Alex's POV:

I still had no clue where Mickey was going. I could have looked through her maps to try and find the page, but even I knew that that was an impossible task. She was determined, though, and was set on ignoring me completely. Because I was literally just sitting there doing nothing, I eventually dozed off. I wasn’t trying to fall asleep, I was actually trying to stay aware to figure out where we were going based on the signs. But things weren’t that easy. I didn’t even notice I had fallen asleep until I woke up.

Well, we definitely weren’t driving anymore. But I was in a parked car in a dark parking lot with no sign of Mickey.

I started to freak out, not knowing where she had gone or where I was. Of course, I had my phone with me if things really were going wrong, but that wasn’t what was going through my mind at the moment. All I knew was that I was in a strange place and that the girl I came here with disappeared. Who knew what could have happened to her? Was she really planning on disappearing and just leaving me out here to fend for myself?

Before I drove myself to an inevitable panic, I tried the door handle. I sighed in relief when the door easily popped open and I could step out without anything trying to keep me in the car. It was only then that I actually took a proper look at my surroundings. Yes, I was in a parking lot, we knew that. But it wasn’t just a parking lot in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by a cream motel, only one side open to the road.

Mickey could be in any of these rooms. How the hell was I going to find her? I could hardly go knocking on every door. Who knew who was behind those doors? It wasn’t like I wouldn’t have done it if there was no other way, but I remembered there probably was a reception that could easily help me out. So, I went to the only place that looked like it could possibly be the reception. If the sign wasn’t what gave it away, then it definitely was the large windows and the only bright light that was on in the place.

I was trying to practice what I was going to say to whoever was at the desk. Not only was I planning what I’d initially say but also what I’d say if they told me they couldn’t say anything. There wasn’t much coming up in my mind other than being a whiny bitch, but I could always try it out.

However, once I entered, none of what I was imagining was going to be relevant. Mickey was still stood there trying to get a room. Maybe I hadn’t woken up much later than she had stopped here. Or she was already standing here for a very long like. All I cared, though, was that I had found her again.

“Ok, so that’s one person, then?” The middle-aged woman behind the counter doubled checked with Mickey.

Before she could answer and confirm, I interjected with one simple word that I found coming out of my mouth more often than not, “Mickey.”

“Oh, great,” she groaned as she saw me, but turned back to the woman without giving me any further acknowledgment. “Just one person.”

The woman briefly looked at me and then back at Mickey. “Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

I know that my next move was very drastic and that there possibly was another calmer approach I could have taken, but honestly… I was too fed up and tired for that. So, I walked right up to the desk and sighed. “She’s running away from home. I’d call the cops if I were you.”

Yes, once again, I know. I had told Rian before to never involve the cops if it was about Mickey. But this was the only way. She wouldn’t listen to anybody. This was the only way to force her to reason. And the woman seemed to believe me without another word because her hand sneakily reached out to the landline.

“Umm, no.” Mickey shook her head. “I’m moving out of state, not running away. There’s a big difference.”

“Well, you disappeared from your house a week ago. You haven’t told anybody where you’re going now. You’re running away from home.”

“Oh, I see.” Mickey squinted her eyes at me, her look telling me she had a plan. “But what I’m doing is completely legal. As an adult, I get to move wherever my heart desires.”

“I’d like to see some ID, please,” the woman requested, now confused about the whole ordeal.

So, Mickey reached into her bag and pulled out her driver’s license, handing it over the counter. The woman took it and started inspecting it very closely to see if it could be fake. Mickey did look a little younger than she was with that bright hair of her’s, so it didn’t surprise me at all. I also would have been skeptical.

“Oh, my god,” Mickey grumbled, reaching into the same pocket once again, “it’s not fake! Here’s my driver’s license from when I was 16, same birth date. And here’s my passport, same exact thing. Do you really think I would go to that extent? He’s a minor, though. I’d call the cops on him.”

“Um, excuse me!” I gasped, not fully registering how in the world she had managed to twist this around. “You’re the one that drove while I was in your car. You practically kidnapped me!”

“You’re the one that got into the car in the first place! I told you to get out.”

“That’s how kidnapping often works. Ever heard of the old candy trick? Kid get’s in truck, truck drives off?”

Mickey glared at me before letting out a deep breath, putting on a smile, and turned back to the woman. “Room for two please.”

However, the woman's hand was still hovering over the phone, now completely unsure what to do. Mickey had gotten her IDs back, but that was all. We put up quite the scene. I would've been confused myself. There were multiple scenarios. She could call the cops, causing us to run away; she could call the cops and have them actually help us; she could leave it be and have something horrible happen to us later on and she’d feel guilty; she could let us stay the night and secretly call the cops as soon as we left the office.

“Don’t worry, I’ll drive back home tomorrow,” Mickey told her with a wave of the hand. “It’s too late to go back now. Don’t want me falling asleep at the wheel, do you?”

