Alex’s POV:

The sun had set and I had parked my car in the parking lot that was now illuminated by yellow street lights. There wasn’t anything special going on except for the fact that Jack’s parents were out of town for the night. Instead of throwing a party and risk being caught the next day, we decided to just have a small get together with a few people. Yes, I mean a small get together, we weren't going to be stupid.

We weren’t responsible enough to think that soda was enough, though. Alcohol was a must no matter what, especially when no parents were involved. Stealing stuff from the cabinets, however was a very risky action. In our minds, we were willing to risk being caught using fake IDs more than there being a chance that Jack’s parents found the watered down alcohol and then lecture us or something.

Simple teenage logic.

There was this one store at this practically abandoned parking lot that we always went to. Practically everybody from school went there. Not only was it fairly cheap, but most of the employees didn’t care if you were underage as long as you had a fake ID that looked fairly realistic. Perfect spot for kids like me.

Jack and I slammed the car doors shut and started making our way towards the corner store. I stopped in my steps when I saw the familiar firetruck red hair waiting just outside my destination. It contrasted greatly to the black leather jacket she was wearing to keep her small framed body warm, her arms crossed as she looked ahead in a different direction.

“Shit. Mickey…” I muttered underneath my breath, not sure what was keeping me from just walking further.

Jack burst out with laughter, catching me off guard. “Dude, you still sure you want to go buy the drinks?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” I shrugged, fully intending on continuing as if nothing had just happened, but the soles of my shoes were glued to the cracked tarmac.

“Because you’re afraid she’ll burst out with anger again?” The laughter hadn’t left his voice. Once he saw that I didn’t know why I would be scared of this hypothetical situation, he decided to elaborate a little. “You don’t just try to kiss her and not get any consequences.”

“When did I try to kiss her?” My voice went up a few pitches as if I was trying to deny something and hide it, but I honestly didn’t know what he was referring to.

“Oh, you know, after she punched your ex and you tried to get her to calm down. Going in to kiss her after you managed to do it wasn’t exactly a great idea, as obvious by what happened next.”

“Wait, that’s why she got mad?” I questioned, trying to remember the events as clearly as I could. I could still feel her pushing me away, leaving me flabbergasted. “But I didn’t try to kiss her.”

“Alex, I was there. I was witnessing it all happening. You were trying to kiss her. I could feel the tension, it was so awkward for me. You guys were just staring at each other and for a second I actually thought it was going happen. But then she blew up.” He explained, trying to convince me of what I had maybe done. If I had done it, it was definitely not on purpose and I did not realize it happening.

I rolled my eyes and my legs decided to finally work again, accidentally saying, “well, that’s just stupid, she wasn’t complaining about it before.”

“Before?!” Jack screeched, now trying to stop me from walking rather than get me moving.

“It’s nothing, just leave it be,” I muttered, not wanting to get into that. It didn’t end well either, there was no reason to make clear that side of a relationship was a no-go.

“I can’t just leave that be--”

“Look at that, it’s the skunk boys.” Mickey smirked as we approached her, cutting off Jack, which probably also saved her dignity on accident.

Now that she had seen us and spoken, we could hardly continue walking and ignore her. Usually I would have taken any opportunity to talk to her, but the information Jack had given me made me want to crawl into a hole. Of course the thought of kissing her frequently crossed my mind, but I never knew I actually acted upon it.

Jack was the first one to immediately react, however. “Skunk boys? Why are we the skunk boys?”

“Well, your hair is black and white, like a skunk.” She gestured towards his hair as if it was self-explanatory and then looked at me with a more thoughtful expression. “And I guess ‘Gaskarth’ can be rearranged and some letters can be switched to make it sound like skunk… Gaskunk? I don’t know, not my strongest.”

I decided to ignore her lame attempt at half insulting me, thinking it was best to spare both of us some embarrassment, and went for a different approach. “What are you doing here?”

I’ll admit, that was 'not my strongest’.

