Green Apples

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary: Sydney and Michael are teachers at the same high school. Shy Michael is too afraid to ask Sydney out, but what will happen when he finally gets up the nerve?

Disclaimer: Sydney, Vaughn, etc are properties of JJ Abrams and ABC.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapters 1-10 // Chapters 11 - 20 + Epilogue

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

Michael Vaughn gripped his cafeteria tray tightly as he stepped through the doorway of the faculty lounge area of the large student cafeteria. Every time he entered the high school cafeteria, his body was immediately transported back to those awkward teenage years. It didn’t matter if he was a teacher now or not; he still felt those same uncertain and out of place feelings. During his youth, the cafeteria was a dreaded place, especially for those without an expansive social network of friends. He was one of those people; the nerd whose high school existence consisted invariably of being a wallflower and enjoying it. Despite the fact that as he aged, he became much less awkward and much better looking, the cafeteria still posed the same threat to him.

Shy by nature, he was never sure of an appropriate place to sit. Most days, he avoided the stress of social eating all together by bringing his lunch from home and eating at the desk in his classroom. On some days, though, he was forced to dine in the cafeteria due to either forgetting his lunch or forgetting to purchase things at the grocery store to prepare that lunch. Those days, he would wait in line with the chattering teenagers, pay for his food, and then sweat his way to the faculty lounge, hoping it would be empty. Of course, it rarely was.

He would then stand in the doorway for a few minutes, debating his course of action. The faculty dining room was moderately sized with only two large rectangular tables. This set-up was the school’s way of creating a community; eat together and bond. Of course, this sense of community only caused Michael’s pulse to skyrocket. Should he sit with the rotund chemistry teacher whose heavy breathing expelled unpleasant smells of garlic on those around him? Or, should he stomach sitting next to Mrs. Beasley, the overly friendly French teacher who, though older than him by a significant number of years, flirted with him constantly?

That day he was lucky. One of the tables in the faculty lounge was empty, so he opted to sit there, away from Mrs. Beasley, who was engrossed in conversation with Mr. Arnold, one of the gym teachers. He took a seat at one corner of the table and cracked open his aluminum can full of lemonade with a pop. Staring down at the mush on the tray in front of him, Michael couldn’t help but grimace. That was why he brought his lunch most days, aside from the cafeteria trauma, of course. High school food was even less desirable at present than it was when he was in school, if that was even possible. Sighing, he picked up his “spork” and stabbed at the limp noodles with it.

A few unsatisfying bites later, the faculty lounge door squeaked open followed by the sound of clicking heels, signaling that a woman had entered the room. Michael didn’t even bother to look up, fearing it was another one of the female teachers at the school who felt it necessary to flirt with him. Looking up would invite them to come over and sit with him, which was the last thing he wanted. Get in, wolf down food, get out as quickly as possible; that was his plan and he stuck to it as though his very life depended on it.

Much to Michael’s disappointment, the new person in the faculty lounge sat across the rectangular table from him. He was immediately overwhelmed by the sweet scent of a citrus perfume, obviously being worn by the woman now sitting nearby. His chest tightened and he swallowed hard. He knew that citrus scent but surely he was not going to be that lucky, was he? Glancing up tentatively, he saw that he was indeed graced with a blue streak of luck that day; Sydney Bristow was sitting across from him, her brown hair hanging beautifully across her face and drooping into one eye as she looked down to the yogurt carton she was trying to open.

Michael cleared his throat lightly and reached for his lemonade to moisten his parched throat. Sydney Bristow was perhaps the one member of the faculty Michael actually looked forward to seeing on a daily basis, though he sadly did not see her that often. She taught math across the building and on a different floor than he, so aside from occasional rendezvous at faculty meetings or in the parking lot, that was the extent of their contact. Despite the fact that he had probably only spoken a sentence, if that, to the brown-eyed beauty in his two years working at Jefferson High, his feelings for her grew every time he saw her cavernous dimples.

He allowed himself to glance up once more and saw her polishing the green apple in her manicured hand with a napkin. Though he rarely ate in the cafeteria, he was usually lucky enough to see Sydney every time he ate there. She was more often than not sitting at a different table, but he still noticed her. He knew from those brief glimpses that virtually every day her lunch consisted of a carton of yogurt, usually strawberry, and a green apple.

As he was staring much longer than he should have at Sydney, she looked up and smiled at him. Quickly, he looked down towards his plate and tried to concentrate far too intently on the unappetizing meal in front of him. He could not stomach eating any of it though; it was hard enough to swallow without Sydney Bristow watching his every move. He knew with her looking, he would most likely slurp something or cause it to fall over his chin and then down into his lap, at which point he would die of mortification.

After another few minutes, the table shook as Sydney pushed herself up from it and walked away with the clicking of her heels. Just as well, he thought. It was not as though he would ever be able to muster up the courage to ask her out like he wanted to for practically a year. For some reason he was positive she would laugh in his face as she cruelly turned him down. Needless to say, self confidence was not one of his strong points.

He was just about to give up on his disgusting lunch and go back to his classroom to see if he had any crackers in his desk when he heard the familiar heel clicking once more. Looking up, he saw Sydney approaching with a half eaten chocolate chip cookie in her hand. Noticing him, she laughed softly with an embarrassed smile, “Couldn’t resist.”

He managed to laugh softly back at her, even though he broke out into a sweat so bad he was worried it would show through his light blue shirt. Fearing that would happen, he quickly escaped the table. Sooner or later he needed to just face the truth: Sydney Bristow was never going to go out with him so he needed to get over his crush on her.



Chapter 2

“Hey Mr. Vaughn, we getting our test back today?” Beth Prince asked as she walked into the classroom of one of her favorite teachers.

“Tomorrow,” he told her with a smile.

“But why not today?” she asked with a grin.

“Because I’m not finished grading them yet… I’ve still got all the essays to go,” he told her. She shook her head in mock disapproval before walking to her usual desk. Michael laughed softly under his breath and turned back to the lecture notes he was reviewing in his hand.

Through the first eight months of the school year, Beth had quickly become one of Michael’s favorite students. She always answered questions in class and did well on exams. They had also developed a less formal student-teacher relationship that allowed them to tease each other ever so slightly. For example, Beth would act as though Michael was the laziest teacher in the world if he did not have their exams back to them the very next class after they were taken. She would also come up to his desk and rotate his stapler and nameplate at odd angles so that they were no longer perfectly parallel with the edge of his desk, which annoyed him to no end.

At the sound of the one o’clock bell, a large mass of students rushed through the classroom door and slid into their seats with the sound of chairs screeching against the tile floor. Michael stood up, lecture notes in hand and walked to the classroom door to shut it. “Okay class,” he said as he walked, “time to get back to the fun and exciting world of US History.” A low groan went through the room combined with the sounds of shuffling paper. “Come on guys – it’s not that bad!”

“Yes it is!” someone called back; Michael couldn’t help but laugh.

