Page 10 of Saving Micah

“I can explain Micah.”

“Yeah. Explain. That is what I was asking you to do.” She is looking at me and the look on her face doesn’t say ‘mad’, it says ‘hurt.’

“Um.” I don’t know what to say. I’m a little embarrassed. She knows me. She’s my best friend. She’s mine. Period. And now she knows that I made a bet involving her. I feel like crap and it has nothing to do with my throbbing jaw.

“What did you expect me to do? Did you expect me to jump in between y’all and push y’all apart to confess some undying love to you or something? Did you expect me to be mad? Did you expect me to start sobbing in front of a room full of people because my best friend was playing tonsil hockey with some no name chick in the middle of a movie theater? Explain it to me Zant because I’m confused.” She has her hands on her hips and she looks anything but friendly right now. Now that she has started talking, her look is ‘mad’.

She doesn’t wait for me to respond, she drops the ice pack in my lap and the next thing I hear is the slamming of her bedroom door.

“What was all that yelling about in here?” Mrs. Lucy ask as she makes her way to me to look at my face. Mr. Davis must have gone and told her everything.

“Oh, you know. I ticked off Micah.” I tell her as I look at the ceiling of their home.

“She’s your love Zant. You will make it better.” She pats my shoulder and then walks out the door. How does she know that Micah is my love? I must not be hiding my feelings very well. I just shake my head and place the ice back on my jaw. I’ve got to get the swelling to go down some. I look over and Mrs. Lucy must have put some pain meds and water on the side table while I was talking. I pop the pills in my mouth and down the glass of water. That will help some. I hope.

Chapter 5

Micah

You’re my end and my beginning

Even when I’m lost I’m winning

{‘All Of Me’ -John Legend}

He is so infuriating! How dare hebeton me against our friend. How dare he try to get a reaction out of me that way. Why doesn’t he just talk to me like a normal person?Have you talked to him, Micah, about how you feel?

I stop my rant. My inner voice is right. I haven’t said anything that would let him know that I wouldn’t like him kissing some strange girl in the first place. Ugh. Why does all of this have to get complicated? That’s the very thing that I never wanted.

Our friendship. I remember our friendship. My best friend is sitting in my living room with a bruised jaw because of his deadbeat dad. I’m in my room pouting over a bet that didn’t really matter. He wants to keep us in the friend zone. So, I go to him.

I walk out of my room and go back into the living room. Zant has his head lying back on the couch and his eyes are closed. He’s holding the ice pack so I know he isn’t asleep. I sit next to him as easy as I can so I don’t move him. He opens one eye and looks at me.

I open my mouth to speak. Nothing comes out so I try again. “Let’s go back to the way things were. I don’t know what is going on but, I’m uncomfortable and I just want my best friend to not make bets involving me for whatever reason. I don’t like mind games. You know that.” I say all of this while looking at his chest because I can’t seem to look him in the eye.

He lowers the ice pack and turns so that he is facing me. “I hear you and I agree. You are my best friend Micah and I didn’t mean to hurt you or confuse you or whatever I did.” He puts his finger under my chin so he can lift my eyes to his. His green eyes glow with weariness. “I have one question though,” he says and my heart beats wildly. “Do you like… Are you in love… with Levi?” He stutters through his question.

I look at him with shock. And then I bust out laughing.

I laugh until tears are running down my cheeks. He’s not smiling. He’s not laughing. He looks mad and that makes me laugh harder.

Finally, I quiet down and shake my head at him. “No, I don’t like Levi, not like that, and I’m not in love with Levi. Not in the least. We are friends and that is all we will ever be.” I tell him enough to make it clear in between small giggles.

He looks down at his hands and mumbles, “but y’all looked cozy last night at the theater.”

Now I get it. “Zant, Levi told me about the bet and we talked. He was making me feel better and apologizing for his part in it.” I’m not about to tell him everything that we talked about and I know Levi well enough to know he won’t tell Zant either.

“Ok. I get it. I’m sorry for my part too.” Still looking at his hands, he says his apology almost in a whisper. He finally looks up to me and almost looks embarrassed or something. But, why would he? I shake my head and grab his ice pack to refresh it.

“It’s ok. Let’s move on. What are we doing today?” I am just ready to move past this and get back to normal.

He’s followed me into the kitchen and sits on a stool at the bar. “I don’t know. I told your dad that we were probably going to the park. I’m staying with you guys tonight to avoid the dumb-a over there. So, whatever you want to do will be fine with me.”

That’s normal. Zant basically has his own room here. The guest room has several of his things because of how many times he’s had to stay here to avoid Roy. Dad refuses to let him go home after Roy has hit him. Over the last couple of years, he’s been at our house at least once every week. Roy is Satan in the flesh. It seems to get worse every year. It makes me sick.

“Ok. I’ll call the girls. You call the guys and see what’s going on. We will reevaluate afterwards.” He nods at me and gets up to go back to the living room for his phone. I go to my room to make my calls.

I make my way back to the kitchen once I’m done and he’s back on his stool with his phone in his hands. “Well, what did they say?”

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