MICHELLE
DECEMBER 3RD, 2004

MAYBE THIS WASN'T THE BEST IDEA, but honestly, when have I ever had a good idea.

Also, technically, this wasn't my idea.

When we got to Biddies we found the others who were already crowded at a table. Feely, Katie, and Hughie were sitting in a line at one end of a long table with a bunch of—I'm assuming—rugby players packed around the other end.

Out of the entire table of maybe twenty to thirty chairs, there were only three left. I guarantee that Feely and Hughie had saved those for Johnny and Gerard. I'm not sure if the third one was open because the person occupying it left or because they had been saving it for me too, though that wouldn't make sense because they didn't know I was coming.

There was a lot of talking and yelling in the bar, which was probably because of the amount of people.

This place was practically overflowing.

I hated it.

"This place is loud." I said. Not really to anyone in particular, but apparently both the boys heard me because they both replied.

"It usually is." Johnny has said at the same time Gerard said "It's usually louder."

Great.

I honestly never cared about volume. Whether your whispering or screaming, I didn't give a fuck, but this place also reeked of weed.

Fun fact: weed makes me nauseous.

I've been to plenty of house parties, but most of the time it smelled more like alcohol, which didn't bother me that much.

Either the owner knew that there were dozens of teenagers in his bar, drinking and smoking, and just didn't care or they weren't here and it was the—likely—irresponsible manager.

"Oh, hey Mikey." Katie called out, waving at me as the three of us approached the table.

"Hi!"

I loved Katie.

She was a lot nicer than I had expected her to be the first time I saw her from across the lunchroom.

Both boys at the table looked up, their eyes immediately landing on me. A large smile found its way onto their faces as they turned to each other and high-fived. "Called it." Hugh said.

"Called what?" Johnny asked, sliding into the stool closest to the end.

"When we were leaving the locker room we saw Mikey sitting there and we knew you'd find a way to convince her to come." Hugh explained, a big smile on his face.

Am I that predictable?

"We are glad you did." Katie added, looking directly at me. "Come, that is. Me most of all, hanging out with these boys gets super repetitive."

I smiled "Glad I could help."

Gerard slapped his hands down on the table "let's get this show on the road, huh?"

Twenty minutes, that's how long it took for Gerard to convince me to get up and dance.

I'm not sure how much I drank, but it was enough to think that Gerard's dance moves were actually good.

At some point throughout the arguing about not wanting to dance in my uncomfortable shoes he had dragged me up—I don't exactly remember what he had said, but it made me laugh. There was an oddly familiar song playing on the radio that I couldn't remember the name of to save my life, but it was a very danceable song. There wasn't really a designated "dance floor", so we were in the middle of the bar surrounded by maybe twenty other people—who were also dancing.

Our dancing was a mix of multiple different styles. There was the first few minutes where we practically flipping around the open space, pushing through the people like they weren't even there, then that was followed by the next ten minutes where we were slow dancing as if the song wasn't up-beat and loud. Gerard had been telling me his wonderful idea about how we should introduce our demon cats to each other. At first I thought that was a terrible idea because they might fight each other then we would have to deal with vet bills and complaining females (Maeve and his mom), but he made a few good points—at least the very tipsy version of me thought they were good.

Then we were spinning. The song had changed to something similar to the last one and during the transition Gerard had grab my hand and spun me in a complete circle. I thought it was hilarious so I did the same thing to him—which he also thought was hilarious. That began the ten minutes of random spin dance moves that sadly ended when we got so dizzy that we were almost sick.

Then we went back to slow dancing while we waited for the dizziness to wear off.

His arm was wrapped around my waist, keeping our bodies close as we rocked from one foot to the other. One of his hands were tangled in mine while the other was tracing lines up and down my back. And at one point my head had dropped against his chest and his had then dropped on mine.

Because of the placement of my head, I could hear his heart beating and it was probably the most calming sound I'd ever heard. Beating in an almost perfect pattern, keeping to a specific rhythm that I wish I could hear all day, everyday, even if I end up losing my hearing and going completely deaf because of it.

It was like the main beat of that one song that somehow—no matter what mood you are in—makes you feel happy. You know? Your favorite song.

It was my new favorite song.

"Hey Michelle."

And the lyrics began.

Trying to keep my voice down so that I didn't interrupt the beat, I hummed. Hoping that was a good enough reply.

"I'm really happy you ran into me that day."

I pulled my head away from his chest, despite how badly I wanted to stay there because I wanted to see him more.

"Yeah?" I bit back a smile.

He nodded, his finger tracing a messy circle on my back. "Yeah."

I pulled my hand off of his shoulder, raising it to the side of his face, my thumb instinctively sliding against his cheek below his eye. "Good, because I'm really happy I ran into you that day in the hallway too."

A small smile made its way across his lips. "Yeah?" His voice had lowered to a whisper and even though the bar was crowded and loud, I still managed to hear every breath.

"Yeah."

The two of us seemed to fade from existence. There was nobody around, no sounds, no problems—absolutely nothing, but us.

And I loved it.

I knew Johnny and the others were somewhere close, probably laughing and celebrating their win, which—according to Gerard—is a very common occurrence. But I just didn't care.

I didn't let my eyes leave his, I didn't want them to.

His eyes were so pretty.

For the past sixteen years of my life my favorite color has been green. It wasn't because of anything in particular, I just couldn't think of anything else that peaked my interest. Nothing else ever felt right.

Until now.

Now that I'm staring into his eyes, I knew—that was it. That exact shade of blue is my favorite color.

I knew exactly what I was doing tomorrow.

AUTHOR TALKS!!
This chapter was gonna have so much more drama but I got swept up in the dancing scene. Sorry not sorry. I'll make up for in soon.

Johnny and the others watching these two dance like they aren't in love with each other:🧍‍♂️

For those of you unaware I did publish my Joey fic over the holidays because his gal pal is mentioned at the end of this act and a lot through act two and I didn't want to include too many spoilers.

Also HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Mine hasn't been all that happy, but I'll get over it I guess.