And I Would Walk Five-Hundred Miles

I felt him stop stroking my hair, and settle one arm under his head and the other around my body tightly. I felt pressure on my head. I shifted to put my head in the crook of his neck.

“You awake?” he said ever so softly.

“Barely,” I whispered.

“Go back to sleep, babe,” he groaned.

Babe?

Since when did he call me “babe”?

“O-okay, Micah.” I couldn’t hide the shock in my voice, though subtle, it tainted my speech.

“Goodnight, Lydia. Sweet dreams. I love you,” he breathed into my ear. He kissed the hollow of my ear.

“G’night, Micah. I love you too. And very sweet dreams to you too.” I kissed his neck ever so softy, and he let out what sounded like a purr.

This is what infuriated me. He treated me as a girlfriend, but never made a move, never talked about it, and, even worse, he dated all these other girls who didn’t care about him as much as I did. The worst part was that he loved them. And I didn’t want to be his sloppy seconds, I deserved more than that.

***

So the next morning, I resisted any temptation from him. I avoided his glances, tried not to touch him, and tried to keep conversation to a minimum.

Too bad I failed miserably.

That next morning, I woke up staring at his chest and almost instantly repositioned myself to look into his open eyes.

“Morning, Lydia.”

I smiled and brushed some stray hair out of his face, “Good Morning, Micah.”

He smiled and asked if I had slept well. I just nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, and then I remembered what I had planned on doing, or rather not doing, today. Luckily, as if on cue, my phone started to vibrate. I reached over and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Lydia? It’s Dan from the theatre.”

“Radcliffe?”

“Yes, I just called to give you some important news. Marissa quit, and we have no Jill for the play. Mr. Holloway wants you to step in and be Jill for opening night.”

What in the world just happened...?

“But what about the other nights?”

“Cheryl and Austin will be here for those, but not for opening night. You’ll be playing Jill and I’ll be playing Alan.”

“Does this mean I have to come to practice?”

“Yes, come as quickly as you can.”

I sighed and said, “Okay. But how did you get my cell-”

Click and he was gone.

“You have to go?” Micah asked.

I nodded and rolled quickly out of bed. I ran to the shower and got clean. When I stepped out, Micah rolled out of bed and walked to the shower. As he bathed, I did my makeup and hair. Soon enough, we were in the theatre, Micah sitting in the front row.

About two hours passed by when we hit a halt.

“Dan, Lydia, why is the kiss not magical anymore?” He sighed and shook his head, “Go to the back, and go practice it. I’ll send someone to get you when I need you.” We nodded and Dan grabbed my hand as we walked to the green room.

It was odd. Dan had been kissing a bit strangely, like he was new to it. But, as soon as we entered, Dan wrapped his arms around me and kissed me gently on the lips, backing me into a corner and putting his arms on either side of me.

Now this was the kissing I knew.

My heart fluttered softly as he kissed me. I could almost feel myself melting completely into him until he pulled back and scooped me into his arms, and sat down on the couch, resting me on his lap.

Magical? Psh, I think this was a bit more…

He kissed me a little harder as he propped my head on the arm of the sofa. We separated long enough for him to mumble next to my ear, “I just wanted to get you alone.” He kissed my neck and said, “Yesterday, that kiss was amazing.” He moved up my jaw line and said, “I was disappointed you had to leave.”

“Micah was sick,” I mumbled, feeling slightly guilty as I rubbed the back of his neck.

He’d reached my ear and whispered, “Always the good girl, aren’t you?”

I chuckled softly and replied, “Yes, I guess so.”

“Let’s change that.”

With that, he pulled away and said with a nervous tone, “I-I don’t- Yes, I’m ready.” And the scene began. We repeated all the lines, but when the kiss came, he kissed much gentler and held me more tenderly. He shyly let this tongue enter my mouth and held me closely.
He cooed compliments into my ear and caressed my face softly.

I sighed and said, “I can’t do this,” and pulled back.

He looked confused and rejected but eventually said, “It’s Micah, isn’t it?”

I was going to lie, but who was I kidding?

“It’s that obvious, huh?”

He weakly smiled and said, “Yes.”

I pulled myself off of his lap and sighed, putting my head into my hands.

“You care a lot about him, don’t you?”

I nodded.

“So much so you think you love him?”

I paused for a second but nodded again.

“But he doesn’t show any attraction to you at all?”

I shook my head and said, “He does things that would suggest otherwise. He cuddles with me, kisses the top of my head, holds my hand, and,” I paused.

“He what?”

I inhaled deeply and said, “The other night, while he was drunk, he told me he loved me.”

