"Answer your phone, Michael!!!"
Faith growled as she turned off the turnpike and onto the exit to get into Los Olivos.
Michael sat at home and music was blasting.
"Sign, sealed, delivered! I'm yours!" He sang to the top of his lungs and slid down paranormally on the rail of the stairwell. He spun around at the bottom and danced to the Stevie Wonder song.
The song paused and now all he heard was buzzing. The phone was now vibrating with Faith's number blinking across the screen.
"Oh boy."
Michael said as he raced back up the steps to retrieve it.
He passes through the door to his room and he finds the phone on his bed.
"Hey doll." Michael says answering it to his ear.
"I thought you wouldn't answer.." Faith said with the phone call static purring in her speech.
Michael sat on the bed and he smirks, "You guys say that a lot. Still think I won't keep up with my cellphone? Hmmph?"
He folded his arms sassy and Faith remarks,
"Everyday to be honest. But I need a teensy favor."
Michael smiles to her sass and he asks, "What would that be?"
Faith looks over her shoulder as Shan began hollering from the back in her laughing gas slur of sentence.
"Is that Mike?! Aww I wanna talk!"
Her speech was delayed and muffled from the gauze in her mouth. Shan had just had her wisdom teeth removed and Dee tried to keep her tamed but Shan jumps towards the phone's mic.
"HEY SEXY!"
"What is going on??" Michael asked with the phone brought away from his ear from the sudden loud outburst.
Faith rolled her eyes and Dee drags Shania back to the backseat.
"Shania just got her wisdom teeth out and this medecine has made her crazy! Could you watch the door??"
Michael agreed and they hung up swiftly.
"Aww did he ask about me?"
"Yes baby, now hush!" Dee urged just to keep her calm, "You'll rip out your stitiches if you keep that yelling up!"
"He's so sweet!" Shania bursted as she began to abruptly start her moody water works.
"Shania! Please!" Dee cooed hopeless and petted her head.
"Shan, we're almost home! I promise!"
Faith turned onto Figueroa Mtn Rd and the car sounded more peaceful.
Shan became quiet like she was asleep, now snoring.
"Thank god.." Dee sighed until she felt something warm and wet begin to seep into the leg of her pants.
"Ah, God! She's drooling!"
Dee cried out and scrambled for something to stop it.
"In the console! I have Chipotle napkins!" Faith says rushing and Dee grabs them from the box. She places them on the side of Shania's cheek.
"You're lucky I love you." Dee cleans down Shania's unconscious chin, shaking her head.
They pull into the gates after typing in the code and the gravel begins sounding from the tires.
Shania flutters open her eyes and she sits up still groggy,
"We're home!"
Faith pulls into the drive, puts the rig in park and the door swings open.
"Now Shania!" Dee begins lecturing as they stay put for one second more, she looked to Dee with a blurry expression and nodded,
"Shania, we are gonna change out your gauze once you're inside, you're gonna eat some soup and you're gonna take a long nap okay?"
Shania looks to the window drunkenly and she sees Michael standing. Her eyes bulge out and she grunts excited, "There he is!"
Dee opens the door and Shania rolls onto her back waving to Michael like a little kid grinning with the gauze exposed.
"Hi mike!!"
Michael played along as the girls now were trying to maneuver Shania out of the vehicle.
"Hello Shania, do you feel funny?"
Shania hung with both arms from Dee and Faiths shoulders and she winks,
"I missed you, Mike. Heheheh."
Michael winces and he begins to open the door for them to avoid Shania's flirts.
"Let's just get you inside, sis."
Dee grunts as her and Faith stumble along. Michael closes the door once they're inside.
"Wait a second!" Faith stops and Dee looks up to see,
"How we gonna get her limp noodle legs up these thousand stairs?!"
"Oh god..." Dee groaned but Shania gurlged swinging her head around,
"If only we had a strong, omnipotent someone to carry me to my bed..."
Dee and Faith drop their head and ask shameful,
"Mike?"
"Yes?"
"You wanna take one for the team? Pretty, pitiful please?"
Michael cringed and he comes over reluctant. Shania smiles with a content look on her face and Michael hoists her up into his arms, bridal style.
Shania giggles loud and content and she murmurs,
"Its a dream come true..."
Michael rolls his eyes and Shan pets his shoulder as he carries her and he mutters, "Shan, quit."
She giggles again and the other girls usher behind them into Shan's room.
"Is she drooling? She may drool, Mike. Watch out."
Michael scoffed and placed her careful into her bed, "Yeah! Drooling over me. She's very very affectionate."
"Cuddles!" Shan calls out to Michael from the bed and she begins clinging to his arm.
"Shania! No! No cuddles!" Dee began to shush as Faith joined her, trying to pry Michael away.
"You need to sleep baby!"