“Probably the same you are doing. Only, technically I’m not buying it illegally until it’s actually handed to me,” she told us with a knowing look before breaking out into a smile.

“I could probably hand a fake ID saying my name’s Spongebob and they’d probably let me buy as many bottles of whatever I want,” I added to confirm her suspicions. That was the good thing about Mickey, she herself was bad so there was no reason to be afraid of her ratting you out unless you did something that motivates her to do so.

“I know, but I would say you were getting ripped off by the person who made that fake ID, because that is really shitty.” She laughed, her arms still crossed over her chest. Her face and voice were the complete opposite of her body language. One was strangely kind and inviting while the other was telling us to back off. I wasn’t sure which one to follow.

“Wait, so you’re not mad at Alex anymore?” Jack took his turn to ruin the moment with his questions.

She shrugged and pulled a packet of cigarettes out of her pocket, bringing one to her lips and lighting it. “Why would I be?”

Before Jack could remind her of what happened between us and get her to scream at me again, I interrupted with another one of my stupid questions. “You smoke?”

“Is that really such a surprise?” She rolled her eyes and blew the smoke out slowly and calmly.

“Right…” I clicked my tongue and shook my head, just happy that I had managed to change the subject.

And then there was an awkward silence. I had nothing stupid to say, Jack had nothing annoying to blurt out, and Mickey didn’t speak unless she thought it was relevant. Part of me just said to give that awkward goodbye and get on with my life, but another part didn’t want to leave. It was weird. But I did need to buy that alcohol, so…

But before I could give a half-arsed attempt, somebody came out of the store and came up to us. I immediately recognized that ‘somebody’ to be Devon holding a plastic bag in one hand and holding his jacket in the other. Turned out Mickey chose the option of waiting it out a little longer. Somehow he managed to look cool even just walking, but I knew how big of a douchebag he really was.

“You ready to go?” He nodded at Mickey, ignoring us completely, and briefly looked back at the store as if checking something.

“I’ve been waiting here for you, I’ve been ready since you left,” she retorted and threw her half-finished cigarette on the floor before putting it out with the heel of her shoe. “You got everything?”

“As much as the money could get me, plus…” a mischievous smirk graced his face and he opened his jacket and revealed another hidden bottle, “a little more.”

Mickey’s face dropped as she glared at him. “Devon.”

“Come on, it ain’t gonna hurt nobody.” He nudged her playfully as the smirk grew and grew.

She was about to say something back when the store door opened loudly again and shouting came from the same direction. An older man, probably the owner, came running out straight for Devon.

“Fuck, run!” He shouted at Mickey and dragged her along, leaving her no option but to fall in the same pace as him.

Together, then rushed around the corner. In no time, I could hear a motorcycle engine revving. Instead of trying the impossible and chasing them, the owner came up to us instead. He was already out of breath and would have never been able to catch up even if Mickey and Devon hadn’t left in a vehicle.

“Do you know them?” He asked us, putting his hand on his hips to try and steady his breathing.

“No, sorry.” Jack shook his head before I could stutter over my words.

“But you were talking to them.”

This time I shook my head, going further from Jack’s lead. “Not really. It was just a failed attempt at trying to… flirt… with her.”

“So you must have seen what she looks like!” The owner desperately tried to get answers from us to help him catch the culprits.

“Not really,” I continued to lie, wondering why it came so easily to me, “we weren’t really paying much attention, and it’s pretty dark. I’m pretty sure she had pastel pink hair, but I couldn’t really see much.”

“Well, I’ve gotta call the cops.” The owner hurriedly got his phone out of his pocket and rushed back inside.

“Shit, dude,” Jack uttered underneath his breath, nearly standing against my back.

“We have to get out of here…” I agreed, not wanting to risk getting involved in all of this and somebody finding out we had been lying.

Notes

I know this chapter is short and disappointing, but I wrote something... stuff will get better soon, but I can't just suddenly make a jump.