Captivated

"Come on, hurry up!" Mike gripped, grabbing a pocket knife from his pocket and slicing it through the ropes that had been tied around Michelle.

Tre stared down at Billie ropes- then he stupidly tried to bite through them.

"Tre, what are you doing?" Billie Joe asked.

"Biting through your dusty, germ-infested ropes... EWW!" Tre explained.

"Here, Tre," Mike sighed. Tre shuffled to one side and Mike un-did all Billie's captivating materials.

They now had to figure out a way to get the handcuffs off of them.

"I KNOW!" Tre smiled gleefully, "I can use my SPECIAL handcuffs key! It fits any handcuffs of any size!"

All the others watched as Tre fished out a key from his pocket.

"We better get out of here first," Mike suggested. Michelle and Billie Joe nodded intently.

They all rushed outside, Tre still bragging on and on about his magical handcuff key.

"You know, once I even used it on myself," Tre told them.

"Well that's very nice but now is not the time!" Mike said quickly.

"Here, Tre. Let's see you use your handcuffs key on me," Michelle decided, holding out her hands to him. He shoved the key in the keyhole, and sure enough, off came the cuffs.

"Now try me!" Billie Joe begged. Tre used his key on Billie's, and soon enough, they had also come off.

"Now hurry up!" Mike insisted.

"I know, how about we all go back to my house for a few beers," Tre suggested, swinging his arms around wildly.

"Tre, I don't think that now's a very good time to... " Mike began, but Michelle cut him off.

"I'm in, what about you, Billie?" Michelle urged.

"Actually... I was thinking that maybe I should go home first," Billie Joe said slowly.

Tre nodded, "Oh okay. See you soon."

He sounded a bit disappointed, as it wasn't very often that Mike and Billie Joe turned down a beer or two. Or six.

When Mike and Billie Joe had gone home, and Tre and Michelle were at Tre's house, everything was sort of awkward.

"So... you want a beer?" Tre started off slowly.

"Okay," Michelle nodded. There was dead silence as Tre opened the fridge to get two bottles of beer.

"Oh," Tre said deeply.

"Why 'oh'?" Michelle questioned him.

"There's no more beer," Tre announced shamefully.

"Well you wanna go down to the store and get some more?" She asked.

"Well... if you want to," Tre agreed.

"C'mon then," She giggled, grabbing Tre's car keys and racing outside. Tre followed her, not too far behind.

When they had gotten to the store, they felt a lot more open to each other.

"So what type do you want?" Tre quizzed, when they had gotten to the beer fridge. Michelle shrugged, "Any type you want."

"No, I want you to decide," Tre smiled kindly, putting his arm around her waist. Michelle's heart froze.

"He is... he's... " She stammered in her mind, "He's... almost hugging me."

She stared at all the cases of beer, lined up perfectly in the icy fridge.

"That one," She finally decided, pointing at a random case of beer.

"Good choice," Tre giggled. Michelle smiled at him. He smiled back.

Michelle reached for the door to open the fridge at the same time as Tre. His hand ended on top of her's.

"Weird. It's like he knows I like him," Michelle thought.

They drew closer and closer to eachother, until they saw someone coming. It was St Jimmy and the gutter punk.

"Freaky criminals alert," Tre ushered, turning himself and Michelle to face away from them. They stayed silent as they tried to pick up a snippet of their conversation.

"We need to get the chick's boyfriend. It's the only way," They heard them say.

"Mike," Tre whispered to Michelle, "They're after Mike."

"We better get out of here," Michelle said. Tre nodded, grabbed the casket of beer and practically ran to the checkout.

***

"Hey Billie," Mike sighed, as they were walking down the street.

"Yes?" Billie Joe asked politely.

"Do you mind if I stay at your house for the night? I don't feel comfortable alone in mine right now," Mike questioned.

"Why don't you just ask Michelle to stay at your house?" Billie Joe suggested. Mike considered this for a few seconds.

"Well... I don't trust Tre around with Michelle... alone. Maybe that would be a better idea, yeah," Mike admitted.

