Brody & Michelle Ch. 02

When the first movie ended, Michelle looked over at Brody and smiled. "I actually liked that one more than I thought I would."

"Good. I don't know if I could ever speak to you again if you didn't."

"That's awfully fickle of you."

Brody shrugged. "What can I say?"

"What movie is playing next?"

"' The People Under the Stairs,'" answered Scott. "It's an interesting one."

"Good interesting?" asked Michelle

"I think so."

"Hmm... Well, let's hope so."

The second movie started, and, sadly, Michelle seemed a fair deal less interested in it. Mostly, she just looked annoyed or confused. Halfway through she whispered to Brody, "I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

"You're going to go in the middle of the movie?" he asked.

"Yeah. I know it's probably some sort of blasphemous act, but I really have to go."

Brody sighed. "Okay. There are Porta-Potties over there."

"Oh, joy..." Michelle mumbled as she got up to go over to where the portable bathrooms were

located.

Brody then looked over at Scott and quietly said, "Why they are playing this movie after 'The Evil

Dead' is beyond me."

Scott scooted a little closer to Brody before saying, "I know. I think you might be losing her with this one a bit."

"And I was doing so well."

"She's nice, though. I didn't even know you met anyone recently."

"She is nice, isn't she? I don't know. I really like her."

"How long...?"

"I've only known her a couple weeks, and this is only the fourth time we've even hung out, so..."

"Hmm. Just... don't put all your eggs in one basket. You tend to do that."

Brody rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the advice, mom, but this is different."

Then Brody heard something behind him, and he saw Michelle walking up to the blanket. She looked over in Brody's direction, her eyebrows narrowing, and then looked down at the empty spot next to Dylan. With a hesitant look on her face she sat down next to Dylan.

"Ohh..." said Scott, looking over at Brody cautiously.

Brody remained silent and inwardly fumed. Why was she sitting next to Dylan? He couldn't believe it was happening. She seemed genuinely interested in him. He looked over at Dylan, who was whispering something to Michelle. She smiled, nodded, then whispered something back. She looked over at Brody, to see him staring at her. She smiled and waved at him. He just shot her a look of confusion, then turned straight ahead to watch the rest of the movie.

When the second movie ended, Michelle started packing up her picnic basket. "It was nice meeting all of you," she said to the three guys. "I had a pretty good time."

"It was nice meeting you, too," they replied.

She looked over at Brody, who was just standing there staring at her almost distantly. "I'm sorry again about asking to leave early. I hope it's okay."

"It's fine. I mean, it kind of sucks, but it's not a big deal."

Feeling guilty, she said, "I mean... I can call my dad or brother to come pick me up if you want to stay. I don't want to pull you away from your friends or anything."

"I could take you home," Dylan volunteered.

"No," Brody said, a little too quickly. "I said that it wasn't a big deal. I'll take her home." He promptly turned around and started walking towards the parking lot.

"Okay. I guess we're leaving now," Michelle giggled awkwardly. "See you guys around." She had to almost jog to catch up to Brody, and when she did, he didn't even slow down. In fact, he remained a good few feet in front of her the whole walk to the car.

They both got into Brody's car, and Michelle was feeling awkward, but she didn't know why. Brody was acting strange. "Are you really sure you don't want to stay? Because it's fine if you do. I can call my dad-"

"It's fine, okay? Why do you keep bringing it up?"

"I don't know. You seem upset or something. I thought maybe it was because you wanted to

stay..."

Brody kept his eyes on the steering wheel. "It's fine. Don't worry about it." He turned on the car and pulled out of the parking space.

"Okay. I won't. But, hey, I really like 'The Evil Dead.' I didn't exactly like the second movie we watched."

"Yeah."

"But I saw the director of 'The Evil Dead' was Sam Raimi. Isn't that who you said was your biggest influence?"

Brody nodded.

Annoyed by his lack of response when she was the one trying to engage him in talk of one his interests, Michelle narrowed her eyes and said, "So... it's good that I liked that one, considering it's what you would want to do as a director yourself..."

"I guess so."

"You guess so?"

There was a slight, awkward pause before Brody asked, "Do you want to listen to some music?"

"Sure." Michelle reached over to play her CD. "We can listen to the rest of the CD I made for you."

"Oh. I was thinking we could just listen to the radio."

Michelle then sat back, crossed her arms, and looked over at him. "You want to listen to music, but you don't want to listen to the CD I made for you? I lost my mixed CD virginity to you, and you don't even want to listen to it?" she teased, even though she was about seventy-eight percent serious.

Brody glanced over at her, and saw just a slight twinge of hurt in her eyes. His gaze quickly softened, and he said, "Or we can listen to the CD. It's cool."

"No. If you want to listen to the radio, then we can."

"No. I'm sorry. I want to listen to your CD. Can we listen to it? Please?"

"Okay." They listened to the CD the rest of the way to Michelle's house, neither of them saying a word.

While in Michelle's driveway, Brody put the car into park and said goodnight.

Michelle grabbed her picnic basket, she opened the door and said goodnight as well. She looked over at Brody, then, with resolve, closed the car door. He was startled and gave her an incredulous look. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been acting weird the whole car ride home. I mean, the night started off great, right? You called me cute, then we talked and listened to music. We had fun watching 'The Evil Dead' together... Then the moment we left, you were ignoring me. You were ignoring me while I was trying to talk to you about Sam Raimi, who is your personal hero. Your words, not mine. Is something wrong?"

Brody just sat there uncomfortably.

"Brody, what's going on?"

His answer was a shrug.

"Did you not have fun tonight with me? Is that it? You can tell me..."

"No," he said adamantly. "It's nothing like that."

"Then what is it?"

"Oh, my god. I'm going to sound like such an idiot..."

"You can tell me."

"You sat next to Dylan."

Michelle paused. "What?"

"When you came back from the bathroom, you sat next to Dylan instead of sitting next to me."

"Well, yeah. Scott and Drew kind of scooted into my seat, and I didn't want to be rude and ask them to move. It was just easier to sit next to Dylan. Which I didn't want to, by the way, because he was hitting on me all night."

"Yeah. I noticed."

"So... you really were treating me like a dick because I sat down next to a different guy?"

"Yeah. But... he's good with girls. I'm not. I've... he's taken girls I like before, and... I really didn't want it to happen with you."

"Brody, I've told you that I like you. I don't know what else..." Michelle trailed off.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Just... that can never happen again. You can't treat me like that. I can tell you're a little insecure, for whatever reason, but... you just can't. If something's bothering you, you have to promise to just tell me about it. Okay?"

Brody nodded, again staring at his steering wheel.

Michelle reached over and grabbed one of his hands that was sitting in his lap. He looked up at her, and she gave him a sweet smile. "I really did have a good time tonight."

"Me, too."

"Call me after five on Monday. I want to see you again soon."

"You do?"

"I just got done saying I like you."

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry." His thumb started stroking her hand. "I like you, too."

"I know."

"Cocky much?"

Michelle just smiled back at him.

"So Monday after five, huh? You like mini-golf?"

"Who doesn't?"

"No one important."

"Exactly."

"Okay. We'll mini-golf, then."

"Sounds like a plan," she said, pulling up Brody's hand and kissing it quickly before letting go.

"Hey!" he exclaimed while grabbing her hand back in his. "Aren't I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know. I think if anyone's the dainty lass in this, it's you."

He rolled his eyes, gave her hand a kiss, and said, "Until Monday, my lady?"

"Until Monday, kind sir."