The Long Way Home (4 page)

"Yeah I normally don't get invited to these kinds of parties." Jill said with a bit of sarcasm. Mike picked up on it; he started to lead Jill to the Keg so that Grey could spend sometime with Charlotte. Mike knew that Grey would ditch her at the next appropriate time or otherwise get out of it.

"Do you want something to drink?" Mike said politely.

"Yeah what the hell, I'll have whatever you're having. I haven't had anything to drink in a while." Jill said and was slowly realizing that this had been a set up and that Charlotte had been the patsy. She was slightly angry but not at Mike he obviously didn't have anything to do with it. Her animosity for Grey was rising.

"Hey do you think we could go and talk somewhere?" Mike said with all honesty.

"Yeah sure" Jill knew that was coming and decided to see where this was going to take her.

Mike led her out to the terrace in the back of the house, and said,

"You know I normally don't go for these set up things but you seem nice." Mike looked at her to see her reaction, it was what he thought.

"Thanks, I don't know if I should take that as a complement or what?" Jill said ever so annoyed by his confidence, he acted like she would just lie down right there and start screwing him.

"No, it's not like that." Mike said reading her like a book.

"I realized when I met you that Grey had asked your friend to come and she brought you. I am supposed to hook up with you etc." Mike knew he was going to catch her off guard.

"You mean you weren't in on it?" Jill said this not really believing him. She was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

"Well Grey and I are good friends but no, I think he wanted to surprise me. I mean, he told me that he asked Charlotte's friend and that she was going to bring a friend. But after seeing you it was obvious that he wanted me to get with you." Mike was trying to be consoling. He didn't think it was working though. In all honesty it wasn't

"What the hell are you trying to say!" Jill's anger was now totally directed at Mike. She was just getting a little sick of being fucked with.

"Whoa, first of all you need to calm down. Second of all I don't like you, I mean you seem nice or at least you did. All I wanted to tell you is that I think we should be friends." Mike liked being honest and he was, he just wasn't telling her everything he had in mind. There was a pause and Jill looked upset.

"Look here's the thing I only want a friend. I am not ready for a relationship. I just got done with a long-term relationship where my ex-girlfriend decided it would be cool to totally crap on my heart and get fingered in a relatively public place. If I may, and if I haven't offended you completely I really would just like to be your friend. Please don't think this is just a pick up line because it's not." Mike was just waiting to see her reaction.

Jill didn't know really how to feel she was just told that she was used and that he actually didn't want to have any relationship with her other than just friends. She was offended that he didn't want to jump all over her. Even though she didn't like him, he was kind of cute in a pug way she thought and was no where near her type.

"Wait so what you're telling me is that you don't want to... you mean all you want to do is be friends." Jill was extremely skeptical.

"Yeah, that's all I want, look I know this is weird and I know I upset you but I only wanted to tell you the truth." Mike was hoping that she would take his offer and not run a way. Mike really wanted her to befriend him so that he could get her to see how great a guy Grey really was.

"Fine let's say I agree with this idea of yours. What are we supposed to do as 'friends' anyway?" Jill was warming up to Mike and even though she could see that he was being honest she felt that he was really trying to be her fiend. She looked in his eyes and could (she thought) she could see the pain this other girl created in him. It touched her in a weird way, maternal almost.

"We'll mainly talk, I think. That's what Grey and I do I like him and everything but he's not my type. Even though I don't think I could ever trust another girl in a relationship again. I am not gay, but yeah I think we talk and then like hang out I guess." Mike was wondering what she was going to say.

She laughed and said. "Okay yeah sure that sounds like fun. Why not? On Monday after school find me and we'll hang out or something. But if you try anything our friendship is over." Jill was happy yet concerned with the outcome she knew somehow that there may be more to this than she could see. However she really thought that they could be friends and wanted something anyway.

"You think we should go check out Grey and Charlotte?" Mike was honestly worried about them.

"Yeah I am worried about them; Charlotte has a hard time holding down alcohol when she's around hot guys." Jill nearly bit her tongue. She was already treating Mike like one of the girls. And let that last comment slip. But what did it matter from the smell of him she knew that he had been liberal with the alcohol and probably wouldn't notice.

Mike did noticed and took it as one point towards Grey; his plan was already working not even ten minutes into it. He decided to not show that what she said had any bearing.

"Yeah let's go back in and find them." Mike was now leading Jill back into the house where they found Charlotte puking into the fireplace and Grey was right besides her holding her hair out of her face. Grey saw them coming and a look of relief fell over his face he didn't know how much longer he could keep this up.

Jill saw what was going on with Charlotte and ran over and her concern for Charlotte overcame everything else.

"I think I will take her home now. Mike I'll see you Monday." Jill was in a rush to get her intoxicated friend home.

"Okay cool." Mike said with excitement.

Grey was excited too he was glad Mike and Jill hit off and that Mike had a good time it was after all the only reason why he even planned this whole thing.

The girls were gone and the party was dying down now. They were kicking the last few stragglers out. Grey was excited to talk to Mike about what went on out there. Mike and Jill were out there for awhile and he wondered what had happened. After they got everyone out Grey and Mike went to the dining room and sat down and Grey looked up at Mike expectantly.

"So what happened?" The curiosity burning in Grey and it was obvious that he wouldn't be happy until he got his answer.

"Well we decided to be friends." Mike said with all honesty.

Grey didn't know what to say or think at first he was mildly angry, but then once he thought about all, that Mike had been through with Gina he could understand.