Billie Joe didn't know whether to tell Mike about Michelle's 'crush' or not. So he just shrugged.

"You know what Tre's like and all," Mike then continued.

"Everything's gonna be fine, trust me," Billie Joe smiled...

Or will it?

***

Back at Tre's house, he and Michelle were having quite a pleasurable time drinking a few beers each.

"So what do you wanna do?" Michelle questioned, placing her half-empty beer on the coffee table, and stretching herself along one of Tre's couches.

Tre looked around nervously- anywhere but her.

"Michelle," He began, his eyes finally taking refuge by staring at the floor.

"Yes," Michelle beckoned.
"I... " He stammered, "I think I love you."

Michelle was silent. Tre finally looked her in the eyes.

"So do you want to?" Tre questioned her innocently.

"Do you want to what?" Michelle asked.

"You know... " Tre stretched.

"... Have sex?" Michelle provided.

"Yeah," Tre nodded.

"Well he seems pretty damn casual about it," Michelle thought. Then she thought of Mike.

"Tre, I... can't. I can't betray Mike... again," Michelle announced.

"He won't know if we don't tell him," Tre grinned.

"I need to go now," Michelle forced, getting off the couch and heading for the door. But Tre had a firm grip of her hand.

"One kiss. That's all I'm asking for," Tre whispered huskily.

"One kiss. And that's it," Michelle told him firmly.

Tre nodded. Michelle looked at him doubtfully. He didn't look trustful.

She plonked herself down beside him, and in a moment, they kissed.

Repulsive. Utterly repulsive.

"That was the grossest kiss... EVER!!!!!" Michelle thought angrily.

"Okay, Tre. I need to go now," She said, aloud this time.

She ran down the street, and there she bumped into Mike.

"Hey Michelle, I was just coming to get ya from Tre's," Mike smiled.

"Why?" She decided to ask.

"I was wondering if you'd like to stay the night," Mike offered.

To Michelle, this seemed like a harmless thing to do, "Okay."

***

When they had gotten to Mike's, Michelle felt it was time to own up to Mike about kissing Tre.

"Mike," Michelle sighed, sitting down on one of Mike's living room couches.

"Yes?" Mike questioned her nicely.

"I... I kissed Tre," She gushed, not wanting to keep it inside of her any longer.

"You what?!" Mike exclaimed.

"I know. I fucked up again. I couldn't keep the simplest promise," Michelle said weakly, but with a touch of anger in her voice. Anger towards herself.

"Michelle, that's not what I meant and you know it!" Mike said firmly, standing up sharply.

"Yes it is. I can't be trusted!" Michelle sobbed, warm tears running down her face as she stood up next to Mike.

"I don't know what you think you did, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING is going to tear us apart!" Mike shouted, grabbing hold of Michelle's wrists.

"He wanted sex, Mike," Michelle told him from behind her tears, her voice a little calmer then it was before.

"But you didn't!" Mike advised her.

Michelle didn't say anything, but she had a strong look of doubt on her face as she gazed into Mike's eyes. His face grew a step softer.

"You didn't want sex with him, right?" Mike said so quietly, Michelle could barely hear it.

Michelle opened her mouth to shout something strong onto him, but she just escaped from Mike's grip and ran out of his house, just like she had done at Tre's.

She bit her lip as she recalled the way Mike had said that nothing was going to tear them apart, "It sounded to definite, yet so fake."

Michelle stood up boldly and marched directly past JOS's house.

"Hey," He smiled from inside.

"Err... hey?" Michelle replied, stopping in her tracks.

"Come on in," He offered warmly, patting his hand on the dirt patch next to him, a perky little smile on his usually broad face.

"So... you won't rape me?" Michelle asked shyly.

"Of course not," he grinned.
"He's faking it. He's lying. Don't trust him, Michelle," Her conscience told her. But she did anyway.

She took one step forward, but still, the JOS seemed happy.

She took another step, and still he remained calm.

She took a third step and...