~*~

Later that day, when Michael arrived home from work, he was surprised to find his best friend Eric in his apartment, rummaging through his fridge. “Um, hello…,” he said slowly.

Eric pulled his head from the fridge long enough to nod at Michael with a, “Hey,” before bending over and looking in the fridge once more as if his presence there was entirely normal.

Michael slipped off his suit jacket and draped it over his arm as he walked over to his friend. “What are you doing…?” he asked, his tone still very slow.

“Oh well I was out of food at my house so… you know,” Eric said. He pulled a jar of pickles, mustard, mayonnaise and a package of cheese out of the refrigerator and set them on the counter. “Got anything to go with this?”

“Um… bread?” Michael offered.

“Yeah, but I meant like a burger or something,” Eric said, looking back into the refrigerator.

“Eric, you realize that there won’t actually be any food at your house unless you buy some, right?” Michael sighed as he walked over to his freezer to find something to make for himself and, apparently, his guest.

“Yeah, about that… can I borrow some money?” Eric asked with a sheepish expression. Michael shook his head and sighed thinking, here we go again. “It’s just that I’m having a cash-flow problem…. I think I’m gonna have to move back in with my parents.”

“What happened to your job, Eric?” Michael asked. “Or the savings account we set up for you? What happened to the money in there?”

“Oh well see there was this girl,” Eric began with a smile that quickly faded at the sight of the death glare Michael was giving him. “Anyway, she sorta talked me into going to Cancun with her and apparently you just can’t take a week off from work without telling them so…”

“You got fired,” Michael finished for him.

Again, Eric grimaced. “Little bit yea.”

“Eric,” Michael sighed, his tone indicating his disproval, “We’ve been through this. Lending money always leads to trouble but… but if you get rid of your apartment and you need a place to stay for a week or so you can always have the couch.”

“Thanks man,” Eric smiled. “So how was your day?”

“Oh well… I ate lunch with Sydney,” he said as a soft smile crossed his face. Being his best friend, Eric knew all about Michael’s crush on Sydney and, naturally, mocked Michael endlessly because he would not ask her out.

“Really?! You actually talked to her?!”

“Um… no, but she talked to me and I smiled at her,” Michael said hopefully.

“Pathetic,” Eric muttered. “What’d she say? ‘Get out of my way, loser’?”

“No,” Michael said while making a face. “We had a little joke about a cookie…”

“Mmhm, yeah, whatever – seriously ask her out already!”

“Can’t…”

“Why? She’s not gonna bite ya. She’s going to say yes!”

“How do you know?” Michael asked while looking down at his feet.

“Um, hello?! Have you looked in a mirror recently? I’m confident enough with my sexuality to admit that you, my friend, are hot,” Eric told him while cracking open a beer and then taking a long drink from it.

“Gee, Eric, thanks…,” Michael said slowly, finding his friend’s admission mildly creepy.

“You’d have to be blind not to see how the chicks like… drool over you when we go out – especially when you don’t have your shirt on,” Eric pointed out.

“Which happens so often…”

“I meant like last summer when we went to the beach. You practically had groupies,” Eric told him. Michael shook his head and turned away, slightly embarrassed.

“Okay Mike, think of it this way. Suppose you ask her out, right? Maybe she’ll say yes, maybe she won’t, but at least you’ll stop obsessing!” Eric told him. Michael’s expression was unchanging so Eric tried a different angle. “Okay, what if this Sydney chick is like… the love of your life.”

“The love of my life?” Michael gave him a skeptical look.

“She could be! You never know unless you ask her out! Besides, even if she isn’t the love of your life you at least get to sleep with her, huh?” Eric said with an enticing grin.

“Oh how well you know me,” Michael said with sarcasm Eric obviously did not pick up on, for he continued to grin.



Chapter 3

Keeping in mind that Eric’s teasing on the Sydney front would only get worse if he moved in with him (which seemed inevitable), Michael ate lunch for the next two days in the cafeteria. Putting his anxieties aside, he walked into the faculty dining area with a paper bag lunch in hand (he brought lunch for fear that eating too much cafeteria cuisine would cause him to take on some terrible disease), and he took a seat in the same place he sat the day Sydney sat across from him. On the first day, much to his disappointment, Sydney did not come into the faculty lunch room at all. The next day, though, he heard her approaching with her heels clicking against the tile floor. He looked up nervously when she entered the room. Their eyes met and she smiled at him. Instinctively, Michael looked back down, loathing the fact that for once in his life he was not more like Eric. Eric would not have had a problem walking right up to Sydney and asking her out, win or lose.

As he was cursing himself, Michael failed to notice that Sydney had walked over and sat, not across from him like before (that seat was occupied), but right next to him. Her citrus perfume wafted into his nostrils causing him to look to his right, his mouth slightly agape (thankfully there was no food in it at that time). “Mind if I sit here?” she asked with a smile. Michael shook his head wordlessly, all the while thinking he had traveled back to junior high and the most popular girl in school had just sat next to him at his table of dweebs.

Michael stared at Sydney as she peeled off the lid on her yogurt container before he willed himself to look away. His gaze turned back to the small bag of chips and half eaten sandwich in front of him, both of which seemed to be screaming out at him as ways to further embarrass himself, so he tentatively shoved them aside and reached for his lemonade. Keeping with his oh-so-uncool-while-around-people-of-the-opposite-sex persona, he promptly choked on his drink.

“Are you alright?” Sydney asked, concerned. He quickly covered his mouth and nodded his head while coughing so violently he thought he would never again regain his breath. Still wearing her look of concern, Sydney reached over and pounded his back, which, unbeknownst to her, only made Michael’s situation worse since she was touching him.

When Michael finally regained his ability to breathe normally, he was a wreck. He was sweating (part from the choking, part from embarrassment) and, though he couldn’t see it, he was sure his face was a brilliant red color. He was just about to make a quick escape in an attempt to save face (which at that point was effectively impossible), when Sydney spoke.

“You know, I once did that in front of the whole school,” she said. Michael looked over to her, barely able to comprehend the words she was saying through the shock that she was actually speaking to him after he’d made a complete fool of himself. “Yeah,” she said in between bites of yogurt, “I was running for class president and we were having these debates in front of the school. Well I always get really parched when I talk for a long time so I had a water bottle with me. Right as I was talking about potential fundraisers for prom I took a sip and started coughing up a lung. I thought I was going to die right there in front of the whole junior class.”

“Wow,” Michael managed, his voice gravelly. Somehow Sydney sharing an embarrassing story like that with him made him feel the tiniest bit better. He cleared his throat before asking, “Did you win?”

“Nah,” she said, waving the spoon she was using, “got my butt kicked and for weeks after that people would pass me in the hall and start coughing.”

“Ah, aren’t kids wonderful,” Michael sighed dreamily, though he was obviously being sarcastic.

Sydney laughed softly. “Yes they are…you’re Michael, right?” she asked. Michael nodded in confirmation. “And you teach….?”

“US History and AP Government,” he told her.

“Ooo fascinating,” she said with a slight eye roll towards her yogurt.

