A Friend in Need...
Part Six
Micky sat on a rock overlooking the beach, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. He also wore a pair of dark sunglasses and a plain blue knit cap over his head that he’d borrowed from Mike. For once, he wasn’t busy with something or planning something; he was using the time to do some thinking.
And he had much to think about. Since gaining fame, his life as well as the lives of his band mates had become complicated. For the next hour or so at least he wanted to bask in anonymity and stare at the ocean like a normal beach-dweller.
When he’d come out here only a few days before to watch the ocean and get some sun, he’d had at least ten girls run up to him and ask him if he was really the Micky Dolenz, and that they had seen his last concert (or one previous to it) and they thought he was positively the cutest one in the band.
The result was that after the seventeenth interruption of his thoughts he had gone inside, grumbling to himself, and done his thinking from the balcony overlooking the beach instead. When he’d commented on the problem to Mike, he’d lent him a hat and a pair of dark glasses and suggested he wear a disguise.
And it had worked. He’d been out here for a half hour already and no one had recognized him or bothered him.
The silence was nice. He’d had a lot of thinking to do. He’d thought about Peter, about their career, about the ocean, about his life in general. But mostly, lately, he’d been thinking of Jenny.
He hadn’t admitted it to himself before then, but he was in love.
Sure, he’d said he was in love before. But it had never felt like this. This, Micky was fairly certain, was the real thing.
‘I never thought I’d get over Maggie,’ he thought to himself. ‘But Jenny... Jenny’s different.’
He laid back on the rock and stared at the clear, blue, cloudless sky overhead. The question that remained now was if she felt the same way about him?
‘There’s only one way to find out,’ he reminded himself. Then he frowned. “But what if she doesn’t?” he asked aloud.
A seagull landed on the sand nearby. Micky rolled over on to his stomach and faced the gray and white bird. It began to munch on some crumbs that were on the beach, and paid him no mind.
“What if she only thinks of me as a friend?” the curly haired man asked the seagull. He frowned and sifted some of the sand between his fingers. “I don’t know how I’d take that.”
The seagull made a seagull noise. Micky frowned again.
“I’m not sure if I want to think about getting married or anything like that,” he said as though answering the seagull’s question. “I mean, what if I get myself all psyched for it and she doesn’t even like me like that. What if she only thinks of me as a friend?”
The seagull made its honking/cawing noise that only seagulls make and waddled away.
“I know she was in love with me last year,” Micky reminded the seagull, sitting up. “But what if that was only a crush? What if she’s over me, but she’s being nice.”
The seagull didn’t respond. Micky jumped off the rock and followed it towards the water. He sighed.
“I just wish I knew what she was thinking.”
The seagull honked at him and waddled further away.
“I’m too scared to ask!” Micky protested at the bird, which made no response. “I’m scared, darn it! I’m scared of a girl!”
The bird honked and turned towards the ocean.
“This is stupid!” Micky protested. “Why should I be scared of someone I’m in love with?”
The bird hopped a few times and took off.
“Hey! Wait! Come back! I’m not done talking to you!” Micky shouted up at the sky. The seagull paid no attention. Micky sighed and sat down on the beach.
“Micky?”
“Don’t do that, you scared me!” he scolded the person behind him. He turned to see who it was. “J-Jenny!” he stammered, standing up. ‘Did she hear me?’ he wondered.
“What are you doing out here?”
“Just, um, talking to the seagull,” he replied, glancing towards the sky. The seagull was long gone.
“Talking... to a seagull,” Jenny nodded. “What about?”
He shrugged. “You,” he admitted quietly.
“Oh.” Jenny wasn’t sure what to say. “What did he say?”
“Nothing really. He just honked.”
“Oh. Well, we’ve never met. I’m sure he felt he couldn’t give a good opinion of me.”
Micky blinked. Then laughed. “Probably,” he agreed.
“Do you often speak with seagulls about me?” she asked, amusement showing on her face.
Micky shrugged. “Not always,” he replied. “Sometimes trees or other birds. Once I talked to a dog about it.”
“Do they ever give advice back?”
“Not really.”
“Then why do you ask them?”
He frowned. “That’s a good question,” he admitted, flopping down on the sand again. “Maybe because I don’t want to know the answer?”
Jenny sat next to him. “Maybe.” There was silence for a moment. Then she spoke again. “What are you wearing?”
