Chapter 7
After sulking around the party for fifteen more minutes, Michael was ready to slip out with saying goodbye to anyone and he almost did, until he felt guilty. Even though he was upset with Sydney (by no fault of her own, really) he wasn’t rude enough to just leave without saying goodbye. So, he hovered near her for a few minutes and then, when one of her conversations ended, he pulled her aside.
“I’m gonna go,” he told her quietly.
Her face fell. “Oh, are you not having a good time?”
“No,” he said quickly. “No, no it’s not that… I just have a bad headache… long day at work,” he explained. Truthfully he did have a headache, but work wasn’t exactly the cause.
“Oh,” she said sympathetically while she rubbed his arm. “Ok well, go home, take some Advil, I hope you feel better.”
“Thanks,” he smiled at her. But before she walked away he caught her arm with a soft touch. “Hey, you wanna, um, get together some other time this weekend?” he asked hoping that in a one-on-one setting he’d finally be able to break the truth to her.
“Umm… yeah, how about tomorrow night? Say eight-ish? We could watch a movie or… whatever you want,” she shrugged.
“Movie sounds great,” he smiled at her. “Where should we meet?”
“Um… I’m supposed to be having dinner with Francie to redeem her for ditching me last weekend,” Sydney said as she reached for a nearby napkin and a pen. “Meet me at my apartment at eight, okay? Do you need directions?” she asked after handing him the napkin with her address.
“Nope, I know where that is. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he smiled.
“Okay, feel better!” she called after him as he left.
~*~
The whole drive to Sydney’s apartment, Michael practiced exactly what he was going to say. He had it all planned out. He was going to sit her down and calmly tell her that he wasn’t gay; that he had never been gay. Then, he was going to duck out of the way of her fist, which would inevitably be coming towards his face. After that, he would explain to her about Eric and the bet and his desire that, after she was done being furious with him, they could possibly become friends. He hoped that went well, if not… well, it was best Sydney knew the truth anyway, since building any sort of relationship founded on lies would eventually come back to bite him in the behind.
When he arrived at her apartment building, he went up to the second floor and knocked on ‘2D’, her apartment. There was no answer, so he knocked again. Again, no answer. Glancing down at his watch, he saw that it was only a minute after eight, so it was possible she hadn’t yet returned from dinner, so he sat down on the floor beside her door to wait for her. It was only about ten minutes before Michael heard someone stomping down the hall grumbling, groaning and muttering. He looked up towards the noise and saw that it was Sydney.
“Hey,” Michael smiled and stood up. “What’s wrong?” he asked at the obviously frustrated look on her face.
“Men suck!” she hissed as she threw her purse at him rather violently. He caught it and waited in silence while she unlocked her apartment.
“What?” he asked once they were inside.
“They suck! They alllllll suck; the jackasses,” she grumbled.
“I take it dinner didn’t go very well,” Michael said slowly as he put her purse down on her kitchen counter while observing her apartment. It was small, but homey. There were pictures of three women everywhere; one of those women was Sydney, another her sister and the third woman, one who looked older than the other two yet similar to them, he assumed to be their mother. Decorative pillows and different knick-knacks lined the tables. Her sitting room, however, was a massive explosion of clothes, pillows and bedding. For a moment, he was confused, but then he realized that her sister must have been staying there.
“Oh, dinner went fine. It was after dinner when we were finishing our drinks at the bar – speaking of, do you want something to drink?” Sydney offered.
“Nah, I’m fine. What happened at the bar?” he asked, cringing slightly, almost afraid of what she was about to say.
She grunted loudly in an obviously furious way before walking around the half wall into her kitchen and standing in front of him, so that he had a full head to toe view of her. “Look at me! Do I look like a slut to you?!”
“What?” he gasped. Then he shook his head, “No, of course not. You look very nice.” She was wearing a green sweater and a short black skirt with stockings and black pumps. The skirt wasn’t too short either; it fell just a few inches above her knees. Nothing about her attire was even remotely slut-like.
“Well apparently, some people beg to differ,” she grumbled and walked back into her kitchen.
Michael followed her and repeated, “What happened?”
“Some asshole,” she grumbled. “He came up to me and was like..,” she paused as she turned around and walked over to him with a manly swagger. Then, she looked him up and down before smirking and saying, “Those are a nice pair of legs you’ve got there… what time do they open?”
Michael nearly choked. “Are you kidding me?!” he asked in utter shock.
“NO! He said that!” she insisted.
“Did he have a black goatee?” Michael asked with a slight cringe.
“What?”
