Alex’s POV:

Just when I thought I had gotten to know everything about Mickey, or at least her main history, give or take a few secrets, I discovered something new. It was impossible to miss. And I wasn’t the only one to find out about it.

Mickey didn’t come up to me to tell me about it, nor did I have to ask many questions to get it out of her. No, it literally happened in front of my eyes. I witnessed my own girlfriend be more affectionate to somebody than I’d ever seen her be. Strangely, it was shocking.

It all happened at our venue for that evening, another bar just like most of the tour. We were never allowed to enter ourselves, or not first at least. We were all underage, and that didn’t sit right with most of the owners. Our parents had to go in first and then convince the owners to let us play. We always succeeded, but we often didn’t get to hang around. They told us we got to play our set and then we had to pack up and leave.

But at this one venue, something weird happened.

Mickey drove us again, like she usually did. We arrived before Jack and Zack’s moms, but we already got out of the car to wait. This would be the time for us to fuck around for a while, but Mickey was super interested by the sign hanging above the place. It was like her eyes lit up. I went to stand next to her and took a look at it as well, just seeing a sign with a barrel painted on it.

“Can we go in?” she asked and turned to me although she knew we always had to wait no matter how cold it was outside.

“Jack and Zack’s moms aren’t here yet…” I still told her, wondering why she would think it was different this time.

“Okay, cool.” She nodded, but it was like she hadn’t even listened to me. Not even a second later, she was running into the bar.

I tried my best to stop her by grabbing her hand and pulling her back, but she was too fast and her hand slipped out of my grip without difficulty. My next best move was to yell out her name, but that didn’t help either. She entered the bar, surprising me that it was actually open already. As soon as the door with dark tinted glass closed, I couldn’t see her anymore.

Even Jack and Zack, who were fake wrestling with each other, stopped and looked at the door with fear. We were all expecting her to be thrown out and to ruin our chance of playing, but she didn’t come back. That place had swallowed her up whole.

We were all minorly freaking out, Rian the one who was the most anxious. Of course he was, he was more afraid of her being underage and in a bar, getting her or us into trouble, than afraid of what it would mean for our show. I was just worried that something would happen to her. She didn’t need more trouble on her plate.

The moms immediately knew something was wrong when they joined us. They had parked just around the corner, but as soon as they saw us, they came jogging up. Jack’s overdramatic antics didn’t conceal anything. But you know what they say, a mother’s instinct is always right.

“Mickey went in already!” Rian exclaimed, making big gestures towards the bar door.

“Oh, okay, that’s all.” Zack’s mom brought a hand to her heart and sighed in relief.

“She always gets into shit, though!” Jack added, whining loudly, not trying to hide that he was afraid that we couldn’t play anymore. I glared at him, trying to defend her, but he just gave me the middle finger. “You know it’s true!”

“I’ll go in,” Jack’s mom offered and went to push the door open.

I, however, with both my curiosity and nerves, couldn’t stand to wait any longer. I followed right after her, actually ending up in the bar before her. Something inside of me was waiting to see Mickey in some deep shit while the owner was calling the cops. But that strangely wasn’t the case. She was sitting at the bar with some sort of drink while laughing with the older man on the opposite side.

“Mickey,” Jack’s mom sighed and walked up to her, “you know you shouldn’t be drinking anything.”

“Don’t worry,” the older man shook his head, drying off a glass and putting it on a shelf, “I don’t serve alcohol to underage people.”

Mickey picked up her glass, put the straw in her mouth, and took a long sip as she spun around on her barstool. Although I had only seen her in here very briefly, this was the happiest I had seen her. There was this twinkle in her eyes and a permanent tug at the corner of her lips. I never even thought Mickey was able to feel this way, especially without any alcohol or the usage of a fake ID.

When her spin brought her back to face the bar, she put down the drink again and started flipping through a book, which I recognized to be her sketchbook, which was already on the surface. She eventually stopped on a page and started ripping it out.