“Much better than that calculus stuff you teach,” he said pointedly.

“Hey, I like calculus,” she defended.

“I have no doubt that you do,” he smiled at her. She laughed softly before taking another bite of her yogurt. Michael caught a sparkle in her eye and his heart flipped over in his chest. What was he doing? He was flirting with her. Of course, flirting was a natural precursor to asking her out, but usually his flirting was awkward and involved even more nervous sweating. Then again, perhaps he had already used up his embarrassment quota for that day.

“Ooh check it out,” Sydney said as she picked up the foil lid to her yogurt cup she’d previously discarded, “I won a free yogurt.”

“Wow, score,” he said with a laugh. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had yogurt.”

Sydney’s jaw crashed open as her arm fell to the table with a thump. “How can you have never had yogurt?!”

“Well…its kinda a girly food…,” he said with a slight cringe.

Her jaw dropped even further, if possible. “Food cannot be gender specific! Here,” she said, handing him the foil lid with the free yogurt coupon, “go. Get yogurt. Eat it.”

“Okay, I will; I promise,” he laughed, taking the coupon from her.

“Good,” she said before biting into the apple in her hand with a crisp snap. She then slid her chair out from the table and waved goodbye to him before walking out of the faculty lunchroom. Seeing an opportunity that he feared would never come again, Michael dumped the half-eaten contents of his lunch back into the paper bag beside him before following Sydney quickly out the door.

“Sydney wait,” he called out, though not very loudly. She stopped and turned as she took another bite out of her apple. By the time he finally caught up to her, her expression was very curious. “Well I,” he began quietly. “I was just wondering if maybe, um,” he cleared his throat. Suddenly he was fourteen again and asking Jamie Thompson to the Valentine’s Day dance: his palms were sweating, he was convinced he was going to throw up, and he was just waiting for the impending rejection. “If you wanted to go to the movies with me this weekend,” he said quickly.

“What?” Sydney asked, holding her fingertips in front of her mouth so as not to show off the half-chewed bits of apple.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go to the movies with me this weekend…or not…whatever,” he said, backing off slightly.

She swallowed hard before answering with a soft smile. “That sounds nice. How about Saturday?”

“S-Saturday?” he stammered. Was he hearing things or had she really just agreed to go out with him? “Saturday’s good… sixish?”

“Sure, I’ll see you at the Main Theater at six on Saturday,” she repeated their plans. Then, with a smile she walked out of the cafeteria. Michael sighed and leaned against the wall for support as he tried to calm his heart rate. As the full realization hit him, a smile spread across his face; he had a date with Sydney Bristow.



Chapter 4

Michael could hardly focus enough on his class after lunch to be able to teach. All he could think about was the fact that he had a date with Sydney on Saturday. He was lucky that it was Thursday, because if he had to wait more than a day or so for the date, he knew he would go insane. Though he tried to focus on teaching, he kept reviewing their conversation in his mind, still shocked he had actually flirted without making an utter fool of himself. Of course, there had been the choking incident, but he had not made enough of an idiot of himself that Sydney walked away laughing. That was always a plus.

When he went home that evening to find Eric on his couch with his hand down his sweatpants watching something that was most likely of the pornographic nature, he didn’t even care; he was that happy.

“Hey man,” Eric began in his usual casual tone. “I was just uh… watchin’ some TV since my cable doesn’t work.”

Michael, ignoring Eric’s words, stood between him and the TV, grin across his face. “Ask me what I’m doing Saturday night – come on, ask me,” he prompted.

“What are you doing Saturday night?” Eric asked in a slow, monotonous tone.

“I have a date with Sydney Bristow!”

“Dude no way!” Eric gasped as he sat up, removing his hand from its unpleasant location. Michael nodded, still grinning. “You finally got the balls to ask her out? Or, no, wait, she asked you?!”

“No I asked her!! I was flirting with her and everything!” Michael said in a tone as though it was the most triumphant moment of his life.

“Yes!” Eric cheered as he raised up his hand for a high-five. Noting which hand it was, Michael walked away without slapping it. “So what are you guys doin’? Oh and don’t worry – I won’t be here when you get back if you know what I mean,” he winked suggestively as he followed Michael into the kitchen.

“First, we’re going to a movie. Second, I doubt Sydney is the type of person who sleeps with a person on the first date. Besides, even if she was – which I doubt she is – I’m not that type of person so the fact that I don’t want you here when I get home has absolutely nothing to do with my date with Sydney,” Michael informed him.

“But I thought you said I could stay here,” Eric said in an almost hurt tone.

“Yeah you can stay if you get kicked out of your apartment, but you still have your apartment, correct?”

“Yeah…but it’s dirty,” he grimaced.

“Well you never clean it,” Michael reminded him. Eric shrugged and walked back to the couch. Michael sighed, shook his head and began rummaging to find something for dinner; he was already regretting the choice to let Eric stay with him.

~*~

On Saturday night, Michael arrived at the movie theater early. He had been anxiously awaiting their date all day long and could not wait another moment for it to actually happen. All day long he had been torturing himself by imagining horrific scenarios in which his date with Sydney went horribly wrong. He was sick of his mind, though; he wanted to get it over with to see if they would sink or float, so to speak.

Starting at five fifty-nine Michael began checking his watch every minute, alternating between looking down, looking left across the sidewalk, looking straight ahead towards the parking lot and looking right down the sidewalk. At six-oh-three Sydney arrived dressed in jeans and a pink top. Immediately, Michael smiled. “Hey, you look nice,” he said. It was nice to see her in something other than the dress-up clothes she wore to work. Then again, it was nice to see her period no matter what she was wearing.

“Thanks, so do you,” she said, cramming her hand down into her pockets as they stood in awkwardness for a moment.

“So there’s a movie playing in like fifteen minutes that looks kinda interesting,” Michael said, gesturing to the movie times chart behind him.

“Sure, whatever,” Sydney said with a slight shrug. Then, she walked with him to the ticket booth. As they waited in line, Michael began to panic slightly. One thing about first dates that he hated the most was that they were never at a loss for awkward moments. He, as a traditional man, felt that since he asked Sydney out, he should pay for her movie ticket. Then again, if Sydney had asked him out, he would not have felt comfortable letting her pay, but that was irrelevant. He was not sure, though, what Sydney’s intentions were until she stepped ahead of him, pulling out her wallet on the way, and asked for one ticket. Michael sighed with slight relief; one crisis over, about a million to go.

“So, uh… what made you become a math teacher?” Michael asked, desperate for some casual conversation to cure the silence between them.

“Oh… well I actually went to school planning to be an actuary, but there was something about calculating the likelihood of someone dying that totally freaked me out, so I switched to secondary math education. That way I was still using my freakishly good math skills, but I was having more fun too. And yes, I realize I just used ‘math’ and ‘fun’ in the same sentence,” she said with a laugh. “What about you?”

“Well I always loved history in school – seriously I couldn’t get enough of it - and I didn’t think there was much else I could do with history beside teach so…here I am,” he shrugged and laughed.

