Mickey’s POV:

My head was pounding. Every inch of my body felt some sort of pain. My neck was stiff, my ribs felt bruised, my limbs just an inch from bending at weird angles. But mainly, my head was absolutely hating me. I had no clue what was going on, but I woke up on the floor at the bottom of the steps in the house. There were beer bottles scattered around the place, but that was just the norm.

I slowly lifted my head and looked around in confusion. My eyes landed on the digital clock that replaced the channel on the cable box whenever the tv was off. It took a while to focus and make sense of the lights in mathematical shapes. When it finally dawned on me that it was already 7:15, I scrambled to get up. I needed to get to school.

The pressure in my head got worse as I shot up and picked up my backpack from the floor, almost making me pass out. But I needed to leave, I needed to power through. So, despite my vision nearly going completely black, and my balance being completely off, I grabbed my car keys from the kitchen counter and ran to my car.

I probably shouldn’t have been on the road. Although I had driven in many bad conditions, this was something else. With my broken arm I could at least process everything around me and still had a normal reaction time. Sure, I didn’t have the full capability to act responsibly, but I could still see it coming. Now, just the act of driving was making everything blur together. I couldn’t even remember driving when I suddenly found myself parked in the parking lot at school.

The parking lot was completely full, but there were no students walking around anymore. Other than the countless of cars, there was no sign of life. I frowned and went to turn off my car to find I had already taken the keys out of the ignition and was holding them in my hands. Yet again, it was a clock that made me realise exactly how much I needed to hurry.

This time it was 8:00. Which meant I was fifteen minutes late. It made absolutely no sense. It never took longer than half an hour to get to school, and even that was an exception. I should have made it just on time if not early. How the fuck did I add an extra fifteen minutes to my time?

I left my car and stumbled towards the building and through the halls. Somehow, after some long painful thinking, I managed to remember what my first class was supposed to be for the day. I altered my course so I would end up there.

I had absolutely no clue if I added more unnecessary minutes to my journey or not, but I felt nothing but glee when I finally found the classroom I had to be in. The class was already in full blow, the teacher going on and on about whatever she was teaching that day. I just walked in and went to my usual seat that was just in front of Alex, Rian, and Jack, hoping to just be ignored. Hopefully, acting casual would allow me to get away with this one. I did not have a good excuse and something told me that I did not have the mental capacity to create one on the spot. Telling them I woke up on the floor and suddenly appeared at school did not sound like something that would be forgiven.

But I wasn’t that lucky. Of course, Ms. Teach had to make a scene.

“Umm, Mickey, aren’t you forgetting anything?” She asked me with much ambiguity just as I put my bag on my table and was about to sit down.

“Huh?” I looked at her, really not able to figure out what she meant even when she looked in the direction of the door.

“Principal’s note?” She clarified with a very disappointed look.

“Right,” I sighed with a nod, making my brain feel like I was in some wild rollercoaster ride.

It seemed like the way back out of the classroom was one of the longest routes I was ever going to have to take in my life, and I had been on many road trips. I left my bag on the table, knowing I would come back anyway, and started down the long road. Despite my vision betraying me, I managed to make it down the many rows of seats, only to crash into the last table before I could turn to the door. I tried my best to play it off, but the pain shot up my leg and I nearly lost my balance.

“Mickey, are you drunk right now?” The teacher asked, but it sounded like she already assumed I was. She was accusing me.

“No,” I groaned and went for the door again, this time without incidents. But even I didn’t believe myself. My confusion really did make it feel like I was way past my limit, but I couldn’t remember drinking anything.

After I closed the door behind myself, I started to stumble through the halls. I had no idea how I had managed to get to class without much trouble, because I had no clue where the fuck I was going. Everything looked exactly the same. There were lockers, there were classrooms, and there were turns. Every corner I turned, it seemed like I was teleported back to where I started.

It started to make me feel queasy, making my stomach turn. Although I consciously had no clue where I was, my subconscious must have. I ran to the nearest bathroom and locked myself in a stall before all the contents in my stomach came back up. If I really was drunk like whatever teacher I was supposed to have said, then that should have made me feel better, but I still felt like shit. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but the occasional drop of water hitting my hand told me I was crying.

There was no indication of how long I was in there, but when I came out of the stall, I noticed I had black smudged underneath my eyes. I didn’t even know that I had been wearing makeup. The last I remembered, I took it off after the pizza arrived. But here I was, running mascara and eyeliner. It wasn’t even like it was residue. No, this was a whole new layer.

When it suddenly hit me that I was still at school, I remembered I had to get back to class quickly. I rushed through the repetitive halls. However, this time my destination stood out from everything. The door just caught my eye like it was the only thing still stable in reality. So, I went right for it, once again interrupting the class.

