Chapter 27

To say he was ignoring it wasn't an understatement… but he saw that Lauren did, so he tried to do so as well. She'd call a few times, and hung up earlier than usual. She hasn't stopped by so regularly either, but it has only been two weeks, so he didn't suspect anything.

Besides, her finals were last week, so she had been busy. He knew what a trouble finals were from experience, so he didn't bother.

After her finals, both initiated more contact and Lauren stopped by almost every day again. Right now, she was happy with how her finals turned out and couldn't shut up about it.

"But at least I know I did well… I must have done well. I cannot have done bad! I've been on my books for an eternity. I even gave up snacking-hours because I had to study! They ought to give me extra points for that."

"Sure, you did well."

"Well that sounds believable. Thanks a bunch." Lauren grimly glared at him and he laughed, closing the doors of back room of the bar behind him. He sat down on the opposite of the bar while Lauren lowered her head in her arms.

"Damn, I got used to this freedom and now I have to get some stupid papers." She complained. "Could you, now you're done with whatever you were doing, drop me off?"

"It's beautiful weather, why not walk?" They silenced. "Don't answer that. You know what, if you come back with very good grades I'll buy you a drink."

"Like you never buy me a drink, ha!" Lauren scoffed, smiling anyway. "So you'll drop me off and pick me up? How thoughtful of you."

"Sorry, I have something else to do." Just in case, he attempted a guilt-trip with emphasizing his words. Lauren shrugged carelessly and he realized it didn't work. He did have something else to do though, he had agreed to meet with some friends within an hour.

"I can hitch a ride with someone, though." She was silent for a while as she looked through her bag, and looked up suddenly. "I forgot to ask how Peanut was doing." Lauren said, and he raised his eyebrows.

"Peanut?"

"The cat I shall adopt? I named him Peanut. Regardless of his gender. Did you see if he were a he or a she yet?"

Mike shook his head with a grin, happy she decided to take him. Poppy already reserved one for her niece. As for now, all their names were chosen by biblical angels they heard from shows. Mike deliberately left Michael out, to avoid… situations.

"I think Bryan used to call that one Gabriel."

"For real? The archangel? Awesome. I know someone who used to call his cat Lucifer, until he realized it was a girl cat, and then he called her Lucy. Gabriella isn't really a nice cat name though. So it's still Peanut. Peanut Gabriel Angel Junior. I think I can live with that."

"I'll tell him that." He assured and she chuckled.

Lauren crossed her arms briefly, before uncrossing them and crossing them again. Mike raised an eyebrow at her behavior but shrugged it off as he leaned his arms on the bar.

"So… I'm turning eighteen soon."

"So I heard." Mike confirmed and smiled at her. "Going to give a huge, bad-ass party?"

Lauren scowled. "No way. Huge, yes, bad-ass no. That's lame. You wanna come too? You're hereby officially invited."

"Depends on what you're going to do."

"Paintball, perhaps."

"Then I'm totally in." He said without hesitation and the sheer seriousness made both of them laugh. He'd never played paintball before, so why not try it?

Lauren jumped up, declaring she had to go get her papers, before she turned around at the door. "Eh… would you… think of me different when I'm eighteen?"

He looked at her for a moment before looking upwards as if he were thinking. "You can officially drive a car."

"That's not what I meant, idiot. I meant as in how you…If I were to say something simple like… hmm, no. " She fell silent and her nose scrunched up slightly. He had to keep in a chuckle at how obvious her inner struggle was.

"Hmm, I need time to think about that. Don't want to answer the wrong way."

"Jerk."

"You want me to pick you up tomorrow? We can go out for a drink or something." He offered politely. "If you have good grades."

"I like you."

Mike almost coughed at the directness of her tone. Not even 'I'd like that' or 'I'd like you to.' Just simple and plain, 'I like you.' Not that he wasn't expecting it anytime soon, he was just figuring he had to say it first.

He looked back and saw her looking at him with an almost ungrateful look. "You're deaf, aren't you? I knew it. Old man…"

Mike smiled. "I'm not."

