We're Climbing up the Sky

She looked around the empty room, her hair was dripping wet. She pulled it into a messy bun, the water dripped down her back. She took the towel from the bed and wiped her neck. She was in a sports bra and bike shorts. She sat down on the bed, grabbing the clicker turning the tv on. She flipped through the tv, nothing interesting was on so she settled with cartoon network. She picked through her clothing, letting the chatter between Finn and Jake settle in the background.

Drella sat cross-legged on the bed, with the pants she bought yesterday with Tina and Franco laying on the pillow. She pulled them on, and tucked in a band t-shirt into them. She pulled on a black cardigan to keep herself warm. It was fall, so it was still warm, but it had that fall breeze that always got to her. She tugged at the sleeves of the cardigan, pulling them to cover her fingers. She laid on her stomach, half paying attention to the show that was playing out in front of her.

She watched what Mike did, as her friends said she should, and they were right. He did act, different towards her. She thought she was just imagining it, but when he kissed her on the cheek something was different. But maybe she was just letting her friends words get to her. She sighed, pushing the pink hair that fell out of the bun off her face. She cursed herself, letting her friends words getting to her, there was no way he liked her. She got off the bed, grabbing her liquid eyeliner.
"Why would he like a pink haired short freak like me, when he could have any girl he wants." she said, staring at the girl in the mirror, she always had bags under her eyes, she had too many piercings and tattoos, her face was long and weird. Why would anyone like her.

There was a knock at the door, she furrowed her brow. Who could possibly knocking on the door. She walked over to the door, standing on her tiptoes she looked through the peep-hole. Speak of the devil, it was WhiskeyHands himself. She opened the door.

“Why’d you knock?” I asked, walking back to the bed.

“I forgot the key in my pants pockets that I was wearing last night,” he chuckled as he walked over to his suit case.

she nodded, letting her attention be grabbed by the kids tv show. He walked by the tv into the bathroom to change. She closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep. But she would giggle every few seconds over Adventure Time. The bathroom door opened and close.

“Oh so we’ve decided that we’re going to six flags.” Mike said, plopping down next to her.

She scrunched up her nose in disgust “reaaaally, is that what you guys reeeaaaallly want to do on your day off?”

He just laughed and shoved her playfully “Oh come on, it’ll be fun. You don’t have to go on any of the crazy rides. You can just sit there and eat all the cheesy fries you want.”

She turned her gaze onto him, narrowing her eyes “......fine, but as long as Jaime doesn’t drag me on to any rides. Cause that’s what he does!” Mike raised an eyebrow “whenever we went there as little kids, he would always drag me onto all of the big scary rides, and we would sit in the front row.”

Mike just chuckled “That won’t happen, I promise.” Drella stuck out her pinky finger, he intertwined his with hers “Pinky promise.”

His phone rang.

“Hello? Oh hey Tony.” he put his hand to the end of his phone “You ready El?”

She nodded, getting up to get her purse. Mike whispered into the phone then hung up. He looked at her “Let’s go then.”

She slipped on her Toms and nodded “Okie dokie.”

He talked her into taking the elevator with him, which ended up with him standing really close. He smelt like cigarettes, cheap cologne, and a hint of weed. It was a surprising mix, but comforting none of the less. She leaned head on his arm, closing her eyes she waited for the elevator ride to stop. There was a ding and the elevator came to a stop forcing her stomach to do unwanted flips. There fingers brushed up against one anothers, Drella blushed as she lifted her head off his arm.

The doors opened, and he motioned his hand for her to go first, like a gentlemen. She smiled and with much pleasure got off the elevator.

“YO! There they are!” she heard Alex say.

Drella waved to the boys.

“GUESS WHAT!” Jaime screamed from outside, earning a glare from the person working at the desk “We’re going on a trrraaaiiiiinnn!”

She rolled her eyes, walking out into the daylight. She squinted, fumbling with her bag to get her sunglasses. They walked to the station, someone was filming for their little movie thing. Drella didn't know what the name of the movie was called. She tried to stay out of it as much as she could.

“Drella! You ready to ride batman!” Jaime said from behind her, she felt him wrap his arms around her waist and pick her up.

“Jaime put me down!” she angled herself so she could lick him.

“Eww did you just lick me,” he said as he dropped her. She ran away from him.

“Yeah,” she grinned at him, walking in front of everyone.

******

She stared up at the very large rollercoaster. Her neck hurt looking at it. She turned to Jaime looking at him, he was grinning at her. “Nope. I’m not doing it. I’m not afraid of a lot of things, but I’m not doing that.”

