It's a Little Strange

16. ONLY

Ned blinked. "Um... why do you want Peter and I to go to Liz's aunt's wedding? A woman we never met before? When Peter is ridiculously grounded until the end of time?"

Michelle rolled her eyes. She pressed her phone harder to her cheek. She kept a watchful eye out for all the woman shuffling about in front of her. She slipped through the crowd and ducked to a corner, lowering her voice as she said, "Because I'm worried about Liz. Lately, she's been saying some dark, depressing things."

"Don't we all? I mean we are teenagers."

"No, not like the jokes. I mean some serious stuff." Michelle chewed on her lip. "She's sending me all these signals. I think she needs help. I think... I think she's going to do something today."

"And... you're asking me and Peter to...? What?" Ned's skepticism was going to be the death of him. Michelle was going to rip his throat out when she saw him.

She growled, "Because I know what you two do and if Liz does something then she's going to need your friggin' help!" 

Ned pulled the phone away from his ear. He shuddered and tried to focus. He had no idea what Michelle was talking about. He hoped that she wasn't talking about what he feared that she might be talking about. If she was talking about what he feared she might be talking about, he was, in no way, involved with her realization (and he hoped Peter would know that). But she might not be talking about what Ned was thinking about. She might be talking about something completely out of the blue and totally plausible, but who really knows what she was talking about?

Oh god, Ned just got a headache from all of that. Note to self: stop overthinking.

"Uh... I have no idea what you're talking about."

"For the love of god, Ned, if I don't see your stupid face and Peter's stupid face here in thirty minutes or less I will kill the both of you, got it?" She hung up before he could even respond.

Michelle took a deep breath and closed her eyes to regain herself. Act perfectly fine and everything will be perfectly fine. Okay, she can do this. She walked through the ladies to find Liz sitting in front of a mirror finishing her makeup.

Everything is fine.

Everything was not fine! Ned was scrambling to find a suit. He quickly got dressed in the appropriate attire because there was no way he was going to crash a wedding (a spot on his bucket list!) without looking the part. After a few minutes of struggling, he was yelling at his parents that he was going to hang out with Peter and he was out of the door.

Running in public with a suit does draw some attention to you. Ned panted as he made his way through the blocks of the city to Peter's apartment complex. He didn't live very far, but running was not one of Ned's strong suits- especially since he was in a suit.

He finally made it to Peter's building, only to be stuck in an elevator with a man who was also wearing a suit and completely out of breath. Once the elevator doors closed, Ned bent forward with his hands on his knees panting with everything in him.

The man next to him, through his breaths, laughed. "You too?"

"Ugh, man, you know it." Ned stood straight and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "So uh..." he said, eyeing the man, "what's your story?"

"I'm about to tell my girl that I love her and I'm going to propose to her."

Ned's mouth fell open slightly and he nodded his head. "Ah, I see. Cool, cool."

The man cocked his head to the side. "So, uh, you running to your girl?"

"Nah, I'm running to my man."