The Reclamation

7

Mia changes into her pajamas as soon as we make it to her room. I place my bag on the right side of her bed and dig through it for mine. I pull out a baggy shirt and a pair of sleep shorts and begin changing. I face away from Mia, but I don't make it a point to hide myself from her. She seems too drained to even care right now.

"Hey Mia," I call, pulling the shirt over my head. "Can I ask you a question?"

"What's up?" She slips into bed.

"You seemed different today. You were like- and please don't take this the wrong way- but you were a lot more social, and, I don't know... cheerful?" I search for the best way to put words to my thoughts, but they didn't quite come out the way I wanted them to. I turn around once my pajamas are on and slide under the covers with Mia who has pulled up Rick and Morty again. I lay on my side next to Mia, who is on her back, staring at the still computer screen. "You were different than you are around me. It's totally not a bad thing! I was just, you know, wondering what that was about? Or if I'm just reading too far into things?"

Mia is still looking at the screen, but her eyes are unfocused. "Uhm... I'm not sure. I guess, I really wanted your family to like me, like, really bad, so I played it up. I felt like if I was too mellow, or, quiet, they wouldn't really like me. So kind of embellished myself." Mia admits.

"Do you do that a lot?" I ask. She always seemed like a different person at school than with me, which are especially different from when she's dancing. It feels like there are a dozen Mia clones with completely different personalities that switch out depending on the situation.

"Uhm, not so much lately... I used to a lot with school. And I do that with my dance class too, and my dads sometimes. It just depends on who I'm with. I feel like if I don't act a certain way, then people won't really like me. So it's just easier to act like what they want. It's exhausting, but it works." I'm watching Mia, how her facial expressions shift and the way her finger taps the side of the laptop, but her eyes stay glued to the screen.

A terrible thought passes my mind. I try to push it out, but it gets stuck. I force myself to address it so it will go away. "Do you... feel like that around me?" Do I know the real Mia, or is she just embellishing for me?

Mia's eyes finally leave the screen and meet mine. They're sad. "No. I feel like the only person I don't have to act around is you, actually." I can feel a wave of relief wash over my body. I didn't know how tense I had become until my muscles relaxed.

"Good," I tell her, giving her a sincere smile. "You know, you don't have to act around my family, either. I'm sorry that you feel like you have to, but I promise you that they'll love you- the real you- just as much as I do," I say. I hadn't realized that I said the "L" word until a few seconds after it came out, but I could tell from Mia's face that she picked up on it immediately. Her eyes widen, and I contemplate addressing it. But the corners of her mouth pull up ever so slightly, and I know that I should just roll with it.

Her eyes flicker from my eyes to my lips, and back. I gaze down at her lips, then back to her eyes. Mia wastes no time making a move. She rolls her body towards me to close the gap and presses her lips to mine. My hand finds it's way to the nape of her neck where it tangles into her hair. Mia's hand wraps around my back and rubs up and down gently. Our lips move together in harmony.

Mia's hand slowly snakes around my lower back, and she pulls my body into hers. We are pressed up against each other now, which allows me to wrap my arm fully around the back of her neck to deepen the kiss. Mia's laptop falls off the bed with a soft thud, but neither of us could be bothered to break the kiss. Our tongues begin to mingle with one another and we easily fall into a rhythm. I break away for an instant to bite Mia's bottom lip, which must put her over the edge.