PROMISES » #MeToo ✔️

TWENTY-ONE // Micah

A/N: So, while I'm in the fun world of outlining the plot of this story (thanks to my memory, I forget what happens a lot in the stories I write, so I frequently have to review plot outlines. But tonight it suddenly occurred to me that this story doesn't have one. Oops.) have this Micah chapter.
I'm on chapter seven out of twenty-two. Wish me luck.
Update: I got through to chapter fourteen. Goodnight now.

HOW HE'S A TRUE SWEETHEART

"Seriously, you're gonna have to stop starin' at her like that. It's makin' me sick."

My head snaps to the side, my narrowed eyes meeting my younger sister's tired ones. "What?"

Rox rolls her eyes, uncrosses her arms, and goes back to looking through the CDs. "Like she's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. Seriously, it's makin' me nauseous."

I roll my eyes in return, stealing another shy glance at Piper looking at the poetry shelves. I chew on the inside of my lip nervously, bringing my gaze back to my sister and her music choices.

"D'you even realize how you're lookin' at her?" Rox mumbles, shaking her head. She glances down at Ed Sheeran's new album, Divide. I'll never understand him and his order of operations album titles. "I swear it's like y'finally found everythin' that's been missin'."

I raise an eyebrow in annoyance and disbelief. "Someone's been on tumblr all day."

"Nope," She shrugs, smiling sweetly and picking out another album. This one is by The 1975 – what kind of band name is that? "Just know what love looks like when I see it."

I scoff, now crossing my arms over my chest. "Since when do you know about love?"

"Yikes," Roxie breathes, chuckling darkly. She looks up at me with slightly pained eyes, her smile now a grimace. "I didn't need a reminder that this is my fourteenth year – almost fifteenth year – being single, but thanks."

My face softens slowly. "Sorry, Rox."

She waves me off with a genuine smile now, though I know she's only doing it to reassure me. Sometimes I wish she wouldn't. "No worries. I kinda wanna fall in love with myself before I fall in love with someone else, but that's just me."

I chuckle lightly, wrapping my arm around her in a supportive side-hug. She returns the small gesture, but quickly shoves me away.

"Go talk to her. I'll be somewhere over there," She nods back toward the science fiction and young adult fiction seconds before running away – and by running away I mean she literally sprints away from me.

It takes me a second to even realize how fast she left, and by the time I do, I see her disappearing down an aisle that has a 'Science-Fiction' sign above it. I blink, turning slowly to my right to look for Piper. To my surprise – and luck – she's still standing there.

I take a deep breath before beginning to walk over, stuffing my hands in my jean pockets as I do. My hands are sweating like crazy, which is weird because they almost never do.

By the time I get nearer to her, she has a book open and down where she can read it. It takes a minute to force myself to get closer so I can talk to her, mainly because she just...she looks beautiful, standing there reading without caring what's going on around her. And she's barely three pages into it.

When I get closer, I stand a little bit away from her, remembering that one day at lunch when she told me not to sit so close. Maybe it makes her uncomfortable? It doesn't matter; I just won't try to get so close to her in the physical sense.