Crossing Lines

her father’s insistence that they throw a big party in celebration of her quickly approaching twenty-fourth birthday. Of course, Sydney knew what that meant. It was merely an opportunity for a more efficient way of passing her off on new bachelors.
That reminds me of Cinderella where the King and Queen hosted a ball and invited all the eligible ladies so the Prince could find a wife. The big difference is that Sydney is not interested in any of the men who will be attending.

I'm glad she talked Jack into letting her invites some friends. He will freak if he finds out who these friends really are. Sydney could have let Jess pick out two dresses, one for the party and one for her prom. It's not like Sydney would be wearing any of those dresses again. I hope Jess's friends will be able to get dresses too. If not, she could let them "shop" in her closet like Jess did.

I'll bet Michael in a tux will be yummy. I wonder where he will get at tux. I think Sydney should buy one for him.
 
sorry guys, the party isnt as exciting as you think it will be :lol:

OH and dont forget to check out my new layout at O-I.net :smiley:

Chapter 28

Because of her newfound friends (plus Michael) attending her party, Sydney had the best birthday party ever. Of course, when her father saw the cluster of four squealing girls she had invited, he was far from thrilled, but they were already there and there was nothing he could do about it. During the party, Sydney was able to sneak away and have one dance with Michael out on the patio so he could put to use his newly learned but yet to be perfected waltzing skills. All the rest of the time, though, she was stuck speaking with single men who she found painfully boring. Still, it was her favorite birthday since she was able to share it with Michael and four very ecstatic teenagers.

After her party, Sydney and Michael were separated for over a week since her father dragged her on one if his trips. Their reunion was highly anticipated and, when it finally happened, they barely made it up to Sydney’s room before they were kissing each other. “Missed you… so much,” Sydney mumbled through their kisses as she backed her way into her room, tripping over a rug on her way.

“Missed you too,” Michael said breathlessly.

The two of them landed with a soft thump on her large canopy bed. Sydney backed her way towards the headboard while Michael crawled along beside her, his lips only leaving hers for a second when he accidentally kneeled on his own hand. In recent weeks, they had chosen Sydney’s bed as a more preferable make out place than the couch, due to the fact that on the couch, they tended to kick the end tables on either side of it. On one such occasion, this resulted in the breaking of a flower vase on one end table, which, luckily, was not all that valuable.

As they kissed, Sydney began to unbutton Michael’s white shirt while he undid the buttons on her blouse. These activities caused no complaints from either of the kissing duo, however they caused a problem when there was an unexpected knock at Sydney’s bedroom door. The two of them gasped and looked towards the door in shock as they heard, “Sydney? Are you in there? It’s your father!”

Breathing heavily from panic, Sydney shot off the bed and began to frantically adjust her clothing and button her blouse back up. Noting that Michael was frozen on the bed in horror, she grabbed him by his half undone tie and shoved him in her closet, figuring that was the last place her father would look. Then, she glanced quickly in the mirror at herself and fixed her hair and shirt as much as was necessary to make it look as though she had not just been heavily making out with her boyfriend. After that was done, she quickly opened her bedroom door asking, “Daddy, what are you doing here?”

“Well, I just wanted to tell you that I’ve been called away to an important meeting and I’ll have to cancel our dinner this evening,” he told her.

“Oh, okay, that’s fine,” she said casually though she was still breathing heavily.

Her father nodded and was about to leave her room before he spotted something that made him walk past her and asked, “What’s that?”

Sydney gulped when she saw him gesturing towards Michael’s suit jacket that was unfortunately lying on the floor beside her bed. “Oh… that’s, um….Michael’s. I was cold earlier, so he lent it to me and I just forgot to give it back,” she said as she quickly walked to pick it up and drape it over the nearest chair.

“I see…,” her father said in a suspicious tone. After staring at his daughter who was trying a bit too hard to be casual for a few minutes, he turned and left the room. Sydney quickly followed him to make sure he was really gone before she shut her door and locked it.

She sighed heavily as she called, “It’s safe!” to her closet.