"Tch. I'm late."

"Have fun at school. I like you too."

"You're only saying it because of the height of the moment."

Mike laughed. Only she would be able to come up with something like that and be perfectly serious about it too.

"Lauren, if I said it when you were to turn eighteen it wouldn't have made any difference. You would still be your bratty self who would be denying it. So just accept it and go get your grades."

Her eyes widened slightly before she sighed. "I don't know what to make of this." She said in a comically tone, before she looked slightly worried. "Are you… serious?"

"It's a shame you don't date."

Lauren audibly groaned and shook her head quickly, raising her hands. He smiled at the reaction. "No, no, I can give it a try."

"So easily?"

"You have to charm me into it, and you get a week. Starting from tomorrow! Now okay bye!" Lauren jolted away from him and out of the bar, and he grinned as he followed her outside.

Ironically, she seemed to have trouble with getting the lock of her transport off and she looked fairly red while doing so. Either from the exercise or from embarrassment.

"Need some help?"

"No."

"Don't worry or something. We can forget this conversation ever happened." Mike added thoughtfully, hoping she wouldn't agree to that. Lauren dropped the lock with the key still in it and turned around.

"It's unexpected, that's all." She admitted.

"Do I really need an entire week? That's awfully long for the time we've known each other." He was pleasantly surprised when the red color on her face expanded slightly, and she looked away.

"I'm not familiar with the dating things. I just… do it my way or something. So you should just show me what your way is and then we can mix it or something? Hell, this is stupid. Why am I talking about this?"

"We can do it…eh, your way, if it makes you comfortable."

Lauren smiled. "Step one, succeeded." Within a blink she moved up towards him, stood on her toes and gave him a rather sudden kiss. More a smack on his lips though but he couldn't help but think she was nervous… and that wasn't bad. He kept his grin in when she pulled back.

"This changes nothing!" She turned around quickly to fumble with the lock again and he waited two seconds.

"The lock will open if you treat it calmly." He said with a grin, grabbing her by her arm and pulling her up again. She made an irritated sound.

"Why-"

"Just shut op for once and leave the lock alone."

That helped considerably. Lauren was up in an instant and almost bumped heads with him. She glared angrily at him. "For once? What the hell was that supposed to mean?!"

He grinned. "Something to get you standing up, nothing personal. I swear."

"Yeah, I don't believe you. Damn bartenders."

"Don't discriminate my people."

She looked away, slightly irritated, and crossed her arms. "What is so important it can't wait till tomorrow?" She tapped her foot slightly and he grinned wider at her behavior.

"Goodbye, I guess."

"Like that?" She was about to complain before she silenced as he leaned in towards her. He had almost wanted to chuckle at the way her eyes widened, shocked before amused, and kept them open to stare her in the eyes in a challenging way when he kissed her back.

"That wasn't even a kiss. What are you, an elementary student?"

"I exaggerated your earlier example."

"What!" She wanted to turn around again but he cleverly kept a grip on her arm, tightening it slightly as if in a warning. She tried to shrug her arm loose, and her mouth tugged upwards into a smile when she noticed she couldn't.

"I get the impression you're a cherry-young virgin. Where's the toughness?"

"It moved to England already."

Ah yes, England. He grimaced slightly and she noticed, leaning over to him with a somewhat shy (if that was possible with her) smile. "If you promise to… ah forget it."

"Not hook up with other people? Buy a dog?"

"I don't think Peanut Gabriel Angel Junior will be able to live with that." Satisfied with a somewhat confirmation she would return, Mike wrapped an arm around her and gave her a more surreal kiss.

Lauren pulled away quickly and looked thoughtful. "But seriously, buy me a dog. As a welcoming gift."

The moment lost, Mike stared a while before laughing, wondering how on earth he could spend a year, two years or three years without those random comments.

He was suddenly very happy with his phone.


Hell yeah finally!

Fictionpress (and Fanfiction) are a bitch on my laptop, so now I stole someone else's laptop trolololol. Nothing can hold back the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed the story :D