Priceless (A MIKA Fanfic) (Remake)

Chapter 14

The next day, I found myself stood on Mica's doorstep, clutching the piece of paper he had given me the day before. I looked at the scrap of paper, then at the number on the house, then back at the paper again. I thought I had found the right house, but I could have been wrong. I could be stood outside the house of a complete stranger.

I was scared to ring the doorbell, in case this wasn't Mica's house, and someone else answered the door. I stood there for a moment, contemplating whether or not I should do it. But then I reached up and rang the doorbell, and I waited for someone to come to the door.

I heard someone hurry to open it on the other side, and then someone unlocked it. The door opened, and Mica stood there in a red and yellow striped jacket, a plain white shirt and black jeans. He was wearing the same rainbow bracelets that he had worn on his first day of school, and his brown curly hair was messy, with a single curl hanging delicately over one of his hazel eyes. Spotting me, he invited me in.

"Victoria! Come in!" he said, smiling and gesturing towards the door.

I nervously walked through the door of Mica's house. Even though I was just going to his house, I was feeling worried. What if his family didn't like me? What if something bad happened? What if. . .what if. . .?

Just as Mica was leading me into the living room, a woman, who I assumed was his mother, walked down the stairs. Her features resembled those of her son, as their faces looked similar. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw me and smiled.

"Oh, Mica! Is this Victoria, the girl you told me about?" she exclaimed.

I looked down at the floor, feeling embarrassed as Mica answered his mother's question.

"Yeah, this is Victoria." he said.

"Well, hello, Victoria." Mrs Penniman said, smiling at me.

I suddenly felt scared, like I did when people at school talked to me. But I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of Mica's mother, so I tried my best to make myself talk.

"Hi." I forced out, barely whispering.

Mrs Penniman smiled at me again, then she turned to go back upstairs.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone now. If you need anything, I'll be in my room." she told us, then she headed back up the stairs to her bedroom.

Mica and I then walked into the living room, and we sat down on the sofa. Even though Mrs Penniman had smiled at me, I couldn't help thinking that she was probably judging me, and that she might dislike me or think I was weird, like most people did. She could hate me like everyone at school.

"I feel like your mum doesn't like me." I said to Mica.

"No, I think she likes you. She seemed to like you from what I told her about you before." he told me.

"Really? What did you tell her?" I asked him curiously.

"I told her that you're an amazing and lovely person, and that you make me really happy." he replied with a smile.

I stared down at the floor again, trying to hold back a smile.

"But I'm none of those things. And I don't think I make you that happy." I said quietly.

"You are amazing and lovely, though. You shouldn't say that you're not, because you are. And you do make me happy. Before I came to your school, I had just got away from all of the bullies at my old school. I expected to get bullied again at your school, and I did, but I found something that I didn't have at my old school. Someone that cared about me. And that someone was you." Mica told me, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he meant it.

"Thanks. I think you're the only person that cares about me too, really." I said, still studying the floor.

"Let's not talk about things like this anymore. Let's do something fun, because that's why we're spending time together outside of school." Mica said.

"What are we going to do?" I asked him.

"Let's build a blanket fort." Mica suggested, grinning.

"That sounds fun." I said, smiling back at him.

After a while, Mica and I had collected all of the cushions and blankets in his house and made a blanket fort. The blankets made the roof of the fort, held up by chairs and stuffed into various drawers to ensure that it didn't collapse. The cushions covered the floor, creating a comfortable place to sit down. It was situated in the corner of the living room, and it looked very cosy.

"Well, this is nice." Mica said, sitting down on top of the pile of cushions that littered the floor of our fort.

I sat down beside him, looking around at the inside of it.

"Yeah." I agreed.

"Imagine if this was a real fort. That would be cool." Mica said.

"We could be the prince and princess of the castle." I suggested.

"Yeah. I could be Prince Mica, and you can be my princess." he told me, smiling.

I looked down at the floor once more, trying to hide my smile. Mica's princess.

"You know what we need now to make this fort even better?" Mica asked me.

"What?" I replied.