The woman decided to nod and grab one of the keys on the hooks. She proceeded to tell Mickey the price, which wasn’t high at all but I still expected Mickey to be annoyed with the cost. However, she just reached into the same bag again and pulled out a stack of bills, paying the exact price. I felt a little bad, like I had to pay half the amount or at least chip in something, but I didn’t have much more than two dollars with me. While Mickey was prepared for this entire journey, I had no clue that we were even leaving town.

So, after that was all done, Mickey started her way to the room, barely taking her time to look around at things other than the room numbers. She didn’t say a word as she found the room on the ground floor and entered. I was the one that had to close the door and lock it since she was already in the middle of the room when I took my first step inside.

“Ok, so here’s what’s going to happen,” she said, glancing at the one single bed instead of me, “tomorrow morning you’re going to get a cab back home and I’m going to continue.”

“I think the hell not!” I shook my head at her, getting close to losing my temper. Was she really going to insist on leaving?

“Ok, well you aren’t coming with me. You need to go home.”

I nearly snorted at her. I couldn’t believe she dared to tell me that I needed to go home while she was the one running away. “The only way you can get me to go home is by driving me there yourself and bringing yourself home as well.”

“Alex, please,” she groaned, kicking her shoes off.

“No, I’m not going to let you do this anymore. Just hours ago you were telling me how your mom always runs away from her problems and that moving to another state wouldn’t do you any good. Look what you’re doing now! You’re doing exactly what you got mad about. You’re such a hypocrite. You need to get your shit together.” I decided to just tell her upright this time. All my past attempts that consisted of me reasoning a little more with her hadn’t worked, so I wasn’t going to beat around the bush and I wasn’t going to try to use nice words. She didn’t speak like that herself either.

“Oh, I’m a hypocrite.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“Yes. Do you have anything to prove me wrong or show that I am one too?”

She went to answer me, but nothing came out of her. She just stood there, her mouth opened just a little as she thought of something. Just like I expected. So, I continued with my rant-slash-hopeful-convincing, “Exactly. So, it’s time for you to go about this differently. Right now you’re doing what everybody expects from you. Although your mom is super upset right now, she knows that this is how you act. You always behave this way, you never do anything different. You were getting mad at your mom ‘cause she wanted to move away again because of what happened. You were the one against it, but now you’re doing it as well. You aren’t any better than her. What would make you way better than anybody else here is if you do the unexpected. Everybody thinks you’re just going to disappear and never return. But if you go back now, talk to her like the adult you say you are, and stop being a whiny bitch that always needs it her way, you’ll throw her off. She’ll be the one that seems like she can’t deal with anything. You have to tell her that you want to stay and that she can’t just force you to move because she’s too afraid of what happened. Right now all you’re doing is what she wants but in a way that hurts her. You can be way better than that.”

She continued to just stare at me for a little while longer, her breathing slowly raising her shoulders and chest up and back down. I didn’t know if she was agreeing with me or disagreeing, understanding me or not. Hell, I didn’t even know if she had listened to it all.

“Fuck, you’re so hot when you’re being reasonable,” she growled through gritted teeth and stomped into the bathroom, slamming the door behind herself and locking it.

“What?” I mumbled to myself, trying to make sense of what just happened.

On one hand, she didn’t talk back. On the other, I didn’t know what she thought of what I said. She did, however, say I was hot, which was nice but… unexpected…

I hadn’t been able to move from where I had been standing out of shock when she came out a short while later. She was holding a pile of clothing consisting of her jeans and bra--meaning she was only wearing her t-shirt and underwear--her hair was up in a bun, and her makeup was removed except for some residue black hinting underneath her eyes. After putting the clothes on the chair in the room, she walked past the light switch and flipped it. I watched her climb into the far side of the bed as my feet were still glued to the ground.

“Goodnight, Alex.” I heard her say after she got comfortable.

Once I finally got myself to move again, I walked to the empty side of the bed and just looked at it. “I’m so confused right now.”

“Just go to sleep.”

“Ok…” I started by taking off my shoes and my hoodie, working on my jeans when another thought came to my mind. “Wait, did you lock the car? And what about the stuff you put in the back?”

“Moved it all to the backseat while you were sleeping and locked it on the way here. As far as I know, all the locks should still be functioning through remote control,” she explained and insisted, “Now, go to sleep.”

“About that…” I started again despite her requests as I stripped down completely to my boxers. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You looked peaceful,” she muttered, but her voice started to contain a hint of annoyance again as I was getting into bed. “Now shut up. You got to sleep for five hours, I didn’t.”

I froze up before I could get underneath the covers completely. “Five hours?! Mickey, where the hell are we?!”

“Just inside Ohio, an hour or so away from Cleveland.”

“Ohio!”

“Alex, I swear to god, if you don’t fucking shut up right now, I will tape your fucking mouth shut and punch you in the fucking dick.”

“Ok, ok, sorry,” I apologized in a whisper and laid down. Although the shock was most definitely still coursing through my body, I didn’t say another word and shut my eyes.

Notes

Slightly less drama? Slightly more making up?
What do you guys think is going to happen next? Will Mickey disappear before Alex wakes up? Will she stay there? Will she decide to go back home or continue her journey?