Heart & Soul

"PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT HAPPENED RIGHT THIS INSTANT. SINCE WHEN DO YOU KNOW MIKE?" Bailey ran up to me the second I rounded the corner after entering the door from mine and Mike's "date". She threw her hands on top of my shoulders and before she shook my body, she realized what she was about to do and immediately retracted her arms from where they sat on my shoulders. If I hadn't still been awestruck from what had just occurred, I probably would've sent her a panic stricken look before the trembling began. "Sorry, Jo," she whispered, only audible to me. But I was glad for the distraction that posed as a barricade from the real world. Why had I wanted him to kiss me in the slightest bit? I was convinced that any contact from the opposite sex would repulse me for the rest of my existence. Why was I so interested in Mike? Why did I feel so at ease around him? I had too many questions for even the greatest chemist on the planet to decode.

After I regained my composure, I merely shrugged my shoulders before stepping over to the fridge to retrieve a bottle of water. My passiveness was astonishing myself. I just couldn't erase his face from my head. The beauty of his presence, his voice, his passion for what he did for a living, him. Quickly, I snapped out of my trance so I didn't get skeptical glances and interrogation from my best friend and her boyfriend, who just so happened to be the guy I was fawning over's brother.

"We met at the party the other week," I replied inadvertently before giving another lax shrug. "Then he ran into me this morning at the bookstore and made me watch Harry Potter with him all day long," I chuckled, shoving a half-assed explanation to my best friend. I didn't want to say a ton in front of Vic, considering he was Mike's brother and all.

"There's more to it and I know it," she waved a finger in my face. I gave a half smirk before winking in her direction and sauntering into the living room, bottle of water in hand. "So is he a good kisser?" Bailey pressed as I plopped myself down onto the leather couch that lay in our living room. Vic let out an audible groan before stirring uncomfortably in his seat on the couch.

"C'mon babe, really? Cause I want to know how good of a kisser my little brother is?" Vic griped, pinching the bridge of his nose in distress.

"We didn't kiss," I simply shrugged before unscrewing the cap off of my water bottle and taking a swig. "We just watched movies and talked,"

"Wait, what? He didn't even kiss you?" it wasn't Bailey who questioned this, but rather Vic. I whipped my head around to face where he sat on the other side of the couch. I cocked my head to the side and raised my brows before replying.

"No...?" I replied somewhat tentatively.

"Mike isn't the type to just 'watch movies and talk'," Vic put air quotes around what I had told him we had done while I was over at their house, causing me to furrow my eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to prod at the surface of whatever it was he was trying to get to.

"It means that he sleeps with a lot of women," Bailey chuckled from her stance in the doorway. Vic promptly shot her a glare that silently told her not to say another word, to which Bailey ceased her laughter.

"Wait, he didn't even play the drums for you?" Vic asked, squinting his eyes as he tried to assess the situation to the best of his abilities.

"Nope," I said simply before getting lost in my own thoughts.

Mike slept with a lot of women? Was that really true? Was I just another one of them? Surely I wasn't because we hadn't slept together...not by a long shot. But that didn't stop my mind. What were Mike's intentions with me? What did he really want from all of this?

"He thinks she's different!" Bailey clapped her hands together wildly while jumping up and down like a teenage girl would do at a Justin Bieber concert.

"What are you talking about you crack head?" I laughed nervously before standing up and making my way to the fridge to grab an apple. She began to talk but I dismissively held a hand up in front of her face.

"Save it. I have studying to do and I need to get to bed," I pushed her face a little and she giggled, slapping my hand away before bouncing her way over to Vic's lap where he overlooked our conversation, amused and chuckling at us.

"We both know you're just going to bed." Bailey called as I entered the room.

In response, I showed the middle finger out of my doorway before shutting it for the night.

-

The next morning I woke up extremely groggy and disoriented, as I had not slept as peacefully as I had hoped. I constantly tossed and turned throughout the night, and the sleep that I did manage to get was filled with night terrors that woke me up with a jolt and an erratic paced heart. I had gotten nightmares ever since....him.

I shook the thought away, not wanting to let my past consume me as it had done so many times prior.

I pushed the covers off of my body, sighing as I ran a hand through my unkempt, snarly brunette tendrils. I wiped underneath my eyes to collect any access mascara that remained from my slumber before shoving my glasses on my face and getting out of bed to make a pot of coffee to wake myself up.

I opened my door, yawning and stretching my arms above my head, my oversized sweater rising up and showing off my midsection, as it was the only article of clothing that remained on my body besides a pair of lace boyshort underwear. I was used to waking up to only Bailey in the apartment, and on occassion Vic but I felt as if he were a brother and didn't find it awkward to walk around half naked with him around, seeing as he had been with Bailey for so long.

"Oh, hello there. Scrambled or sunny side up?" an all too familiar male voice startled me, making me jump backward and clutch my hand to my chest in feeble attempt to stop a scream.