“Cool,” Sydney smiled. They chatted for a few more moments about their similar careers before the movie started.

The movie itself was a major disappointment for both viewers. They both admitted that the previews were much better than the actual film as they were walking out of the theater. As they emerged from the theater into the cool evening, Michael’s palms began to sweat once more. The end of the date was another point of caution for him as to what his course of action should be. “So, um, I had a nice time,” he said cautiously, searching her face for a reaction.

“Me too,” she said. Her voice was hesitant and Michael just knew there was a ‘but...’ coming. Of course it was too good to be true. He had the amazing fortune of her actually agreeing to go out with him, which was freakish enough. There was no way she would actually continue to date him.

“But, it’s just… well, I have a rule that I don’t date coworkers. I’m sorry…its not you, really. You’re a great guy…”

“It’s fine,” Michael cut her off with a smile. “No big deal.”

She gave him a soft, apologetic smile in return. “But I’d like it if we could stay friends.”

“Sure,” he smiled. Friends, yep, that was the kiss of death.

“Actually my friends are throwing me this birthday party tomorrow at Community Park and I’d love it if you came,” she said hopefully.

“Oh? It’s your birthday?” he asked.

“On Monday I’ll be twenty-eight,” she told him.

“Oh well I’d love to come… if you’re sure it’s alright that is…”

“Definitely alright,” she smiled. “It’s at one by the volleyball court.”

“Okay, I’ll see you there,” he agreed with a smile. Though he would have preferred another date, he was hopeful at least that she had invited him. That was definitely better than nothing.



Chapter 5

When Michael arrived home from his date, Eric was anxiously waiting for him at the front door of his apartment, wanting to hear the verdict on the long-awaited event. When Michael informed Eric of Sydney’s just friend’s request, a grimace spread across Eric’s face. “Ouch, sorry man. That really sucks.”

“Yeah well,” Michael sighed. There was nothing he could do so there was no point in obsessing over it.

“But hey, at least now you know right? You won’t be stuck wondering what would have happened if you just asked her out, right?”

“Right,” Michael said. Eric did have a point, even if it was a depressing one; now he knew.

~*~

Sunday morning Michael awoke early and began his usual Sunday morning ritual of cleaning up his apartment. That morning, he had the added task of, not only cleaning up the extra mess Eric had made, but cleaning around Eric himself, who had passed out on the couch in the wee hours of the morning while watching something on HBO. Midway through Michael’s vacuuming; Eric awoke and groggily shuffled his way into Michael’s bedroom to finish his sleep behind closed doors. Muttering to himself as he cleaned up a pile of potato chip crumbs, Michael began rehearsing the speeches he would need to kick Eric out when that time inevitably came.

At eleven thirty, Michael forced an unwilling Eric to rouse from his sleep so that he could get ready to go meet Sydney and her friends at the park. To Eric, Michael’s behavior was incomprehensible. He was going to Sydney’s birthday party like she asked him to. In Eric’s viewpoint this was a move to impress Sydney, but why Michael was bothering to impress a woman who would never sleep with him Eric could not understand. Michael did not bother explaining his ‘I’m trying to be nice and her friend’ reasoning to him; any attempt would have been fruitless in Eric’s one-track mind.

Half way to the park, he realized that he did not have a card or anything for Sydney’s birthday, which made him feel bad. He almost stopped on the way to grab something, but he did not want to rush the card picking process (one of his favorite pastimes) so he decide it would be best to give Sydney the card the following day during lunch on her actual birthday.

When Michael arrived at Community Park, he immediately spotted a cluster of about a dozen people by the volleyball court. In among them, he saw Sydney, throwing her head back with laughter. She was dressed in cutoff jean shorts and a red tank top, which Michael found to be very appropriate attire considering the heat of that day despite the fact that they were a solid two months away from summer.

He parked his car and headed over towards the cluster of people with a carton of sodas under his arm. It wasn’t much, but he figured it was the least he could do to contribute to that afternoon’s celebration where he would undoubtedly be the outsider. Sydney saw him approaching and waved to him. Then she rushed over to him, her bare feet crunching in the grass. “Hey! I’m glad you could make it!”

“I’m glad I was invited,” he smiled at her.

“Of course! Come on I’ll introduce you to everybody!” she said grabbing his free hand and pulling him towards the cluster of people. Not surprisingly, they were all foreign faces except for one, a woman who he recognized as a teacher at the same school he and Sydney worked at. The group consisted of an equal number of men and women who seemed to be from all walks of life ranging from an obviously gay man, who appeared to be very artsy, to a woman Sydney introduced as an accountant, who had a very stereotypical accountant exterior.

The group chatted together for about fifteen minutes while Michael hung back staying mostly silent. Unfamiliar social situations caused his shy nature to kick into overdrive. He, unlike some, had a hard enough time striking up conversation with those he knew. With complete strangers, no matter how friendly they were, it was a near impossibility. When the conversation died down and someone suggested they take advantage of the volleyball court, Michael was relieved. Sports were definitely a strength when compared to his conversational skills.

The group decided a boys-versus-girls game was best so they parted and took opposite sides of the net. Michael kicked off his flip-flops by the sandy volleyball court and took a position in back center. He didn’t really care what position he played, though in high school gym class he was almost always by the net since his height made it easier for him to spike the ball.

When the game began, the girls started with the ball and it was quickly obvious who in the group was athletically inclined and who was not. For instance, the arty gay man walked off the court almost immediately, muttering something about a manicure, and every time the ball came within a foot of the accountant she ducked and squealed. It was painfully obvious that Sydney was the only female actually interested in playing the game; though one of the other women was making attempts they usually caused the ball to fly backwards or underneath the net instead of over it.

In the end, the men won mostly due to the women’s lack of effort in the game and they all slunk off the court, sweating. They walked over to the picnic table where their food was set up. Sitting down at the table was the gay man lighting up a cigarette. He had only taken one puff from it before Sydney snatched it from his hand and began raising it to her lips. “Oh Sydney don’t,” the man whined. “You’ve been so good.”

“Yes I have and it’s my birthday so I’m going to do whatever I want,” she said with a coy smile. Then, she took a long drag from the cigarette and let out a low moan as the smoke filtered out of her mouth, “Ohhhh Goooood.”

Michael shifted uncomfortably. He wasn’t sure what unnerved him more: the fact that Sydney was smoking or the fact that she was making a moaning noise like someone was doing something very X-rated to her.

“That’s enough for you,” the gay man said as he snatched his cigarette back. Sydney made a pouting face at him before grabbing a soda and cracking it open.

Cautiously, Michael walked over to Sydney asking, “So you, uh, smoke?”

“Used to,” she sighed. “I started towards the end of my senior year in high school and quit the summer before my sophomore year of college so I only smoked for a little over a year. I still get that urge, though – it’s a killer habit to kick,” she laughed. “You smoke?”

“Nah,” he shook his head, shuffling his feet against the grass. “My dad died of lung cancer when I was seven so…”

“Oh god, I’m sorry,” Sydney said, feeling awful. “Was he a smoker?”

