Mickey’s POV:

Avoiding people was one of the easiest things for me to do. At school was a little more difficult, but I just walked the other way or I just didn’t show up. The latter was what I was doing more often now. After Rian had confirmed that I had been there the first week of school, my parents gained a little more trust in me, so I decided to use it as to my advantage. Now I just needed to somehow get Rian to lie for me and not tell anybody I was barely showing up anymore. Sure, I came to school occasionally, but the lessons were so boring. I also tried to make sure I did go to every class I shared with Rian, that way I could trick him into thinking I did come to school most days. But you never know.

This time, I had decided to only show up for a part of the school day. I didn’t feel like waking up early, so I slept in; I didn’t feel like ending late, so I left early. Why go if the lessons were going to be useless to me?

Instead of doing my homework, which had been abandoned in my locker and on my desk ever since the teachers started giving it to us, I decided to go out for a run. While I burned more than enough calories while doing the activities I usually did during the night, I still liked exercising occasionally and staying in shape. Which girl didn’t?

I had changed into shorts, a t-shirt, and running shoes, my iPod in my pocket and one earbud in my ears already. For once, I actually decided to bring my keys with me, knowing that after running I would not feel like climbing into my window at all.

But when I opened the front door, I was close to turning back around and not looking back ever again. I had chosen the exact moment that ‘All Time Low’ ended their practice, to decide that I was going to go outside. Rian was letting the three other guys out of his house, practically pushing them out of the front door and close to yelling at them to leave. I just prayed that I wasn’t spotted by any of them and that I could hide inside for just a little while longer.

Wait. No. That was the wrong logic to go by.

Avoiding them did not mean that I had to be the one to always go out of my way to make sure I didn’t see them. I could also just easily ignore them if they were to see me. They couldn’t stop me for going out running. Hiding from them made me seem weak, and I was anything but weak.

I opened the door again and acted like I hadn’t even seen that there were people outside on the other side of the road. After locking the door being me, I stuffed the key in my pocket and got ready to start my jog as soon as I got on the sidewalk. And it actually seemed to work. Nobody acknowledged my presence.

However, as soon as I wanted to start running, my name was called out.

“Mickey!” Rian shouted as he noticed that I was leaving and not planning on coming back in a minute. “You can’t just leave! You’re supposed to stay and I’m supposed to make sure you do.”

“And when were you supposed to come over again?” I shouted back at him, rolling my eyes at his overprotectiveness. This was much different than when Alex wanted ‘what was best for me’, because I knew Rian was doing it because he didn’t want trouble. Alex, on the other hand, tried to make it seem like it was for my good, while it was only for what he wanted.

“At six…?”

“Exactly. That’s in half an hour. I have half an hour to myself!” I started running down the street, not even bothering to know where exactly I was going, as I put in my other earbud and turned up the music. I usually went to the left, but this time I decided to go to the right.

I honestly believed that I was free after that, but I couldn’t hear the footsteps trying to catch up with me. I did, however, feel the hand grabbing my wrist and trying to pull me back. Before they could fully stop me, though, I twisted around and grabbed the arm back. My position ended with my hand around the person’s neck, giving me the advantage if a fight were to happen.

But it was just Alex.

“Don’t touch me,” I seethed and pushed him back, my intentions not to hurt him, while he looked at me with a hint of fear in his eyes.

----

When I got back, Rian was already waiting in front of the front door. I turned off my music and got out my keys without bothering to greet him. As soon as we were inside, I threw my keys onto the small table we had in the hallway and beelined to the kitchen.

“I’m only one minute late,” I remarked as I saw the oven clock saying it was one minute past six, “you happy?”

“Well, it would have been pretty awkward if you decided not to come back and I had to wait for you,” Rian replied, following me slowly while looking a little lost and not knowing where to go.

“You’re lucky I don’t have plans today,” I said while searching the cabinets and fridge for any food my mom had left me for dinner. Usually, she’d leave something easy for me to cook or something for me to heat up with a sticky note on all the things I needed. I’d always find it in either the cupboards, the fridge, or the oven.

After not finding anything, I saw found a note on the counter, telling me to order pizza for both me and Rian and that he had the money to pay for it. I rolled my eyes, but knew that I wouldn’t have used all the money on pizza but also wouldn’t have given it back to my mom.

“Apparently you have money for food,” I stated and reached out for the home phone, already looking for the number for the pizza place in a pile of advertisements and brochures we had.

“Yeah, your mom gave it to me this morning.” He pulled out his wallet and took out two twenty dollar bills.

I started at the money in surprise. “You actually kept it all?!”

“What else was I supposed to do with it? Plus, we wouldn’t have food otherwise.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” I shrugged and started entering the phone number. “I’m getting two large pepperoni pizzas, I hope you like that.”

Rian sat down on one of the barstools and put the money back in his wallet, keeping an eye on me. “Yeah, that’s fine. But why two large ones? I’m sure we could finish one large one together.”

“Of course, but it will be easy breakfast tomorrow and I need something for dinner tomorrow evening as well,” I told him as if it were the most obvious explanation ever while the phone started ringing.

“You’re parents are out tomorrow as well?”

“My dad’s back at nine thirty, don’t worry.”

Somebody picked up my call after that and I placed my order. I could already tell that the delivery guy was going to judge me for seemingly ordering two large pizzas just for myself. Usually, a teen ordering something like that would mean there was a ‘get together’ going on. But, hey, why would I care what they think? If they were cute, I could always find a way to make myself seem innocent. Only, I had no reason to want to sleep with anybody anymore. I had that all taken care of.

