Something to Believe In

CH 18: Michelle's Plan

    Michelle doesn't share her plan with us, and by the time we reach the hotel, I can see that Luke has taken my words to heart. He keeps looking at her as though she's going to stab him in his sleep. Poor guy; she'd never be that blatant. I get us checked in and we trudge to the elevator as a group. The suite's nice. Michelle immediately claims the larger of the two bedrooms for the ladies. Since she's got the most stuff, it seems fair enough.

"We're going shopping now," she announces, before we've done more than set the bags down.

"Whoa, not so fast," I say.

"What?" She smiles innocently my way.

"I need to be in on whatever it is that you're planning."

Michelle grins and beckons me over to the table in the room's dining area. "Okay then. Come sit, and I'll lay it out for you."

I settle in the chair. "I should get Luke and Serena..."

"No," she says. "The less they know about this right now, the better."

I frown. "Michelle..."

"They don't trust me," she says. "This is going to make them trust me less."

"Uh oh."

She chuckles and settles in the seat across from me. "I'm glad that you're finally paying attention to Serena. Poor girl's been looking terrible since you told her about me."

"She has?"

Michelle shrugs. "Anyone could see she's completely in love with you."

"I couldn't."

"Anyone who's not cluelessly male, then." She glances around. "We can make that work for us. You're bringing me in, but the rest of the world doesn't have to know that. They can think it's Luke, in my case. I've been thinking about the Matt thing..."

I raise my eyebrows. "You have?"

"Sure. Creative can still give us a scene, only have it be a breakup instead of something else. That'd free me up, maybe give me another reason to look at you guys when you're out there, preaching your straightedge ways?"

"Hmm. Could work."

"So I join, and the next week, I approach Gallows and say I'm not all that convinced, that maybe it was the wrong thing to do."

Frowning, I say, "Wouldn't that undermine the whole thing?"

"No, see, because it would give him a chance to really talk to me on screen. Make straightedge sound noble and good, you know?" She chuckles. "And then, at the match that night, we'll cheat and undo whatever good will we've built up. But it'll make things look more legit for the audience, and it'll give them a jumping off point to me slowly falling in love with Gallows."

"What?" I'm not sure I've heard her right.

"It makes sense. He's talking me into staying in the straightedge society. He's saving me from a bad break up with Matt. He's... well, a stand in for you, basically."

"But you're not in love with me."

"No," she says, "you're fun to torment and tease, but I'm not." Looking down at the table, she continues. "But you were right before. I'm not over Matt, either. And I want to be. I have to see him every time I go to work. It's driving me crazy. I need to be distracted, and if I've got a fake relationship with Gallows, maybe I can concentrate on that and not think about Matt for a while."

"Maybe you should just tell Matt how you feel."

She smirks, lifting her eyes to meet mine. "He dumped me, remember? What makes you think he wants anything to do with me?"

"He called you at lunch."

"So we could talk about the Jericho thing."

I shrug. "Seems like he could have called me instead. He's got my number."

"Mm hmm, except you couldn't go on Twitter and look up what was being said."

"He could have read it to me."

"It's got more impact when you're staring at the black and white text, Cuddle Monkey."

"You know," I say, "Serena thought that once you joined the straightedge society, you would eclipse her and she'd never have a chance with me."

Michelle frowns. "Why would she think that?"

"Maybe because you keep calling me Cuddle Monkey?"

"Seriously? I don't mean anything by it."

"I know." I give her idea some thought. "You know it's going to freak Luke out to have you suddenly fixating on him, right?"

Michelle grins. "Yep. That's part of what makes the whole thing so great. He'll have to call his acting skills into use, so he can sell it. It'll be awesome."

"What about Matt? What are you going to tell him?"

She sighs. "That he'll be rid of me once and for all once we're done with our argument?"

"So no more Team Adorkable?"

She facepalms. "I can't believe he told you about that."

"He didn't really. He just said I was an honorary member, whatever that means."

"Ah." She stands up. "So now that I've shared my evil plan, can I please get Serena and go shopping?"

"You know she didn't really want to go, right?"

Michelle grins. "Oh, I know. That's why I'm taking her. I want her to understand that I have no designs on her man."

I run a hand through my hair. "Do you mean me?"

"You are her man, right?"

"Er, yes?"

She laughs. "Punk, after what I saw in the car today, you ought to sound more sure. That girl is in love with you, and if you don't let her know how you feel about her, then you're a fool. And I've known you long enough to know that you're no fool." Then, with a wink, she heads for the girls' bedroom. "Come on, Serena! Let's go buy me some killer eye make up and a sparkly top! I want to stand out in that sea of black you guys wear down to the ring every week!"

I groan. What had I gotten us into?