“No, but his parents were. Apparently it was the twenty years of second hand smoke he breathed in while living at home that caused it, so the doctors said anyway,” Michael explained.

Feeling worse Sydney tried to back track, “Well I never really smoked that much… I mean it was just a cigarette or two a day and I haven’t had one since I quit – okay, I haven’t had a whole one….”

“I believe you,” he laughed.

“It’s true! I chewed a helluva lot of that gum though,” she said with a laugh.

“Is the gum just as good?” he asked, not really even caring.

“Not even close,” she sighed in a dejected tone that made him laugh again.



Chapter 6

After spending another forty minutes with Sydney and her friends, Michael decided it was best he left. After all, he had not spoken to anyone in almost half an hour, so he was really just sitting there. Once he left, he went to the grocery store to pick up a few needed items (including the free yogurt he was getting thanks to Sydney) and also to pick out a birthday card for Sydney.

Michael loved picking out birthday cards. He would sometimes spend twenty minutes or more reading each and every card available trying to find the perfect one. He spent the most time on cards for his mother or for girlfriends and almost no time at all picking one for Eric who would usually tear open the card, not even bothering to read its comical message, and then look at it in dismay before asking where the money was. For Sydney, Michael needed a card that was comical, but not in an offensive way at all. Since he did not know her very well he did not want to put her off with a joke about getting older and needing a cane if she wasn’t the type to be amused by that. After a significant amount of searching, he found a lighthearted card that was perfect and continued on his way.

~*~

Monday at school, Michael practically ran down to the lunchroom, wanting to make sure he caught Sydney whenever she decided to appear in the faculty eating area. He sat himself down in his usual spot, hardly paying attention to his lunch at all. His eyes were trained on the door and he practically twitched with every person that walked by. Sadly, by the time there were only ten minutes left in the lunch period, Sydney had yet to make an appearance in the lunchroom. For a moment, Michael debated what to do until he decided to take a trip to her classroom, which was her most likely location. He grabbed his paper lunch bag that contained her card and headed off towards the other side of the school.

Michael was unsure which classroom was Sydney’s, he only knew what general area it was in. Most of the rooms in that area were either completely dark and shut up or full of students. Finally, in the classroom at the end of the hall he spotted Sydney sitting at her desk grading papers, the rest of her room seemingly empty. Michael hovered in the doorway for a moment, watching the balloons on her desk float back and forth, bumping into each other, before knocking firmly on the door.

At the noise, Sydney’s head snapped up and a smile spread across her face. “Michael, hi.”

“Hi, I, um,” he began as he walked into her classroom, “I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday and give you this,” he said, pulling out the card in its lavender envelope and handing it to her.

“Oh this is so sweet, thank you,” she said. She took the card, slid her finger under the flap and popped it open. She then read it with a soft smile on her face before repeating her thank you.

“Sure… oh and I wanted to tell you that I tried yogurt last night,” he said with a slight laugh.

“Oh?” Sydney looked intrigued.

“Yeah it’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life,” he told her honestly.

“What?!” Sydney laughed. “How can you say that?! What kind did you try?”

“Strawberry and it was bitter and gross, sorry.”

“Ah well at least you tried it,” she sighed as she leaned back in her chair.

“Yeah… well I guess I should be, um, getting back,” he said as the warning bell rang, signaling only four minutes until the start of the next class period began. “See you…”

“See you,” Sydney repeated as he turned to leave. In Michael’s nervousness about giving Sydney her card, he failed to notice a student in the back corner of Sydney’s classroom taking a make-up exam. As he left, the student, who happened to be his favorite student Beth, approached Sydney’s desk with her finished exam in hand.

“Gee, Miss Bristow I think Mr. Vaughn likes you,” Beth smiled. She had a similar friendly rapport with Sydney as she did with Michael and most of her other teachers as well.

Sydney laughed slightly under her breath as she took Beth’s exam. “I don’t think so…”

“What are you kidding!? Of course he does! He gave you a birthday card, didn’t he?” Beth pointed out with a smile.

“He was just being nice…”

“Nice is good,” Beth told her, “and in high school it’s a rare find.”

“Ditto with the real world,” Sydney sighed. “Actually, he sorta…he sorta already asked me out,” she admitted quietly. Beth was probably the only student she would have told that to. After an embarrassing incident at the beginning of that school year in which Beth had discretely asked to borrow a tampon, the two of them had bonded.

“Oh my god, say yes!” Beth said excitedly. “You two would be so cute!”

Sydney laughed at her excitement. “We already went out, but I told him I wanted to be just friends.”

Beth’s jaw dropped to the floor. “Why?! He’s the cutest teacher at this school!”

“Beth!”

“Well he is…”

“I know but… I dunno,” Sydney wrinkled her nose as she looked in the direction Michael had gone. She did like him but… dating a coworker, she wasn’t so sure about.

“Well I think you should go out with him again and you should do it as soon as possible,” Beth smiled.

“Duly noted – now get to class!” Sydney told her with a laugh. As Beth scurried out past the flow of students filing into the classroom, Sydney glanced down at the card on her desk and thought about Michael Vaughn once more. Maybe going out with him one more time wasn’t such a bad thing after all.



Chapter 7

On Thursday morning, three days after her birthday, Sydney’s class (along with all the others) was disrupted by a fire drill. As was protocol, all the students filed out onto the lawn across the street from the school to wait for the all clear signal. While Sydney was following her students out of the school, she spotted Michael doing the same with his students. He was walking with a cluster of boys who where just a little bit shorter than him and they were all laughing. The sight of his smile made her heart twinge in her chest just like it had when they were on their date.

Taking a deep breath, Sydney walked through the glass towards Michael. In the three days since her birthday, she had seriously thought about what Beth told her, how she needed to go out with Michael again. In all her thinking she had decided that her no dating a coworker rule may have been a bit prematurely strict. After all, a nice, sweet guy like Michael definitely deserved a second chance and second date.

“Excuse me, uh, Mr. Vaughn,” she called out to him. She always used a coworker’s formal name when in front of students and saved their first name for when they were in private. When he looked in her direction, she gestured for him to come towards her and he did so with a curious expression on his face. “Well, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to have dinner sometime over the weekend, like maybe tomorrow night?” she asked quietly so the students didn’t hear.

Michael was stunned. Was she asking him out on a date when it was she who had made the just friends decree? “Um, yeah, sure tomorrow’s good. Where?”

“Well, I live at Green Meadow Apartments and-”

“Serious?” Michael cut her off with a laugh. “I live in Lakewood right across the street.”

“Oh so you know the deli at the Green Meadow shopping complex?” she asked. He nodded. “How about we meet there at six?”

“I’ll see you there,” he smiled at her. She smiled back before walking back to her class, grin spread across her face.

