Mickey’s POV:

The next morning, I tried to stay as quiet as possible. When I woke up, I nearly had a heart attack. Rather that awaking to find myself still turned away, I found myself turned toward Alex. That wasn’t the problem, though. The problem was that my head was on his shoulder as I was lying on my stomach, one arm loosely hanging over his chest while his arm was wrapped around me. Of course, I had a slight panic attack, but this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Although all we did was sleep, usually I liked to leave right after a one night stand, other times I did fall asleep. Those other times often meant I was stuck in the grasp of some disgusting sweaty guy. By now I knew all the tricks. This time I also managed to worm myself away, trying my best not to shake Alex too much. He just slept through the whole thing.

But since my movement must have at least made his sleep a little lighter, I still had to be super careful when I slipped away to the bathroom. Despite knowing that the sound of running water was going to officially wake him, I turned on the shower and stepped in while trying my best not to get my cast wet. I never was the person to take long showers, so it didn’t really matter to me that I was trying to do wash myself as fast as possible. However, after drying myself off--not caring that the towel got stained a little by my hair--and putting on my clothes, I left the bathroom as saw Alex still fast asleep. That boy really was a teenager that could sleep through anything.

I didn’t really care, though. It was my entire goal not to wake him. So, goal achieved.

I sat down on the one single chair in the room and put on my shoes, not wanting to risk losing my balance and falling to the floor. As you could have already guessed, it didn’t wake Alex up either. So, I quickly grabbed my wallet and keys and walked to the door. It was all done now, so there was no need to be careful anymore. Plus, it wasn’t like unlocking the door would make any sound that could wake anybody up.

I couldn’t be more wrong.

Although I was pretty sure Alex just woke up naturally and it wasn’t the noise I was making, he did wake up. Yes, I know. Such a surprise. He groaned a little as he tried to get used to the light coming through the curtains I had opened slightly so I wouldn’t have to turn the light on. I just stood there as still as possible. It wasn’t like that was going to make anything better, though.

Once he noticed I was no longer beside him, his eyes shot open and immediately landed on me. “Where the hell do you think you’re going? Are you seriously just going to leave me here? What the fuck, Mickey?!”

I frowned back at him, not liking that he was jumping to such conclusions. “I was going to get breakfast… When we drove here, I saw a diner down the road.”

“Without me?” He gasped, both accusing me of lying but also offended that I wouldn’t wake him for breakfast.

“I was going to get something to bring back and eat here with you,” I told him as if it was super obvious.

The weird thing? It was the truth. My sneaky actions might have made it seem like I was trying to leave before he would wake up, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. I really was planning on letting him sleep and have breakfast ready when he did wake up before we had to leave again. Was that really not expected from me? Yes, I usually left. But this was different.

“Yeah, right.” Alex shook his head a little and got out of bed. “I’m coming with you now.”

I shrugged even though it meant I would have to wait even longer for a proper meal again. “Suit yourself. Just one thing, I’m not going to sit in a car with you for another six hours without you having showered.”

“Ok, so I’ll go shower.” He yawned and ran his fingers through his tangled messy bed hair.

“Oh, and I might have a change of shirt for you in my car, but I can’t promise anything.”

“In your car? Hmm.” He eyed me. I could already tell this was going to be a long morning since he didn’t believe a word I said anymore. I couldn’t blame him, though.

“Look, I’ll leave my wallet here.” I placed it on the desk and raised my hand up in defense. “It contains most of the money and my driver's license. I would leave my keys here, but I can’t open the car without them. You trust me now?”

“Fine.” He gave me one last look before turning into the bathroom and closing the door behind himself.

I would lie if I said I didn’t check him out briefly before I ran out of the door and to my car. What I did lie about, however, was the fact that the money was in my wallet. There was enough for breakfast in there, but everything else was in my backpack… which happened to be in the room as well. Anyway, I opened the door to the back seats and started rummaging through all the bags. I was sure I had some guy’s shirt in here. I could even picture the way it looked. Eventually, I found the Blink-182 shirt I was looking for at the bottom of one of the plastic shopping bags.

With the shirt in my hand, I locked my car again and walked back toward our hotel room. Luckily, I also had the room key in my hand as I tried to leave quietly, so I didn’t have to worry about not being able to get back. When I entered the room, the shower was still running. Deciding not to just invade Alex’s privacy--knowing that I would get so mad if he walked in while I was showering--I just sat down on the unmade bed, waiting for him to get out.

I just stared at the wall the few minutes it took him to finish washing himself and drying himself off. A short while longer, he was out of the steamy room wearing all his clothes except his shirt. When his eyes landed on me, a smile crept up on his face. I smiled back a little bit to show him that I really wasn’t planning on just leaving without him. I knew I had to go home and fix all this. So, just like I had promised, I held out the shirt for him to grab.

He took the shirt and thanked me before asking, “wait, why do you have a guy’s t-shirt? I thought you didn’t get attached.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not from a past ‘lover’,” I laughed back and stood back up as he put it on.

“So you just have some random shirt that fits me?”

“No, I know exactly whose it is. They just aren’t somebody I ever had any kind of relationship with,” I clarified very vaguely. “I also need you to give it back to me later, because I can’t be held accountable for the shirt getting lost.”

“So, the guy… a best friend?”

“Not exactly, but I guess you can say that.” I nodded and grabbed the backpack I now no longer was going to need to leave behind. If anything, Alex and I could grab breakfast and be on the road again straight after.

“I’m sensing that you don’t want to talk about it. So, I’m just going to shut up.” Alex followed me out of the room, not needing to take anything with him other than the t-shirt he wore the day before since everything else was left behind in the car.

“Let’s just get breakfast, shall we?” I suggested instead and locked the door behind us.