“Nice of you to finally come back,” the teacher smiled and held out her hand, “do you have your note?”

“My note?” I frowned before remembering what I had gone out for earlier. “Oh, shit, I forgot.”

I turned around to go back, but she stopped me. “No, go take a seat, you’ve missed enough already. I’ll report this later.”

So, I did. I sat down like I had originally wanted. There were whispers all around me and I could feel the stares coming from behind me. Rian even kicked my chair to try and get my attention after the boys shared a few whispers, but it just made my stomach start messing with me again. I could not focus on the lesson, but I also wasn’t able to be distracted by anything. I was in my own world.

When the bell rang, pain shot through my head. I immediately clutched it with my hands while all the other students were eager to leave. Honestly, I had no idea how I ended up in that chair, but I was just trying to go along with what everybody else was doing. So, I got up as well and picked up my bag only to be met with Alex standing right in front of me.

“Hey, you okay?” he whispered to keep the conversation private with Jack and Rian waiting behind him, and touched my arm lightly.

I looked at him and hummed in response before walking away, slipping my arm away from his touch. Alex, however, had other plans and stopped me from leaving the classroom by pulling me back. The sudden change in direction made my head feel like it was turning into mush. It only caused me to stay rather than try to walk further.

“Hang on,” he raised his hand, stretching his hoodie over his pointer finger and bringing it up to my face, “your makeup’s a little smudged.”

I just whined softly and slipped away again, this time making it into the hallway. There were people walking all over the place, confusing me even further than I already was. They were chatting, shuffling, moving, shouting. Everything.

“What’s going on?” Alex caught up to me, his hand yet again grazing my arm. “Did Michael do something to you?”

“No, he doesn’t do anything.”

“You’ve got a black eye, Mickey.”

“Stop touching me,” I grumbled. My eyes were shooting from student to student, trying to make sense of all the noises and things to see--

I woke up in a bright white room. My eyes kept closing due to the harsh lights, my head pounding every single time I tried. It was too difficult to get used to.

“Hey,” a familiar voice said beside me as a hand stroked my face, “I was just about to wake you up, but you seem to have beaten me to it.”

I squinted my eyes and looked at the figure next to me. “Mom?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed, acting like me being here was normal, “is everything okay, do you need me to get you something?”

“What happened?” I asked, noticing she was still in her scrubs and that I was in a hospital.

“Oh, you passed out in the hallway at school,” she told me, sitting down in the chair and taking hold of my hands.

“What, why?” I frowned before realising it made my headache worse.

“Well, the school thought you were drunk, but we checked your blood alcohol level, and that wasn’t the case. Luckily, Alex insisted on coming and helped us out a little further. You're showing all the symptoms of a concussion. ”

“Huh?”

“Well, it seems like you’ve had quite the blow to your head before you even hit your head when you fainted,” she explained.

“Wait, where is Alex?”

“I sent him back to school, but don’t worry, he has my car so he’s going to be coming back soon.”

“Oh. You must trust him, then.”

“Yeah, he did tell us how you were acting at school, which helped a lot.”

“I was at school?”

“Yeah.” Mom nodded with a smile. “You were brought here by ambulance.”

I softly nodded again and asked an important question. “Does Alex know?”

“He knows,” she chuckled, “he came here with you.”

“Then where is he now?”

“I sent him back to school, but school’s almost ended, he’ll be here soon.”

“Oh, okay,” I nodded. “... But how did he get back?”

“He took my car, so he’s alright.”

“You really must trust him,” I praised her.

“I do,” she nodded with a smile. “But how about I ask you a question now. Do you remember anything before you hit your head?”

“I just remember waking up on the floor…” I mumbled, trying my best to remember the moments before that. “Wait, hang on, how did I get here?”

“Okay, why don’t you try to get some more rest. I’ll wake you up again to check on you when Alex comes.”

“Alex? What’s wrong with Alex?” I looked up at her.

“Nothing’s wrong with him, he came here with you, but had to go back to school.”

“But how--”

“Just try to get some rest, we’ll talk about it more later.” Mom brushed some hair out of my face, trying to get me to fall asleep again.

Notes

What did you guys think was wrong with Mickey? And can you guess what happened to her? Somehow she managed to get a concussion between the time Alex left and the time she had to leave for school. And, somehow she was already ready for school. All shall be revealed.

Also, all the repetitive language was on purpose, especially at the end. So please don't hate me for overusing 'smile' and 'nod'. T'was a conscious decision.

Also, I noticed an entire chunk of this chapter went missing, so I went and looked through all the archives xD