~*~

The next day at lunch, Sydney sat across from Michael in the faculty dining area once more. They didn’t speak much since Michael was (unfortunately) speaking with Mrs. Beasley, but they did exchange occasional smiles while eating. Sydney could hardly concentrate on her afternoon classes. Come Friday afternoon it was difficult enough to focus on class work for both the students and teachers, but with the fact that Sydney’s second date with Michael was quickly approaching, she was even less inclined to talk about derivatives.

Four thirty was the earliest Sydney was technically allowed to leave her post and she made sure she was locking up her classroom door at exactly that time. She rushed out to her car and drove home as quickly as possible, wanting to shower and do something more with her hair than just putting it in a ponytail before her date. As she got ready that evening, butterflies filled her stomach. She could not explain it but, for some reason, she knew Michael Vaughn wouldn’t be some guy she went out with only a few times.

~*~

When Michael Vaughn pulled his car into the parking lot and spotted Sydney sitting on a bench outside the café, her hair lightly curled and hanging around her face in soft waves, his heart leapt straight into his throat. Don’t be hopeful, don’t be hopeful, don’t be hopeful, he coached himself as he parked his car. He didn’t want to be overly hopeful that their dinner fell into the ‘more than friends’ instead of ‘just friends’ category, but that was growing more difficult by the second.

“Hey,” he smiled at her as he approached, “you look really nice.”

“Thanks,” she said, tucking a strand of curled hair behind her ear. The two of them walked into the crowded café and waited to be seated.

As they ate, they continued with their conversation that had taken place on their movie date a week earlier. Sydney told him about her sister, Nadia, who was two years younger and in med school, her mother, who was a retired English teacher, and her father, who was an engineer. “Obviously I take after him,” she added with a laugh. In turn, Michael told Sydney a bit about his father and then went on to talk about his mother, who was a nurse, and his technical step-father, though he didn’t think of him that way since his mother had only been re-married for three years.

At the end of the meal, Michael picked up the check before Sydney could get to it and she didn’t protest, which reaffirmed Michael’s suspicions that their meal together was a technical date instead of just two friends eating together. They were making their way towards the exit when Sydney stopped dead in her tracks and groaned loudly, “Oh crap! It’s raining!”

“Did you forget an umbrella?” Michael asked.

“Worse,” she grimaced, “I walked here.”

Michael couldn’t help but laugh, though he tried to hide it. “Didn’t you look at the weather?”

“Obviously not,” she grumbled.

“Come on, I’ll give you a ride. I’ll even let you use my umbrella on the way to the car,” he smiled as he passed over the navy blue umbrella in his hand.

“Oh no…we can share it,” Sydney insisted, feeling terrible that she was so pathetic all of a sudden. Michael nodded and took it back from her so he, the taller of the two, could hold it over them. Once outside under the awning, he popped it open and used the umbrella sharing as an excuse to put his arm lightly around Sydney’s waist as they raced towards his car, their feet splashing on the puddle filled sidewalk. Despite the umbrella, though, they were soaked by the time they were safely in Michael’s car.

Sydney directed them to her apartment building and Michael parked as close to it as he possibly could so she didn’t have too far to go in the rain. “I had a really great time tonight,” she smiled at him, tentatively playing with her seatbelt.

“Yeah me too,” Michael smiled at her. Suddenly he was nervous. Sydney was not exiting the car quickly; did that mean she wanted to kiss him? He was not sure, but his answer came soon enough when she leaned towards him. He met her half way. Their kiss was brief but enough to send chills down Michael’s spine. “So, um, does this mean you’re abandoning your not dating a coworker rule?” he asked hopefully.

She smiled broadly. “Well there are exceptions to every rule…. So you wanna do something tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you want,” he told her. They made plans to meet at Sydney’s apartment around noon the next day before parting with another quick kiss. Michael waited until Sydney went inside her apartment before driving away, massive grin spread across his face.



Chapter 8

When Michael spotted Sydney standing outside her classroom leaning up against the wall, a smile spread across his face as it did every time he saw her. He jammed his hands down into his pants pockets as he approached and leaned one shoulder against the wall a comfortable distance away from her. “Can you believe it’s the last day of school?”

She turned her head towards him as she laughed, “Nope. I thought this day would never come.”

“Aww you mean you’re not going to miss math over the summer?” he teased in a patronizing voice.

“Like you’re going to miss history?” she countered, still smiling.

“Ah, but see there is a history channel on TV. I could learn about historical things twenty-four-seven if I felt like it. There’s no math channel.”

“Thank god,” she laughed along with him.

In the previous six weeks, Michael and Sydney had spent a significant amount of time together. They’d eaten lunch together almost every day, sometimes eating in the faculty lounge, but often eating in one of their classrooms, which was a slightly more private environment. Sydney was hesitant about them being too friendly in public areas of the school because she didn’t want them to become the hottest gossip going through the school since the nurse’s affair with the driver’s ed teacher in the nurses’ office the previous year. Michael agreed on this point and they made sure to keep their relationship to a strictly professional friendship when around the eyes and ears of others, especially students.

In their time together, through lunches, occasional dinners and weekend dates, Michael discovered that Sydney was much more outgoing than he originally thought her to be. She had been sky diving and bungee jumping during college and enjoyed many other activities that Michael would have deemed dangerous or, at the very least, definitely not for him. He liked to spend his evenings and weekends at home reading or doing something that was most definitely less life-threatening than bungee jumping. Sydney didn’t seem to mind staying in, though, as long as Michael promised to do some more adventurous things with her once school was over. Reluctantly, he agreed.

“So you ready to go jet skiing?” Sydney asked excitedly. Michael gave her a wary look. “You promised!”

“I know I did, I’m just… concerned,” he said cautiously.

“Concerned why?”

“Well I’m not a very good swimmer… I could drown,” he told her.

“You wear life jackets genius. It’s pretty hard to drown in one of those,” Sydney informed him.

“I guess…,” but before he could say more to protest, their mutual favorite student, Beth, approached them, waving slightly.

“Have a great summer Beth. Make sure to do your math homework,” Sydney reminded her with a wink.

“Oh I already finished that packet you gave us, but I’ll do it again closer to September,” Beth told her with a smile.

“Oh,” Sydney laughed, glancing briefly towards Michael, who was smiling.

“Well have a great summer Miss Bristow, Mr. Vaughn,” she told them. Then she lowered her voice as she added, “You two make such a cute couple!” and then she walked away.

Michael looked at Sydney slightly shocked. “How does she know!?”

Sydney shrugged. “I told her. She thinks we’re cute.”

“Obviously,” Michael laughed. “Why’d you tell her?”

“Oh well actually she told me that she thought you liked me and then I told her we’d already been out on a date and she told me to ask you out again, so I did,” Sydney said with a shrug.

“You mean if it hadn’t been for Beth you never would have gone out with me again?!” Michael asked, slightly shocked.

“Well, never say never, but if you hadn’t noticed I am rather stubborn,” she told him.

“I had noticed that actually,” he smiled at her. She laughed softly and looked down towards her feet. “Anyway, I’m gonna go… finish up some stuff… we still on for dinner?”

