Alex’s POV:

The morning after. It means so many different things. The morning after a one night stand, the morning after a wild party; it can literally mean the morning after anything, it’s not specified. Usually, though, I prefer to use it after something great has happened the night before. This time, however, it wasn’t good, it wasn’t good at all. It was the morning after the fight with Mickey and her running away.

I knew why she was mad at me, but I didn’t quite understand it. She was pissed because everybody started to apparently treat her differently after I had mentioned how she had grown up. But what made no sense to me was that she was the most annoyed at me, and not at the people who were actually now changing their behavior towards her. That wasn’t my fault. I thought it was pretty obvious that her biological dad was a dick. But apparently nobody else knew, not even Rian had made the connection. But that wasn’t my fault.

So, breakfast was quite the adventurous thing. Or not. It was quite mellow with Mickey ignoring me completely and refusing to talk to anybody unless she had to. Sometimes it made me wonder why I put up with her. All that I had to think about was all the good times we had together, and I had to remember she didn’t have a parent around to show her basic social cues as a child. She didn’t know any better. It made it more difficult, but it was never too difficult.

Now, with what she did the day before, I at least expected her to be a little calmer and more collected. She had already acted out, and she proved her point before storming away and back to the hotel room. But she decided to see just how far she could push it.

She put the spoon she was holding back into the almost empty yogurt bowl and looked up. “I’ve got some friends at the next stop. You guys cool if I hang out with them?”

Seems like an innocent question. Just a girl wanting to visit old friends. But as far as I knew, Mickey didn’t do proper friends. She had fuck buddies and people she’d drink and smoke with. She didn’t have friendships like mine with Jack, Zack, and Rian. Sure, she was friends with us now, but it seemed like that was a first. So, I was in a dilemma. I knew it meant no good, but if I dare said something then I was at risk of her getting even madder.

“Sure,” both moms agreed before I could think through both options.

“Cool.” Mickey gave a single nod and went back to eating her yogurt, tuning out everybody yet again.

“Tell you what,” Jack’s mom spoke up, “you can take the van if you take the guys with you.”

Mickey raised an eyebrow and glanced at all of us, seeming very conflicted. It didn’t look like she really wanted us to come along. But getting the van? That had to be a good bargain, right?

So, that was where we were. Mickey parked the van at the end of a sketchy alley, the entire neighborhood didn’t seem like a place we would usually go out to hang. No, this was a place where we’d rush if we had to stop for gas while fearing for our lives. Mickey, however, didn’t even seem to notice the state of the area--or she didn’t care. At least the trailer wasn’t attached to the van, we could always quickly drive away if necessary.

Mickey already pressed the button to lock the car before we all even left it. Luckily the door was already open and it locked right after Zack slammed it shut, but we could all tell that Mickey definitely was back in her old mood of ‘everybody for themselves’. She didn’t wait for anybody as she started trekking through the dark alleyway as if it was the road to her house.

A deep bass started echoing off the walls the further we went, however it was muffled beyond measures. There had to be some sort of club or something near, but there weren’t many entrance ways. The walls towered over us, weathered brick giving the place a grim look. Dark corners made your heart skip a beat. The only thing missing were gangs hiding out, waiting to pounce their prey.

When we started approaching the only other person in the alley, who happened to be a large, tall buff guy who seemed even more intimidating than his surroundings, Mickey stopped and turned to us.

Her eyes fell on me and Jack, mainly the latter, as she warned, “remember when I told you guys not to mess with the wrong people at the bonfire. Well, you can take that threat lightly and instead be more than just aware here. You just as look in the wrong direction, and you will end up dead in a ditch somewhere. I will not come to your rescue.”

She turned on the ball of her foot again and continued to march forward giving us no remorse.

“Umm…” Rian froze up looking back at where we had entered the alley.

“I’m not going back,” I put my hands up in defense and started following Mickey.

I knew that going into that club wasn’t going to be a good idea, that things would go wrong, but I was holding onto a little hope that she would actually help us out, that all she was giving us were empty threats. And the others didn’t want to risk walking back on their own, so they continued along as well.

Wanting to feel a little like I wasn’t the lost puppy, I asked Mickey, “what if you look in the wrong direction?”

“I don’t look in the wrong direction. You guys are newcomers. It’ll be like sharks smelling blood in the water,” she replied, not looking back at me.

