house of cards :: m.g.c.

0.3

"you're cute."

michael looked around confused. usually people didn't tell others that they were cute in the game store.

"hey, i'm talking to you." he looked to his left to see a girl. she looked to be about seventeen, two years younger than michael, with a height of only around five foot, chocolate brown eyes and hair. she was tanned and had visible dimples even though she wasn't smiling. "yeah, you, guy behind the counter."

michael dumbly pointed to himself, stunned that such a beautiful girl would be talking to him, let alone even noticing his presence.

"what's your name? i'm zoe." he even found her simple american accent gorgeous.

"i-uh. um, my n-name's michael." he stuttered.

"well, michael, i really like your hair. where did you get it done?" zoe asked, seeming genuinely interested by him.

"i did it myself." he silently commended himself for not crumbling under her stare for the third time in the span of five minutes.

"really? it's gorgeous. i had my hair red for a long time but then went to my natural brown colour." she picked up a lock from off her shoulder and spinned it around her index finger.

"you're really pretty," michael blurted out. he immediately blushed bright red when zoe started to giggle behind her hand. "i mean, uh, you're really pretty . . . with brown hair?" he pinched his thigh behind the desk as his voice climbed several octaves at the end of sentence.

"well, thank you, michael."she smiled down at the ground and threw her hair over her shoulder, her dimples becoming even more prominent.

"zoe! there you are! i've been looking for you everywhere." a girl came over and looped her arm with zoe's. the girl had her hair up in a perfect messy bun (which michael thought was impossible, the whole point of it being 'messy'), tanned skin darker than zoe's, and dark brown hair. she looked like someone michael knew but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"i'm fine. i was meeting this guy. his name is michael." zoe turned back to michael and sweeped her hand forward between the three of them. "michael, say hi to my extremely rude but completely lovable friend."

"hi, i'm michael." michael extended his hand towards the new girl and squeezed her small hand in a quick but firm handshake.

"hello michael, i'm mali-koa but people call me mali." the girl, mali, smiled at him then looked back at zoe. "come on, zoe. we've got to head back."

"yeah. wait, michael, do you think we could exchange numbers and hang out sometime?" she smiled at him in the way that made him feel special.

"um, i would but i don't have a phone." michael looked down at the counter and then glanced back up at zoe.

"that's alright! i'll come by here. do you work tomorrow?"

"i work here everyday from nine to one except for weekends."

"okay, then i'll see you tomorrow. have a good day, michael." and just like that, zoe and mali were gone.

"bye." michael whispered to the empty space before going to work. he started to think again was his mind had calmed down. he couldn't keep his thoughts off of where he knew mali from or how beautiful zoe was. ten minutes and she'd already scrambled his brain.

this was not good.