let anyone know what you want or feel. I guess that what I want to say is, sorry. Sorry for being a jerk, sorry, basically for everything. Are we cool?" I looked at him, not knowing what to say. Standing up, I looked out the little window that was on the wall. Danny, Lacey, and Cory were standing at the bottom of the tree, and looking up. They all looked guilty, and I realized that it was because they had sent Robbie to climb the tree and listen. I cleared my throat. "Yea, Dave, we're cool. I hope it isn't too late for us to be friends." I offered one of my famous little half smiles, and he smiled back, and said that he hoped it wasn't too late, either. "Marie, do you want to tell me something? I have to go help Danny, and if you don't have anything else to say, then can I go?" She looked at me again, and kind of smiled. "There is something else, Micah." I nodded. "Um, when you told me to go and tell Dave that you and I were over, that I wanted him back, I couldn't. I couldn't go through with it. So I told him that you and I were broken up, and I wanted him back. Of course, he took me back, because he still liked me. This was last night, and he came over again this morning." She lowered her blue eyes to the floor. I knew that there were tears in my eyes, and I fought to keep them there. I won. My cheeks stayed dry. "That's what you came to tell me?" I questioned with a tremble in my voice. I looked at them, and Marie looked away. "You made me listen to you, saying how you were back with Dave? I guess I should have expected it. You didn't know. I hope you didn't cuz then I would feel really bad. Anyway, I'm gonna go. Hope you're happy." The tears weren't being held back as easily as before, and they were threatening to fall. "Wait, Micah." Marie called after me. "That's not all that I wanted to tell you." I turned around. "Sit, please. No, wait, on second thought, please come here." She said this while standing up. She bit her lip and went on. "Micah, when Dave came over this morning, He kissed me." I looked down. I couldn't bear to look at her right then. Or ever again. she put her hand on my shoulder, and the other under my chin, forcing me to look up at her. Into those blue eyes. They were so blue, and full of laughter. Laughter. How could her eyes be laughing at a time like this? I was plainly hurt, and her eyes were laughing. That hurt. "Micah," she said softly. "I realized something when he kissed me." What ever could that be? I wondered sarcastically. "I realized that it wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want Dave to be the one kissing me. It didn't feel right. I didn't know why at first, but then I realized that I wanted it to be you." Her mouth smiled as brightly as her eyes did. I blinked. "What?" I asked. It couldn't be true. She did like me. "Could you repeat that, please?" Smiling she looked back at Dave quickly, and then back at me. "I wanted it to be you, not Dave kissing me today. I don't like him anymore. It's all you." I smiled. "You mean it?" She nodded. "You could bet your cute little buttons on it." I looked down. There were buttons on my shirt, and they were little. "I would do that. For you, I would do that." She smiled, and I drew her closer to me and hugged her tight. "I'll never let go, Micah. I'll never let go." I must have looked puzzled, because she explained "It's from a movie. Nevermind." Dave stood up, and said that he had to go. We both waved good-bye to him, and sat back down. She grinned at me. Scowling, I looked back at her. "That was pure evil. You were torturing me and you know it." Smiling, she leaned over and put her head on my shoulder. "There's a lot of things that you have to learn about me, Micah Balding. You will learn them in time, and get used to them, trust me." I assured her that I would do my best and try, then I leaned over and kissed her softly on the cheek. "Micah?" "Marie, you said that you wanted me to kiss you, so there you go." I said this teasingly. She sat up straight, and faced me. "If that's the best that you can do, Dave will probably take me back."She smiled. I spoke like I used to, and used a phrase that I hadn't used in a ong time. "He Who Walks Behind the Rows shall not allow it. I most certainly will not either. Come here. " Pulling her up, then closer to me, I did what I had been waiting over a month to do. I kissed her, full on the lips, and it wasn't a short kiss, either. When we pulled apart, we were both breathless. "Well," "Did Ruth teach you that?" She asked with a coy smile. I mock fainted. "What's wrong, Micah?" "They told you about Ruth? She was the most annoying person that I ever met! God!" I shook my head. "I was just kidding, Hun. Lacey told me that she was bothering you in Hemmingford. I just wanted to rub it in." Marie stuck out her tongue at me. Smiling, we both climbed down the steps, and turned around, hand in hand, to a crowd of people. All of our friends were there, as well as Danny, Lacey, Angela, John, and the Morgans. "Did you plan this Marie?" She shook her head. "Well, as long as they are here, I say we give them a show don't you?" Smiling at me, I drew her closer to me again, and just as someone took a picture. she spoke so only I could hear. "Whatever you say. You are the Chosen One." That was all she could manage before my mouth covered hers, and we couldn't say anymore. **(AN- stay tuned for the epilogue!)** |