We all walked up to the intimidating man in black clothing and stood in front of him. His face was emotionless as his eyes traveled up and down our bodies, flickering between us all. Everything about his features was screaming that he wasn’t going to let us past the heavy black door that at first glance looked like it was soldered shut. However, that wasn’t how things went when Mickey was around. The guy’s lips twitched and his eyes lightened up.

“Well, if it isn’t Mickey. Long time no see.” He smirked, his body language becoming less rigid and he opened the door, letting the music out of its cage. “Your usual’s waiting for you.”

She nodded back and started towards the door before halting and jerking her thumb in our direction. “They’re with me… unfortunately.”

“These rookies?” He chuckled deeply, looking over us again. Mickey didn’t answer and walked into the smokey mystery room. The guy gave us some advice before we followed, though. “You guys be careful in there. They have no mercy.”

The mystery room led to a dimly lit stairway bringing us to the basement. Fluorescent lighting littered the roof, either broken or just barely flickering on and off. Hanging out with Mickey was the best way for me to get to know the darker parts of her. Just the entrance to this place gave me insight to how she had gotten so fearless and actually a little scary. Something told me that she wasn’t going to be the only one in there making Jack jump because of her switchblade. There were going to be people worse than Mickey at her darkest.

As we started down the stairs, Mickey was already making her way into the underground club. It was only proof that she really wasn’t going to look out for us. Don’t get me wrong, I loved going to bars, clubs, and parties. All the places were a little sketchy, I mean they did let underaged people in no matter how crappy the fake IDs. But this was a whole new level.

The place was fairly crowded, but empty enough for us to easily walk through. There was a bar to our left, the wall behind it cluttered with various bottles. A band was playing up on a slightly raised stage, distorted guitars and deep base coming out of the speakers as the woman with long jet-black hair covering her face sang. People were smoking all kinds of things, giving off a strange mixture of smells. Some were making out while others were dangerously close to cutting off their fingers as they played games with knives.

I kept my eyes on Mickey’s bright red hair standing out between all the black clothes and hairstyles. Part of me expected her to go straight to the bar, after all the bouncer did say that ‘her usual was waiting’. Which was already strange because I couldn’t figure out why they would have known she was coming, especially if he had been so surprised to see her. Yet, Mickey ignored the bar completely, pushing away a guy who obviously liked what he saw and tried chatting her up.

“This place is giving me the creeps,” Jack mumbled, doing his best to avoid any eye contact with anybody.

“I don’t care what she says, we’re staying close to her,” Zack added as we stayed in our small group of four, shuffling a couple of feet behind Mickey. “I’m sure some of these people are just ‘lovely’, but some are totally giving us the wrong kind of looks. But she doesn’t seem fazed at all.”

“Mickey will keep us safe,” I agreed, keeping my focus on the red hair.

“Really?” Rian snorted and shook his head, doing his best to keep up. “She literally told us she wouldn’t. What makes you think otherwise? Cause she loves you or some shit?”

I rolled my eyes and kept in a sigh. “No, cause she’d be in some deep shit if anything happens to us. And now that I think about it, she might actually purposely make something happen to us now.”

“And why would she do that!”

“Because you’ve all be treating her like everything she does is because of her childhood.” I shrugged as we started approaching one of the last tables in the entire venue. For some reason, the sudden realization made me even tenser, Mickey really wasn’t going to help us out if something went wrong.

Before anybody could push the subject even further and once again ask me about her childhood, Mickey seemed to have found what she was heading for. Right at that last table was her ‘usual’. It was quite a weird wording for what it actually meant. A guy about Jack’s height but a lot less lanky stood up from the table, a bright grin spread across his face. Just like most people here, his hair was an ink color, but his was most noticeably dyed. His eyebrows were a distinct lighter shade of brown, but the black really emphasized his annoying piercing blue eyes and irritating sharp jawline. Still, those eyebrows just weren’t the same color.

“I didn’t recognize you with your red hair and those awesome tats,” he told her with much enthusiasm and opened his arms wide.

Knowing Mickey, she’d laugh at him and push him away, ridiculing him for even having the thought of giving her a hug. It took ages for me to get into such a personal space with her, and even after getting together she was still cautious. She never told me about any possible real friends she had, so this was no exception. But then again, she was full of surprises that day. She hugged him tightly without even a moment of hesitation.

