Alex’s POV:

Usually, when a group says they’ll meet somewhere at a specific time in a specific place, they all arrive around the correct time. Granted, I was told an earlier time than the others to make sure I was on time, and Rian literally lived at our meeting spot, but still. I wasn’t the one who was late. Mickey was.

Sure, we were meeting at 5:30 am, which was quite a difficult time to be on time for. But, still, even Jack and I were here!

For a minute, I did make up an excuse for Mickey in my head. Her truck was still broken, so it only made sense that that slowed her down, even if she should have planned around it. But then I remembered she literally lived across the street. She didn’t need her car. There was no excuse unless something bad happened.

However, before anybody could seriously complain instead of commenting about it, she made her entrance, a duffle bag on her left shoulder, a backpack in her right hand, and her mom wearing scrubs in tow. I looked down at my own suitcase which was at least twice the size of her bag, feeling a little embarrassed that I had packed more than a girl.

“Sorry, I’m late everybody,” she announced, as she bounced further into the living room, her ponytail swaying along. Although she was in sweats and was wearing no makeup whatsoever, I couldn’t help but think she was beautiful. “I had to go to the store to buy some stuff. I know I should have planned ahead.”

“And…” her mom urged, having told her what to say to apologize.

“And…” Mickey thought for a short moment, “and… I’m a fucking idiot?”

“Mickey!” her mom scolded, giving her a glare.

Mickey just shrugged and walked up to me, dropping her duffle bag right next to my suitcase, only highlighting how big mine was. She didn’t even seem fazed by the fact that a, she was late, and b, she just cursed in front of all of our parents. But then again, this was Mickey we were talking about. She just didn’t care about things like that.

What I did care about, however, was that Mickey’s mom gave me a very forced smile and a ‘polite’ nod before turning to Jack's mom and introducing herself. I thought Mickey’s mom and I had had a fresh start, a new beginning. She had decided to put everything that happened--or what she accused me of doing--behind. Honestly, I thought things were going pretty well ever since, but that look told me otherwise.

“So, I’m taking the first shift driving, right?” Mickey asked me, starting up a conversation since I barely acknowledged her when she stood beside me.

“Huh?” I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at her, getting to see her freckles again. “Umm, yeah.”

“And Zack and Jack’s moms are going to follow us in their own car?” She asked next, giving me a small frown after my previous answer.

“Well, that’s the plan. We’ll probably lose them at some point. It’s impossible to drive together for four hours.” I nodded, trying to seem as normal as possible.

“Which is what we have the meetup locations for,” she countered, seeming way too awake for any teenager to be at a time like this, “I know where those are.”

“We’ve got them marked on the map as well,” I assured pointing at the map that was now safely stored underneath the handle of my suitcase.

Our half-forced conversation was interrupted by Mickey’s mom declaring from the other side of the room, “Mickey, I’ve gotta go to work, I’ll see you in little over a week, okay?”

Mickey gave her a thumbs up in return. It was small moments like these where I realized they weren’t the closest but really tried. Of course, I did witness a serious fight or two, but this just showed it went a little further than just the teenager-resenting-parents type of thing. At least they were working on it.

“Behave,” her mom warned her one last time.

Although I couldn’t directly see Mickey’s face, I could feel the eye roll. This, however, didn’t make her mom leave any sooner, it only made her comment one more time, “we’ve talked about this.”

“I know,” Mickey sighed, “I promise I won’t be found dead in some ditch somewhere.”

“Okay, I’m just going to leave,” her mom shook her head before saying goodbye one last time. Before leaving out the door, she once gave me a nod with a stern look.

As soon as the door closed, Jack bounced up to us. “Damn that was cold.”

“I know, right?” I breathed out heavily. “Why does she hate me?”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Mickey asserted, but the next statement took away the confidence. “It’s just… nevermind.”

Before I could insist she told me whatever she was thinking about, the parents started telling us that we had to start going. As Mickey had mentioned before, Jack and Zack’s moms were going to be joining us, but in a different car. We were underage after all, except for Mickey. So, we all grabbed our bags and went out to Zack’s dad’s van to stuff them in the back. Soon after, we said goodbye to my mom and Rian’s parents.