I poured two glasses of soda without asking Rian if he wanted any, and handed one to him while taking the other for myself. I had no intention of talking to him at all for the rest of the evening. He wasn’t here for me, he wasn’t here to keep me company. The only reason I was blessed with his presence was because my parents didn’t trust me. Now that’s bullshit.

“Somebody’s calling you again,” Rian announced as he pointed at the flip phone that didn’t make any noise while I was being called (it was only set that way because I had purposely set the ringtone to silent). “The same guy as last time: Michael.”

“Decline it,” I ordered him while flopping down on the couch and turning on the TV even though I still had to take a shower.

After that, there was silence between the two of us again, only the sound of the TV filling the room. Well, that was until Rian said Michael was calling again. Of course, I told him to press decline again. But after that, it happened once again.

I groaned and stood up, picking up the phone, breaking my streak of not talking to him for two months. “You need to stop calling me. It’s getting creepy. I don’t want to talk to you. So, fuck off!”

With that, I ended the call, hoping that he would get the hint after that. I couldn’t stand him trying to call me every second of the day. He knew that I didn’t want any contact with him. He had known since he lost custody of me.

“You’re pretty hostile, aren’t you?” Rian snorted before quickly looking away when he saw the rage in my eyes.

“I’m sorry that I don’t like being grabbed from behind by random people, and I’m sorry I don’t like people trying to call me the entire time even though they know I don’t want to talk to them.” I snapped back, resisting the urge to throw my phone at the wall. I couldn’t afford a new phone.

He raised his hands in defense and sighed. “Well, sorry for bringing it up. Who’s this Michael guy anyway? You said he was your dad, but isn’t he called Garry?”

“No, I said he was my father. That’s a big difference, ok?” I glared at him. So much for being sorry that he brought up my aggression before. This was even worse.

“Father as in a minister?” Rian questioned next, only making my look harder. “Look I’m just asking.”

“Of course not a minister!” I scoffed, “‘cause, forgive me, Father, for I have sinned!”

Rian continued to ask, “who is he then?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Because I’m trying to get to know you better.”

“I know for a fact that you will open your mouth and tell Alex. He just needs to learn to leave me alone. There is no way that you’re his best friend and trying to get information out of me without him knowing every single word I said. For all I know, you could even be as petty as to record everything right now!” I stared him down as if I were interrogating him, seeing if he would break and spill everything.

“Of course I wouldn’t record this,” he protested, ignoring everything else I said. He was probably trying to divert me from what I was thinking, but it only told me that the rest I said was true.

“Come on, it can’t be that bad.” He begged after he saw that I really wasn’t going to be answering.

Before I could reject again, the doorbell rang. Knowing that this was my escape to him asking me any further questions, I quickly told him what he wanted to know while walking to the door. “He’s my biological father.”

Once I opened the door, rather than seeing the pizza delivery guy, I saw Devon waiting for me on the other side. His motorcycle was parked out on the otherwise empty driveway, his hair was still spiked up due to the wind that would run through is when he drove, and he looked exceptionally sexy in a basic white tee, a leather jacket, and black skinny jeans.

“What’s up?” He greeted and immediately leaned in to kiss me in the least innocent way possible.

Our lips still connected, I grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him inside, clumsily closing the door behind him. I knew exactly where I wanted this to go to, and I had a feeling he was thinking about the exact same thing. There was no way he’d be here looking like this if he wasn’t here for that. The fact that I was able to close the door behind him proved that he wasn’t thinking of leaving anytime soon.

“I didn’t know you were coming over,” I whispered breathlessly against his lips, my heart racing with excitement.

“I just remembered you told me your parents weren’t at home, so I decided to surprise my girlfriend,” he told me with a smirk, looking my body up and down as much as he could while standing just inches away from me.

“Well, I like this surprise.” I bit my lip before kissing him again with just as much heat as before, if not more. This time, I pushed his jacket past his shoulders and let my hands rub over his chest to get him going.

“There’s a random pre-pubescent guy in your kitchen... “ Devon pointed out after he had briefly opened his eyes while biting and tugging at my bottom lip.

“Ignore him.” I panted and resumed our kissing before realizing all he meant was that we couldn’t exactly take off our clothes in the living room while Rian was there to witness everything. So, I suggested something else while running my fingers up his chest, “I still need to take a shower.”

“I’ll go get that ready for you.” He nodded and rushed up the stairs.

I wanted to go follow him, but Rian interrupted. “You do know that he isn’t serious about you being his girlfriend, right? There’s no way he’s loyal to you.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” I gave him a sly smile as I heard the water run upstairs, “trust me. He doesn’t have the capabilities of cheating on me right now. I’ve got him hooked for now. Once he gets bored, he might start cheating, but that won’t happen anytime soon. I mean, he is getting the shower ready for me right now. I’m pretty sure he’s more than satisfied. It’s just easier to have a guy so that I won’t have to worry about finding frequent one night stands.”

His mouth dropped open at my words, causing me to snicker and run off to where Devon was waiting. When I entered the bathroom, my focus wasn’t on the water already being turned on. It was fully on the toned naked guy in front of me. Now, this was what I was talking about! After locking the door behind me, I rushed up to him and pushed him up against the wall while we both started working on taking all my clothes off.

Notes

Look at that, I managed to produce another thing made out of words! Let's see how busy my life's going to get now! I'm ready for mental breakdowns and slamming computer keyboards!