How To Play The Game.

epilogue - part one

FIVE YEARS LATER

"Shh, you're being too loud." Lily giggled, taking another sip from the bottle of wine before passing it back to Michael.

"I'm not being loud, you are!" Michael shook his head, letting a few giggles slip out of his own lips. He drank straight from the bottle, crinkling up his nose at the taste of the wine. He didn't get to choose what they were drinking, Lily did.

"No, I'm not." Lily whispered, laying back down on the bed again. She was able to keep a straight face for only a few seconds before she burst into laughter again.

"Stop!" Michael ordered, unable to stop himself from laughing. He set the bottle of wine down on the bedside table and then crawled across the bed until he was laying over Lily, holding himself up with his elbows.

"I'm not being loud." Lily whispered again, reaching out and poking Michael's nose.

"You're funny." Michael laughed, leaning down and kissing the tip of her nose. Lily hated that when she was sober but loved it when she was drunk.

"I love you." Lily bit back a smile, wrapping her legs around Michael's waist, pulling him even closer to her. She placed her hands on either side of Michael's face, pulling him down and bringing her lips to his.

"I love you too." Michael said when she pulled away, his words slurred. He couldn't remember why they'd decided to get drunk that night, sometimes they did that when they had nothing better to do, but Michael was glad that they had.

Michael kissed Lily again, not letting her pull away as quickly this time. He slipped his hands up Lily's shirt and finally pulled it off completely, tossing it onto the floor. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Michael's hands running all over Lily's body, until she finally pushed him away.

"I don't want to do this." She sighed, changing her mind completely.

"Why?" Michael asked, cocking his head to the side.

"I'm sad." Lily shrugged, as if this was something that Michael should already know.

"Why?" Michael repeated. He was in a pretty good mood at the moment, he didn't know why Lily was sad, he didn't want her to be sad.

"I don't know." Lily shrugged, biting down on her bottom lip. "Probably because Luke's getting married."

"Oh, yeah." Michael nodded, remembering why he and Lily had decided to get drunk that night.

Luke had proposed to Sam, his girlfriend of almost five years, earlier that day and ever since he came home and told them Lily had been in a weird mood. Michael knew why, of course, girls always got in weird moods when their friends or relatives started to get married, he just didn't know how to handle the situation.

"It's just, like, I'm 27 and you're 30...something, I don't even know, you're old - " Lily stammered. Michael wasn't sure if she was just struggling because she was drunk or because she really didn't know how old Michael was.

"I'm only 31." Michael informed her.

"Whatever. We're still not married and we still live in the apartment with my parents and my brother. And now Luke is getting married." Lily pouted, poking Michael in the chest. "I thought we were gonna get married first."

"Wanna?" Michael blurted out, not considering the fact that they were both drunk and he was literally proposing and they probably wouldn't even remember this conversation in the morning.