Complicated You; Sophisticated Me

Dylan wanted to surprise her from behind. He grinned to himself, thinking about the possible reactions Mika would give him.

His smile slowly faded when he saw Mika lying unconscious on the floor the moment he took the turn from the hall.

Dylan fell to his knees beside her and started checking her pulse. He noticed a white, semi-transparent tube near Mika’s right hand.

An inhaler? He wondered before he kept it in his pocket.

He glanced at Mika’s face and gently wrapped his arms around her. One arm assisted her from around the bottom, and the other around her back.

It would have embarrassed the both of them, but now was not the time to think of anything like that.

Right now, he could only think of seeing Mika open her eyes.

~

“Is she okay?” Dylan asked worriedly after the school doctor, a forty year-old kind woman named Dr. Victoria Hemsworth, checked Mika.

The doctor gave him a warm and reassuring smile, “She’s going to be okay, Dylan. She needs plenty of rest because of the attack, and her head bump needs ice.”

“Attack? What do you mean attack?”

“Asthma,” she replied. “I’m guessing she takes special medication but she probably skipped on it.”

Could it be that she didn’t take them during the trip? We weren’t prepared for the overnight after all.

Dylan suddenly felt angry with himself.

He shouldn’t have let Mika stay there for the night. He should have taken her home.

“I should’ve known she had asthma,” he grimaced, clenching his fists.

Dr. Hemsworth asked, “Are you her boyfriend?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Then it wasn’t your fault you didn’t know about it,” she said. “Sometimes, we hide our own problems from people important to us because we don’t want to drag them into our own mess. She probably doesn’t want you to worry about her, that’s all.”

“If she told me—“ Dylan looked up at her. “—then I would have been there with her before she collapsed. I would have caught her even before she fell to the ground.”

Dr. Hemsworth just smiled, “It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of her; you can go back to class now.”

~

Dylan hesitantly went back to his classroom, feeling completely miserable. He felt so miserable that you’d feel that there were tentacles of evil aura flowing outside of him.

“You ditched class, man,” Kip whispered. “Wane’s going to kill you.”

He rested his cheek on his palm. “Good thing I did. I could care less about the punishment right now.”

“What happened?”

“Mika passed out.”

Kip’s eyes widened, “What?”

“She had asthma and an attack got to her just before she was able to use her inhaler. I don’t know why she kept such an important thing to herself.”

“There are some things better left unsaid, I guess?” Kip answered shortly.

“This clearly isn’t one of those things, Kip. I wasn’t there when she needed me because I didn’t know.”

~

Mika’s eyes opened. The sunlight from the windows were light orange in color, and she instantly knew it was already afternoon.

She sat up and winced at the pain from her head.

“You’re awake,” the doctor said calmly. “You need some ice packs on that dear; I think you fell from the stairs when you collapsed. Good thing it wasn’t that severe.”

Mika’s hand instinctively found its way to the bump.

There it is, she thought.

“You have a very nice boyfriend,” Dr. Hemsworth added.

Mika’s shoulders tensed. “What?”

“He carried you all the way here and blamed himself for not being able to catch you when you fell. He’s a nice young boy, that Dylan Sparks.”

Mika wasn’t entirely sure about that, and she felt like scoffing at the school doctor’s remark...but some part inside her admitted that Dylan really was kind.

“Yeah…he is,” she murmured shortly.

“Dr. Hemsworth?” Someone called from the office.

Dylan.

“How’s Mika doi—“ he said as he set aside the curtain that separated the office from the patients’ ward, then saw that Mika was already awake. “Mika!”

Dr. Hemsworth excused herself.

That's when he abruptly rushed to her side, taking her hand without thinking. Mika felt like her heart skipped a little when she felt his warm skin against hers.

“Mika…I’m so sorry,” he looked directly at her eyes.

“What are you apologizing for?”

“I wasn’t there when the attack got you.”

Mika looked down. She couldn’t handle his direct gaze.

She couldn’t describe it very well, but it felt like…adrenaline was taking over her body, making blood rush vehemently to her face. Her hand seemed to be magnetized to his, and somehow she felt reassurance, safety.

“Well, you’re here right now, aren’t you?” she whispered loud enough for only Dylan to hear. “That’s more than enough.”

~

He could feel his face turn warmer and warmer, and his chest was buzzing and buzzing and buzzing wildly. It might be the same as what he first felt when he was with Heather in that storage room years ago, but this time it was…something more.

It was greater than how he had felt back then.

It was almost smothering him with a riot of emotions. He suddenly felt like he wanted to grab her into his arms, or meet his lips with hers.

But he didn’t.

He felt like Mika was too fragile; he wanted to protect her from everything. Even from himself.

Dylan couldn’t move and suddenly their eyes met.

“Mika…” he began. “I—“

His phone vibrated before he could even finish, making him feel awkward and speechless. Reluctantly, he took his phone and answered the call.

“Yeah?” Dylan said languidly.

“Dylan, it’s me, Heather,” she answered from the other line, her voice slightly muffled.

“What’s up?”

“Can we talk? Please. It’s important.”

Dylan looked up at Mika, “I’m kind of busy.”

“Please.”

Her voice sounded urgent, and he would go if he could, but Mika needed him more. “What is it about?”

“I can’t talk here; I gotta go. I’m at the plaza. Please, please make it.”

She hung up.

Mika just looked at him, not really saying anything. After a few heartbeats, she nodded, as if allowing him to go.

“Mika?”

“I’m okay. You worry too much, idiot,” she said monotonously. “Just go.”

“I’ll be back for you, okay? Don’t go home without me.”

“I can stand—“

Dylan kissed her on the forehead, cutting her off. Then he smiled, “Don’t go home without me, okay?”

~

This was the first time.

The first time his kiss made an effect on her so much—

And it was only on the forehead: how much more if it were on the lips?

Mika buried her face on the pillow angrily. He does whatever he pleases, that moron. He’s a big, big moron. An idiot. A fag.

Her eyes saddened.

She knew who had called him. It was Heather, his past girlfriend.

Yeah, well, so what?she thought. I don’t care.

Mika didn’t care…

So why did it hurt so much when he left to meet up with Heather?

~

Dylan arrived at the plaza and caught sight of Heather, sitting on a bench, dressed too thinly for the cold weather.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

Heather stood up and smiled, “I just need to talk to you.” He handed her his jacket, since it was cold. “Thanks.”

“About what?”

She looked up at him hopefully, and suddenly memories flashed in Dylan’s head. Heather gestured for them to take a seat, and they did.

“Remember that storage room?” she began cheerfully. “That’s where you first confessed to me.”

Dylan smiled slightly, “Yeah.”

“I felt like the luckiest girl back then. But then I lost you.”

“Maybe it was meant to happen—“

“It wasn’t!” Heather cut him off suddenly, and then calmed down when she realized she had practically yelled at him, “It wasn’t.”

“Heather, what are you trying to say?” Dylan sighed.

“Do you love your girlfriend, Dylan?”

His heart thumped.

“Don’t ask things like that suddenly…”

“Do you love her?”

“I…I…” he couldn’t answer.

He felt weird. Why couldn’t he answer? He felt like he knew the answer to it, but why couldn't he admit it?

“…I don’t know?”

Heather smiled, almost triumphantly, “Then come back to me.”