Alex’s POV:

I ran my fingers through the deep purple hair on my pillow. There was nothing but extreme guilt coursing through me. Here I was, laying in bed in my boxers at three in the morning, wide awake. The girl next to me was sleeping, and I had no idea what to do. The shame and responsibility was way too overwhelming.

Mickey didn’t deserve any of this.

We were at Rian’s for band practice when it happened. It was the usual banter, the usual messing around, and the usual practicing. However, things quickly changed. We were joking and teasing Rian after he kept fucking up. He would get so defensive, and it would crack us up. We all made mistakes, but the reaction made it worth it.

I was literally laughing through the microphone when Ms. Kathi came running down into the basement.

“Shut that thing off,” she scolded with much urgency.

“What? I was just laughing!” I was quick to defend myself. “There was no swearing!”

“Turn all of this off,” she repeated, looking at all of us with a stern look. “Now!”

“Mom!” Rian whined with embarrassment.

She glared right at him to show she wasn’t messing around. “There’s a guy with a loaded gun on our street. I just got a call from the police. We need to hide.”

That got us all to switch our moods immediately. Our instruments were put on the floor and the amps were turned off. Ms. Kathi beckoned for us to follow her into the corner behind the couch, as far away and as sheltered as possible from the stairs into the basement.

“Wait, mom,” Rian spoke up in a whisper after many long moments of silence, “you said you got a phone call. Why would the police call to warn us? Are you sure it wasn’t a prank call?”

“Yes,” she nodded and tried to shut him up, “I’m sure.”

“How do you know?” He seemed so out of character. It was honestly like he didn’t believe it one bit.

Ms. Kathi stayed quiet for a few beats as if contemplating what to say. Her eyes scanned the room and fell on me. When she saw I was looking back at her, she quickly looked away. And then she sighed, shaking her head. “Mickey called the police and asked to warn us.”

“Wait, Mickey called them?” Jack seemed surprised, but kept the noise to a minimal level.

And that was when panic properly set in for me. For a second, I had completely forgotten about Mickey. I was too preoccupied keeping myself safe, I forgot that she lived across the street. She could have been in serious trouble. Everything in me was praying she just happened to see the guy out on the road, and that it was nothing more serious than that.

I shifted a little so I could pull my phone out of my back pocket. “I need to call her, make sure she’s okay.”

However, before I could start pressing buttons, Zack, who was next to me, reach out and put his hand over the phone. “You’re going to make noise!”

“I need to call her,” I repeated and shrugged him off.

I quickly found her contact and dialed it. Her phone was definitely on, the dial tones kept ringing. But she never answered. I was sent to voicemail. As soon as the automated voice started, I hung up and tried calling again. Maybe she just barely missed the call. However, it just rang and rang again. My heart dropped.

I started to get up, my mind just on Mickey and nothing else. “I need to make sure she’s safe.”

“Alex!” Jack seethed and pulled me down by my shirt. “You’re going to get us all killed!”

I tried to move again, but this time Ms. Kathi stopped me. “He’s right Alex. Sit and be quiet.”

So, I did as I was told. It wasn’t because Ms. Kathi was so insistent, but because they were all right. If I got up and left this house, the guy out there would know others were in here. Even if I went up to Rian’s room to see if Mickey was in her room, the guy could coincidentally look up and see me. They were completely right.

Until I heard gunshots.

Everybody held their breath out of fear. But I was entering fight or flight mode, and goddammit, I wouldn’t bear it if Mickey got hurt. I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. She was stronger and more daring than me, but she wasn’t immune to bullets either.

I stood up and ran up to the door, ignoring the protesting whispers from everybody else. There was no way they could keep me there unless they could make Mickey appear with us in the basement. Magic didn’t exist, so I rushed out the front door.

There were flashing lights from cop cars and ambulances. A herd of officers were stood outside securing the place. Mickey’s front door was open wide. I wanted to run in, but a stretcher was already being dragged out. An officer was coming up to me, probably to tell me to stay away. However, my eyes were already on Mickey.

“Mickey!” I yelled out.

She didn’t even look in my direction. Her entire body was covered in blood, making my heart drop. She wouldn’t look up from her hands that were covered in the red glistening substance as she followed the paramedics carrying the stretcher with her dad on it. I wanted to run after her into that ambulance, but there were too many obstacles that would stop me. The ambulance sped away, it’s sirens on yet again. Just seconds later, the cop car with Devon in the back drove past me.

He was glaring at me.

I had no idea how Mickey didn’t have nightmares after that. She hadn’t been at home for over a week now. Ms. Kathi had offered to take her in while her mom was busy working and keeping her dad company in the hospital. However, Mickey didn’t want to go back to her street and see her house everyday. Instead, my mom stepped in and Mickey got to stay with us until her dad was released.

He survived the gunshot, but was put in a medically induced coma for a few days. They had to do an emergency surgery on him as soon as they entered the hospital. I wasn’t there with her, but she had to witness them take him into surgery. The only thing I could do was drive to the hospital later that evening to take her to my house.

She really did try to act like everything was okay. The next day, she came to school with me, she had purposely forgotten her books in her locker, just like always. But I could tell something was off. She was much more quiet during lunch. It wasn't the stubborn sort of quiet, when she refused to talk. It was more like a deep-in-thought sort of quiet. She wasn’t the person to be deep in thought, she said what was on her mind, no matter how hurtful it was.

But that was the only thing that showed that she had been affected until one day. She had just gone to the bathroom, taking much longer than usual. I didn’t think too much about it, just letting her do whatever she needed. But then she came back with tears in her eyes and her hair a mess. It had obviously been tugged on harshly.

She asked me to help her dye her hair another colour as the tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t stand the red anymore. It reminded her too much of everything she saw. She had never been fazed by the blood she saw. If it was her own, she shrugged it off, and would bandage it up. But now that it had been her dads, it was a complete different story.

Because the red had stained her hair so bad, there weren’t many colours she could choose from. But she knew everything about hair dying much better than I did. She ended up going with a very blue purple so she’d get a more warm purple when it mixed with the red already in her hair. It turned out great, exactly the way she wanted it to. She had a nice even dark purple. I did miss my firetruck-red girl, though.

It seemed like I would be up more often at night than she was. I had this constant urgency in the back of my head, making sure I would protect her no matter what. It was like I had this alarm clock in my head, reminding me to be awake in case Mickey ever did have a nightmare. I didn’t want her to have to go through it by herself, just like she had to do back in the hospital. I didn’t want her to hurt anymore.

Mickey breathed out heavily in her sleep and threw an arm over me. “Can you please go to sleep? You keep waking me up.”

“Sorry,” I whispered back and laid down properly.

She shuffled herself closer to me while lying on her stomach and left her one arm draped over me. I felt my heart glow as she put her head on my shoulder, pressed a short kiss to my neck, and tried to go back to sleep. It was almost like she was the one trying to comfort me.

“I love you,” I told her, pressing my nose into her hair.

She just hummed in response and fell asleep.

Notes

It's a much shorter chapter than usual, but there's nothing else to add.

This story is almost done. So, after this, I have two options. I want to ask you guys what to do and I'll keep asking until I know what I'll do. Do I:
- Write a sequel to this
- Write a sequel to Opposites Do Not Attract (it's been two years, but it's still on my mind)
- Write a completely new story.