*Hi, I know I said updates Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, but I completed this story and I'm trying to get updates going so I can edit and enter the wattys. I'm sorry for spam?*

It's official, Micah Nym is the hardest person to find. It had been a week and winter break would be the week after, meaning this is our final week before we leave school for half a month. That's besides the point. What I'm focused on is the fact that Micah Nym has disappeared off the face of the earth and I have no idea how she got away with it. What I do know, is that I'm going to try to ambush her on Friday. It's currently Wednesday, hump day to some.

I'm determined to see her and talk with her. It's been months since I've last spoken to Micah and it's making me think she wants nothing to do with me. That's going to change when I ambush her.

So when Friday finally does come, I'm more anxious than I had been all year. Maybe it's because I value Micah's friendship or maybe it's because I'm scared of what she'll say. Micah is one of the most down to earth people I have ever met and I don't think I'm ready to lose that forever, not her.

My eyes dart around the parking lot, searching through the students. I watch as people's faces light up at the fact that they'll have a whole two weeks off of school. Friends come together, hands held and arms entwined. Everyone looks so excited with wide smiles and enthusiastic movements. I can just imagine what they're talking about, planning this vacation.

The sight of small, frozen flakes cut me off from staring at my classmates. My head tilts back as I look up at the sky to see snow flurries coming down expeditiously. A flake falls into my eyes and I lift a hand up to rub at it. Shaking my head, I bring my head back down to resume looking for Micah. When I do, I catch sight of her running towards her car. My jaw drops because I assume she had seen me first and this is her way of ditching me.

I break out into a run, hoping that I can catch up to her before she gets into her car. But as I run, my ankles twist painfully, letting me know that I'm extremely unfit. I'm also already panting and wanting to end my pursuit, but the determination won't let me. I feel eyes on me as I run. It's almost enough to make me stop, not wanting to face possible humiliation. Then I remember we'll be out for two weeks, so who cares?

"Micah!" I shout. If I could take that back, I would, because now my throat is burning from the running and shouting.

She glances back at me, faltering on her running. Micah stumbles, but she's able to right herself. This gives me the perfect chance to catch up to her. Somehow, I manage to push forward, faster. My arms reach out for her and before I know what's happening, my body is colliding with hers painfully. The force of it knocks the wind out of me, causing my breath to hitch, my breathing stopping for a moment. My eyes widen as Micah is knocked down from me. Since the force was unexpected, she's unable to catch herself so we both go tumbling down with me on top of her.

"Fuck!" Micah shrieks as her body lands on the pavement. A groan leaves her as all the weight of my body is pressed against hers. "Emie, please get off of me."

"I can't," I mutter, laying my cheek against her book bag. I assume the force of that doesn't feel too nice on her spine.

"Emie, I swear if you do not get off of me..." Micah spits, her voice sounding agitated which is very understandable.

I sigh and start to force myself off of her. My muscles are already protesting after that short workout. Rather than waiting for any assistance, Micah begins pushing herself up from the ground. She sighs as she gets to her feet, turning to face me with an absolutely thunderous look. As my eyes trail over her, I see she now has a rip in her black jeans that hadn't been there before. Her hair is tousled and there's a small scrape on her chin.

"Micah," I gape at her, guilt starting to eat away at my insides. "I am so sorry. I really didn't mean to tackle you like that, really I didn't."

Micah crosses her arms, her jacket making a swishing noise as she rubs the fabric against each other. I look away from her, feeling like a child getting scolded by their mother. Now my chances are ruined of making up with Micah since I had just rammed into her like a football player.

"Emie, why?" She signs once again and from the corner of my eye, I see her drop her arms. "What's up?"

My head snaps over to her and I give Micah a deadpan look. I look from side to side dramatically, almost expecting her to be greeting somebody. But there's nobody in our vicinity. Kids are still loitering around, but not with us. My lips move to one side as I purse them.

"I wanted to talk," I speak slowly, furrowing my eyebrows.

Micah shakes her head. "I'm busy." She then turns away. I stand there, stunned that she just brushed me off, but I can't let her do that.

"Micah, please. Can we please talk?" I do a light jog to catch up with her. My body protests, still tired after running and tackling. "Listen, I know things have been really rocky between us, but I miss you Micah and I need you."