"Hot chocolate. I'll go and make us some." he said, smiling again and getting up from where he was sat.

I stayed in the fort, waiting patiently for him to come back with our drinks. I could hear him making them in the kitchen, as the sound of porcelain mugs being clinked together echoed into the living room. When Mica finally returned, he was carrying two steaming mugs of hot chocolate, complete with marshmallows. He extended his arm to hand one of the mugs to me, and I took it from him. I drank some of the hot beverage before placing it in front of me outside of the fort to allow it to cool some more. Mica took a sip of his hot chocolate too, then did the same. We sat in silence for about a minute before he spoke.

"Victoria?" Mica asked.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Why do you think all of these awful things about yourself?" he said.

"Because it's all true. Nearly everyone says the same things about me, and it's always the same negative comments. So it must be true." I told him, sighing.

"But why should you listen to them? They have nothing to do with you, so their opinions of you don't matter." Mica told me.

"I know, but somehow it does matter." I said.

"They don't even know you, though. The only opinions that matter are the opinions of those that you care about, and those that care about you." Mica said.

"But you're the only person that does care about me." I said quietly.

"Maybe. But if that is true, then you can just listen to my opinions of you. Because I think you're beautiful." Mica said.

Then he moved closer to me, and wrapping his arms around my waist, he pulled me into a hug. I rested my head on his chest, feeling safe in his arms. He smelled nice, like flowers and herbs mixed with body spray. Mica held me closer, and then he leaned in so that our lips were almost touching. He kissed me, and I kissed him back, like we had done many times before. Once again, I felt as if we were both in our own world. Prince Mica and Princess Victoria, alone in their kingdom together.

When we both pulled away, we looked at each other for a few seconds, and it was then that Mrs Penniman came downstairs. She walked into the living room, and immediately saw our blanket fort.

"That's a nice house." she said, pointing to it.

"It's a fort. Victoria and I made it." Mica told her.

"Well, it's nice." Mrs Penniman said.

Then more footsteps sounded outside the living room, and three girls and a boy rushed into the room.

"Oh, hello." Mica greeted them.

"Hi! Who's that girl with you?" one of the girls asked.

"This is Victoria, my girlfriend." he told them.

I looked down at the ground again at him introducing me as his girlfriend.

"Oh! Hi!" another one of the girls exclaimed.

I felt myself begin to feel scared, but I managed to force myself to say hello to them too.

"Victoria, these are my siblings, Paloma, Zuleika, Yasmine and Fortuné." Mica said, pointing to each sibling as he introduced them.

I nodded, then Mrs Penniman turned to them.

"Okay, go back to your rooms now. Leave your brother and Victoria alone." she told them, ushering them out of the living room.

Then she turned back to Mica and I.

"You're probably hungry, so if you want, you can order pizza." she said before leaving the room.

A few minutes later, Mica had ordered a pizza. We sat on the sofa together, waiting for it to arrive. Mica saw that our mugs of hot chocolate were still full, and that we hadn't drank them, so he picked them up and took them into the kitchen.

An hour passed, and our pizza arrived. Mica went to get it, and soon after we were back in our fort, sharing a large pepperoni pizza between us.

"You know, it's nice spending time with you outside of school." Mica said, before taking a bite of his pizza.

"Yeah. It's a change, and we can actually talk without people from school making fun of us and ruining it." I agreed.

"Yeah, I just wish it was like this at school too." Mica said with a sigh.

"Me too." I said to him.

After we had finished the pizza, it was time for me to go home. I didn't want to leave, because I'd had a lot of fun that day, but I had to. Before I left, Mica hugged me again, and the rest of his family said goodbye to me too.

"Bye, I'll see you at school on Monday!" I called to Mica, before leaving his house and beginning my walk home.

As I made my way back to my house, I thought about how much of a good day it had been. Mica's family seemed to like me, and I'd had an amazing day with him. He had kissed me again, and he had said a lot of nice things about me. Even if they might not be true, it still made me happy. I hoped he would invite me to his house again soon.

I was excited to see him again at school on Monday.