Chapter 4: Nice Guy, No Hope

    By the next day Mike Donovan had become a small-time celebrity at McNeil. Apparently when you save a girl’s life word spreads like wildfire. People Mike didn’t even know were approaching him and complimenting him on a job well done. Mike welcomed the kind words, but he didn’t consider his actions extraordinary. He was just an average guy put into an extraordinary situation, and other people would have done the same thing in his place.

    At lunch it was all Adam and Jackson could talk about.
    “What’s up super CPR life saving dude?” Adam was his usual jovial self.
    “Stop calling me that, I’m not a hero.”
    “Heck yes you are, take some credit for once in your life,” Adam said in his motivational speaker voice. “You’re Mike Donovan, life-saving hero and available bachelor!”
    Jackson patted him on the shoulder. “Way to go man. From what people are saying it sounds like you really are a hero, whether you think so or not. Wish I could have seen you in action.”
    “Thanks, but it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t even think about what I was doing, a voice just told me to move, so I did.”
    “Not only are you a hero,” Adam mumbled through a mouth full of cheeseburger, “but you’re humble too! You could be the next Mother Teresa or something.”
    “Thanks for the advice, I’ll keep it in mind.”

    Marly walked over and slid in next to Adam, giving him a big hug and almost spilling his drink. Marly was cute, and a nice girl, but it was puzzling trying to figure out what she had seen in Adam. Apparently there had been something. Whether Adam was aware that he had struck gold, Mike wasn’t sure.
    “Way to go Mike!” Marly said as she jabbed at his arm. “A bunch of girls were talking about you last period. It looks like you’ve made quite the impression on people.”
    “Thanks, I guess that’s good to hear.”
    “It’s OK to take a little credit” Jackson assured him, “after all, you deserve it.”

    As Mike finished off his soda he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned to see who it was that wanted his attention. Standing in front of him, leaning with her weight on one leg and book bag over her shoulder, was Monica Callaway.
    His first thought was that he’d drifted into the wrong part of the quad, but he realized he hadn’t moved. Mike now understood the saying “a deer in headlights.” He couldn’t move, and he didn’t think his brain was capable of forming a complete sentence. Lucky for Mike she was ready to do most of the talking.
    “Hey Mike.” She smiled as she said this, and it was intoxicating. “I never got a chance to say congratulations yesterday. What you did, helping Julia and all, it was, well, amazing.”
    Mike concentrated as hard as he could, making sure nothing completely idiotic came out of his mouth.  “Thanks, I couldn’t have done it if you hadn’t turned on the lights, you know, light switch girl!”
    Light switch girl? She’s not wearing spandex in a comic book you idiot. Maybe you should tell her you want to make babies with her so she’ll leave and end this humiliation.
    “Well, they were right next to me, that was the easy part.” She brushed the hair from in front of her eyes as she glanced down to the ground. Her cheeks turned red. “Anybody could have done that.”
    Mike smiled for the first time in the conversation. He realized she wasn’t here talking to him as part of a mandatory thank Mike for saving a life program. Monica had left her group of friends, walked across the quad, and found Mike amidst the crowd of students just to talk to him.
    Thank you whoever put Monica Callaway in Photo 1.

    “Yo yo yo, what’s up Monica!” Adam hollered. Mike was jerked back to reality.
    “Hey everybody,” Monica said as she waved hi to the others. She sat down next to Marly on the picnic bench, and chatted for the remainder of lunch. Mike was still in shock that Monica Callaway was actually there, talking to him and his friends. It was a surreal feeling, like a perfect daydream, but without the hazy foggy feeling.
    The bell rang to head back to class. Marly gave Adam a peck on the cheek and hopped off to her next period. Adam and Jackson both said goodbye and went their separate ways. Mike turned to head to class, and Monica was still standing there.

    Mike would have had no problem living out the rest of his days perpetually having lunch with Monica Callaway, but unfortunately time had moved on. The clock was ticking towards the end of the best lunch ever.
    “Guess we better get to class,” Mike said with hesitation.
    “Yeah, I suppose so.” Why Monica hadn’t just runaway when the bell rang, Mike didn’t know.

    Monica stood there with Mike and felt butterflies in her stomach. She had known Mike for years, but her experience yesterday in the darkroom made her question how well she really knew him. Since then she had grown curious. She likened the feeling to someone like Lois Lane discovering Clark Kent’s secret. Mike hadn’t changed, but her perception of him had. Before Mike had been the same guy he was since third grade, but now there was a sort of mystery about him. She was curious now.
    The entire lunch period she had put off doing that which she came over to do in the first place. She felt a rock in her throat as she scrounged up the courage to speak. She blurted out the words before they were lost forever.
    “What are you doing Friday?”
    “Um, I’m not sure exactly, I think I might…”
    “We should go out! With my friends I mean, and you could bring yours. We never really get to talk, so you know, it might be fun.”
    For a second Mike thought he had heard wrong. Not only was Monica talking to him, but now she was suggesting they continue talking beyond this conversation.
    “Yeah,” was all he could come up with, still stupefied from the entire turn of events.
    “Yeah”? The girl of your dreams is asking you out, and that’s all you’ve got? How about sounding like you’re actually interested!
    “I mean yes, definitely. That sounds like a lot of fun.”

    As she turned to walk away, her hand slipped into the back pocket of her jeans. When it came back out it held a small piece of paper she had prepared earlier. Monica held the piece of paper out and offered it to Mike with a coy smile. Then she said two of the best words a guy could ever hope to hear.
    “Call me.”
    Mike reached up and took the paper. Monica hurried off to class leaving Mike standing in the quad, clutching what might have been the long lost holy grail. The bell for next period rang making Mike officially tardy. He had failed to notice though. The cloud on which he was now standing was miles above the earth. It would be another couple minutes and the yelling of a security guard before he came back down.