Michael slowly emerged from his closet. He was dressed properly once more, with his buttons buttoned and his tie tight to his collar, though he was wearing a grimace across his face. “That was close,” he sighed.

“Ya think?!! But that was really weird… I mean, I think that’s the fourth time he’s knocked on my door ever in my whole life,” she sighed.

“Well, I think we should maybe… not do this again,” he grumbled as he walked over to his jacket.

“Wait… you mean this in my room or this as in what we were doing before my dad interrupted us?” Sydney asked with a slight smile.

Michael smiled back and clarified, “This, in your room. What we were doing before was…”

“…good?” she continued, though it sounded more like a question.

“Yeah good,” he said. Then, he gave her a quick kiss before slipping out of her room and returning to the garage, his designated post.

~*~

“What’s the matter, Michael? You’re looking kinda sad,” his mother said to him later that night when he was merely stabbing at the food on his plate with a fork, hardly eating any of it.

“Oh nothing,” he said with a pathetic and woeful sigh. His mother gave him a look. “Well… it’s just… today Sydney and I were up in her room-” Michael was cut off by his sister making a suggestive whistle and eyebrow raise. “Not like that, Idiot. We were just hanging out… and maybe kissing a little,” he added more quietly. “Anyway, her father knocked on the door and she like threw me in her closet…”

“Isn’t that better than getting caught and beheaded?” Jessica asked.

“Well obviously… but it’s just got me thinking like… what am I doing? I mean what the hell am I really doing? I’m just…,” he sighed, “setting myself up for heartbreak.”

“How so?” his mother asked.

“Oh come on, Mom,” Michael groaned, pushing himself up from the table. He began to pace around their kitchen as he spoke. “Look at us? I mean, for all intents and purposes I am her slave and not in the kinky way either,” he added to his smirking sister, knowing she was about to make some comment dripping with sexual undertones. “What future is there going to be for us? One of these days she’s just going to tell me that it’s over between us because that’s all that will ever result from us – nothing. I just…god,” he sighed, rubbing his hands through his sandy hair, “I never should have started this… I’m so stupid.”

“You’re not stupid,” his mother told him. “You love her.”

“So what?”

“So everything!” his mother retorted. “You love her and she loves you. Do you want to marry her, Michael?”

“Hello! Have you heard a word I’ve sa-”

“Do you want to or not? It’s a simple question,” his mother said.

Michael grumbled and mumbled for a moment before saying, “Maybe, but she doesn’t want to marry me.”

“Yes she does,” Jess chimed in.

“Oh and I suppose she told you that?” Michael asked her with an annoyed look.

“Actually,” Jess smiled proudly, “she did. At my party, the girls and I were playing this game where we asked each other stuff. We asked who she would marry if she could marry anyone in the world and she said she’d marry you.”

“I don’t believe you,” Michael told her, now almost furious.

“It’s the truth, honest, I wouldn’t lie about this. She wants you, Michael, and you want her – therefore there is no problem,” Jess said simply.

“Except I’m still her slave…”

“Michael please, you’re not a slave,” his mother rolled her eyes. “Look, you can think about this all you want, but in the end, that’ll do you no good until you talk to Sydney.”

“Yeah maybe,” He grumbled as he left the kitchen. The truth was, he was too afraid to ask her, for fear of the result, especially if it meant losing her in the end.
 
it's not a question whether they love each other... obviously, they do... i think the problem is if they can fight for that love... i sure hope they do..
 
The big problem here isn't if Michael and Sydney want to get married. The problem is, does Sydney need her father's permission?

Look at Prince William. His girlfriend is from a middle class, working family. William is going to be King. The Crown Prince and future King of Spain married a commoner. The Crown Prince and future Emperor of Japan also married a commoner. These are all important countries and yet, their future sovereigns were all permitted to marry commoners. Jack is a Crown Prince of a small insignificant country. Sydney, wanting to marry someone from a middle class family shouldn't be a problem- but it probably will be.

Chris
 
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