“Here, you can have this one,” she told the stranger and handed him the paper. I knew how she liked to keep her stuff to herself.

He took it from her and took a look at it before putting it back on the bar beside her. “I can’t take that, it looks like it took a lot of time to make.”

“Well, that one looks like it took ages to draw as well!” She argued, pointing over at a framed piece of paper hung up on the thin wall that started at the end of the bar. “I’ve got a lot of these, you can have it.”

“Okay, then,” he chuckled and opened a drawer, pulling out what turned out to be a pin. He stuck it to the wall just above the frame. “I’ll make sure to get it framed tomorrow before somebody ruins it.”

I finally dared to take a few steps closer to see what Mickey had given him. Up closer, however, the strange man didn’t seem so strange anymore. He looked very familiar, but I just couldn’t find out where I had seen him before. So I wouldn’t stare at him longer, I decided to take a look at the drawing.

Mickey had given him a black pen outline of a dragon-like figure. It was detailed enough to have scales and intricate wings, but not detailed enough to have shading. I could see that it had taken long though, especially those individual scales. As great as it was, the already-framed drawing caught my attention. What I had believed to be something amazing was just a simple kid's drawing. There was a man with a blue shirt, sticks for arms and legs, a small girl in a pink dress and a crown on her head, and a big castle in the background. The only reason I understood why it had been hung up was the photo included in the frame. It was already a little dated, but I recognized the bar owner. He was smiling brightly at the camera, a little girl with long wavy brown hair and Minnie Mouse ears on on his shoulders. The background told me that they were in front of the infamous Disney World castle.

“Who’s the girl?” I asked, only realizing how rude it sounded after the words had left my mouth. Here I was, asking a stranger about personal details from his life.

But he didn’t answer. Mickey answered for him, looking over my shoulder, “that’s me.”

There was normal surprise and my-girlfriend-has-been-living-a-secret-life surprise. I was experiencing the latter. “You?!”

She simply nodded, not sharing any of my shock and spun so her back was to the bar. “Yeah, my fifth birthday. Michael was out doing god knows what, so I gotta go to go Disney World with my good ol’ uncle Danny. Prolly the best day of my life.”

She sipped on her drink yet again, not going into any more detail. I looked back at the guy who apparently was her uncle ‘Danny’. And suddenly I got it. Although I hadn’t gotten very good looks at Mickey’s biological father, only quick glances, I could actually see the resemblance. They had a similar facial structure and deep-set eyes. However, this Danny guy seemed way more put together. He had less of a beer belly despite owning a bar, and his hair still had its nearly-black tint that was slowly graying. Despite his younger appearance, he did give me the vibe of an older brother.

“You’re Mickey’s uncle?” Jack’s mom’s worries all washed away in one instant. She reached out a hand to shake. “I’m Joyce, Joyce Barakat, a mom of one of the boy’s who are still waiting outside.”

“Daniel Barker,” he smiled and shook her hand.

“Oh, not Kingsley?” she asked, making me facepalm internally. I thought she knew about Mickey’s situation, but apparently she didn’t know as much as I thought.

“I changed my name ages ago,” Mickey shrugged, chewing on the black straw.

“Okay,” she nodded, sensing that this wasn’t a matter to get further into now, “well, I’m going to get the others okay?”

After she left the bar and went outside again to tell the others we were in the clear and that this was probably going to be the easiest venue for us to get in, Mickey’s uncle softly leaned forward and asked her in a hushed tone, “why are the others still outside?”

“I tend to get in trouble,” Mickey raised her shoulders as if not understanding why, “they don’t want to get involved.”

“Your ‘trouble’ often has the possibility of the police getting involved,” I commented jokingly, getting her uncle to raise up his eyebrows.

Everything just happened quite quickly after that. The others came in before ‘Danny’ could question his niece any further. Although they still seemed close, something told me they hadn’t seen each other in ages. To him, she was still supposed to be this innocent girl, but Mickey was far from it. Him finding out about her present must have been a shocking as me finding out about her past.