I did manage to call shotgun, much to the other guys’ despise. Although I was the first one to call it, and the first one to reach the door, my argument was that Mickey was driving. I mean, come on, this was my girlfriend we were talking about.

But do not even think for a second that I forgot what she was about to say back in the house.

As soon as we were in the van, I blurted it out. “You say your mom doesn’t hate me, but there was a ‘but’.”

Her eyes slowly fell on me and her hand dropped from the keys she had put in the ignition. Now, this was the point I used to know that I had to brace for impact, that what I had just said wasn’t okay. But she wouldn’t do that now that I was her boyfriend. Right…?

“Don’t worry about it,” she simply said, taking in a sharp breath. “Just something I said, nothing much.”

“What did you say?” My eyes doubled in size. I could only imagine what Mickey must have said about me that made me look horrible. For example, my many sexcapades before I got an interest in her. To be fair, she wasn’t much better, but still. It was any mother’s nightmare. Or maybe she had made up something to cover something else up?

“Not now, okay?” She mumbled under her breath and turned on the engine, looking through the rearview mirror despite the trailer blocking her view.

That small gesture, however, notified me that she was looking at the others in the back seats. It only made the fear inside me greater. Whatever it was had to be serious enough that she didn’t want to tell me in front of our friends.

I didn’t get to know until much later in the drive. I hadn’t realized it, but I had fallen asleep, only to awake by cold air streaming in when the driver’s door was opened. It was a strange sensation being woken from a slumber I didn’t even know I was in. Not only was a mentally lost, but I also had no idea where I was geographically.

Letting my eyes adjust to being open, I looked to see Mickey standing at the open door, looking through her bag--a practically empty backpack. Wondering what was going on, I stretched out and tried to figure out where I was by looking at my surroundings. The freeway was right next to us, and the structure of the building suggested we were at a gas station.

Still, I instinctively asked, “what’s going on?”

Mickey’s eyes snapped towards me and a smile formed on her face. “Just had to stop for gas. Now I’m just going to get myself some coffee and go to the bathroom. I didn’t want to wake y’all up.”

“Hmm… I could use some coffee myself,” I yawned and looked over the back of the seat to see everybody fast asleep as well. After taking off my seatbelt, I hit my hand loudly against the ceiling a couple of times to create a banging sound. “Hey, asshats, wake up! Bathroom break!”

“Oh shit,” Jack jumped up from his position squashed up against the glass and scrambled to get out before fully letting himself wake up, “I gotta pee.”

Unfortunately for him, he was a little too enthusiastic. While trying to get out of the van, he managed to trip and body slam into the asphalt. I sucked in a breath while I heard Mickey (who hadn’t seen what happened but most definitely had heard the impact) go ‘oooh’ feeling the pain herself.

“I’m fine,” Jack groaned as he got up, barely taking time to brush himself off before rushing to the bathrooms.

As soon as everybody had left the van, Mickey locked it. We all went our separate ways for a while until I found Mickey all by herself in the small store. On one hand, she looked just fine being by herself looking at all the food and drinks, but on the other there was still information I wanted to get out of her.

So, I approached her, careful enough not to accidentally give her a fright. She always noticed somebody’s presence, but not always exactly who it was. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she smiled back as she continued down the aisle, “what’s up?”

“Well, first of all, I didn’t get to kiss you yet today,” I eased into it, pecking her on her lips unexpectedly, “and second of all, you still need to tell me why exactly you mom ‘doesn’t‘ hate me. I don’t see anybody around right now, so…”

“I really don’t think you want to know,” she chuckled, picking up a bag of muffins.

“Obviously I do. It's actually freaking me out a little. I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“Like I said, you technically didn’t do anything wrong,” she stopped looking at the assortment of food, focusing her attention on me. “I just told her something. Honestly, if she is actually mad at you, then there’s something wrong with her.”

“Yeah, but what is it!” I whined, following her as she walked to the fridge and pulled out two large bottles of water.

“Well, I sort of told her…” she took a deep breath. “I told her we had sex.”

