YOU AND I:
...YOU CAN'T SEE THE CHANGES
WE'VE BEEN GOIN' THROUGH...

It was now the fall of 1965; the Beatles had now made two feature films, being "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!"

The Monkees were a sucess in their own right; they'd written several songs and by now even had their own beach Pad in Malibu, which they were renting from an estranged man named Howard Babbitt.

MIchelle and Coco were renting their own Pad out right next to the boys', Mr. Babbitt also being their landlord.

A few things had changed since the summer of last year; Peter now had a girlfriend named Lynette Carradine and she got on very well with the rest of the crowd.

Her hair was ebony, reaching the small of her back, her eyes an emerald green; her height was 5'3. She and Peter had been going out for nearly six months and were very much in love.

Yet, as this love grew stronger, another began to die....

Coco and MIke were ona date one night, MIcky, Peter, Lynette, Michelle, and Davy being alone, pondering what to do....

"How about a camp-out?" Michelle suggested.

"No way, we know what's goin' on in that little mind of yours!" Micky replied, knocking on her head.

"Veeery funny, Mick," Michelle giggled, slapping him playfully.

Davy was oddly quiet....

"Well, if you wanna, I wanna take a walk...ALONE," Michelle emphasized when she looked to MIcky; she was TALKING to Davy about wanting to walk.

"Alright; I wanted t' talk t' ya anyway," DAvy replied.

MIchelle and Davy walked hand in hand up the beach, the cool October wind blowing in from the ocean...

"You remember the night we snuck away? This past summer? Oh man! I never would have known you and I'd ever make it that far!" Michelle spoke fondly of that night that they'd slept together on the beach, abandoned for the night...

Davy smiled, remembering the night well; he'd never forget the look in her eyes during that sunset when he showered her in kisses and sweet caresses.

MIchelle leaned her head on his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him as they walked on and sighed, "I love you so much."

He couldn't talk to her at that time; too many feelings were on the line...

Over the next few days, Peter noticed something strange about Davy; he wasthere, just....not....

"What's up, man?" he asked him.

"I dunno, man; I've been thikin' an awful lot lately," Davy replied.

" 'Bout what?" Peter wondered. "Michelle..." Davy answered.

MIchelle and Coco were helping Lynette move in with them; they all figured that 1)Lynette loved them all, and 2)It'd be easier on her car...

She used to live in San Burtadino.

Around six, they all headed over to the boys' Pad....

Micky was going out with some of his other friends, Mike and Coco were stayign at the Pad, and Lynette and Peter on the beach....

ANd Davy and Michelle at the girls' Pad...

Before MIchelle could capture Davy in a kiss, he sat down.

"Michelle...we've been dating foah a long time..."

MIchelle put on her best smile, "Seems like forever," she breathed.

"Yeah, welll...."

'I'm ready any time you are, Davy,' she prompted in her mind.

"I think we should see othah people."

Michelle's face became ashen, her eyes filled with horror...

"Wh-wh-what?!" she stammered, "B-but we...we're so in love..."

"Wehe, Michelle; 'aven't y' noticed th' changes we've been goin' through?" Davy asked her gently.

"No; I love you more each day," Michelle replied, her eyes filling with tears.

Davy kneeled in front of her, "Michelle, it'll b' 'ard foah a while; I still love you, just not th' same..."

"Go," MIchelle growled, "go on, get out! What, are you deaf?! GO!"

Davy retreated after she stood.

She then crumbled to the floor, crying hard, body-wracking sobs....

MIcky had just gotten home from where he'd been and interrupting a warm, fuzzy moment between Mike and Coco, when Davy walked in(also interrupting).

"What's up, man?" he asked as the Brit went upstairs.

Davy didn't answer; Mike and Coco looked on, concerned, as Micky went up after him....

Peter and Lynette came in soon after, wonderign what was up with DAvy....

Then, Coco remembered Michelle....

"Oh my gosh, somebody go and check on Mich!" she said with alarm.

"Come on," Lynette said to Peter, taking his hand and they heading to the girls' Pad.....

"What's goin' on?" Micky asked Davy.

DAvy merely stared at his pillow, "I broke up with MIchelle." MIcky's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, "You WHAT?!"

" 'Ey, I 'ad to; things ahe changin'; Michelle an' I 'ave both changed. MIchelle's 'avin a 'ard time b'cause she can't see any of those changes," Davy replied sadly.

MIcky looked out the window, "But you guys were just like Romeo and Juliet..." he said, still dazed.