Soon after all introductions had been made, we got to start unpacking our trailer. We set up our equipment on the slightly raised stage and got to get ready in one of the back rooms. It was quite a nice bar, not one of those small ones that only occasionally showcased artists with no people to watch. The place had enough tables and space to show that quite a lot of people could come, and the back room had its fair share of stickers from previous bands.

Mickey spent more of her time with her uncle instead of helping us out like she usually would do. She couldn’t even try to hang out in the bars if she wanted to with the two moms supervising us, but this looked like it was an exception. They didn’t seem to care. Not that I minded all too much.

While we were waiting in the backroom until we got to go on, Mickey was still hanging around the bar with her uncle. We still had around forty-five minutes left before we actually got to play. So, we were literally hanging around, wondering what we could do to pass the time. You’d think we’d have methods of keeping us busy by now.

“I’m actually really surprised how mature Mickey is,” Zack’s mom suddenly said out of nowhere, causing all of our eyes to snap towards her. “I heard all these stories, but nothing right now is similar. Those stories seem over-exaggerated.”

“Well…” Rian started, being the only one who knew her ever since she moved across the street. “Huh, I guess you’re right. But this is still very abnormal.”

I felt more than uncomfortable that they were talking about her behind her back, even if it wasn’t anything bad. If Jack would get started, all the things Rian didn't know about would come pouring out. It just felt wrong, especially since she was my girlfriend, but I couldn’t help but let something slip out of my mouth. “It’s to be expected, she practically raised herself.”

“What?” Jack immediately blurted out as everybody turned to look at me instead. I was more surprised that everybody else seemed so shocked.

“Huh?” I raised my eyebrows back like I didn’t know what I just had said.

Rian scoffed, “you can’t just say something like that and not elaborate!”

“Well, if you guys don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s your problem, not mine.” I shrugged, regretting the words I had said earlier. “Not my secret to tell.”

“He’s got a point.” Zack nodded, seeming like the only voice of reason in the room. Even the two moms were interested in some gossip.

“This is the most ambiguous thing, though!” Rian complained.

“Oh, shut up,” I rolled my eyes and got some warning tones from the moms, “you’re the one who found out about her ‘father’ and her ‘dad’ first. Don’t act like you don’t know anything.”

“But that has nothing to do with raising herself!” Rian sighed in frustration.

“I agree with Rian,” Jack added like the nosey fucker he always was.

Before I could refuse and make clear that I wasn’t going to break Mickey’s trust like that, she walked in, shutting us all up. I was relieved that I didn’t give in, knowing that I would have been in some deep shit right at that second. Everybody now taking their turn to stare at her, however, wasn’t all that subtle. They were still acting like they had just gotten some life-changing information.

“What’s up?” she chuckled awkwardly and walked up to her bag to stuff some unidentified object into her bag. Only then did they all break away their gaze.

“Just waiting till we get to do something,” I breathed out, showing off how bored we were just minutes before.

“There’s a handful of people already waiting for y’all,” she told us to get us a little excited.

“A handful?” Jack asked, sitting up. “Like three?”

“At least three, yeah.” She nodded.

Jack and I jumped up from our seats and rushed over to the door, opening it just a tiny bit so we could look out at the bar. I was expecting maybe one or two people at a table and another person at the bar, but I counted at least 30 and we weren’t even going to go up for another 40 minutes.

“Three?!” I accused as we closed the door and Jack looked pumped. “That’s way more than three!”

“Hey, I said at least three, that’s at least three!” she defended, letting herself fall onto the chair I had been sitting on.

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

This was the only show where I got to see Mickey out in the crowd. Usually, she’d either be out in the back, watching from what could barely be considered ‘side stage’, or outside the venue. Now, however, I was able to look at her the entire time and watch her smile up at me. The small venue made it easy for me to spot her red hair after I looked away for a second.