“Do you take that statement seriously?”

I looked up and said, “I didn’t, but the next morning, he asked if he’d said anything odd that night. I said no, and he replied that his drunken self usually got him into trouble. He said he was a brutally honest drunk.”

Silence passed for a good few minutes.

“And I can’t help but want so badly to just grab him and tell him how I feel because I love him more than I can express eloquently.”

There was a pause. He then spoke, “Lydia, you need to tell him.”

Wow. Real deep, buddy.

“I know, Dan.”

“Then why don’t you. Obviously you care about him. You say you love him! Act on it! What have you got to lose?”

“The friendship…”

“Then he wasn’t a true friend, Lydia.”

There was a pause until I choked out, through fresh tears falling from my eyes, “But losing Micah’s friendship would absolutely kill me. Not having him means life isn’t worth living.”

Silence passed as I sobbed. That is, until I let out the loudest sob, and the door opened.

“Lydia?” I heard Micah’s voice cry out. I tried to control myself, but I couldn’t.

“What did you do to her?” I heard him shout at Dan. I had never seen him so angry. He was usually a very well composed guy, and this scared me.

“I did not do anything to make her this way. We were talking and she became emotional,” Dan calmly replied.

“Then what did you say? What did you say to make her like this?”

“I said nothing. She just became emotional.”

“Get out,” he said through clenched teeth.

“But-”

“GET OUT!”

Dan immediately got off of the couch and walked quickly out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

“Did he hurt you, Lydia?” Micah asked, expecting the worst.

“No,” I said quietly.

“Please, be honest, Lydia. I want you to be safe, and I have to beat his ass either way for making you cry.

“He didn’t touch me. I just was thinking about some stuff and I became sad…”

He was silent and walked over to me, but instead of the normal sit-down-beside-Lydia, he sat and scooped me into his lap, as Dan had done earlier. He hugged me to his chest as I cried. Here I had been making out with Dan, when just outside the door was the man I truly loved. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tight, feeling extra guilty because I knew he hated the sound of people crying.

“Shhh,” he softly whispered as he rocked me to and fro in his arms. “I’m here; don’t worry.”

“I don’t deserve a friend like you, Micah,” I sobbed against his warm chest.

“Don’t say that,” he said as his arms tightened their hold on me, “You deserve me and even more.” A silence passed between us until he spoke up. “I’m taking you home.”

“What?” I asked looking up into his dark, almost black, eyes.

“I want you to chill out. If it means going to the library or to the park, I don’t care. I just want you to be happy.”

“But the dress rehearsal-”

“Fuck the dress rehearsal. Let’s go out and eat something. All you’ve had today was some tea and a scone.”

I sighed and put my head back on his chest. He played with my hair as I said, “Let’s ask Holloway when dress rehearsal ends, and we’ll see if we can skip out the end. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good.”

So with that, we got up and walked out. When we got out onstage, Micah glared at Dan, and I had to squeeze his hand to calm him down.

“Okay, well, start rehearsal now, then. I feel guilty enough that I made you come during your holiday. Places and lights!”

And we began. Surprisingly enough, everything went well, Micah was laughing like a madman through the songs. When the scene with Dan started, I could feel his intensity from the stage. The kiss, amazingly enough went really well. It felt natural, and it had yesterday’s charm. The dress rehearsal was a hit, and I think all of us realized we had a winner on our hands.

“Superb!” Mr. Holloway called, “Absolutely magnificent! I want to see you all, by 3:00 pm tomorrow to start getting ready. Until then, good afternoon to you all.”

Micah grabbed my hand and led me out of the theatre before I could say goodbye. We walked to a nearby market, bought some sandwiches and took a taxi to Hyde Park.

We sat down on a bench and started to munch on the sandwiches and crisps (potato chips) as the sun set in the west. As the colors of the sky darkened, the wind chilled, and Micah let me rest my head on his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around me.

Okay so I admit it, I was trying to break the boundaries that had been set up, but I wanted to make sure that the drunken confession might have had truth behind it. I wanted to see what he would let me do and what he was hesitant on. And so far, my advances were not denied, so I was pretty content.

“So, that mystery trip…. Where are we going?”

Ha! As if I would tell him!

“You’ll find out the morning of the trip,” I replied smugly.

“Please!!!!!” he asked, tilting my head up to face him and softly stroking just under my chin.

“Nope, I’m not saying a word, Micah,” laughing because he was tickling me.

“This tickles?” he said smiling and I shook my head, still laughing. He stopped and we went back to eating. I would steal glances at him whenever I could, smiling to myself. Once I finished eating, I threw away my wrapper and we walked back to my flat.