"Maybe so, but all good things must come t' an end," Davy replied with a weak smile.

MIcky nodded.....

" 'Ey, at least you 'ave a chance with 'er now," Davy added somewhat more cheerfully.

MIcky hadn't even thought of that, "Who says I like her?"

"OH, come off it, Micky! You know I'm not stupid, oah blind! I've seen those stolen glances, I noticed 'ow mad you gotwhen you foud out what 'appened out on th' beach 'at night!" Davy said.

MIcky remembered also; boy, HAD he been mad!!

Davy gave a knowing smile, "I knew."

MIcky nodded, "Yeah, but after somethin' like this, do you REALLY think I'll have a chance?...."

Lynette and Peter, meanwhile, had made their way to MIchelle....

She'd now locked herself in her room....

"Come on, Michelle! You can tell me what's wrong!" Lynette yelled as she pounded on the door.

MIchelle only sobbed.

"Michelle! Goshdarnit, how are we supposed to help you when you refuse to BE helped?!" Lynette exclaimed.

Michelle then opened the door and slung a shoe out in the process, "I don't NEED any help, just leave me alone!" she screamed/wailed and ducked back inside.

The shoe had shattered one of Michelle's glass figurines, but she didn't care....

All she knew was that she'd lost the man she loved....

Forever.

Lynette had given up after that and they headed back to the guys' Pad....

When they related the story back to Mike and Coco, Coco tried to intervene next.....

"Hey, MIchelle," she said softly outside the door.

"What?" Michelle replied, sounding the worst for wear.

"Hon, you alright? Ya wanna talk about it?" she asked.

"No," Michelle replied crisply.

"Oh, Mich; if you don't let it out, you'll never be able to heal," Coco reasoned.

"Just go away, Coco; I know you're trying to help, but I just wanna be alone right now," Michelle replied calmly.

Strike two......

"Mike, you're the only one that can do anything! You've known her way longer than the rest of us have; maybe YOU can get her to talk somehow," Coco suggested to him.

The others agreed.

"All I can do is try," Mike replied, getting battle stations ready for either things flying out the door or words flying from Michelle's mouth.....

"Hey, shotgun," Mike whispered softly from the outside of the dooor.

"Mike? That you?" Michelle asked.

"Who else'd call you 'shotgun'?" Mike replied.

MIchelle smiled in spite of herself.

"Are you really so upset that you won't talk about it? Or is there something else to it?" Mike wondered.

Michelle didn't answer.

"Michelle?..."

Still no answer.

He quietly opened the door and saw that Michelle had passed out on the bed; Mike checked around for anything suspicious, which there wasn't anything...

"Must be plumb worn out," Mike said to himself, brushing some of her hair from her face and draping a blanket over her exhausted form before he left...

"She's asleep," Mike confirmed as he came back into the Pad...

"Did she say anything?" Lynette asked. "No; she passed out while we was talkin'," Mike replied.

Micky and DAvy, who'd been upstairs all this time, came quickly down them to see what was up now...

"She fell asleep," Coco told them, "she refuses to talk."

"Maybe I can try later," MIcky suggested.

"What'd she say to you that she wouldmn't say to us?" Coco replied huffily.

"Hey, she's my best friend; she tells me everything," Micky replied.

"He's got a point," Mike said.

"Yeah, on his head! Look, WHY would she tell HIM anything when SHE threw a shoe at ME?" Lynette wondered.

"You were yelling at her," Peter admitted.

"So?!She was yellin' at me, too!" Lynette replied.

"THat's not the way you try to get someone to talk to you REGARDLESS of what they do!" Peter said.

"I don't need your counseling, Peter!" Lynette shouted.

"Shut up, Lynette!" Micky exclaimed.

"Stay out of this, you fag!" Lynette replied.

"You'd better take that back," Coco growled.

"He shouldn't be all up in my business!" Lynette screamed.

"YOU shouldn't be yelling! Especially at PETER!" Coco replied.

"SHUT UP and get of my back, bitch!" Lynette exclaimed.

"Hey, YOU shut up! No one asked you to go over there!" Mike defended Coco, as well as Micky and Peter.

Eventually everyone was arguing except for Davy....

"SHUT TH' 'ELL UP!!!" he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.

Everyone went dead silent....

"It isn't gonna do us any good t'argue about it! With all due respect, Lynette, if you can't do any bettah than 'at, please leave," Davy continued.

Lynette looked shocked when Peter didn't take up for her; come to think of it, everyone did....

