{Hayvenhurst}
Encino, California
September 5, 1981
Michael arrived home from a long day. He had dance practice with River for four hours today. He wasn't complaining because she is an excellent teacher. He also has to do some promotion for the show as well. He was happy to finally be back home. Once he was in his room he called Nova.
"Hello?" Nova answered.
"Hey, baby. I just got home from practice." Michael said as he sat on the bed.
"Yeah," She answered plainly.
"Ummm is something wrong?" He was caught off guard by her response.
"Does it sound like I'm upset?" Michael has three sisters and he knows that answering the question would only make her more upset. It was better for her to tell him why she was upset. "Yes, I'm upset Michael because of this thing with Dancing With the Stars."
"I thought you were excited about me agreeing to do the show."
"I am happy for you Michael I'm not happy about your partner."
"You mean River?" He sighed. They were now back to this topic. "Nov"
"Don't you Nov me. Now you and River are partnered on the show together. How the hell did that happen?" She asked as if he could answer the question.
"Nova the partners are picked at random. I had no idea who my partner for the show would be." He tried to defuse the situation. "I'm glad River and I are partners."
"Oh," He probably shouldn't have said that. "Now you're happy you're with her."
"Nova stop"
"Stop what?"
"What do you have against River? You haven't met her and you don't know anything about her." He defended River.
"You're defending her now too. I told you when ex's come into the picture there's nothing but problems."
"There aren't any problems." This conversation was getting frustrating. "River is my partner for the show. It's good because I don't have to meet a stranger. We already have a level of comfortability."
"Of course you would." She scoffed. "She's an ex, Michael."
"Why does that even matter at this point? We broke up years ago and now I'm with you."
"Years passed and now you two keep running into each other all of a sudden. I bet she's been planning to get you as her partner this whole time."
"Nova you're not listening to me."
"And you're not listening to me."
She argued.
Things were becoming a bit combative and Michael didn't like it. "Don't you trust me, Nova? We've been together for two years. Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?" He waited for her answer but it was silent. The silence spoke for himself. "Exactly I see one ex that I haven't seen in years and now all of a sudden you don't trust me. You need to stop attacking River because she hasn't done anything wrong."
"I'm not attacking her Michael I'm just making you aware of the situation." She still wasn't listening to him. The one thing that irked him about her was that she had a tendency not to listen when she was like this. It's annoying when you say something and she'll still revert to her original point. "You told me you didn't want to do the show at first."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. He still didn't understand why they were having this conversation in the first place. "I told you that I wasn't sure about it. I do have the right to change my mind."
"You're right you do Michael. I bet that reason has something to do with River. She's not as innocent as she's trying to be."
"You've never met her Nova." He repeated. "You can't make assumptions about her when you don't know her. That's not a fair judgment. Stop talking about her as if she's a bad person because she's not."
"Michael" She groaned. "It's not that I don't trust you. It's that I don't trust her intentions. You two have some much history together."
"Yes we have history but that doesn't have anything to do with us." He made it clear. "River and I were together when we were teenagers. We broke up and went our separate ways. Now we're all adults and things change. You don't have to worry about something that happened years ago. I don't want to keep having this conversation."
"Fine then don't." She hung up the phone.
"Nova? Nova?" He pulled the phone away from his ear. "Did she hang up on me?" He would have called back but he was tired. He's already had a long day and didn't think it would end with an argument. All he wanted to was go to bed now. He stood up to get ready for bed putting his pajamas on. He walked back over to the bed when the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hey Michael it's River," River said from the other end of the line.
"Hey Riv what's up?"
"I'm sorry to be calling you so late but I think you took my water bottle by mistake."
He got up to look through his things. Sure enough, he had her blue water bottle. "Oh sorry, I didn't realize I grabbed it."
"It's okay. Can you bring it when you come to practice tomorrow?"
"Yeah, you got it."
"Cool. Also are you okay? You sounded kinda down when you answered the phone."
"Yeah," He ran a hand over his face. "Nova and I got into an argument. Not the way I was looking forward to spending the night. She hung up on me too."
"I'm sorry Michael." She felt bad. "I hope everything is alright."
"I'll find out tomorrow if she's going to have a good day or a bad day."
"All relationships have their ups and downs. I'm sure you two will be able to work it out."
"She's been acting different for the past few months."
"What's going on? If you don't mind me asking." She didn't want to overstep.
"She's been acting funny ever since we ran into each other at the charity ball."
"Oh," She now realized what the problem was. "She's concerned about her place in your life because we used to be together at one point."
"Yeah, how did you know that?"
"I had a hunch." She answered. "I'm sorry about starting trouble in your relationship. I didn't mean to do that."
"You don't have to apologize Riv. None of this is your fault. The times we've run into each other you were working. She's I don't know....."
"She doesn't have to worry about anything. I know I'm the last person she would want to hear that from."
"Riv it's okay I'll handle it." It was nice of her to try to come to a solution. "I appreciate your help though."
"Of course, if you ever need to talk I'm here." She didn't want him to feel alone.
"Thanks, I will." He smiled for the first time tonight.
"I want you to rest because we have a long day of practice tomorrow. Don't forget my water bottle though." They both laughed.
"I won't I promise. Goodnight Riv"
"Goodnight Michael." He placed the phone back on the hook. Despite what happened he felt like he could sleep peacefully tonight.
