Status: DOWN for re-editing / won't be updating any time soon. I'm sorry.

Complicated You; Sophisticated Me

beats.

Dylan’s heart sank so inexplicably that he couldn’t meter it if it was sinking in a good or in a bad way.

Mika raised an eyebrow, “What are you looking at?”

Despite his trance, he managed a playful yet somewhat nervous smirk, “You’re really beautiful when you smile.”

Wait—

Did I just say that?


Dylan felt a rush of warmth flowing through his body. He lifted his hand and instinctively fanned himself, “Whew,” he tensed. “It’s a little hot for a night.”

Mika had turned away abruptly soon after he’d said that, before she murmured, “Idiot.”

“Yeah.”

He played with his knuckles, making them crackle; it was one of the mannerisms he had when he felt nervous.

“Are we going to walk?” Mika asked shortly.

“Until we find a decent cab,” Dylan answered. “There’s been news of ‘taxi criminals’ or something like that.”

“Fine.”

“Are you hungry?”

Mika’s palm fell to her stomach, and Dylan already knew that she was. He positioned himself to walk at her side.

Again, he mused. The sinking feeling.

He kept in pace with her, synchronizing his footsteps with hers. He wondered—involuntarily, if that was even possible—if they really did look like a couple in the eyes of other people.

Ah, shit. This is getting weirder and weirder every day.

But…it’s not like he didn’t like it. It was refreshing, but it made him nervous. The awkward atmosphere didn’t do much help, either.

“Tell me the story between you and Heather,” Mika finally broke the silence.

For once, she was the one talking.

“Used to date her,” he answered carefully. “Then we broke up.”

“Who mentioned it first?”

Dylan sighed, “Heather broke up with me.”

~

“Heather was the one who broke up with me,” Dylan explained. “I don’t know; I’ve done a damn load of shit that I shouldn’t have done back then.”

He tilted his head upwards, replaying the memories inside his head.

“I was fourteen and stupid and a little heartless, that’s why she did it. Then she moved to California with her brother.”

Mika contemplated for a moment. “If she hadn’t broken up with you, then you guys would still be together until now.”

Such a simple thought could make me sink down into this, she noted, feeling the same stabs and tugs and pulls she had felt once.

“I wouldn’t know,” Dylan just shrugged.

“Would…you want that?”

Why am I so eager to know? Why do I even bother? Questions danced around her train of thoughts. Why do I have to feel this way?

She waited.

“Back then, I would,” he said. “But the very moment I met you…I don’t know.”

Dylan rubbed his neck with his hand, the other fanning him.

“I guess I just don’t care at all whether she came back or not, because you’re here.”

Mika sighed in…relief?

She shook the thought abruptly and imagined it locked away in a vault. Putting up her usual acid, she spat, “That could hurt her, you moron.”

“Yeah, well, I used to get that a lot,” he chuckled slightly. “Usually from Mitch or from any of her friends. The thing is, it all started when…”

~

Dylan Sparks was fourteen then, and him and his guys were friends with Heather Schmitt and her girls.

The group were partying back in Heather’s villa, when the others played a prank on Dylan and Heather and locked them in a storage room.

When they came out, with faces painted with the color of ripe tomatoes, they were already together.

Dylan had confessed that night, and so had she.

After months of going out, he finally grew distant and felt suffocated with the commitment to a relationship.

“Dylan, doesn’t this look good on me?” Heather had asked him as she tried on a beautiful, black cocktail dress.

Dylan didn’t even look, “I don’t really care.”

Three words.

Three words ignited the fire that made their relationship burn into ashes.

It went on—their constant arguing. Dylan had told her rudely blunt things, often making Heather cry.

“Dude, your words really sting,” his friends would remind him.

“She really cried until her eyes puffed out,” her friends threw him death glares.

“You really should watch what you say,” Mitch would tell him.

Finally the day came when three words came out of Heather’s mouth.

Three words.

With three words, their relationship ended.

“I hate you.”

~

“…and that was it,” Dylan finished. “After that, she called me to say goodbye. She went to California, and we hadn’t seen or talked to each other since then.”

“So you were a bigger idiot in the past,” Mika said.

“You could say that,” he smiled. “I’ve told people good things out of politeness since then. I didn’t want them to think of me badly, you know.”

“Are you being kind to me out of politeness too?”

The question surprised Dylan. She didn’t look at him and kept her gaze unfaltering straight ahead.

Mika asked again, “Are you?”

~

That’s all I need to know, she braced herself.

Somehow she felt afraid of his answer. What if he was? How would she react and what would she feel?

She didn’t know.

Did she even want to know?

~

Dylan’s chest was pounding.

He wanted to tell her that he really wasn’t—and it was the truth—but his voice didn’t cooperate. He was too nervous.

Why am I too damn freaking nervous!?

It was the first time she’s ever asked him something like this.

He was doing this because…well, he didn’t really know.

To kill time? No, that was before he even got close to her.

I felt obligated to? No, what was he—her father or big brother or something?

Because I lo…ah?

His eyes widened and blood rushed to his face even more.
♠ ♠ ♠
Sorry for the stupid chapter...thingie. Uh, yeah. Comment so I would know. Thanks!