He pouted at her, “Awh come on Drell, we won’t sit in the front.”

She shook her head, “I’m gonna go get some cheesy fries or something, sorry Hime-Time”

“I’ll come with you,” Mike said, he looked at her, giving her a warm smile.

“Okay,” Jaime said, looking at Mike. They locked eyes, then nodded. The rest of the guys turned away to go to the batman line, leaving Mike and I to ourselves.

"Haavee fun!" Vic said, waving as they left.

Drella chuckled at his child-like demeanor.

“So cheesy-fries?” Mike said, breaking the silence between them. He took his snapback off, fixing his hair then putting it back on.

She nodded, “I think it’s this way,” she pointed to the opposite direction the guys went.

He extended his hand for her to take it, she bit her lip trying to hide her smile. She took it, their fingers interlaced. They made small talk, but he seemed to be lost in thought so they didn’t talk much. They stood in line, waiting to order some fries. There was an old lady standing there, taking orders. She smiled at them.

“What can I get you two?” she said, her hair was kept in a hairnet.

“Can we have one thing of cheesy-fries and” he looked at her “two cokes?” Drella nodded “two cokes.”

The old lady shoveled fries onto a plate, then drizzled the cheese on it. “Will that be all?” she looked up at as, handing us the food and drinks.

“Yeah,” she said, Drella began taking out money to pay.

“Drell, I got it.” he pushed her hand down.

“No, you payed for the groceries.” she gave the lady her money.

She took it, and smiled sweetly at them “You two make a very cute couple, you remind me a lot of my son and his girlfriend.” she said as she gave her back some change.

Drellas face turned bright red. “O-oh we-”

Mike cut her off “I’m lucky to have her,” he said, snaking an arm around her waist, pulling her close. Her eyes grew wide, looking up at him. He just smiled down at her. He grabbed the food, thanked the lady and walked away. She stood there stunned, did he just pretend to be in a relationship with her. Her heart felt like it was going to break through her rib cage right there. She felt like she did in high school. She said thank you to the old lady and walked after him.

Why did he do that? Did he want to be in a relationship? Did he just do that, or am I dreaming? She played with the hem of my sleeves, tugging at it. What were his motives, did he like me? She sat down next to him, not touching her food. Her thoughts were running a mile a minute.

“You okay Ella?” Mike said, turning to her, he tugged on his lip ring with his teeth.

“Yeah just thinking,” she could feel his eyes on her. She looked down at the fries, beginninf to pick off the nail polish from her nails. “Why’d you lie to her?” she looked up at him, a mustache was forming on his upper lip. His lip ring hugged his lip tightly.

He drew in a breath “I’ve like you for a while Drella, and I’m sorry if you don’t feel the same way about me. I’m sorry if that was rash and stupid of me but I jus-” she cut him off, placing her lips to his. The piece of metal pressed to her lips, she could feel his lips turn into a smile. He returned the kiss, he placed his hands on her cheeks, cupping her face.

The kiss lasted a few minutes, then they broke off. She took in a deep breathe, he was a better kisser than she thought he would be. He placed his forehead to hers, they were both sharing the same facial expression.

“I’ve liked you for a while too Mike.” she giggled, she cursed herself for acting like such a teenage girl today. He moved his thumb around in a figure 8 on her cheek.

“I was just scared that I would fuck up our friendship by telling you,” he kissed her nose “Otherwise I would have told you a long time ago.” he said.

She moved her face from his. She watched the many roller coasters, the screams of the people on it bounced off of everything.

“I’ve always been scared of that too. But I’ve mostly been scared of being in a relationship with you. Not because I don’t like you, I do, but only because all my past relationships have ended horribly. And I wouldn’t want that to happen with you,” she looked back at him.

He took her hand “I promise that won’t happen.”

“How can you be sure?”

“You’re not on that roller coaster are you?” he broke into a smile, which soon took over her face “I don’t make promises I can’t keep Drell.”

She bite her lip trying to hide the smile that was forming on her face “Okay.”

“So am I pretty safe to ask you to be my girlfriend?”

She chuckled “I dunno Mikey, I’m pretty busy,” he pouted, sensing her sarcasm “Of course Mike!”

He cupped her face pulling her into kiss. The stubble on his face tickled her face, making her giggle.

“DUDE, did you get that on camera?” A voice said behind them.

They broke off turning around to where the voice came from. She saw Tony getting money from Vic, and Alex pointing the camera at them. Jaime was standing next to Alex grinning, he waved. Mike waved back then flipped him off.