Micah scoffs. She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls her car keys from there. We make it to her car and she unlocks the doors. That's when I spring to action, reaching the passenger side and opening the door forcefully. I dive into the car and shut the door, locking my side so that if she wanted to force me out, she'd have to drag me through the drivers side.

"Emie!" Micah shouts, the sound a little muffled from the metal barrier. She gives me a withering look before stomping over to the drivers side and opening the door. "Emerson, I'm so tired of this shit. Can you just go? Please?"

I shake my head, giving her an apologetic look. "Not until we talk, Micah, please. I'm sorry okay?"

Though I'm not really sure what I'm apologizing for. Maybe for what Jenny had said at that fail of a sleepover, but is it really my place to do that? I wasn't the one who said all that stuff, but I feel as if I need to.

Micah rolls her eyes with a huff. She reaches forward to push her key into the ignition and start the car up. Soft music immediately starts playing from the radio. I watch her as she clicks in her seat belt. When she's done, her eyes trail to me and she raises an eyebrow. A wide smile forms on my face as I buckle myself in too.

"I'm not going home. I really do have stuff to do, Emie, so you either let me drop you off, or sit through it."

I shrug, nodding my head. "Let me text my mom." After shooting my mom a text to tell her I'm with Micah, I turn back towards her as she pulls out of the school. "Does this mean we can talk now?"

Micah says nothing for a while and I barely notice the nod of her head. I breathe out in relief. The sooner we can talk, the sooner we can become friends once again. But it seems that now that we're here, I'm too nervous to speak. This whole time, I hadn't even thought of what I would say to Micah when we got this chance.

My eyes trail to the passing scenery, trees blurring as we go. The snow is falling even faster than before which I didn't think was possible. The windshield is getting covered, but with the help of the windshield wipers and the wind blowing, Micah is still able to see the road. The only thing is, the snow is making it hard to see further up the road, causing Micah to have to drive slower.

"Emie, come on, talk. This is what you wanted." Micah reaches towards the radio, turning it completely off.

I take a deep breath. "I don't even know what to say. I feel like I'm the one who wronged you...but I'm not," I start, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion.

Micah glances over at me before quickly returning her eyes to the road. She makes a small noise between a scoff and a sigh, making it sound like there's rolling in her throat. If this situation was different, I'd laugh. Micah turns the wheel, pulling into the parking lot of a strip mall. It's where all the local businesses are help. Angela, Jenny's mother, has her art shop here. There's a small nail salon that's owned by Bethany Joseph, an elderly woman who's lived here her whole life. We have a general supplies store and a small home improvement store. Across the street is where we have all the doctor's office and dentist. There's also a local butcher's shop there. About one thousand feet away is where the grocery store is.

I get confused when Micah parks in front of a new place. I hadn't even realized something had been placed in this empty building. It's been vacant for so long, yet now there's something? My eyes trail to the sign. Tropic Waves.

"What is this?" I wonder aloud, not meaning for it to be an actual question.

"New place. Some family bought it and they're trying to sell cool stuff that supposedly from Hawaii or stuff you'd find in Hawaii." Micah answers as she turns her car off. She turns towards me.

"Why are we here?" I ask, turning to look at the new store. Hawaii is a hot place right? It's a little odd to start building a place in the winter where it knows, but to each their own, I guess.

"I'm helping set up. It's actually really cool. The people, the owners, know a lot about this stuff. They lived in Hawaii for over a decade so they have knowledge on this stuff." Micah smiles, the first I've seen in a while.

She unbuckles her seat belt and gets out of the car. I do the same, scrambling to hurry after her. Micah locks her car once I'm out then leads the way to the shop. She sifts through her keys before finding one and unlocking the door. She holds it open for me and I walk in.

"Hello? Franny?" Micah calls out after she locks the door.

My eyes trail around the place. Each building in this strip mall is about the same size, not too big, but not too small. The walls have shelves on them, one holding what looks like coffee, another holding nuts. There's a rack with the basic Hawaiian shirts, the prints bright and flowery. A table is placed on the other side with quilts folded on it. At the register, there's a stand that has the famous lei necklaces. The shop has a lot more stuff, but I don't even know how to describe it all.

"Micah, hey!" A familiar voice comes out. There a distinct shuffling before a family sandy haired boy comes from a room in the back.

My chest aches at the sight of Cody. I don't realize until now that I'm biting down on my lip, hard. Once I let it go, I taste the blood as my lip throbs from the pain. Blowing out a breath, I plaster a smile on my face, my mouth aching at how fake it is.

