Breaking Boundaries (unordinary love story)

Chapter 42: Be Yourself

The night swirled inside me when I got home and lay in bed, trying to fall asleep. The glow-in-the-dark star stickers caught my eye, hanging on my ceiling, but nothing like seeing real stars.

The night was beautiful. I did not want to close my eyes and be swallowed by it. I did not want it to slip away, but rather I wanted to hang on tight to its beauty. But eventually my eyes gave up and closed, sealing the night away.

I woke up the next morning feeling good. It was just a vibe. Or maybe something more than that.

It was Tuesday. I went downstairs, seeing Mikey at the breakfast table with his mouth covered in chocolate. Sitting on the table was my empty box of sweets from Rick. Mikey had apparently just eaten every one of them.

"Wow. Very mature," I said to him.

"Tell Rick I said thanks," said Mikey.

"No, I'll tell him you're being a brat," I replied.

"They were reeeeal delicious."

I had to tamp down the urge to noogie him.

Mikey, Mikey, Mikey.

Annoying, annoying, annoying.

You could never call that an oxymoron.

"If you get diabetes that's not my fault," I said.

Suddenly Mikey got mad for no reason. "You've been pretty selfish lately."

I was shocked. "Me? What?"

"Uh-huh. You choose everyone else over me. You didn't even help me study for my spelling bee last night."

"I was out with Rick!" I said.

"That's exactly my point."

"He's my boyfriend; what do you expect?"

"Some understanding?"

"Great," I answered, angrily smearing cream cheese on my bagel. "I'm sorry you feel that way, because look who's talking." I stormed out of the house, not wanting to hear whatever Mikey was going to respond.

I didn't know what I'd done to make Mikey so upset. Sure, I wasn't there for him last night. So what?

I would have to talk to him about it myself later.

I blocked out Mikey's words from my head the rest of the day and concentrated on school and better stuff.

At school, Sandy asked me, "Where'd Rick take you for Valentine's day?"

"Stargazing at Dalemore Hill," I said. "The view was phenomenal."

"That sounds nice. He came to me for advice."

"Yeah, figured."

"He said he wanted to do something for you on Valentine's day and asked me what girls like," said Sandy. "I told him most girls would just like a card or flowers or something and that you liked chocolates with strawberry filling. Then he said, 'You know her as much as I do. She's not like most girls.' I asked him what he meant. He said you're just special. Then I told him that you'd just appreciate the smallest things, and that he shouldn't try to go so big on you. And that he wouldn't get much out of you even if he gave you real gold. So yeah, I could tell he had something in mind."

"Cool beans," I said. "I did appreciate where he took me. It was the most I could ever ask for."

"I'm sure it was."

After school I found Mikey sitting on his bed in his room with his door open. His room looked like it'd been flipped up-side-down. It was normally ship-shape, but that day it was really messy with his comic books scattered everywhere and clothes on the floor. He had probably not been in a good mood lately. I'd already forgiven him for stuff that happened that morning, so I spoke to him.