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Chapter 1
"This is going to go so bad!" Lucas informed Max as Mike left for the blind date she'd set him up on.
Max flipped her hair over her shoulder impatiently. "Well, that's sort of the point! If it goes wrong, maybe he'll finally realize he and El belong together. I'm tired of them moping around all the time."
"So, the obvious answer is to have them date other people instead of trying to get them together to talk like adults because that makes perfect sense."
"Well, it did when I first came up with it!" Max snapped defensively. "I didn't hear you offer that brilliant solution when we were talking about ideas on how to get them back together."
"I thought you were kidding when you said we should set them up with other people. I didn't think you'd go as far to actually make dates with the poor, unassuming public. Not only is it a bad idea, you know Mike won't ever shut up about El."
"I want it to go badly!" Max insisted with the slightest hint of impatience.
"Also, you better hope that El doesn't find out about it. Remember when she thought Mike was into you and she pushed you off your skateboard?"
Max laughed uneasily. "Well, she's not going to find out. Besides, El's more mature now. She's not going to hurt anybody because Mike went out to dinner with them."
"This is Mike and El we're talking about. They can become unreasonable when it comes to each other."
Max snorted, she was thankful she was never illogical when it came to her romantic relationships. She never allowed herself to get that crazy over a boy. All the times Lucas had broken up with her, she had taken it in stride. While lots of girls had gushed over El and Mike's romance, she had hoped it would never happen to her. Dating and boys were nice and all, but she never wanted to let her judgment get clouded and she certainly didn't want to be the cause of anyone being unreasonable.
A bedroom door opened and Will appeared looking irritated. "Would the two of you keep it down? I'm trying to study!" he turned to look at Max and shook his head. "Also, what were you thinking? Sending Mike out on a date with somebody else? What if El finds out?"
"The two of you need to chill! El isn't going to find out."
"Find out what?" El asked as she came out of the living room with a big blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
"Nothing!" Will asked, shooting Max an out of character dirty look.
Max smiled. "So, do you want ice cream? Or one of those Eggo palooza things you love so much?"
El shook her head. "No thanks, I'm fine."
"Do you want to go to a movie?" Max asked, trailing her to the kitchen.
El sighed. "Max, what are you trying to do? Distract me?"
"No!" Max answered a little too quickly. "Why would you think that?"
El gave her a look and rummaged through the fridge for a bottle of water. "I've known you since I was 13. You've got that look you get when some stupid plan you made backfired."
Max fidgeted with one of her braids and then threw it over her shoulder. "So. . ." she hedged. "How over Mike are you really?"
El narrowed her eyes suspiciously, ignoring the way her heart skipped a beat, as her blanket slipped off her shoulders. "Why?"
"Are you majorly over him or are you still in the stage where you're wallowing in sad songs and romantic comedies and eating junk food?"
El huffed and closed the refrigerator. "Max, what did you do?" she repeated, trying her best to tamp down her irritation.
"IkindofsentMikeoutonablinddate!" Max blurted out.
El felt her heart constrict in her chest. "You kind of what?" even though she knew the answer and didn't want Max to repeat the horrible words.
"I kind of sent Mike out on a blind date!" Max confessed again.
El's whole body grew cold. "He agreed to it?" she asked, her eyes fluttering shut as visions of Mike and some perfect girl, sitting across from each other floated through her mind.
"Did you tell her!?" Lucas yelled from the living room. "Dammit Max! You said she wasn't going to find out!"
"Did he agree to go with her?" El asked over Lucas.
Max floundered for a second, the temptation to use El's obvious jealousy and hurt feelings to her advantage was great. She didn't really want the other girl to know that she had forced Mike into going in a date. It would be easier to put all the blame on him.
Max wondered if El would actually believe Mike would even consider looking at any other girl. He refused to say actresses were objectively pretty.
"Well?" El asked.
"I'm sorry El. . ." Max said because she couldn't think of any way to tell her the truth and because she didn't want her to be angry with her.
El turned around and walked back to her bedroom, blanket trailing on the floor behind her. Her door closed and a few seconds later, No More "I Love You's" started to play loudly.
"Now I have to go to the library!" Will groaned.
Lucas came into the kitchen and shook his head. "Good going, Maxine. You know she's going to be playing the world's saddest love songs all night now."
Max grabbed her car keys. "Fine, I'll try and fix it."
"I hope you're going to get Mike to come back from his date."
There's nothing some good old-fashioned comfort food can't take care of. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
"Like what? Tell El the truth?" Celine Dion started to play and Lucas shuddered. "Why would I do something like that?"
"Oh my. . . why is El listening to Celine Dion playing again!?" Dustin asked as he came into the apartment with pizza and movies. "Where's Mike? We were supposed to watch Superman."
Lucas snatched the Dominos boxes from Dustin, still annoyed with his girlfriend. "I'm sure Max would love to explain why El is subjecting us all to Celine Dion and Michael's whereabouts right now."
Dustin's mouth fell open as he put all the pieces of the puzzle together. "You did not move forward with your stupid plan."
"Like we could have gotten the two of them to talk to each other," Max defended herself even though she's well aware it's a terrible plan. "In case you haven't noticed, they're ignoring each other right now."
"So, you think if one of them goes on a date with somebody else, they're going to start talking again?" Will asked. "What do you want her to do? Wait for him to get home and then start yelling at him?"
"What? No! I don't want to explain myself. I'm going to get El something to tempt her out of the hole she just fell into. Don't have too much fun while I'm gone."
Dustin leaned against the counter. "Okay but what I really want to know is how Max even got Mike to agree to go out on a date in the first place. And who, other than El, would be crazy enough to go out with him?"
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TBC. . .
Author's Note:
I don't even have words for what this is. Except I will say, I have every intention of getting Mike and El back together. This started out as my friend and I head-canoning stuff in our DMs on Twitter, and I decided not to ignore the promptings of my muse. I hope you'll stick with me. Next chapter is from Mike's POV.
Until Next Time!
Love,
Holly