Alex’s POV:

It was quite weird having Jack’s mom bring us all to school--all being me, Jack, and Rian. We had all stayed the night at Jack’s house doing god knows what. It mainly consisted of us playing video games far into the late hours until Jack’s mom warned us that we really did have to go to bed if we wanted to survive school the next day.

Honestly, I didn’t even want to go, but there was no way getting out of it this time.

Zack went on his own way in the morning when he got in his own car to drive to a different school. We, us three without Zack, just weren’t all that lucky. None of us had a car to drive. So, Rian and I were pushed into the backseat while Jack rode shotgun, blasting his music. I just didn’t understand how our parents were ok with any of this anymore. Rian’s mom was cool with us practicing there multiple days a week, and all the other parents were just cool with us being such loud fucks in general.

Although being brought to school by a parent was very surreal to me, that wasn’t the biggest problem. Getting home was a whole other deal. None of us had a way of doing so and we had promised to pick up Zack from the skate park after school. We should have told him to come pick us up. But it was too late for that.

While we seemed stupid and unlucky, the solution came in the form of my girlfriend--I still absolutely loved that term and would use it in my mind whenever possible. She had been out of even more luck that morning. Her old rusty truck that had given us so many fights and heartfelt confessions didn’t want to start up anymore. So, not knowing that Rian was out with us, she had gone over to ask if she could get a ride since both her parents weren’t home. Instead, she was given Rian’s car and ordered to give the keys back as soon as she saw him, that she could come home with us instead.

Seemed perfect to me.

We were to meet at Rian’s car.

Now, let’s get something straight. As late as I usually was to everything, I was one of the first to run out of class and towards my freedom. I would zoom out of there, hoping to avoid the large crowd if I knew where I was going. This time it was to a certain vehicle. Although I was certain I was one of the first to leave those front doors, I was met with Mickey already leaning against said car, a cigarette loosely between her fingers as she took a drag from it.

I walked up to her with a frown and took the cigarette from her, looking at it for a while, while she softly blew out the smoke. Instead of saying anything, I dropped the cigarette to the floor and put it out with my shoe. As you could have guessed, as much as I loved partying, smoking wasn’t exactly a thing I liked all that much.

There was a time she would get pissed at me for even being so close to her, imagine what would have happened if I would have put out her cigarette. Now, however, she just looked down at the squashed cigarette and shrugged before looking at me. Usually, I would have kissed her as a greeting, but I refused to do so now. I hated cigarette breath and didn’t mind showing her how much.

Before our actual conversation about her smoking habit could come up, Rian was already beside me. He pressed the button to unlock the car, but looked at us instead of getting in. Was there something interesting to look at?

“Where were you during last period?” He asked Mickey since they had the same class.

I didn’t leave her any time to answer herself, my reaction was faster. “You skipped again? Mickey…”

“I had class?” She frowned, ignoring the fact that she had broken a deal we had made.

I didn’t mind her skipping as long as she told me where she was going. It would have been hypocritical of me to say she couldn’t skip, I just didn’t want her to go back to the wrong side of town. No, I didn’t need to know where she was every second of the day, I wasn’t that person. Usually, she wouldn’t even skip without me anymore.

“Yeah, we just had Geography. Mr. Archer missed you,” Rian clarified.

Mickey scoffed and mumbled something under her breath that I couldn’t hear before shrugging once again. “Too late to fix that now. I’ll be sure to make an appearance next time.”

She proceeded to get into the back of the car, passing up the opportunity to ride shotgun. I accepted the action and joined her, letting Jack sit in the front despite the fact that he was nowhere to be seen yet.

“Just a heads up, we need to pick up Zack as well,” I told her as I pulled the door closed, leaving just the two of us while Rian continued to stand outside so Jack could find us.

“Fine,” she groaned and put on her seatbelt.

I could tell something was wrong but didn’t want to push it just yet. We still had to share a car and I really wanted her to come to band practice. Getting into a disagreement wasn’t exactly something I was willing the initiate at this point in our relationship. I knew I had to find out what was up, but something told me I’d get to know later. Right now wasn’t the time.

After Jack practically threw himself into the car, more than joyful that he got shotgun again, acting as if he had somehow won a competition, and Rian spending ages adjusting the seat claiming that Mickey had moved it in a way that didn’t allow it to go back to the way he preferred (which she replied to by saying she only moved is forward a little and then moved it back when the arrived at school), we finally got on the road. It wasn’t all too far to our meeting point with Zack, however it was long enough for Jack to be able to scream along with some songs on the radio, Mickey to look more pissed off than ever, and Rian to curse at other drivers.

The only problem was that Zack must have lost track of time. He wasn’t at our meeting point. I couldn’t blame him, he was skating with some friends or acquaintances or something. Whenever I did something I was passionate about, I also lost track of time; that is unless I was excited about something else.