Micky looked down at himself. “Sneakers, jeans, shirt,” he replied, confused. “Why?”
“No, I meant this,” she replied, reaching for the hat.
“Don’t!” he warned, reaching up and clamping the hat back on his head.
“Why?”
“It’s a disguise,” he replied. She nodded. “Last time I came out here to think I couldn’t get a moment’s peace.”
Jenny smiled. “I’m sure you thought that was just so annoying, right?”
He frowned and punched her playfully on the arm. “I did!” he replied.
She nodded skeptically. “Sure.”
Micky narrowed his eyebrows and looked back at the ocean.
“C’mon, you know you love having women all over you,” Jenny taunted in a sing-song voice.
He frowned at her. “Do not,” he mumbled.
Jenny laughed “Sure,” she said again.
Micky pretended to be insulted, pouting to himself.
Jenny laughed again and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Don’t even try to pretend, Mick. You know you like it.”
Micky didn’t respond.
“Micky?” He still didn’t turn around. “You okay?”
Micky didn’t answer.
“Mick? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
Micky turned back towards her with a sorrowful glance, then looked away.
“Oh…no…”
He turned back to her. “What?” he asked, a too-innocent grin on his face.
“I saw that! You dirty rat!”
“What?”
“You evil, evil person.”
“Who? Me?” He grinned.
Jenny shook her head and glanced towards the ocean. Providing him with the perfect opportunity to strike…
Within moments he had her pinned to the ground, and a few moments later a tickle fight ensued that eventually had both combatants covered in sand and left Micky’s borrowed “disguise” nearly drowned in the ocean.
When it was finally over, they both lay on the ground, panting, each too exhausted to give up, but neither admitting defeat.
“You dirty rascal…” Jenny gasped between breaths.
Micky only laughed in response, but only for a little bit. He was too exhausted to laugh any more.
“We still on for tonight?” he asked.
“Sure,” she replied. “Where we going?”
“I dunno, where do you wanna go?”
“Actually, I’m in the mood for pizza. I think I should go change first, though.”
“Why?” Micky rolled over and grinned. “You look great like that. Never better.”
“Watch out or I’ll kick sand in your face,” she replied, getting to her feet.
“You wouldn’t!”
“I would!”
“Let me see you try!”
“Not now.”
“Why? Scared?”
“Nah, you’re a sitting duck here,” she replied. “I’d rather beat ya in a battle.”
“Sure, sure, sure,” he replied. “You’re just scared.”
“You’re a dork, you know that?”
“Yes, but a loveable dork,” he replied, grinning again.
Jenny just shook her head. “I’m going home to change, okay?”
“Okay. I’ll meet ya there in twenty minutes?”
“I can walk over…”
“No. I want to pick you up.”
“Okay. Whatever.” Jenny strolled off. “See ya!” she called over her shoulder.
Micky stood up and dusted himself off. Then he picked up the glasses and put them on. He would have put on the hat, too, but it was almost wet. He left it on the back railing to dry and headed inside for his shower.
Ten minutes later he was clean and dry and in the kitchen pouring himself a drink.
“You going out, Mick?” Mike asked, coming in from his bedroom.
“Yeah, for pizza,” he replied. “Me n’ Jenny.” Mike nodded with a knowing smile. “What?” he asked.
Mike shrugged. “Nothing. Just wonderin’ what’s goin’ on with you two,” he replied.
“Nothing….” Micky replied
Mike nodded skeptically. “Why do I doubt that?” he wondered aloud. “Is it because you’ve been going out for almost a year, because you spend all your time thinking about her, or because you got into a major tickle fight on the beach with her today?”
“You saw!”
“I saw. The whole beach saw.”
“You were…spying on me!”
“Was not!”
“Were too!”
“Wasn’t spying!” Mike defended himself. “I happened to be in my room looking out the window about a half hour ago when you two happened to be on the beach.”
“Sure…”
Mike shrugged, not worried about his credibility so much. “Not my fault you choose to do it on the beach,” he mumbled under his breath as he turned to leave the kitchen.
“Hey Mike?”
Mike turned. “What?”
Micky thought for how to word his question. “Never mind,” he replied with a sigh. “I’d better get going.” He left the kitchen, grabbed his jacket from where it was draped over the couch, and headed out the door. “See ya later, Mike!”
Mike nodded. “So long,” he said to the closed door. He sighed. “Yes Micky, she is in love with you.”
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