"Fine then...Peter, it's over! Coco, I'm moving out!" Lynette growled, infuriated.

"That's all well and good, but you can't right NOW," Coco replied.

"Who's gonna stop me? Who, you and your fag brother?" Lynette demanded.

"If you're quite done insulting my friends, get out...now," Peter growled.

Lynette scoffed, "And you! Man, what'd I ever see in you?"

"You saw a man with a good 'eaht an' a nice disposition," DAvy replied, "but I can tell now that 'e's not youah kind."

Lynette huffed, puffed, then stormed out into the almost inky blackness of the night....

Michelle awoke to a lot of ranting and raving; was Mike still there? Noppe, it'd been two hours ago she'd fallen asleep...

So she got up and made her way through the house to see what was going on....

Eventually, she ended up in the downstairs bedroom, finding Lynette yelling and cursing up a storm as she packed a suitcase....

"What's goin' on, Lyn?" she asked groggily.

"Oh, it's about TIME you woke up! Finally got tired of the pity party you were throwing yourself?" Lynette wondered hastily.

"What the...." Michelle was out of it.

"You have to be the MOST SELFISH brat! Just because DAvy broke up with you..."

"Uh, Lynette, I think you've done quite enough this evening...."

Michelle and Lynette turned, confronting the sudden contributer....

"Damn you queer little fag! Can't you ever stay in your own fuckin' business?!" Lynette demanded.

Micky cmae up beside MIchelle, "No; leave her alone."

"You aren't just gonna stand there and take her shit., are you?!" Michelle admonished.

Micky didn't reply, merely shrugged...

"Now you listend here you bitch; I don't let ANYONE mess with my friends, you can ask DAvy. So you'd better just take back what you said," Michelle growled.

"Psh, hey, it's true! He can't get a girl, or won't, so he's obviously a queer," Lynette pushed it a bit too far.

That's when Michelle snaped...

She let loose with such a punch it knocked Lynette off of her feet.

"Now, are you gonna get out or do you need a little more convincing?" Michelle asked through clenched teeth.

"You want a fight?" Lynette asked,pulling something form the side of her boot, "Let's do it right."

She then flipped out a switchblade...

Next door, everyone was wondering what the next move would be; when sudenly, Micky came bursting through the door.....

"Michelle's awake; Lynette...her....fight...switchblade..." he panted.

That was all it took to get the others going out the door...

"Lynette, put that knife down," Michelle commanded.

''What's the matter? you too chicken tofight like this?" Lynette asked tauntingly.

''NO, it's just I'm not stupid enough to," Michelle replied.

Lynette then lunged at her when she didn't expect her to, holding the knife close to her...

"Did you just call me stupid?" she all but screamed.

Michelle spoke not a word....

"Ha;I knew you weren't nothin' but a chicken. Won't even admit to something I clearly heard you say," Lynette scoffed.

MIchelle then made a very daring move..

She kneed Lynette, then knocked her off, rolling away, just missing the blade...

"Probably wondering where your friends are now, aren't you? Well, they ain't gonna be getting in any time soon," Lynette said gallently.

Michelle's heartbeat increased even more....

By the time they got up the stairs to the front door, Mike, who'd goten there, confirmed something...

"It's fuckin' locked!" he exclaimed over the sudden boom of thunder.

Everyone looked up; a storm was brewing overhead....

"Oh no..." Coco breathed.

"Ditto," Peter added. The sudden flash of lightning, casting silhouettes upon the floo, alerted Michelle of her friend's presence outside the house....

Whil she noticed this, though, Lynette lunged at her once more....

She rolled away and stood quickly, Lynette doing the same.

Thinking quickly, MIchelle ran up the stairs to the bedroom, locking the door behind her. She then went over to the window to try to get it open...

"Oh shoot!" she cried in despair as she discovered it was welded shut and couldn't be broken out.

It was then that she saw the ax come in the middle of the door....

She screamed in fright, paralyzed as she saw it come through again...and agaiin....

Suddenly realizing that she didn't have much time, she quickly searched for somehting to ward Lynette off with...

Before she could react, Lynette had coem through the splintered door, this time the axe was in her hand...

"Oh gos, please, someone help me!" Michelle pleaded aloud, sobbing as she did so.

She backed away slowly, Lynette's menacing form following he; the flash of lightning showed how evilly her face glowed....

Before she knew it, Michelle was backed in a corner, nowhere to go....

Thunder...