“Your hair’s still black, though,” she pointed out as they let each other go.

“Of course it is,” he laughed, throwing an arm around her shoulders and began guiding her away and back into the masses. “Let me buy you a drink.”

It didn’t seem like we were going to get any formal introduction or anything. Once again, it proved that Mickey really didn’t care about what the hell we were doing. And she obviously didn’t need our company either, she found her friend. But that wasn’t going to stop us from following her. That was a risk we weren’t willing to take.

“You’ve got some ducklings imprinted on you,” the guy commented, nodding his head in our direction over his shoulder.

“I know,” Mickey simply replied, still not acknowledging us any further. If we hadn’t had a large target on the back of our heads before, we definitely did now that it was obvious we didn’t belong and had no clue where we were.

“New recruits?” He questioned further as he casually leaned against the bar, his black shirt and leather jacket showing off his body just too much for my liking.

“New recruits?” Mickey repeated with a burst of laughter. “Getting reading for a zombie apocalypse or something?”

“You never know,” he retorted and softly slammed his hand onto the wood as the bartender came to serve us. The still unnamed guy immediately put in the order. “Two simple Jack and Cokes, and for the four boys…” a devilish smirk appeared on his face, “how about a zombie each, huh?”

“Jordan!” Mickey scolded and hit his arm.

“It’ll be fun!” he defended, his evil grin still very much there.

“You can’t do that. I’d prefer them not to throw up all over me,” she told him with a serious tone, making him step down.

“Fine,” he sighed dramatically, “give them a Jack and Coke each too. You’re a buzzkill.”

“I got you with it first, and we both know how that turned out. There’s no need to have that times four.”

“What would it do to us?” Jack had gathered the courage to ask.

The guy who I now knew was called Jordan and who, for some reason, annoyed the shit out of me, leaned forward and looked at Jack who was second last in our line all at the bar. He squinted his eyes and leaned his head against his propped up arm, inspecting Jack before moving his gaze to Mickey with a questioning look.

After she shrugged, he started taking us in again, making me wonder if this what Mickey had warned us about. Had Jack given a wrong look? Weren’t we supposed to trust this friend she seemed quite close with? I didn’t know how any of this worked.

But all that came out of his mouth was “where you guys from?” along with a gesture of his head.

“B--” Rian checked if any of us were going to say something but finished off his answer when nobody did. “Baltimore”

“Baltimore? I thought you hated that place!” Jordan raised his eyebrows in surprise at Mickey.

So this guy really did know a lot about her life. Maybe even more than me.

“It’s actually not that bad,” she responded and immediately took a sip of her drink as it arrived.

However, before any of us could even think about drinking the free drink we had gotten, some large bigger-than-muscular guy stood next to Jordan, towering over us all. The bouncer outside the club was nothing compared to this skinhead. Jordan just casually turned his head towards this hulk like it was no big deal.

“You’re needed in the back,” he boomed at Jordan, crossing his arms and creating a barrier so he couldn’t run away.

“I’m needed in the back? Oh goody, I’m never needed in the back!” Jordan cheerfully clapped and hopped up.

Mickey had a different idea, though, and grabbed his arm before he could do exactly as the intimidating dude ordered. She gave him the most serious look she had given anybody since we had arrived, lacking any threats, and warned, “Jordan.”

It didn’t stop him and he started following the man. I took a good look at Mickey as she stared in front of herself, thinking of something I couldn’t decipher. All I knew was that all the blood had drained from her face and she looked terrified. That when you know something is horribly wrong. If Mickey is scared, then most normal people should have already passed out due to the immense fear they experienced.

Something inside of her snapped and she rushed to follow Jordan, causing me and the others to then follow her. What I had believed to be the back of the venue before hadn’t been so at all. There was another black door that seemed irrelevant, like something for employees only. As irrelevant as it may have seemed, we were led into it. The dusty air from before was completely filtered out, but the room was completely dark except for a few stray lights.

A woman just a little older than us with dark green hair tied up in strange braids, piercings littering her brow bone, nose, and ears, and rather uncomfortable-looking clothing including a corset was sat on a raggedy armchair at a low table which was covered in several used whiskey glasses. A white powder was collected into a small heap, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t powdered sugar. I might have never used it, but something about the atmosphere made it impossible for it to be anything other than drugs.