We decided to walk to the diner since it literally was just across the street. For once, I didn’t mind Alex walking right next to me. Occasionally, our arms would brush against each other, but that was what it stayed at. Neither of us took it a step further… if there was a step further to take. Honestly, I had no idea how this all worked. I was good at sweet talking guys into sleeping with me, but that was all. I couldn’t do anything else.

So, yes. I wanted to do something, but didn’t know how. I technically did make the first move with kissing him at school and all… now it was his turn even if it was only because I was clueless.

“Ok, so our budget is 20 bucks.” I laid out the money on the table after Alex and I had gotten two menus. “The rest will have to go to gas since we won’t get much further out than a few miles with the fuel in that rusty-ass piece of shit now. I know it’s not much, so maybe we should just choose the largest breakfast we can find on here and share it?”

“I’m not sure if I trust you with sharing food.” Alex peaked over his menu and squinted his eyes at me.

“I’m not sure if I trust you,” I retorted, raising one eyebrow at him.

He slowly lowered the menu, showing off the bright smile he was wearing. He pointed to something as soon as he put the menu on the table. “Let’s get the waffles and pancakes with bacon. Can’t go wrong with that.”

I nodded, looking over it again. “And we have enough to get a milkshake each!”

“Deal.”

And so, that exactly what we did. We shared that damn breakfast like our lives depended on it. Literally, all we did was split it in half and each ate it before we decided that I would eat the waffles and he could have the pancakes. It worked out for both of us. The bacon, however was a whole different story. It was just a fight about the last piece, trying to get the other distracted so we could take it. Eventually, however, we had to cut it in half too. I wasn’t going to eat less just because I was eating with a guy.

After finishing the food, both of us feeling sick from stuffing our mouths, it was time to hit the road again. I handed the key back to the reception, a little relieved to see somebody else at the desk this time, and went back to my car where Alex was leaning against the hood and was waiting for me.

“Let’s hit the road,” I sighed, really not feeling like driving for at least another five hours.

However, Alex grabbed the keys from my hand and shook his head. “How about I drive? You still have that broken arm and you drove yesterday.”

“Well, that’s because there wasn’t really another choice,” I rolled my eyes playfully.

“Now there is, so…”

“And there’s no way you can drive old Clifford here. I’m pretty sure the pedals are on the verge of breaking.” I carefully tapped the side of my car which had its red paint chipping off everywhere.

“Clifford?” Alex asked, unlocking the car and quickly putting his hand on the driver’s door handle to show that he wasn’t changing his mind.

“Yeah, based on Clifford the Big Red Dog. My dad started calling it ‘Clifford the Big Red Car’ back when it was still a decent vehicle.” I refused to move to the passenger side.

“Clifford the… what?” He hopped in and sat down.

“The books! It’s my childhood in just images and words!” I gasped, nearly offended that he didn’t know about the amazing books. As a kid, I always imagined getting my own huge dog that would be my best friend and take me away.

“Ok, Ok. Just get in, will ya?” Alex ordered as he started closing the door.

“I would, but you’re sitting in my seat.” I crossed my arms, keeping my feet grounded.

“Just get in,” he repeated with a laugh, pointing at the passenger door.

I sighed and did as he asked. It didn’t matter what I did, in the end I would be the one driving anyway. Nobody knew how to drive my car. It had broken down so often that things just didn’t work as they were supposed to. I just had had the time to find a way that worked. Anybody that wasn’t used to it would get so lost.

And, just as expected, as Alex tried to get out of the parking spot--I had reversed into the spot the night before--he managed to stall the car. He just acted like nothing happened and retried, only for the engine to give out again. Second time, he let out an awkward chuckle, turning the keys and trying to drive off for the third time. You can probably guess what happened.

I snorted a little as he whispered profanities under his breath. “Hold the clutch for way longer than you’re used to and give a shit load of gas. Don’t worry about giving too much. Just don’t do it for too long, or you’ll speed off or make the engine rev.”

“I don’t know what any of that means.” He shook his head at me and tried his method again. We had only moved a couple of inches before he fucked up.

“Clutch,” I instructed and waited for him to press it down fully. “Now gas and only lift the clutch like a tiny tiny bit,” I told him next and watched exactly what he was doing with his feet. “Now, shit load of gas, just go for it.” He nearly floored the gas, which was a bit more than what I meant, but nothing but some revving happened. “Ok, ok. Clutch up… and bring back the gas!” I could see him stressing out a little, but then we started moving forward.

“Oh my god! I did it!” Alex exclaimed happily and started driving toward the exit.

“And now do that every single time you stop.” I grinned back mockingly.

“Oh, fuck,” he grumbled as he approached the stop sign.

The car suddenly braked abruptly, causing us to fly forward a little despite having such a low speed.

“I was just about to say to be careful with the break…” I groaned, rubbing my neck where the seatbelt tried to decapitate me. “There’s a sweet spot for that as well. Not far enough has no effect, too much makes it stop too suddenly. Oh, and the third gear is kinda difficult to get into. Just use a lot of momentum. Other than that, just double check that the turn signals are on, you need to press them down until you can't do so anymore. I believe that’s it.”

“Ok…” He nodded, looking at everything again. “I think I got this.”

He insisted on driving, so I let him. Despite him trying so hard, I still thought it was pretty funny. Of course, he fucked up so often. We got so many angry cars behind us honking their horns at green lights. I would just shout back at them until Alex figured it out again. At least it kept the car ride entertaining. It did, however, get a little annoying when we stopped to get gas. He just couldn't leave the place anymore. It took everything in me not to shout at him, but I just patiently waited.

He only got a hang of it when we were nearly home.

Notes

So Alex's little speech in the last chapter worked ;)