“Never mind,” Michael said quickly. “I can’t believe someone said that. That’s awful.”
“Not to mention the worst pick up line I’ve ever heard. This is why guys are assholes… I mean, not you,” she gestured towards him as she spoke, “but guys… guys who are trying to ask me out… I mean Jesus, leave me alone!” she insisted in an overwhelmed manner.
Michael nearly melted into the floor in pure defeat. He couldn’t believe it, but telling Sydney the truth wasn’t going to happen again. Certainly after that comment, she would have beaten him to death before he was able to flee from her apartment. He was royally screwed.
“Yeah… guys suck,” he managed in a quiet voice.
“Anyway,” she sighed and combed her fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face. “Sorry to be such a… crazy person.”
“Nah, it’s cool,” he told her. “Your place is nice.”
“Oh, you mean aside from the trash my sister left in there, right?” Sydney laughed as she gestured towards the couch.
“Right,” he laughed softly.
“Anyway, do you mind if we just stay in and watch a DVD or something? I’m really just in the mood to get into my PJs and veg.”
“That’s fine, but I can leave… I mean, I don’t-”
“No, no,” she cut him off. “You don’t have to leave. We made plans. Besides, I don’t necessarily want to be alone… it’s more fun to mope when someone else is around, right?”
“I guess,” he shrugged.
“Anyway, we’ll have to watch in my bedroom since this is just… awful,” she sighed hopelessly at the mess. “You wanna pick a movie? They’re in the cabinet under the TV right there,” she said while pointing to the wooden cabinet along one of the side walls.
“Sure,” he said.
“Great. I’m gonna change,” Sydney told him before disappearing into the nearby bedroom. Michael walked over to the cabinet, crouched down, opened it and then began to scan through her DVD collection. “So, how was your day?!” Sydney asked loudly from her bedroom.
“Oh alright… I worked all morning, then cleaned my apartment… grocery shopped… boring stuff,” he told her.
“Oh damn it, I got something on my sweater…ugh,” Sydney groaned as she ran out of her bedroom and towards the kitchen. Michael glanced up and noticed that she rushed past him in PJ bottoms, but no top at all, only her bra. Quickly he averted his eyes to the DVD cabinet and tried to concentrate on it intensely, ridding his mind of the image of her toned stomach passing by his eyes. For a moment, he was utterly confused by what she had just done, until it slowly dawned up on him. She thought he was gay and therefore would be unaffected by her half-naked body passing in front of him. Great, he grumbled to himself.
“Oh thank god, it came out,” she sighed before returning to her bedroom.
“Good,” Michael said weakly.
“Did ya pick a movie?” she asked as she crouched down beside him (fully dressed, for which Michael was thankful).
“Um, I dunno… you pick; I don’t really care,” he told her.
“Okay,” she smiled and pulled out Center Stage. “Have you seen this?”
“Um… no,” he laughed.
“Oh, it’s so good. I love ballet; I wish I could dance better… I suck,” she laughed. Then she ushered for him to follow her into her bedroom where she popped the DVD in her TV. Once in her room, Michael felt slightly uncomfortable. He wasn’t exactly sure what the appropriate way to act would be, or rather, how she expected him to act.
“Have a seat,” she beamed at him as she gestured towards her bed. Cautiously, Michael sat on the very edge of her bed, but she looked at him with a furrowed brow. “Jeez Michael, get comfortable. Come on,” she said. She crawled up on the bed and grabbed his arm, dragging him back towards the headboard. She sat with her back up against it and encouraged him to do the same. Slowly, he did so. “Much better… so, what kind of movies do you like to watch?”
“Um… well, I dunno. I’m not a big movie fan. I mean, I’ll watch them, I just don’t go out of my way to rent them for myself, you know?”
She nodded. “What do you do?”
“I like to read,” he told her. “Dorky, I know,” he laughed at the slightly perplexed look on her face.
“No, no it’s not,” she assured him. “I was just never a big read for pleasure type of girl.”
“Well… I read medical journals. I don’t think you’d exactly call that ‘reading for pleasure’.”
“Oh,” she laughed. “Fascinating.”
He shrugged. “It can be.”
“Mmhm,” she smiled at him. Then, they fell into silence when the movie began to play. Michael had to admit it definitely was NOT his type of movie, but he did enjoy watching it with Sydney. Halfway through, she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder. Not wanting to wake her, he gently slid her into a laying down position on the bed and tossed a blanket over top of her.
He turned off the movie, and jotted a short note down on a scrap of paper, which he placed on her end table beside her alarm clock. Then, he quietly slipped out of her apartment.