“Oh well, will you look at that,” the woman grinned and intertwined her fingers as she spoke in an obnoxious voice, “I told you Mickey-Poo would come! I just-- You follow Jordan to protect him, and these four boys follow you… but I can’t imagine they can protect you!”

I thought I had feared before, but I knew then that I truly had never actually felt fear until then. All other fear I still knew in the back of my head that I would make it out alive, but I didn’t know that this time. I was starting to regret wanting to come with Mickey. I had hoped to find out a bit more about herself, and now it was like I was literally inside the bad guys’ layer in a Bond movie, only there was nobody to save us.

Why the fuck did Mickey ever associate herself with people like this?

“Come on, Mickey-Poo! Have a drink with me for old times sake!” The woman tried luring her in, getting one of the scary looking guards to pour two new glasses of whatever she was drinking before.

Now would be the point that Mickey would usually decline along with a rude remark, but she stayed silent and just stood there. After a while, she finally started moving slow and cautiously. First, she swept past Jordan, her hand grazing him, making my blood boil without it overpowering my fear. Slowly but surely, she kneeled down on the floor next to the table, the woman pushing one of the glasses in front of her.

“There we go,” the woman smiled overly sweetly, waiting for Mickey to pick up the glass. “Drink up nice and easy.”

Mickey took a quick look at Jordan and a longer one at the drink before downing it quickly. It was like we were being forced to watch Mickey being tortured. She wasn’t physically being tortured, but seeing her so vulnerable was painful.

“Not so difficult now, was it?” The woman continued to degrade her before picking up a card and starting to neatly put the aforementioned drugs in lines. “Now, to celebrate our coming back, we shall…”

“I don’t think so.” Mickey shook her head and started backing up, finally talking back.

“Mickey-Poo! For old times sake!”

This time Mickey gave Jordan a look with so much more meaning. When she looked away, Jordan stared at us instead, trying to catch our attention. He took an obvious look at his hand loosely holding out five fingers. He put down one, starting a countdown before glaring at the door signaling us. In the meantime, Mickey started leaning forward, picking up the already rolled-up paper. I was unsure what was going to happen, but if Jordan was telling us to go out that door after the countdown, I sure as hell was going to.

When Jordan’s fingers had all formed a fist, Mickey blew away the lines in front of her and we bolted out of the door. I couldn’t look back to see if she managed to get away as well. Jordan was pushing us out of the venue, not giving us any chance to slow down. We just went past the bouncer like it was nothing. Jordan quickly moved to the front to lead, but I couldn’t get myself to follow him. I needed to know if Mickey escaped.

Just a few seconds later, Mickey came bolting up the stairs. She saw me standing a shouted, “the fuck, Alex, follow them!”

She didn’t even stop before she started running in the opposite direction.

“Mickey!” I yelled back. “But--”

“For fucksake, Alex, just listen to me for once!” She screamed as she continued to run away, fresh loud footsteps coming up the stairs.

I wasn’t able to run until the bouncer gave me one word of advice, “run.”

So, I did. I rushed as fast as I could. Jack, Zack, and Rian had already managed to get into the van, which Jordan somehow had the keys to. I jumped into the passenger’s side when I reached it completely out of breath.

This didn’t sit right with Jordan, who was sat in the driver’s seat. He gave me a look as if I was crazy and yelled, “the fuck do you think you’re doing! Get in the back!”

I hopped out without hesitating, and got into the back as instructed, slamming the sliding door shut and letting myself fall onto one of the seats. Not even a second later, the sound of the doors locking echoed through the car, the only other sound being our pants.

“The hell just happened?” Jack spoke up, the first to get that ability back.

“Mickey-- she ran in the opposite direction!” I blurted out, still trying to regain my breath.

“Well, she has seven minutes to get here,” Jordan announced from the front, the only one who took the situation lightly and seemed so casual about it.

“Seven minutes? What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned, trying to hide all panic in my voice.

“If she’s not here by then, we drive off in seven minutes.” He shrugged and adjusted the mirror.

“We can’t leave her behind!” I argued. There was no way I could live with myself if the last thing we had done together was fight.

“Promises are promises. I’ll be putting our lives in danger if we don’t leave then.”

“When in the world did you guys make these promises!?”