In my kitchen, standing at the stove with a spatula and frying pan in hand stood a fully clothed and groomed Mike, which I had quite obviously had not been expecting.

Bailey and Vic sat at the kitchen table, mugs of coffee in their hands and sleep not in their eyes. I had thought it was early, but looking at the time that the clock on the microwave displayed, I was very wrong. It was a bit past noon, and I had slept in for a lot longer than I had realized and was adapted to doing. How was that even possible?

Modestly, I pulled down the hem of my sweater to try and conceal some of my body from Mike, an inefficient attempt of course.

"You know, I could get used to this," Mike waved the spatula in the general direction of my body before leaning his back against the stove.

"Uhh..." I trailed off, leaving my sentence in the open air that lay thick with awkward tension from the situation. I looked to Bailey for support, but she gave a simple shrug of her shoulders with an amused smirk plastered on her face before taking a gulp out of her coffee mug. Vic sat at her left, the same smug smirk pressed to his lips. They seemed to really enjoy my tendency to lay in sticky situations.

"So how 'bout them eggs?" Mike taunted, motioning to the stove with his spatula.

"Um, scrambled please." I requested before going into my bedroom to get at least half way decent, considering I wasn't even safe in my own home anymore....

-

"Aw, bummer," Mike pouted as he set my plated of scrambled eggs in front of my perch at the kitchen table. "I was really diggin' the no-pants look," he wagged his eyebrows at me before taking the empty seat next to me. Vic and Bailey were totally engrossed in their conversation, leaving me to spew clumsy dialogue to a guy I hardly knew.

"Oh, I bet you were," I guffawed, picking up my fork and spearing the breakfast delicacy before bringing it to my lips. I had to hold back a moan as I shoveled the food into my mouth, it was so delicious. I didn't know what Mike had added to them to make them taste so phenomenal, but I wouldn't mind if he would come over every morning and concoct my breakfast. Minus the me not wearing pants part. That was kind of awkward.

"So, I was thinking that we should go on a real date," Mike said, walking over to the silverware drawer and retrieving a fork before coming over to my place at the table again and taking a forkfull of his own off my plate.

"You may have mentioned so yesterday," I laughed lightly before continuing to devour my meal, Mike helping me.

"And since you promised me all the dates I could possibly want, I decided that we're going on one. Tonight," Mike proposed, seemingly more like a question that he was afraid I would say no to. But there was no turning back now. I had made a promise that I refused to back out of, and I was going to keep my word on it. I was also going to use that as an excuse so I didn't have to reveal the fact that I actually wanted to go out on a date with this man.

"And where do you intend on taking me Mike By The Way?" I inquired, a sly grin on my face the whole time, knowing the name I chose to call him would piss him off all the more.

"God damn you," he snickered before continuing, "I can never win, can I?" he speared some eggs onto his fork before returning it to his mouth.

"Not unless you really stir my shit up. And that takes a lot," I pointed my fork at him, and his reaction was to try and have a jousting match. "Quit it!" I giggled before swatting his fork away.

"Now, as I was saying. We are going out tonight. Dress nicely. None of that slutty stuff like you were wearing at the party, although it would be quite appealing," he cocked an eyebrow, completely disregarding the fact that not only was my roommate, but also his brother sitting right next to us.

"Mike!" I slapped his chest and he feigned hurt before laughing and finishing off my plate with me and taking it to the sink.

"I'm serious," he raised a brow. "But Vic and I have to take off. Band practice," Mike explained before Vic nodded and stood from where he sat at the circular table. Bailey walked them both to the door, grabbing Vic by the sides of the face and planting kisses everywhere she could reach, causing Vic to laugh and her to giggle as well. I looked longingly, loving their relationship and silently wishing that maybe someone someday would do that to me.

I sighed before nodded at Mike, who pointed to them and made a gagging face. I grinned at him before letting out a small snicker.

"Be ready by seven! And wear a freaking dress!" Mike yelled as he walked out of the apartment, Vic following suit as I laughed to myself at his goofiness. Bailey closed the door behind them before returning back to her seat next to me.

"I think he really likes you," Bailey sing-songed, poking me all over.

"Shut up, we hardly know each other," I blushed at her statement, though there was no possible way it could be true. "It could never happen,"

"In the words of the wise Biebs, never say never!" she sang into a spoon that she picked up from the table and I cracked up at her actions.

"I want a relationship like yours and Vic's," I pouted my bottom lip, wishing that someday maybe a guy would love me as much as Vic loved her. They had been together for quite sometime. I was still amazed that I had never met Mike beforehand, let alone knew he existed.

"Aw, you're cute," she pinched my cheek like I was a child. "But Vic's a great guy. I'm glad that I found someone that was as crazy about me as I was for them," Bailey told me, no doubt reminiscing in her head.

I could only hope that maybe one day, that would happen for me as well.