For some reason, we all got out of the car to go and find him. We could have all easily stayed back except for one person, but that just isn’t how things worked out. In hindsight, it might have been the better option. However, with everything that already felt off, it all had to blow up further.

We were all standing at a ramp, waiting for Zack to notice us as he went down it with his skateboard. No matter what he did on that thing, he always looked fucking amazing. Honestly, he could have been terrible at playing music and he’d still be in the band because he was so cool. We just really lucked out.

I also really lucked out with Mickey. No matter what, I wouldn’t take her for granted. Here I was, standing hand in hand with a girl I never thought I would get but never was going to stop pursuing. All I could say that I really was a lucky person. The only thing needed to make my life perfect was a record deal, and I was more than confident about that.

“Oh, shit!” Zack exclaimed as he saw us all watching him. He looked from us, down to his watch and back up again before running towards us.

We let him collect all his belongings and went on our merry way. Or so that was what we were planning on.

While walking away, Mickey’s hand pulled harshly out of mine. I turned around in shock and saw and heard her shouting at these two guys behind us. It happened in such a split second that none of us understood what was going on. Just less than a heartbeat before, we were walking away, Mickey included. Now she was shouting profanities at some stranger.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing!?” She shouted at the guy who was holding a skateboard, the other one just standing beside his friend.

However, Mickey didn’t get a reply. They just laughed. You know that laugh you would only do around your friends when you got into some deep shit, acting like you didn’t care and only thought it was funny, while if you were alone you wouldn’t even have done the thing in the first place? Well, yeah, it was that one.

“Oh, you think it’s funny?” She challenged, her body language telling me she contained more rage than she was letting on. Once she was completely in control and not letting on any irritation, you knew she was way past the point of anger.

The two boys just continued to laugh. I walked up to Mickey and put both my hands on her shoulders. With a lowered voice, I tried to reason before this got out of hand. “Come on, Micks, we should go.”

“The fuck do you know, Alex!” She literally shrugged me off and kept her glare on the two boys.

I had been okay with her feeling a bit distant for some reason I didn’t know about, I had been okay with her acting cold the past couple of days, but this was it. This hurt. I was not okay with her shutting me out all over again, this wasn’t the way she was supposed to treat me. However, I knew that adding fuel to the fire wasn’t a good idea, but I was sure as hell going to bring it up later--even if I had to take extreme measures that would hurt me further.

“I know that it isn’t a good idea to punch some eleven-year-old boy who thinks he’s the shit.” I tried coursing her away, not wanting her to get arrested for assaulting a minor. It was like she sometimes forgot that she was nineteen and an adult. “So, let’s forget about this and walk away.”

“Hey, I’m thirteen,” the boy argued as if it had any significance.

It only riled Mickey up further. “And do you think that makes what you did okay!?”

The two kids just snorted and started laughing again. I was just praying that somebody else would step in, but the others were just observing and giving me looks that were meant to tell me that I had to stop it before it escalated too far. But I was both unsure what to do and I was more than fed up. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to blow up as well.

“You can’t just touch me like that!” She screamed at them.

Okay, that changed things a little bit. There was a reason she was mad and it was valid, especially if what she said meant what I thought it meant. But still, she couldn’t freak out like this. I was all for scolding them, but she was turning aggressive.

“I can do what I want,” the one who must have touched her retorted.

“Oh, is that so?” Mickey snarled back. “Ever have any consequences following it? Your parents must be so disappointed.”

“All they’ll know is that some slut screamed at me for no reason.”

Oh, no. People always had to learn the hard way not to call her things like that. She was more than cool with the word ‘bitch’, but this one always went too far. I knew I had to get her out of there. But I wasn’t fast enough. She was just a bit faster than I was.

She reached out and snatched the skateboard from the boy’s hands as if he never even had a grip on it. Without flinching, she threw it on the floor before stomping on it with her right foot. The snap of wood crackled across the entire skatepark. However, that wasn’t enough for her. She immediately picked it up and slammed it onto her knee so that all that was left of the skateboard was two measly halves.

She flung the pieces at the boy and yelled, “you fucking try explaining that to your parents, you fucking--”

“Okay, that’s it,” I interrupted her, my own patience way past its limit, “you’re done here.” I grabbed her arm and started dragging her with me--surprised with my own strength--and away from the two minors. “Do I really need to scold you like the one time I was stupidly given the task to babysit my neighbor's kid?”

“You’re just as bad as them if you’re okay with this!” She hissed at me and tried to pull away but did so without luck.

“No, I’m not okay with them touching you, but I’m also not okay with how you’re handling it. You have all the right to be mad, but you don’t have the right to assault some kid!” I looked back to see our friends staring at us but not moved from their positions. They were unsure what to do, both ‘sides’ did something totally unacceptable and wrong. On one hand, Mickey was way too aggressive for them to be around, but they also didn’t want to encourage the boy who was now upset about his skateboard.

