Page 6 of Shameless
Lately though, just being with her hadn’t felt like enough. I’d fantasized about telling her who I really was for weeks.
I’d concocted plans to show her I was everything she wanted, but every time I opened my mouth to speak, she’d kissed me again and again.
Her lips were magnets.
Being with Britney felt forbidden as she was my opposite in many ways. I’d been at her beck and call since we met.
Now, I held the door for her, into the dining room where her five friends and two of my best friends were all seated and waiting for us.
Kir stood first and said, “So you told her.”
The eyes of Avril, his fiancée, widened, and she tugged on his arm. “You knew, Kir?”
Kir sat and said, “It wasn’t my place or secret to share.”
The Norouzis were great friends, and staying with them kept me unreachable for years as their own security system was tighter than my family's.
As I held Britney’s seat, Hope asked, “Did you know, Charlie?”
Since my cover was blown, my room was probably gone too.
Charlie said, “Yeah. We’ve all been friends for years now.”
Miley, her friend who watched everyone and everything like a hawk, then asked, “So, Michael, why are you pretending to be poor?”
Time to fess up. Until Charlie brought Hope home, which introduced me to Britney, no one had ever questioned anything about my life. I stared at Britney and wondered what she thought about me. “I’m not. I was hiding out from my parents though, now that my sister is in town and searching high and low for me, my days are numbered.”
Britney gazed at me like I was speaking another language. “Your sister?”
Unlike me, my sister was perfect. She truly was fit to be queen, if anyone asked her, as she had never made a mistake in her life.
I sat straighter and said, “The other heir now though I’m still older.”
Britney crossed her arms like she was examining me or seeing me for the first time. “Why are you avoiding her?”
All the others sipped their drinks and watched us. Since Britney told me she was pregnant, I’d been thinking of nothing else. My parents would hate her if they met her and would let me live in New York until they passed fifty years in the future. My plan seemed better with every second.
“Because she wants to say she found her lost brother and saved him from his reckless, wasteful life,” I said.
Unlike Britney and her friends, who all chose their lives, I’d had expectation upon expectation piled onto me until I just left and never returned. I figured money was my shield, but Britney was probably a better option for me.
“And that’s bad because…?” she asked.
I needed her on board. We fit well together, and eventually, I needed to shoulder my responsibility and duties. “My parents… my title… I’m expected to be perfect all the time. It’s suffocating. Living in New York for all these years, where no one knew who I was or what I was, meant I had no one breathing down my neck.”
Kelly asked, “Do you want to be the heir and inherit?”
Britney's friend was way too sweet and naive. She would be eaten alive and transformed if she ever stepped foot in my world. So would all her friends. Unlike them, though, Britney was audacious enough to pull anything off.
“Not really," I said, "but I don’t have a choice.”
Miley said, “We all have choices."
Even the smart, quiet one would be molded to fit a type. Britney was the star amongst them and every other woman I’d ever met.
“My title is inherited," I said. "Our child will be next in line the day he or she is born.”
Britney laughed and shook her head. “I mean, I’m no expert in this, but don’t we need to be married or something to make it legitimate?”