She saw the axe's blade come down toward her as Lynette seemingly lunged; Michelle crouched and closed her eyes as she waited for the inevitable.....

A loud crash found its way to her ears; she looked beside her to see that the axe had barely missed her...

Lynette was sprawled out in the floor, not moving; when Michelle looked up, she saw a cop holding her down and cuffing her....

"You have the right to remain silent; anythign you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...."

"Mich!"

Michelle looked up; like a beacon in the night, there stood Micky....

She was shaking so badly she oculdn't move; Micky saw this and came to her side. Lynette was then taken out....

He wrapped his arms around Michelle; she crashed onto his chest, crying as hard it hurt....

"The knife, the ae, she s-she tried to kill me! Oh, Mick!" she wailed pitifully, agonizingly.

Micky smoothed her hair, looking up into eight worried, somber eyes as Michelle cried....

The pretty, almost melancholy piano was heard throughout the boys' Pad as they began into a song that they'd been working on for a couple of days(ever since the incident).

Davy and Peter shared lead on the group composition known as "Shades of Gray".

"I think it's beautiful," Coco said, "how 'bout you, Mich?"

Michelle hadn't spoken or expressed any emotion ever since that night and, according to specialists, any reaction was good.....

Coco saw tears splash down her cheeks....

"Honey, you wanna talk?" she asked Michelle gently.

The boys held their breath...

Michelle merely got up and ran for the beach.

''Man; what'll it take to get her to talk?" Mike asked.

"At least she's showing emotion; that's a good sign," Coco repleid.

Everyone was so blue that they didn't notice that someone else besides Michelle was missing....

Alone.

That's what Michelle found herself being; she didn't WANT to BE alone, though....that was one thing she was trying to avoid....

The sudden blackness of the night, the feelig of being alone; it became too much for the traumatized, paranoid girl...

Suddenly she heard footsteps; something one in a condition such as hers didn't need to hear...

Louder and louder they got, until Michelle's fright took over and she screamed.....

Micky, who'd went out to look for Michelle(since she didn't need to be alone)heard her terrified, miserable screams and saw her crumble to the sand below, her hands hear her ears in fright...

He ran to her side, much like a speeding bullet as he pulled Michelle into his arms and held her close, tears rolled down her cheeks as she sobbed, sobbed about her distraughtness, sobbed because she was such a weakling....

She was so much like a baby while she was in these stages that Micky wanted nothing more than to pull her closer and kiss her with the hard, driving passion that had been growing inside of him for so long....

"Wheah's Micky?" DAvy asked suddenly.

"He prolly went after Michelle," Mike replied.

"He's been taking care of her in every way; too bad they aren't goin' out...." Peter mused.

"Mick said that when things calm down a bit he'll ask her out," Coco said suddenly.

"Really? Hm, I 'ope it'll wohk out. They both need someone..." Davy commented.

Coco nodded, "Michelle needs someone now more than ever...."

"So does Micky,'' Mike added.

And the room became silent once more....

Michelle slowly raised up from where she'd had her head on Micky's shoulder...

"I'm sorry, Micky," she spoke softly, "I'm such a selfish human being; maybe that's why I'm forever being punished..."

"No, Michelle! No," Micky replied, holding her left cheek in the palm of his hand, "you're the most kind, considerate... beautiful person I know; why you've had so much misfortune is beyond me."

Michelle studied him a moment....

"Why have you been so patient with me?" she asked suddenly.

"How do you mean?" he wondered.

"All these years, no matter what, you've been my best friend; through thick and thin..." Michelle replied.

"Hey, you stuck by me too, man...." Micky added.

"Who's the drama queen?"

"I get your point."

Michelle giggled and looked up at him.

"Maybe.." Micky began cautiously, "maybe because I love you so much."

Michelle appeared shocked, "You mean that?"

Micky nodded slowly.

"Oh man...."

The others were in shock as well when they beheld Michelle actually talking.

Davy smiled secretly; he knew something no one, not even Michelle herself, knew about her....

When they'd ben dancing one evening, he'd seen her cast a glance at a forlorn figure sitting in a booth...

Micky.

It appeared, to Davy, that Michelle had been so wrapped up in her affairs with he, that she never even realized that she had feelings for Micky....

Michelle didn't know how the heck it'd happened; all she knew was that she'd been making confessions to Micky about her feelings, and now, they were in the sand making out....

By the time Michelle and Micky had went to their respective Pads, it was four AM. But it'd been woth the lost sleep...