“You told her that?” I let out a breathy chuckle. “That’s it? Why did you even tell her?”

“I owed it to her,” she shrugged and slowly started making her way to the counter to pay and get herself some coffee as well.

“Owed it?” I frowned. What kind of mother made her daughter ‘owe’ something like this?

“We sort of had a disagreement about me coming over and spending the night before I got to leave,” she explained, slowing down further before we actually got to the counter so we still had time to talk. “She found out your parents weren’t going to be there and she freaked out a little, claiming all you wanted was sex and that I shouldn't come over for that reason. She forbade me. I kinda promised her we wouldn’t, but we both know how that ended.”

“Right…” It made more than sense. I was actually happy that Mickey told her now. Not only did it mean that Mickey trusted her mom more and wanted to create a better bond, but that she actually felt some sort of guilt.

“Of course, the condoms I stuffed in my bag this morning didn’t really help either. But in my defense, she was the one who put them out in the first place.”

“Oh, great. So, your mom just thinks we’re going to have non-stop sex on this tour. Really, that’s great. No wonder she loves me so much.” I commented, the sarcasm dripping from every word.

“Stop being such a baby,” she snorted, finally going up to the counter. “We won’t even have any time alone together. It’s all sharing the van and hotel rooms from here on.”

We both did eventually get coffee and paid. Sure, our conversation did mean we were the last two to arrive back at the bus, but it was worth it. At least it wasn’t as bad as I thought, yet still quite humiliating. But it was the least of my worries when I saw how scratched up Jack really was from his fall earlier.

He had a large scrape on his left arm, holding it up to keep it from touching his clothes, but so also having it up for everybody to see.

The worst part was that this wasn’t a stop we had to meet up with our parents again. It was literally just us.

“Goddammit, Jack. It’s only the first day,” Mickey sighed, unlocking the van and putting the items she bought on the floor behind the sliding door temporarily. “At least tell me you washed it.”

“In the bathroom? No way, that place it a fucking mess,” Jack shook his head rapidly, pulling a face to portray his disgust.

Mickey exhaled again and picked up one of her bottles of water, unscrewing the cap. After instructing Jack to hold out his arm, she carefully poured the water over the scrape to clean it as much as possible.

“Wait here,” she told him before going to the back of the van.

We all waited, anticipating what she was searching for. Honestly, I had expected a full out freak out session. Not from Mickey, but from us, especially Jack. That lanky dude had a flair for the dramatic.

“Okay, so I don’t have any bandages large enough to cover it up, but I do have this,” she came back, holding up something that frightened us all more than it should have. We all knew exactly what it was used for, and it wasn’t pretty. I would have expected Mickey’s cheeks to be as red as her hair from embarrassment, but she wasn’t fazed at all. Feminine products--in this case a pad--was just taboo.

“Oh, no,” Jack jumped away, “you’re not putting that on me.”

“Fine by me, but you can’t complain if you get blood on your clothes or if the fabric from your clothes hurt it,” she shrugged, ready to put everything back in her duffle bag.

“Okay, okay, fine,” Jack grumbled, giving us boys a glare that said ‘if you dare laugh about this, I will pants you’.

“Good. Now, if you scream in my ear, I will leave you behind,” she threatened as she opened a bottle of antiseptic and sprayed it on him without any warning. Jack let out a small shriek, but nothing too loud out of fear from Mickey.

She then proceeded to place the pad against the wound and tape it in place with some medical tape. As soon as it was secure, she patted him on the head and praised him for being a ‘good boy’, which Jack surprisingly really liked.

“How are you so prepared?” I asked her as soon as it was all over. “Like, you fucking brought a first aid kit.”

“I’m on a road trip with your irresponsible asses, it’s my duty,” Mickey retorted, putting the cap back on the antiseptic.

“We’re not that irresponsible!” I complained.

Jack giggled before repeating, “doody.”

I rolled my eyes as Mickey raised an eyebrow at me and pointed directly at him.

Notes

This took me way longer to write than I'd like to admit. I had no inspiration whatsoever, you might be able to notice in the quality of the chapter.

Anyway, they're on tour now! And another side of Mickey is revealed: mom-Mickey!