“Like four years ago,” Jordan put an arm behind the armrest of the passenger seat and turned around to look at us, “before she knew you dumbasses.”

I sensed it was best for me to stop talking then and not only because he was becoming agitated. I was quite pissed off myself. It was so unfair that I knew nothing about this Jordan guy. Everything just pointed to them being the closest ever. And Mickey was just telling me that she never had friends. It wasn’t adding up.

After a few moments of silence, I decided a calmer approach. “How do you know Mickey?”

“The same way you guys do,” he grunted back.

“Wait, so she also slept with your best friend,” Jack decided it was time to make a joke at the worst time possible, “who then bugged her for so long until she finally gave in and agreed to be his girlfriend?”

“None of what you’re saying makes any sense to me,” Jordan shook his head, not bothering to look back at us again, keeping his eyes on the clock instead.

“Nevermind…” Jack sighed.

“He’s saying Alex is Mickey’s boyfriend,” Rian clarified, showing he had more balls than any of us ever expected.

Jordan just full on laughed for a couple of seconds before trying to talk through it, “boyfriend? You wish! Mickey doesn’t have boyfriends. She has things she calls ‘boyfriends’, but not actual boyfriends.”

“I know,” I deadpanned, ignoring him further and instead taking offense by Jack’s comment before. “And I didn’t bug Mickey until she gave in an became my girlfriend! She came on to me. I just wanted to be friends and was about to call it quits, but she came on to me.”

“Huh… I thought you got together after your little trip to Ohio,” Rian pointed out. “I saw you guys.”

“I don’t even know anymore.” I ran a hand through my knotted hair out of frustration. “Apparently I don’t know shit about her. I had to find out about her asshole father by accident. If I hadn’t forced myself into her car when she wanted to run away-- I should shut up before I get myself into more shit. This is what started this all in the first place.”

“Okay…” Jordan nodded, seeming interested and finally turned to us again, taking a good look at me. “Well you’re not fucking lying to me and this doesn’t seem like something you believe is true but actually isn’t true. You really are Mickey boyfriend… Dude…” He looked out the window and down the alleyway and glanced at the clock again. “We have three minutes left, how about I tell you about me and Mickey?”

I didn’t know what he was doing at that time, but I understood it later. He didn’t even wait for any of us to give an answer before he started telling us his story.

“Long story short, we happened to be in the same class, but that’s not how we met at all,” he told us, occasionally checking the time. “We actually met not too far away from here. I grew up nearby and had to go out to buy groceries cause it’s just me and my mom and she was working. You might not believe it now, but I was quite a frail kid, totally would have lost any survival of the fittest scenarios. Anyway, grocery trip obviously didn’t go all that well. It’s not that fun being mugged at fourteen, fifteen. Mickey helped me out and took me under her wing. That kid was strangely scary at that age. Anyway, fast forward, I started learning the ropes. This club obviously is one of the places we hung out. She was really stuck in Annette’s--the woman down in the basement--way of life. That shit she wanted her to take… Coke. Mickey overdosed on that shit before her parents made her move away.”

“Mickey overdosed?” I felt myself fill with worry and concern. It was yet another dark part of her past that I knew nothing about. Nothing had ever made me think she had ever had something so bad happen to her before. I knew about her tendencies to sleep around, but this was so much more personal and grim.

Jordan didn’t reply, neither confirming or denying anything he said and sat back properly in his seat. “It’s been seven minutes… sorry, kid.”

The engine started up and he put the car in drive.

Notes

A super long chapter because I've been gone for way too long! I apologize for that. I had my finals and the two weeks before them I was too stressed and could only watch Netflix whenever I took a break from studying, then I had two weeks of finals, and now it's been just over a week since I finished and finally got into writing again. I almost thought I was never going to get into the 'groove' again. But I did it! This was like three days of work, which I consider really good especially since I often got distracted, but I forced myself to just do it! And it paid off.

Hopefully, everybody is still here and hasn't left. Let's get these stories started up again!

Also, during this long break, I've had so many new ideas and old ideas coming back to me. I want to write them all, but I can't! I have too many stories right now. The only way to get to them is by finishing these now. That definitely helped to get me a little motivated.

Also, I haven't proofread this yet. I'll do so either tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm going to see State Champs live tomorrow, so we'll see if I have time. Feel free to point out any mistakes and typos you find in the meantime to make my job a little easier.