"Cody, where's Franny?" Micah walks forward, setting her keys on the register counter. She begins pulling off her jacket. "I thought she wanted me to help her unload some of the tiny tiki statues?"

Cody shoots Micah a smile, but it falters as he glances at me. "Yeah, she had to head out somewhere, didn't say where so you have me instead."

Micah shrugs. She glances back at me and motions me forward. I walk towards them slowly, reluctantly. "This is Emie. Emie, this is Cody, he's new to our school. His parents are the ones that rented this place."

"Yeah, we've met," I tell Micah softly.

"Through Sebastian," Cody adds, his eyes trailing over to me. I frown as his lips quirk up. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like he's taunting me.

"Awesome. Let's start then. It's snowing and I know it's going to stick. I wanna gt home as soon as possible." Micah claps. I follow her as she head towards the back when Cody came out of.

* * *

After a good hour of unloading Hawaiian souvenirs, Micah stops me. She looks at my face intently, scrutinizing me. My eyes trail away from her awkwardly, not liking this unexpected attention.

"What's going on, Emie. Let's talk now." Micah pushes a box away from her before plopping down on the ground. I do the same, knowing I can't get out of this.

But I will try anyway. "Micah, we have to get these done," I say fruitlessly. Micah narrows her eyes and shakes her head. "What do you want to talk about?" I sigh, crossing my legs.

"Let's have that talk, okay?" she gives me a small, reassuring smile. "I realize that I've been avoiding you and I'm sorry for that."

I'm surprised by her words, not having expected her to say that. "It's okay. Um...Micah, I want us to be friends again."

Micah opens her mouth to speak but I shake my head, holding my hand up to halt her words. "No, listen. I know all the things Jenny said was so hurtful and just plain mean. I know that, okay? But why do I have to get punished for her words? You don't even know...I stopped being friends with Jenny."

"What? Why?" Micah leans forward, her eyes wide and mouth open in disbelief. A large strand of her hair falls over her shoulder. "You've known Jenny since, like, kindergarten."

I shrug and give a weak, half smile. "What she said was just so disgusting. I couldn't support her, Micah. Not when she was saying that. Not liking a lifestyle is one thing, but to be so hateful, that's just no." I shake my head. "So I ended our friendship. At last until she thought about how terrible she was that night."

"I see you guys eating lunch together," Micah mentioned.

I nod my head and shift, uncrossing my legs to spread them out. "Yeah, because she came to me. For the wrong reasons at first, but now we kind of made up."

Micah runs a hand through her hair. I lean my body against a heavy box, letting it support my weight. The little storage room we're in is full of boxes. We got through a good chunk, but there's still a long way to go. Cody had decided to go get lunch for everyone, so it's just me and Micah.

"Micah, I don't want you to hate me for being friends with Jenny. I don't want you to distance yourself from me because of what she said. Jenny and I are two different people, okay? I know you guys will never be friends again or ever," I say, admitting what I should've known from the start. "I'm sorry for always trying to push you two together, that was wrong of me, but please don't let this ruin our friendship."

Micah stares at me silently. She then gives me a smile and pats my knee. "I'm sorry for being such a bitch. I grouped you with Jenny and that was wrong. Forgive me?"

I nod erratically, my neck cracking from the force. "Of course!" I push forward to hug her. "I missed you so much."

Micah laughs as she hugs me back, patting my back awkwardly. "Good, now, please tell me what the hell that was with Cody. I thought you two were going to fight or something along those lines."

So I let out everything. Originally, I wanted to keep Sebastian's secret because I'm not the type of person who would out someone like this. Not to mention, Sebastian was my boyfriend and one of my best friends, I could never betray him spitefully. But I know that Micah would never, ever, do something like spread rumors.

"Wait, I'm sorry," Micah coughs. She slaps her chest wildly. "Choked on my spit, but what did you say?"

"Sebastian is gay." 

*Hi! Are you guys happy that Micah is back? She's definitely one of my favorite characters, absolutely. Also, this chapter is almost 3k words! Wow, this may be the longest chapter by far. And how about Cody, what do you guys think of him? He seemed okay at first but he's kind of a jerk. Please let me know how you guys liked this chapter, I believe we have like 10 chapters left of The Beard, we'll see. Don't forget to vote and thanks so much for reading.*