Back to You(46)

“I already told you, I don’t do school dances,” he said, taking off his jacket and throwing it haphazardly over the papasan chair in the corner of her room. “Besides, I can’t goOr excuse yourself to the bathroom and escape a, glancing up at him. Anyone who’s been suspended out of school more than three times this year isn’t allowed.”
Lauren used a crumpled tissue to wipe her nose. “So is that why you behave the way you do? So you won’t have to attend school functions?”
Michael smiled. “Yeah, you got me. Every move I make comes down to avoiding some cheesy-ass school dance.”
Lauren shook her head. “Idiot,” she laughed under her breath as she tossed the crumpled tissue into the trash bin near her bed.
“You sound like a phone sex operator with your voice like that.”
“God, shut up,” Lauren groaned, covering her face with her hands and dropping back onto her pillows.
“I’m serious,” Michael said, leaning against her dresser and folding his arms. “You should try to make a couple of extra bucks for yourself while it lasts. Might as well, since you’re stuck here in bed anyway. If you’ll give me a cut, I’ll give you the numbers of some guys that would stay on the phone for hours. We’ll bleed them dry.”
“Please just shut up,” she said through her hands.
“Mmm. Just like that, baby. Keep talking,” Michael said throatily, and Lauren pressed her lips together, fighting a laugh but failing.
“Honey?”
Lauren dropped her hands from her face and turned toward her bedroom doorway. “Hi Dad.”
“You doing okay?” he asked, sending a quick glance in Michael’s direction.
“I’m hanging in there,” she said as she sat up.
Her father nodded, lingering in the doorway for a second. “Do you need more tissues?”
“No, I’m good, Dad, thanks.”
He nodded again, looking around the room, his eyes landing on Michael one last time before he turned. When they finally heard the muffled sounds of him trudging down the stairs, Michael turned to look at her. His eyes dropped to the bed, taking in the three boxes of tissues that surrounded Lauren.
“More tissues?” Michael deadpanned, lifting his eyes to Lauren’s face.
Lauren shrugged, fluffing her pillow up against the headboard before she leaned back against it. “That was just him making sure the door was open.”
“Well shit, the man should give me a little credit, don’t you think? You’re a walking science experiment right now. As if I’d actually touch you.”
Lauren grabbed the pillow next to her and threw it half-heartedly at him, missing by several feet. “Did you come here to make me more miserable than I already am?”
Michael laughed, walking toward his jacket on the other side of the room. “Relax. It’s just the flu. You’ll feel better soon.”
“It’s not just that,” Lauren mumbled through a pout as she grabbed a fresh tissue from one of the boxes.
Michael stopped, giving her an amused look. “Oh come on. Did you really want to go to some winter formal?”
Lauren glanced up at him before blowing her nose. The truth was, she did.
But all her visions were of being at the formal with him.
And if he wasn’t going, she really didn’t care about going either way. But there was no way she was giving that as her answer.
“Not really, I guess,” she said with a pathetic shrug.
“Good,” he said, continuing toward his jacket, and he half-lifted it off the chair, digging in one of the pockets. “I got you something,” he said, turning and tossing a plastic bag on the bed.
Lauren leaned over to grab the bag from the foot of the bed. As soon as she pulled out what was inside, she gasped, holding it to her chest.
It was a DVD of the movie Dirty Dancing.
“Oh my God, you remembered!” she squealed, although it came out more like a grating rasp. Jenn had borrowed her copy of the movie last summer and lost it, and Lauren had complained about it to Michael one day when she’d been in the mood to watch it.
“I only remembered because I didn’t understand how someone so smart could love something so stupid.”
She dropped her hands to the bed, still clasping the DVD, her expression defensive. “Have you ever even seen it?”
“I don’t need to see it to know that it’s crap.”
“Yes, you do. It’s a classic. It’s practically a rite of passage!” Lauren expounded, and he smirked, shaking his head. “Here, put it in,” she added, holding the DVD out to him.
“No way.”
“Come on,” she said, thrusting the movie at him again.