holding on til may » pierce the veil

t w e n t y

Alice walks into the room where Vic and I were and immediately halts.

"Whoa! Mel, can I talk to you?"

I unwrap myself from Vic's arms, kissing his cheek. "I'm going to go start the car." He says as he walks out.

"What the fuck was that?" She immediately says as she shuts the door after him.

"What was what?" I asked, puzzled.

"That! Mike's out there looking for you. He said it's important. What I saw between you tonight is nothing like what I saw between you and anyone else. There's something there." Alice explains.

"Alice, I can't. I'm always going to just be another number to him. You saw how many girls out there were agreeing with each other. I don't deserve that."

She sighs. "Will you at least go talk to him? And tell him the plan worked." She rubbed my arm, smiling at me reassuringly.

I nodded. "Thank you." I said as she walked out of the door.

I walked out after her, scanning the room for Mike.

I feel arms wrap around me and I quickly turn around. "Jeez, Mike. You scared me." I said, locking eyes with him.

"I'm sorry. Can I talk to you?"

"Why? So you can tell me about all the girls you've messed with?"

"No.. Uh, quite the opposite actually."

"So you can tell me about the girls you haven't messed with?" I look at him puzzled.

He held back a laugh. "No, Mel. The reason I left was because I wanted to show you that you weren't just another number to me. You never were." He fell silent.

I looked at him in shock. Was this actually happening right now?

"I deactivated my account and deleted the app." He finally spoke up. "I don't want a fake date anymore with you. I want a real one."

"But you said yourself, real relationships never work out." I spoke up.

"I've realized something tonight. You're the risk worth taking."

I opened my mouth to tell him about Vic but before I could Mike plants a kiss on my lips. As I was about to pull away I realized how right it felt. I began to kiss back as I heard the door open. I pushed him off me and quickly turned around, locking eyes with Vic.

"Please, for the the love of God... Tell me that didn't just happen." Vic stood there, frozen in place.

"It didn't happen." I quickly spoke.

"It happened." Mike said in unison with me.

Mike looked at me confused while Vic looked at me, hurt. "I can't believe you." He slowly walked out.

Tears immediately flooded my eyes. "What did I miss?" Mike spoke up softly.

"That plan worked, Mike. Vic apologized. He kissed me. We were okay again. That's what you missed while you were making your grand gesture." I said, rather coldly.

"Wh-what? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried but then you kissed me!" I said defensively.

"And you kissed me back!" Mike said back, immediately.

I fell silent. He was right, I did. And it felt right. "Fuck." I let my head down and placed my hands over my face.