“Six thirty,” she nodded in confirmation. He nodded back before walking away and back to his classroom.

~*~

As Michael got ready to go on his and Sydney’s date that evening, he could not help but feel slightly nervous. That evening would be the first time Michael was going over to Sydney’s apartment to spend a significant amount of time. He had been inside the apartment twice before when picking her up for one of their dates, but he never stayed very long and never walked past the kitchen right next to the front door.

As Michael tried to button his shirt, he noticed his hands were trembling. Grumbling to himself, he was not sure why he was nervous. After all, it wasn’t as though being inside Sydney’s apartment meant anything. They had spent an evening at his apartment once while watching a movie, which was unfortunately interrupted by Eric. Michael thought his friend had moved out and into the apartment of his girlfriend of the week (not something he approved of, or thought to be a good idea, but he wasn’t going to complain because he was at least rid of Eric for the time being). However, not surprisingly, the girl had kicked Eric out after only a few days, which meant Eric returned to mooch off Michael and thus forced Sydney out of the apartment with his gross behavior that Michael later apologized for.

Taking a deep breath, Michael tried to stop his trembling as he made his way to his car for the very short drive to Sydney’s apartment. When he arrived, he parked in a visitor’s space and then headed towards Sydney’s apartment, which he was shocked to see was completely dark. Not one tiny speck of light filtered out from around the blinds in her kitchen. Confused, Michael knocked on the door, but not surprisingly there was no answer. He flipped open his cell phone to find that there was no message from Sydney and he hadn’t missed any calls. He stood there for a few minutes, debating what to do, until he saw Sydney’s car pull in the lot. A moment later, she got out and ran towards him, apologizing profusely.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry! I was going to make us this nice dinner but when I got the ingredients out they were all moldy and smelly and gross so I had to go out and get something!” she exclaimed as she ran, juggling a large bag on the way.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Michael assured her. He took the bag from her so that she could unlock her apartment door and then walked in behind her.

“I know but I wanted to have such a nice dinner!” she sighed sadly.

“I’m sure it’s going to be perfect,” Michael smiled.

“Of course it’s going to be perfect – it’s takeout! I had nothing to do with its creation,” she said. Michael couldn’t help but laugh softly.

As they ate, they talked about their plans for that summer. Sydney would be teaching a summer math class for five weeks, but she had a week off before it started. As for Michael, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with his almost three months of free time, but he usually found something to occupy himself.

After they ate, Michael assisted Sydney in cleaning up and then the two of them retreated to the couch where they had their heaviest make-out session yet. It was Michael who broke their embrace, completely breathless. “Well…I guess I should,” he cleared his throat, “um, go…”

“Go?” Sydney asked, sounding surprised. “You’re actually going to go after that?”

Michael felt himself blushing at Sydney’s implication. “Um… yeah,” he said. Then he gave her another quick kiss before bidding her goodnight. Though he was sure Eric would tease him mercilessly when he returned home, six weeks was definitely too early in their relationship to cross that barrier.



Chapter 9

When Michael heard his doorbell ring from his position in his bedroom, he was still in the process of putting on his pants. However, that did not stop him from launching himself across the room, tripping in the process, and trying to race to the door shouting, “I got it! I got it!” He knew that if he did not get their first, Eric would. Unfortunately, his near fall cost him the race and Eric reached the door ahead of him. Normally this would not have been such a bad thing, except for two very terrible things in this case: Eric was completely naked, and Sydney was at the door.

As he struggled to pull his pants on Michael heard Eric’s jovial, “Hi Sydney!” followed by a female scream.

“Eric!” Michael shouted as he dove for the door, thankfully slamming it shut with Sydney on the non-scarring side. “Get your naked ass away from my girlfriend!”

“Jeez fine you don’t have to be mean about it,” Eric muttered.

Once he’d walked out of eyesight, Michael slowly opened the door to find Sydney with her hand over her eyes. “It’s safe now,” Michael assured her. “And I am terribly sorry about slamming the door.”

“That’s quite alright,” Sydney assured him as she lowered her hand, “I actually thank you for it.”

Michael cringed. “I’m also sorry for my moronic roommate permanently scarring your corneas…. Just give me a second and I’ll be out. You can wait here.”

“I appreciate it,” she said as he shut the door. Michael quickly finished buttoning his jeans before racing back to his room to grab his shoes, completely ignoring the stark naked man in his kitchen. Once outside, Michael apologized again before following Sydney to her car (she was taking him rock climbing indoors).

“Yeah, so, um, why is he naked?” Sydney asked cautiously.

“To piss me off,” Michael grumbled. “See, I was sick of him leaving his dirty clothes around the house and I told him I wasn’t going to wash them anymore… so he wore all his clean clothes and, apparently, his solution to not doing laundry is being naked all the time.”

“That’s disgusting,” Sydney told him seriously.

“I know,” Michael whined as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to do his laundry as soon as I get home.”

“Does he um,” she gulped, “sit on your sofa like that?”

“NO,” Michael said firmly. “He sits on a towel.”

“Oh well that’s… better… but isn’t it weird having him, you know, naked?”

“Oh no it’s completely normal,” Michael said with obvious sarcasm. She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s… I dunno, it’s Eric. He’s Eric. That’s all there is to it. I mean I couldn’t walk around naked with him around-”

“Comforting,” Sydney interjected in a very serious tone.

“-but he does so…whatever,” he sighed.

“How’d you meet Eric anyway? I mean… you guys seem so… different.”

“Oh we are. He was my roommate freshmen year in college. The school paired us up, thinking we’d get along. Of course, he loved to party, I enjoyed spending time in our room by myself… so it ended up working out very nicely,” he laughed.

“And you guys really stayed friends all this time?” Sydney asked. She seemed surprised that two men so different who had cohabited peacefully in college were still so close over ten years later.

“Yeah, we did. As much as I want to choke him sometimes he’s like a brother to me…besides, we kinda bonded permanently over the fact that I could help him with his homework in return for him helping me with women.”

Sydney nearly choked from her barkish laughter. “Eric helped you with women?!”

“Well not exactly… I mean, he helped me come out of my shell a bit and not be so shy,” Michael explained.

“That makes much more sense,” Sydney said, then the two of them laughed.

~*~

“Okay, so rock climbing is really very simple once you get the hang of it, but don’t worry – I’m gonna walk you through the whole thing. I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager – I’m like a pro!” Sydney assured Michael with a smile as they were standing with the rock wall looming overhead. Michael looked up at the wall and then over to Sydney with a very fearful look on his face. “What? You’re not afraid of heights are you?”

“No…,” he said slowly. He lifted up the harness Sydney had handed him and stared down at it as he carefully turned it over in his hands. “I’m just… concerned…”

“That stuff is gonna get squished?” she finished for him. Michael’s head snapped up to see a look of pure amusement on her face.

“Maybe…,” he said, blushing slightly.

“Don’t worry – tons of guys do this and they all live to tell the tale. Come on put it on,” she encouraged. Sighing, Michael stepped into the harness and allowed Sydney to hook it on him properly. The last thing he wanted was to do it incorrectly and then plummet towards the ground, landing painfully on his skull.