Although this was the case, I didn’t really get to talk to her anymore until we were back at our hotel for the night. Since we had to leave, she spent most of her time with her uncle while we were still at the bar instead of with us, helping us clean up. We still didn’t complain, though. Who knew when she was going to see him again. And then later, in the car, we were all exhausted.

I only got to talk to her when everybody went back to the hotel rooms and I stopped her in the hall before she could follow the parents to their room.

“I’m guessing this was one of the better nights for you,” I grinned, knowing that this reconnection must have meant a lot to her. It was the best show for me since it had the largest crowd, but I didn’t need to boast about that.

“Yeah, I guess so…” she nodded softly with a shrug, not seeming as happy as I had expected. “I just-- why the hell was everybody staring at me when I entered the room before the show? And don’t lie to me, I know that wasn’t everybody just wanting to see who it was. They kept watching me until I reached my bag.”

“Oh… yeah, that was nothing,” I brushed off, hoping I could get out of this without anything being blown out of proportions.

“That wasn’t nothing.” She crossed her arms and gave me a straight face. She was almost in her full ‘bitch’ stance she used to use before we were friends. “I know when people are staring at me for a reason. And this wasn’t just because of my red hair.”

“Maybe they felt sympathy for you?” I suggested. It most definitely was the most prominent emotion in that room.

“And why would that be?”

“Cause you seemed so happy to see your uncle!” I excused. It wasn’t exactly a lie, I knew that everybody had put one and one together. This whole uncle thing played a part in it.

“They felt sympathy because I found my uncle again? That makes no sense.” She shook her head.

There is this one moment you just know you can’t get out of something no matter what you do. I was at that point in this conversation. No matter what I made up, Mickey would know it wasn’t the truth. Even if I decided to bend the truth. She was just this type of person that could call you out every single time. So, there was no point hiding it anymore. Maybe telling her so soon without putting up much of a fight would make sure she wouldn’t get mad.

“And because I might have accidentally told them that your biological father is an asshole…” I said lowly, secretly hoping she wouldn’t hear me.

“You did what?!” she seethed, taking a step away from me.

“I thought they all knew!” I argued in my defense. “They all know your dad isn’t your biological dad, they all know you changed your surname. It only made sense if they figured out what that meant.”

“It could also mean I just decided to live with my mom and took my dad’s name for convenience!” she shouted back, doing the opposite of what I hoped she would.

“The fact that you call him your ‘dad’ without hesitation tells more than you think!” I knew I should have probably shut up and told her she was right, but I was so protective of my pride.

“Well, they obviously didn’t fucking know, now did they?!”

“So what if they know? It’s not really such a big deal. You can’t just go on with your life without your friends knowing anything about you,” I sighed, trying to show her that it really wasn’t going to change anything. We all knew how Mickey acted, they weren’t just going to look at her like some child that had to be rebellious now.

“Not a big deal?!” She laughed forcefully. “Alex, now they all fucking think Michael ruined my life. They think he’s the one who made me into who I am. He has no control over my life whatsoever. Now they all think I’m some fucking troubled child all because I didn’t have a good parent the first thirteen years of my life. That’s not what fucking happened!”

“Then what did?” I challenged.

“You know what?” she shook her head and popped her tongue as she looked around. “I don’t want to see or speak to you right now.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe what she was saying. She was taking this way too far. I didn’t do anything wrong. The opposite, actually. I didn’t say anything else to the others after they nearly forced it out of me. She had to be thankful.

“I’m going back before I say something I fucking regret.” She turned on her heel and walked down the hall towards the room she shared with Jack’s and Zack’s moms.

I breathed out heavily and went into my own hotel room, slamming the door behind me and glaring at Jack and Rian.

Notes

As you can probably guess, my vacation ended and I'm back at school. And, yes, you can expect updates to be slower again. I'm finishing off my final deadlines and have to start studying for my finals.

Here's your drama, though.