How To Play The Game.

fifteen - michael

Michael and Lily were laying on the couch in Lily's apartment, both of them about to fall asleep. Michael didn't know why Lily was so tired, she'd just told him that she was not in the mood to do anything but just sit on the couch with him.

Michael was tired from staying up all night again trying to write some of his new book. He was still stuck and hadn't been able to come up with some good material in the last few weeks. Michael just didn't know what to do anymore. He felt that it was wrong for him to write about Lily that way but he also felt that he had to do it.

"Michael?" Lily asked softly. She was resting her head on his shoulder, her fingers playing with the hem of Michael's shirt.

"Yes, baby?" Michael answered quietly. He knew by now that whenever Lily started out a conversation with just "Michael?" they usually ended up talking about something important.

"We've been dating for a while now." Lily stated.

"Yes we have." Michael nodded. He honestly wasn't sure where Lily was headed with this, so he was just going to see where Lily took it.

"Almost 5 months." Lily continued, sitting up straight and facing Michael.

"Yes." Michael nodded again.

"It's almost Christmas." Lily said. Michael was beginning to think that she really didn't have a point, and was just talking to fill up the silence in the room.

"Yes, baby." Michael said, reaching out and tucking a strand of hair behind Lily's ear.

"And then my birthday is right after that." Lily said, her smile widening. Michael knew what she was getting at now.

"January 2nd." Michael confirmed, trying to prove to Lily that he paid attention to her when she spoke.

"You remembered!" Lily giggled excitedly, clapping her hands together.

"Of course I did." Michael scoffed. It was pretty impossible to forget certain things that Lily talked about, because usually of something was important to her she'd mention it about 100 times.

"Usually my boyfriends don't remember my birthday, I have to remind them a million times so they remember to buy me a present." Lily said, scooting even closer to Michael on the couch.

"You actually reminded me last week that your birthday was coming up." Michael shrugged, "But I would have remembered it anyway."

"Oh, good!" Lily smiled again. Michael thought that it was cute that Lily got so excited over the littlest things, she was the complete opposite of Michael, who usually tried to keep quiet.

"You're adorable, have I mentioned that before?" Michael laughed, leaning back on the couch. Lily swung her legs over Michael's lap, so even if he wanted to get up now he wouldn't be able to.

"Not as often as I would like." Lily teased, glancing around the room.

"Oh, stop it." Michael sighed, gently slapping Lily's leg and making her let out a squeal. "So was that whole thing leading up to something or did you just want to remind me about your birthday again?"

"Well, it was kind of leading up to something." Lily said slowly, biting down on her bottom lip.

"Oh yeah? What is that?" Michael smirked, knowing that there had to be more to this.

"Don't be afraid to say no." Lily pouted and Michael nodded, telling her to continue. "Every year for my birthday to go to Paris. My parents pay for the whole trip and I usually bring Luke with me to keep my company."

"Uh huh, that sounds nice." Michael nodded, still waiting for Lily to get to the point.

"I want you to come with me this time. If that's okay with you, of course. I just... I really love spending time with you and I don't want to go to Paris without you." Lily said, still smiling. Michael didn't respond right away, so Lily kept talking. "You're not busy, right? I mean, you can obviously bring your laptop and work on your book while we're there, it won't be - "