“I’m just sick and tired of everybody touching me in whatever way they desire!” Mickey glared right at me and tried to get away again, making me remove my grip.

“And I get that, but you really need to learn that blowing up isn’t always the answer. You continuously do it. Somebody just has to look at you the wrong way and you’ll get so mad at them. You’ll never get anywhere like this.”

“Does it look like I give a fuck?”

“You know what? If you constantly freak out on me despite me not having done one thing, this isn’t going to work.” It pained me to say it. I knew who she could be, I knew we had many amazing memories as well, but this was getting old. Maybe people couldn’t change.

“Fine by me.” She simply started walking away without a second thought.

But that’s what gave her away. By making it seem like she didn’t care one bit, I knew she actually was far from okay with ending things between us right now. She always acted like she didn’t give a fuck, but I remembered that one time she kissed me after I had gotten mad at her for the first time.

So, I ran after her, not letting her get away so easily. I didn’t speak until I was right beside her “Mickey, wait. I know you’re not just mad about what just happened. You’ve been acting cold for a few days now. Something most definitely is up.”

“I just want to graduate,” she sighed. It was almost as if a couple of steps had been enough for her head to clear up but I liked to think that what I said was a reality check.

“And that’s your goal. You’re doing so well. We all want to graduate, but that’s going to take a couple more months,” I tried to encourage her. We were all done with the same old bullshit by now.

“High chance I won’t get to, though,” she said as if it was just another everyday thing to mention.

But I disagreed. She had to stop putting herself down. She was way more amazing than she let herself think. “That’s not true. Your grades are even better than Rian’s! You’ve just got to hold on a little longer.”

“Except for the fact that I’m now failing Geography and can’t do anything about it.”

I wanted to make a sarcastic joke along the lines of ‘yeah, you skipped class, it only makes sense’, but I decided against it. She was obviously upset about something and I wasn’t going to undermine that even if it was her own fault. So, I just tried to be the supportive boyfriend instead. “Of course you can do something about it.”

“No, no,” she shook her head and stopped as we left the skatepark and waited on the sidewalk, “I literally can’t. I should be getting A’s, but Mr. Archer is a fucking creep and gives me an F instead.”

“A creep…?”

“Look,” she finally turned to me so that I could look into her eyes and see a mixture of emotions. There was still fury, but also warmth and fear, “I didn’t tell you anything because there isn’t anything you can do about it, but he wants me to physically use my body to get my grade up.”

My heart dropped. With what had just gone down, I didn’t need an explanation as to what she meant with her words. It was only natural that she got so furious when that boy touched her. There was this anger left over from what was happening at school. It was why she skipped Geography in the first place. Just months before I would have taken any opportunity to sleep with a teacher if it would mean boosting my grades, but I wouldn't do that now either. I could only imagine what it felt like being blackmailed into it.

“Did you tell the Principal?” I asked, my heart now racing. I didn’t want anybody hurting Mickey like this.

“What do you think I did right after? All it left me with was knowledge of how screwed up he was and glass shards in the hallway.”

“Wait… did he… ask you to… you know… as well…”

She shook her head quickly. “Oh no, he screwed up in another way. He said he can’t and won’t do anything about it. You know he’s completely messed up since he didn’t even call my parents to tell them I broke a fucking door because he knew he was in the wrong.”

“I don’t know how, but we’re going to expose him, I promise you that.”

“I appreciate that.” She kissed my cheek, but I could tell she knew it was most likely not going to happen. Once she broke away from my skin, a frown formed on her face. “Hang on, are we still broken up?”

I smirked and rolled my eyes a little. “We never were, but you’ve got to admit that my threat helped you shake you out of it.”

“I guess,” she shrugged as the others came to join again, taking the cheek kiss as a sign that things were safe again. “Anyway, I’m going to walk home, because as composed as I might seem right now, I don’t think sitting in a cramped space with four boys is going to do me any good.”

“Alright,” I nodded, “I’ll come with you.”

“No, you’ve got band practice and can’t afford losing any more time because of me. I can find my way back by myself.”

“And risk you getting harassed again and you blowing up again? Nah, I think I’ll walk with you.”

“Fine,” she sighed as she gave in.

And that’s how I arrived at Rian’s way after band practice had already ended, but I had to pick up my stuff that he had taken along in the car. Oh, and I had to make sure Mickey made it home safe, of course.

Notes

Inspiration must be very obvious here xD
Also snuck a nice metaphor in there that nobody will probably get... I should really stop putting too much thought into fanfics. YOU NEED TO APPRECIATE MY SHITTY LANGUAGE THAT ONLY ENGLISH LIT TEACHERS WILL UNDERSTAND, GUYS!