Crumbling Worlds (A Charlotte Cracker x OC story)

Chapter 11: Starting all over again

„AAAAHHH WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!"

„Michelle, calm down now-"

„I'm dating the Minister, Umi! We're really dating! Can you believe it?! Because I can't! I mean, that's what he said as well, right?! He's my boyfriend now!" Michelle basically screeched, and the furniture homies in her living room flinched in sync with each of their owner's shouts.

„Girl, what are you even talking about? Do you have a fever? Are you drunk or something?!" Umi, who was sitting across from her on the couch, held a shaking cup of tea in her hand and watched on in confusion as the other woman suddenly stood up and started to pace through the small living room.

„Oh my god, it's so exciting... but also scary! I can't tell anyone. You can't tell anyone! Especially not Panea. If she knows, everyone knows!" Undettered by Umi's visible bewilderment, Michelle rambled on. At this point she was talking more to herself than her friend.

Umi just scratched her cheek as she looked at her, still completely bamboozled by this sudden revelation. When Michelle invited her over for an "emergency brunch" she thought it would be because of something silly- like that one time when the young woman bought a dress two times her size thinking it was a picnic blanket- but not this. The moment Michelle told her that she was appearantly in a relationship with the Minister, Umi almost spat out her tea.

"Please Michelle, start from the beginning. Why- how are you dating Lord Cracker? I thought there was nothing going on between you two!" she asked while Michelle walked over to her small coffee table, reached into a large bowl filled with sweets, and started to shovel cookie after cookie into her mouth, seemingly to calm down her nervosity.

However Umi's question almost caused her to choke. Right. She didn't know yet. Michelle slowly lowered her hand back into the snack bowl and as she grabbed another cookie she blinked over at her friend with a guilty smile on her lips. "I-I did say that, didn't I? Well, actually... Cracker and I... we... sorta kissed at the restaurant." she admitted sheepishly and began nibbling on the cookie as distraction.

It took Umi a moment to process this new information, but then she too jumped up from the couch and started to yell. "AHA! I KNEW SOMETHING LIKE THAT WOULD HAPPEN!" for a moment she had what looked like a victorious expression on her face, but it immediately fell when she realized that Michelle lied to her about what happened at the restaurant. Now more confused than before, Umi plopped back down on the couch again. "So why didn't you just tell me the truth back then? Were you afraid that I'd tell someone?"

"No, that's not why," Michelle quickly gulped down the remains of her cookie and then walked over to sit down next to her friend, deciding that it was time to fill Umi in on what really happened that night and why she didn't tell her about it. "The reason why I kept it secret was because not even I was sure if the kiss meant anything. I was sooo drunk that I could have just imagined it," she explained and sighed, "also, Cracker ignored me for a while afterwards so I figured that it probably meant nothing. But then... this morning... he approached me in the kitchen, and-" she paused and her cheeks heated up at the memory. 

"Aaaand...?" Umi was basically glued to her lips, eager to get to the bottom of this.

"...a-and well he was trying to get some 'action' if you know what I mean and I told him that I wanted to spend more time with him but not as a bed warmer or whatever so I suggested that we should date and he actually agreed and now we are boyfriend and girlfriend!" Michelle babbled out at record speed, the story sounding even more ridiculous now that she said it out loud.