Chapter 9
After playing poker for a while, Michael decided it was time for bed, so he let Sydney go and use the bathroom while he cleaned up their cards. Fifteen minutes later, when he walked into his bedroom, he found Sydney perched on his bed, smiling. “What, like I was gonna go in there with Pukey?”
“Good point,” he laughed. He then walked around the bed and climbed into the far side, lying on his back, while Sydney stretched out on her stomach so that they were facing each other. “So I take it by your disapproval of my sister’s drunken escapades that you no longer participate in such activities because, if I recall correctly, you did during high school.”
“I did,” Sydney nodded. “But then I realized that if you do that whole ‘party ‘til dawn. Studying?! Who needs studying?!’ thing you won’t actually graduate and that tends to be a bad thing… plus there was my father’s threat to kill me which kinda helped.”
“Probably,” Michael laughed.
“What about you?” she said, prodding his arm lightly.
“What about me? Oh, right, I forgot about the many nerd parties I went to where we had keg after keg of beer until we all passed out on the couch with our nerdy girlfriends,” he said with a slight eye roll.
“I was serious!” she insisted.
“So was I…okay, no I wasn’t,” he laughed at the look on her face. “I dunno…I can’t say that I’ve ever been drunk. I mean, before my twenty-first birthday I only drank at like weddings and stuff and even then it was only one glass of champagne my mom allowed… On my twenty-first, a few of my friends went out and I had a few beers but I was never drunk,” he said with a slight shrug.
“Aww, you’re so innocent it’s cute,” she said in a patronizing tone. He rolled his eyes dramatically at her. “I’ve only been drunk a few times…like that one time at your house, do you remember that?” she asked. Michael’s brow furrowed in confusion and he shook his head. “Yeah you do. Jess brought me home and I could barely stand and then on the way down the hall to her bedroom, I leaned against your bedroom door but it wasn’t closed so fell into your room and knocked over your trashcan and that National Geographic magazine with the naked people fell out and I started crying…”
“Ohhh yeah,” Michael nodded, recalling that incident. He had been half-asleep at the time, which was why it was hazy at first. “That was funny,” he smirked.
“Hilarious,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m definitely not proud of my drunken moments, but luckily I haven’t had any since the first weekend of my freshmen year… Yeah, I realized it’s not all that fun to be on your knees in a gross public bathroom with puking people in the stall beside you,” she told him with a grimace. He grimaced back at her.
“Yeah…,” she sighed. Then, they were silent for a few minutes as Sydney traced the patterns on the bedspread with her finger. Finally, she broke their silence by asking, “Hey Michael, you know how Jess mocks you about being a virgin? Is that true? I mean… are you?” she asked, blushing slightly, though she hoped her pink color wasn’t visible in the dim light of the bedroom.
Michael laughed softly for a moment before answering. “She probably thinks I am… I mean, obviously she does, but it’s not like I was going to make some formal announcement to her….”
“So…you’re not then?” she asked to clarify.
“Uh, no.”
“Oooh, I’m sensing a story,” she said, knowing there had to be one because of the slightly annoyed and yet embarrassed tone of his voice.
“Oh yes, there’s definitely a story, but I’m not sharing it with you,” he told her.
She gaped at him in shock. “Oh, coomme onnn. If you tell me, then I’ll tell you the story about how I almost lost it to Nick Pendolin at prom – now that’s a funny story,” she enticed him with a smile.
“Ok- wait,” he stopped himself when what she said finally hit him. “Almost… does that mean…you’re?” he asked cautiously. She nodded. “REALLY?!”
“Oh my god Michael, you sound so shocked,” Sydney commented as the blush in her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red. “Did you think I was a slut or something?!”
“No, no, no,” he said quickly. “I just… I knew Jess wasn’t, unfortunately,” he shivered, “and I figured you weren’t as well…”
“Nope, I am,” she told him. “But I’m sensing a story with that Jess thing…”
“Not. Reliving. It,” Michael said firmly while gulping slightly at the horrifying flashbacks to her sister and the boy who mowed their family’s lawn in a compromising position.
“Okay,” she giggled. “Seriously, though, that’s not a problem, right?”
“Um yes, it is a problem that you’re not a slut,” he said in a very serious tone. She rolled her eyes at him.
“Spill, Mister,” Sydney said, poking him in the side.
“Alright, alright,” he sighed, clasping his hands over his stomach. He then went on to tell her the story of his first and only time (of course, the ‘only’ part shocked Sydney, but she held her comments until the end of his tale). As it turned out, very early on in Michael’s freshmen year of college he was asked out by someone who he described as a Barbie doll. She was blonde, blue eyed and he had no idea what she saw in him. The two of them dated for six months before the girl, Beth, talked Michael into having sex. “…and, she dumped me during,” he sighed. Then he quickly covered his face with his hands, in disbelief he had admitted that to Sydney.
“NO!” she gasped in total horror and embarrassment for him.
“Yep,” he cringed as he removed his hands. “If I do recall correctly she said ‘You suck. Get off me. By the way, this is over.’”
“NO!” Sydney gasped again. Michael nodded. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! Didn’t you tell her it was your first time?” she asked. Michael cringed and looked away. “Well, that was stupid.”
“Well, I didn’t want her to know!” he insisted. She laughed softly. After his explanation, there really was no reason to ask why he hadn’t done it again; that was painfully obvious. “Your turn,” Michael said, poking her.
“Okay, okay,” Sydney sighed. “Well, for like months leading up to the prom Jess was all insistent that we had to FINALLY, as she put it, lose the big fat ‘V’ looming over our heads, because, obviously, that isn’t oh-so-cliché.”
“Look at Jess – she is a cliché,” Michael pointed out.
“True,” Sydney laughed. “Anyway, I wasn’t really into the whole idea, especially after my date turned out to be Nick… but Jess was insistent and I just went along with it… Anyway, while she and her date were off…,” Sydney let her voice drift off with a grimace. “I went with Nick to the hotel room he got and I was still freaked out about it… and so when he tried to unzip my dress I told him to stop, but he didn’t, so I freaked and sprayed him with mace.”
“YOU DIDN’T!” Michael gasped.
“I totally did!” she laughed before smashing her face down into the bedspread.
“That’s awful…but where’d you get the mace?” he asked, confused.
“My dad put it in my purse,” she told him matter-of-factly. This caused Michael to snort with laughter. “He did!”
“I believe you, it’s just hilarious,” he told her. Then after a large yawn he said, “Oh, I’m beat… I think I need to sleep.”
Sydney nodded, sat up and turned out the lap beside his bed. Then, she hesitated for a moment. “Can…I stay?”
“Sure,” he sighed. “But what about Jess?”
“She’ll be too hung-over tomorrow to notice what bedroom I come out of,” Sydney pointed out as she slid beneath the covers of the bed.
“True,” Michael laughed. Then, he leaned over and kissed her temple gently as she snuggled up beside him. “’night.”
“’night.”