After his harness was in place, he followed Sydney to the wall, where he began to ascend after her, following her instructions on where to put his hands and feet. He quickly found that rock climbing was much harder than he had originally thought it would be. His inexperience combined with ‘of course I can do this’ attitude resulted in him falling off the wall while barely three feet off the ground.

“You’ve got to use your legs to push yourself upwards,” Sydney told him. “Don’t hang on with your hands.”

“Uh huh,” he grumbled as he tried to climb the wall once more.

By the end of the afternoon, Michael’s fingers ached, he was injured in places he didn’t even know he had due to the harness he was wearing, and he discovered once and for all he was a terrible rock climber.

“You did good,” Sydney told him with a pat on the back. He gave her a look. “Okay… you did pretty badly – but it was good for your first time!”

“First and only…,” he muttered.

“You’re not gonna try again?” Sydney asked, sounding almost sad.

“Syd, I’m not going to be able to walk properly for a week!” Michael exclaimed as he waddled his way to return his harness. Sydney couldn’t help but snort trying to hold back her laughter. “I hear you laughing! You did this to me!!!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry,” Sydney said before kissing his cheek gently. “You’ll do much better when we go jet skiing in a few weeks, I promise.”

“Greaaat,” he said in an unenthusiastic tone.



Chapter 10

As much as Michael enjoyed spending time with Sydney, and he truly, truly did, he would have appreciated their time together much more if they had not been participating in wild stunts Sydney came up with. Michael favored his time together with Sydney much more when they were at home on her couch watching a movie. During those times, it would only take her about twenty minutes, if that, before she would slip her feet into his lap. Only after this happened a few times did Michael realize this was Sydney’s indication that he needed to massage her feet. He did not mind doing it either; he found it cute. During these times they would talk or sometimes just hold each other close. To Michael, that was a much better time than some wild adventure Sydney took him on, most recently their jet skiing trip.

Sydney had made a very big deal about going jet skiing with Michael. So big a deal, in fact, that unlike some of her other invites, he was unable to turn it down. Apparently, this was a trip Sydney made every year with some of the friends Michael had met at her birthday party in the park. One of the friends had a beach house and some jet skis so they would all go down on a Friday after work (since they all had ‘normal’ jobs and worked year round unlike Sydney and Michael, the teachers) and stay until Sunday. This was apparently Sydney’s favorite vacation and she made a big deal about inviting him, so Michael felt too guilty not to go.

“Seriously, Mike, why do you let this chick talk you into stuff like this?” Eric asked with a laugh. He was hovering in Michael’s bedroom doorway while he packed for his weekend away.

“Because I like her… and she likes jet skiing…so I have to like jet skiing,” Michael sighed as he folded up his boxers and neatly tucked them in the side of his suitcase.

Eric looked at him in disgust. “Okay, first, you pack like a chick. Second, this girl has got you whipped. You hate the ocean and I’m thinking you don’t even really like her.”

“What?! Of course I like Sydney! I really, really like Sydney,” he said.

“BUT….,” Eric led him.

“Fine,” he groaned. “I’d like her better if I didn’t have to go jet skiing… I’ll just try to slip that into the weekend conversation. Besides, it can’t be that bad, right? I get to share a bed with her and see her in a bikini.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right, that would be great if this was your second date and you were sixteen. You’ve known this chick for over two years and you’ve been dating her for what? Three months?”

“Not quite three…,” Michael mumbled.

“Um, yeah you definitely could have slept with her then,” Eric said in a tone of disgust.

“I’m ignoring you now,” Michael said as he zipped up his suitcase. Then, he pushed past Eric as he grumbled at him.

~*~

“Ready for some jet skiing fun?” Sydney asked excitedly when Michael picked her up.

“Yeah… kinda…,” Michael said, his tone making his uncertainty even more prominent.

“It’s going to be great!” she giggled as she leaned over and kissed his cheek. Michael gave her a half smile in return before they began their drive.

When they arrived at the beach, they found they were the first people there, which was not surprising since they had left so early in the afternoon, at a time when everyone else would still be working. They parked their car and began wandering around the tiny beach town for about an hour before finally they saw someone else arrive at the house. By the time everyone arrived it was late, too late to go out jet skiing so they all gathered around the kitchen eating and drinking until one by one they disappeared to go to bed.

Sydney and Michael’s designated sleeping area was the pull out couch in the living room, which left them very little privacy. Michael pulled out the bed while Sydney took her turn in the one and only bathroom in the house. As soon as he sat down on the mattress, he discovered it was very broken. Muttering to himself about how the broken mattress would only succeed in making his first night beside Sydney more interesting, he began putting the sheets onto the bed.

“So you got any weird sleeping habits I should know about?” Sydney asked with a smile while she arranged her pillow on the bed.

“No,” Michael laughed, “but you should know that the-” he was momentarily interrupted by Sydney getting on the bed and screaming “-mattress is broken.”

“Obviously,” she grunted as she tried to pull herself out of the hole formed by the center of the mattress. Laughing softly, Michael climbed onto the other side of the mattress and the two of them promptly fell into the middle of the mattress, colliding with each other and laughing.

“I guess this is goodnight then,” Michael laughed.

“Oh yeah… wonderful,” Sydney sighed. She arranged her pillow beside Michael and then the two of them fell asleep in very close quarters.

~*~

Michael was definitely not looking forward to jet skiing early Saturday morning. As they were getting ready, Sydney asked him to help her put suntan lotion on her back and Michael suspected that that would be the highlight of his day. For the morning, he and Sydney would be using the same Jet Ski; she would be driving so that he was able to get the hang of things. Then, if he felt comfortable enough, he could have his own jet ski in the afternoon.

Michael followed Sydney and her friends to the dock where they were loading the jet skis into the water. Then, he made sure his life jacket was on securely before sitting on the Jet Ski behind Sydney and wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. “Ready?” she asked with a grin over her shoulder. Michael gave a slight squeak along with an expression that was more of a grimace than a smile. Then, Sydney took off on the Jet Ski leaving Michael clinging to her tightly out of pure fear.

Despite the fact that Sydney was a bit more of a daredevil on the Jet Ski than he would have liked, jet skiing was not as bad as Michael originally thought it would be. After lunch, he rode his own Jet Ski going at a more normal speed and found he was actually having a bit of fun. Not that he was ready to go jet skiing every weekend, but it was fun enough for a one time thing.

“So you had a good time, right?” Sydney asked.

“Um, yeah, yeah it was fun,” he smiled at her.

“You still like sitting at home and reading better, don’t you?” she asked in an almost defeated tone.

Michael cringed slightly. “Sorry…, but yeah.”

“Ah, that’s okay. It’s fine really,” she waved her had casually, “and I promise that I won’t take you skydiving.”

“Thank you,” Michael said in the most sincere tone he had ever used in his life.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Chapters 11 - 20 + Epilogue