Michael makes his arm into a mist and Shania loses her grip falling back into bed. She crossed her arms and said her eyes swirling,
"Fine, play hard to get. I was feeling sleepy anyway."
They all sigh in relief as she lets her head hit the pillows.
"Mike were gonna fix her something to eat and were gonna be back with some clean gauze. Be back in a bit!"
"Do I have to stay in here??"
Michael asks looking to the outcold, blurry hostess now humming into her pillows. Dee shrugs and says, "Once she's out, I'm sure she'll stay asleep. I wouldn't worry."
Michael sat in the chair next to the bed and he gets comfortable.
Shania snores in her medicinal slumber and Michael praises,
"Thank god."
In an instance she sat up and she takes the bloody gauze from her mouth. Michael watched wincing grossly from the sight and Shania grimaces.
"I taste yuck in my mouth."
Michael giggles as she sounded higher than a helicopter and he says,
"They're bringing you soup darling and new bandage.."
She looked at him and she patted the side of mattress beside her.
"I'll be good. Just come sit next to me."
Michael sighed and he did as she wished.
She lays her head vulnerably on his shoulder and she sighed languid and low. Her sighs became sniffles and Michael kissed her head soft.
Her sniffles turned into soft sobs and Michael felt her face get hot.
Tears rolled down her face and Michael gasps,
"Shania..?"
Tears well up in a peak and she says stuttering,
"I remember the day you died!"
"Oh honey.." Michael cooed, "Come here. Its just the medecine."
He pulled Shan into a hug and she cries into his shoulder.
"I didn't know Dee and Faith back then, I was hardly out of primary school in Wisconsin. I was on the bunk beds with my sister and I heard my mom yell. She yelled loud and I ran in there and saw you on the news. You were on a gurney. Wrapped up like a Cairo mummy!-"
"Sssshhhh..." Michael says
to hush her outburst and Shania tries to calm herself. She repeatedly tries to take a breath but she only gags trying to talk.
"You'll rip out your stitches. Now listen to me.." he lied her against his collar bone, she listened as his illusion began and words rung like vibrato in his chest.
"It doesn't matter that I'm dead. It really doesn't because even in death I'm living on. I'm right here with you. Maybe not in the flesh but in spirit. And spirit is a hard thing to rid of in house and especially in a soul. I am forever, Shania. Don't worry. I've never left you alone."
She closed her eyes going back into a sore slumber and she whispers,
"A piece of me died with you, Michael. You were my everything...."
"Or did a piece of me live on with you?" He asks her in her ear and she falls asleep.
He hummed in her ear a soft melody and she slept with his careful rocks back and forth. He lied her back to the mattress and tucked her in. With a kiss on her head, he returned to his chair and the door creaked open with Faith carrying clean gauze and Dee carrying chicken noodle soup.
They see Shania peaceful in sleep and they asked silent,
"Wow she really is knocked out, huh?"
Michael nodded and he mentions,
"She's been awake here and there, I'm sure she'll be okay for another hour or so."
They both nodded and Dee left the soup by the bed.
An hour passed and Shania fluttered her eyes to wake up. She arose in bed and winced to her jaw. She couldn't determine if her previous outburst was a dream or reality but she looked around for Michael.
She saw the bowl of now room temp soup by the bed and she takes some gauze. After changing her mouth wrap, she calls out soft,
"Mike? You there??"
He poked his head phantom like through the closed door and says,
"You rang?"
She shrugged and says more lucid,
"Sorry about being all over you earlier when they brought me in. I'm sorry if it was weird. I guess I was more loopy than expected. That was a trip..."
Michael giggled and he stepped further inside,
"No harm done." He says then jokes, "Not everyone can be as iron tough as me when it comes to meds. I could've swallowed that whole tank of gas and went to seven- eleven."
Shania laughed then winced to her stitches being pulled from her smile. She held her jaw groaning and Mike kneels saying,
"Here lemme help."
He held his hands open like over her cold soup and closed his eyes. Shan became curious and she looks over to see his act. He held out a moment longer and steam began to rise from the bowl once again and she smiles,
"Hey you warmed my soup!"
He hands it over, spoon and all and says,
"Electro magnetic energy baby! I'm a walking microwave according to Faith's physics course!"
She chuckled again and said,
"Thanks Michael..."
He shrugs it off and heads back to the door,
"Its nothing. Oh but ya did drool on my jacket a little bit. Gonna have to get this sucker dry cleaned.."
He moves his eyes to look at the stain on his shoulder and Shania bugs out,
"Wait I wasn't-"
Her eyes widen immensely as she thinks, "I kinda was on his shoulder.."
She looks to Michael slowly and her soup eating ceased immediately.
Michael grinned wide in that cheeky way and she knew then her little episode was no dream.
"Goodnight my doll.." he bidded and walked through the closed door in a swish.
She half smiled down to her soup and then grimaces embarassed,
"God- Why'd I say all that?!?!?"