"That's cool man as long as you had fun and got your mind off what's her name, then I'm happy." As a matter of fact Grey was rather content with the way things turned out. He didn't know how long he could put up with Charlotte. She was a nice girl but not really his type. He wondered how he was going to get her off his trail.

The rest of the night Mike explained how he really wanted to be friends with Jill and Charlotte and that he wanted to spend time with them. Grey agreed and they decided to have these two girls in their life. Mike the one now with the plan was all excited about this. He knew that he could pull this off. He felt like Inspector Gadget with many unexpected things up his sleeve.

Mike went home and Grey was alone and happy about the outcome of the party. He also thought that it really was best that Mike just have a bit of normality for a while until he got over Gina.

On his way home Mike was planning how to get these two together and how he was going to get them to end up together. He didn't care if it took him all year he was sure that they were going to end up together. He would do everything he could think of to get them in the same locations and over time they would finally end up with one another.

It was Monday and Mike was excited because he was going to spend his first day with Jill. This was the first day of his plan and everything was working so far. He knew that this would be the day, the day that Jill would determine whether or not Mike was for real. Oh he felt so smart, he knew he was too.

It was the end of the last period and Mike headed to the front of the school and was trying to figure out how to find her and remembered that they had made no agreement as to where to meet. So he just decided to pick a tree and wait under it until she came and sure enough no more than ten minutes after he began waiting did she come out with Charlotte close to her side. He ran up to them and decided to sneak up on them. Only as he was running up to them he tripped over a crack in the walkway caused from a nearby tree root. The last thing that Mike remembered was a sharp blow to the head.

He woke up looking through a water bottle and thought that he was going blind or something so he freaked out.

"I AM BLIND, OH GOD. I AM GOING BLIND WHY HAS GOD PUNISHED ME!" Mike screamed. He was more confused than a hamster out of a drier.

"No you're not going blind, you're okay you don't have to worry." Jill said soothingly, while she removed the bottle of water that she had put over the scrape on his head.

Mike could not figure out what had happened. "What happened how did I end up on the ground? And why does my head feel like it was used for a pockey huck... I mean hockey puck?" Mike was sitting up now and regaining some of his consciousness but was still a little out of it.

"I am not totally sure I was walking down the stairs with Charlotte and out of the corner of my eye I saw you doing a swan dive onto the ground here. From the looks of it though, you seemed to have tripped over that crack there." Jill pointed over to the crack; in all honesty she wasn't sure how he fell. The crack only seemed to make the most sense.

"How long have I been out?" Mike wondered it seemed to him like days. He just wanted to lie down.

"Only a few minutes," Jill said with sincere concern. Mike took the water bottle from Jill and drank it all in one fail swoop. He was feeling better. He looked into Jill's eyes and saw that they were red. Then looked over at Charlotte and saw that her eyes looked a little red too.

"What's wrong with you guys, were you guys just crying, thinking I was dead or something?" Mike was never more serious in his whole life than he was at that moment. He was marveled at how they could be so companionate without really knowing him. He hoped that they weren't crying over him he already felt like an ass.

Jill grabbed her mouth as though she was stopping something from coming out.

"No. Honestly watching you fall was-well one of the funniest things I have ever seen." At that point Jill lost it and laughed so hard she fell back on to the grass. Seeing this Charlotte lost all self-control and began laughing louder than a 747 coming in for a landing.

Mike decided to take his lemons and make lemonade. And smiled then realized that he probably would have laughed if had seen someone else doing the same thing. He stood up and dusted himself off then helped Jill off the ground.

"Since I provided the entertainment you are buying me a coffee." Mike was trying desperately to regain any dignity he could it wasn't working.

"Sure it's on us let's go." Jill was excited and glad that Mike hadn't taken it the wrong way.

They got in Mike's car and went to a local coffee shop. They were there for a couple hours and talked... a lot. Jill found that Mike was very knowledgeable in almost everything. It was mainly things that hadn't anything to do with anything, nothing that concerned life and how it was lived; primarily useless facts that would only be used on Jeopardy or not really at all for that matter. Jill and Charlotte however were highly entertained. They found him charming and funny.

On their way out Mike said, "Why don't I drop you guys off at home?"

"No you have to take us back to school, we left our car there." Jill forgot to tell him they had a car.

"Okay, how come you guys do everything together?" Mike just realized that he always saw them together.

The girls were getting in the car when Jill said, "Charlotte and I have been friends forever and we get sick of other people most of the time."

"Yeah but we like you, you're funny." Charlotte added she thought that he was really cute in a pug way.

Mike dropped them off in the parking lot. "We should do this again. Not the whole falling thing but you know hang out and stuff." Mike really had to admit that he had a good time with these two.

"Sure we'll see you soon." Charlotte said, she thought that they should hang out more. She was really starting to like this guy.

They got in their car and drove off. Mike was happy and decided to go and see Grey. The girls went home and on the way they laughed again at Mike. In the car Charlotte said timidly. "Do you think that it would be all right if I went for Mike?"

"Sure I think you guys would be cute together and besides that Mike and I have an agreement. I just don't think that he is looking for anyone right now." Jill said and then explained Mike's whole story to Charlotte. This only made Charlotte fall more for Mike and decided that she would go for Mike but she just had to take it slow for now until he was ready. She knew that she could do it she also felt all of a sudden that he was perfect for her.

Charlotte was now convinced that Grey would have nothing to do with her especially after she puked all over his living room. She figured that Mike wouldn't care and neither would Jill.