Final chapter. No more updates for this particular story. Thanks for reading.
I woke up with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. How could I have forgotten that Michael will be supervising detention?
With that thought, I couldn't even stomach any breakfast. I arrived at school with a rumbling tummy, and a heavy heart.
Taking a deep breath, then another, I finally opened the door to the library.
No one's here. No Michael, no Clarke and Tommy, no Lana and Josh, no one.
I glanced down at my Princess Leia novelty watch and saw that it was seven fifty nine, so where is everyone?
I sat down in the same seat as last time, and noticed that Lars hadn't followed me into the room, he was just hovering by the door.
"Lars!" I hissed. "Come sit down!"
He simply shook his head. Something seriously strange is happening. Is Lars being extra security conscious and planning on frisking everyone who gets through the doors this week? Or is he…
I got my answer a second later. Michael walked in, shook hands with Lars, and Lars left.
HE LEFT?
I jumped up.
"Mia, sit down," Michael said.
"No, I have to talk to Lars. Where is he going?" I moved towards the door.
"He's just standing outside it, he's not going anywhere. Now sit down."
And be alone with him all day? No way.
I ignored him and moved with more speed. He jumped in between me and a desk and blocked my path.
"Michael, move. I just want to talk to him. I don't want to be…" I almost said 'alone with you,' but with the look in Michael's eye, I couldn't. "I'd just feel safer with him in here, is all."
"Are you afraid of me?" he asked seriously.
"No," I said automatically. "But Lars is always around, it's not right that he's not here, and it feels weird."
"Well, Mia, I asked Lars to stay outside for a reason. It's not his idea."
"It's not? Why did you ask him?"
I stopped trying to get past him and looked around the room. "And where is everyone else? I thought you said those guys were in detention every week."
Michael sighed. "Mia, do you really think you had any tardy's at all? No, you were clean. But then I tweaked it so that you would be here. And I tweaked everyone else's file who would have otherwise been in here today. I wanted it to be just us, because you won't talk to me, and we need to talk."
I stared at him. "I can't believe you did that! Do you realise you're messing with peoples lives here!"
Slight exageration, I guess.
I sat down and looked out the window. I don't want to talk to him. This is the conversation I worked so hard to avoid all week, and now he's unfairly trapped me into it.
Bastard.
He knelt down in front of my desk. I looked pointedly in the other direction.
"Mia," he said gently.
I twisted my seat in a childish attempt to show him I wasn't listening.
"Doesn't this show how much I want to make things right with us? I want to sort this out, make it better."
Yeah, sure. Make it better. His idea of better is breaking my heart and then feeling like his conscience is clean.
"Michael, look. I get it, ok? That's why I haven't wanted to have this conversation. Because I know how you feel. I get it."
He looked at me strangely. "Really? Because you haven't been acting like you know how I'm feeling."
"I just don't want it spelled out for me. I'm not an idiot, I know I'm too young for you, and that it could never work, yada yada yada." Embarrassed that I'd finally said the words out loud, I turned red and looked away.
"You know, Mia," Michael said, standing up and looking down at me. "I've never once though you were an idiot. I know you're always hard on yourself, but I've always known you weren't stupid. But now, after you've just said that, and knowing that that's what you truly believe, I do think you're an idiot."
I looked up at him with my mouth open. But by then he'd already turned around and walked up to the desk at the front.
So now he's calling me an idiot! He's just rubbing salt in the wound, isn't he!
What did he mean that if that's truly what I believe then it makes me an idiot? Does that mean that what I believe isn't right?
So then, what is right?
I spent all morning thinking about it. Every now and then I'd look up at Michael, but he has his head buried in books, or a computer, and is resolutely not looking at me.
I put my sandwich down and raised my hand. I know this isn't class, but he already thinks I'm stupid so who cares.
I cleared my throat and he looked up at me.
Then he looked back down at his books, completely ignoring me.
How rude!
I got up and walked towards his desk.
Just like I had done before, he turned his chair in the opposite direction.
"Michael," I said bluntly.
No response.
I knelt down, my heart pounding against my ribcage.
"Michael, I'm sorry I was such a child before. I thought you were going to break my heart and stomp all over it."
He looked at me with wide eyes. "How could you have ever thought that?"
"Well, after what happened at detention last week, what Tommy and those guys said, I thought you wouldn't have wanted anything to do with me, so I was trying to make it easier by just ignoring you, so that you wouldn't have to tell me to my face."
"Mia, what those guys said have nothing to do with how I feel. Do you think I didn't realise before last week that you're younger than me? Do you think I haven't already considered the fact that you're a princess and it could pose a lot of problems in the future? Of course I realised that! You act as if I'm an idiot."
"You called me an idiot," I muttered, looking away.
"That's because you were being one," he lifted my chin up with his hand and smiled. "But now, if you've stopped being one, maybe you can listen to me?"
I nodded numbly.
"I know you're younger than me, and I know you're the Princess of Genovia, and I know there could be a lot of problems with any kind of relationship you may enter into, but I like you. I really like you. And I'm willing to work through any problems or anything that comes up, so long as you're there with me."
"So…you still like me?" I didn't add 'even though I'm an idiot', I don't want to bring that up again.
He grinned and pulled me up. "Let me show you how much." Then he kissed me.
"Michael," I said after a minute. "I hope you're going to change my record back."
"Already done," he replied, pointing to the blinkingscreen.