Hold Your Breath

Mike laid lazily on my bed, ignoring the rustling about the room. Unknownst to Mike, I was still upset at him for getting upset at the party yesterday. If he sensed my angered mood he did not publicly acknowledge it. I tossed my hamper to the ground, spilling out all of its contents. Mike put down the hacky sac he was tossing in the air and stared at me as I picked apart each article of clothing. No pocket would go unsearched with me on the job.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked.

Gee, thanks for offering to help me. I glared at him as if I hadn't already said it before, "My cell phone is missing."

"Why don't you call it?" Mike asked sitting at the edge of my bed... still not helping.

"Gee, you don't think I tried that?" I muttered under my breath, tossing a bra back into the hamper. Mike's eyes trailed after it and then returned to me.

He stared at me with a concerned expression. His normal soft green eyes were stone hard and emotionless. I found myself staring back at him in the same manner. When was the last time we had fought? Freshmen year. But that was different. Back during freshmen year, Mike and I weren't dating.

"What's wrong with you?" Mike asked irritated at our staring match.

"What do you mean what's wrong with me?" I retorted, putting emphasis on the word 'me'. This way he'd get the picture that he was the one with the issue, not me.

"You're acting like a little girl, unreasonable and childish,"

I stood up, dropping the shirt I was searching, and stopped rummaging through dirt laundry. Mike stared at me with unmoving eyes and did not say a word. Crossing my arms over my chest, I replied, "Childish?"

"Yeah."

"Between the two of us, you're just as childish as well. I mean, instigating a fight with Ryan when he wasn't even doing anything? That was beyond childish, Michael."

"Oh please Victoria, I was completely within my rights. The kid kept looking at you like a piece of candy."

"You don't know anything about him," I muttered under my breath.

"You don't know anything about him either!" Mike suddenly screamed at me. His eyes bulged out of their sockets and a vein rose from his throat.

I stayed still, staring at him in defiance and disbelief. He... he had... he just yelled at me. This was about time where the boyfriend was supposed to falter and the girlfriend had tears in her eyes. But I wasn't an ordinary girl and he was no ordinary boy. Neither one of us faltered in our little act. I didn't cry and he didn't apologize.

Was he jealous of Ryan?

Both of us did not speak. A few moments passed and Mike looked away, breathing heavily, as if it pained him to do so. The air was deathly tense.

"I think," Mike rasped through a strangled voice, "I think that when you've decided to open your eyes, you can come back and talk to me."

I watched in shock as Mike walked out my room. Speechless, I didn't know what to say to him. I wasn't sure if I could pull through. Collapsing on a pile of laundry, I reached for the cordless phone and tried calling my phone again.

[Ryan's POV]

"BRENDON!" I criticized in a harsh whisper, "What in the world were you thinking?!"

The hungover guy smirked at me in a daze from across the dining table that he sat at. This morning I had awoken to the sound of the Indiana Jones ring tone but when I picked up my phone the ringing did not stop. It wasn't until I walked into the living room where I found that Brendon's pants was the sourced of the ringing.

"Well dude," he said wincing at the sound of his voice, "You were too much a wimp to get her number so I got it for you."

We both stared at the phone lying in the middle of the table.

"How did yo-" I stopped and recalled the events from last night.

Just then Brendon stumbled on the scene and almost knocked Vic over. I glared angrily at him as he struggled to stand up straight. Waving a drunk finger at Vic, Brendon said, "That is the second time you've spoken out of turn Miss Granger, are you incapable of restraining yourself, or do you take pride in being an insufferable know it all?"

Brendon grinned at me.

"You sly dog, Brendon. You weren't drunk!" I said smiling.

Brendon laughed shaking his head, "No Ryan. I was I just wasn't that drunk... yet."

We both laughed but instantly stopped when the phone started to ring again. Brendon and I stared at the phone in shock. I looked at Brendon wondering what to do which was no use because he looked at me the same way. I stood up in a panic, no pun intended.

"What do we do?!" I asked in panic.

"How should I know?!" Brendon replied also standing up.

"Should I answer it?" I asked again.

"Just do it before I do, kid."

I reached over and answer the green cell phone.

"Hello."

"Hi, who is this and what're you doing with my phone?"

It was Vic.

"Uh, it's Ryan."

There was silence on her side of the line. Then...

"WHAT?! WHY DO YOU HAVE MY PHONE? WHY'D YOU STEAL IT FROM ME? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I'VE BEEN GOING THROUGH? DID YOU GO THROUGH MY CONTACTS? YOU HAVEN'T GONE THROUGH MY PHOTOS OR TEXTS HAVE YOU? I SWEAR... JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE FAMOUS DOESN'T MEAN I WON'T HURT YOU."

Brendon looked at me quizzically, having heard the obnoxious screaming from the girl on the other end of the phone line. I shrugged and listened to her try to catch her breath. Upon hearing her take a deep breath to prepare herself from another rant, I took the chance to interrupt.

"It was Brendon who took your phone."

Brendon stared at me incredulously and tried to grabbed the phone out of my grasp. I laughed and walked out of the kitchen with Brendon screaming 'SELL OUT' after me.

"WHAT? WHY? WHAT DID HE DO TO IT? WHAT DOES HE WANT FROM ME? STUPID FAMOUS JERK. ALL FAMOUS PEOPLE THINK ABOUT IS THEMSELVES. ALL THEY EVER WANT TO DO IS HAVE FUN WITH OTHER FAMOUS PEOPLE. I SWEAR, IF I FIND ANYTHING DIFFERENT ON MY PHONE, LIKE, OH, I DON'T KNOW, ODD PHOTOS THAT I DIDN'T HAVE ON THERE BEFORE THEN I WILL SLICE OFF BOTH OF YOUR-"

"Well fuck," I simply stated, interrupting her rant again.

"-tongues," she finished.

I could sense her smirking her on the phone which made me smile. She sighed.

"When can I have my phone back?"

"Oh well, I don't know... I have to check my famous calendar to see if I don't have anything famous to do on my schedule. You know how it is, so many famous places to be so many famous people to meet. It might be tough to fill someone infamous on my schedule."

"YO-"

"Oh look at that, I'm free at lunch. Great, I'll meet you at Spritz."