Not Enough Mike Stories So Here's One

“I realized, I promised to take you to a movie.” Mike says as he plants gentle kisses on my jaw line.
“Yes you did.” I smirk as I put my lips against his.
“You think your neighbor will want to baby-sit again soon?”
“Who cares what she wants.” I joke as I start kissing his jaw line in return. “If she bails I have other babysitter options.”
“Mmm great.” He hums against my lips, “Expect a call from me soon.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” I whisper as our mouths interact for the final time this evening. I climb out of the car and head into my building.

I carefully close the door to my apartment and find Maddy and Gail curled up on separate corners of the couch fast asleep. I carefully touch Gail’s arm and she wakes up, as soon as she regains composure she smiles wildly.
“So how was it?” she asks wide eyed.
“It was great!” I say in an excited whisper as I take my seat next to her, “At the restaurant we overheard a couple of waitresses talking about this punk club and we ditched the movie and went there instead!”
“Awesome!” she squeals quietly as not to wake up Maddy, but it wasn’t quiet enough.

“Mom! You’re home!” she says full of life. “We were watching music videos and there’s a guy in a band who looks just like Mike!”
“It’s not him, trust me.” Gail rumbles.
“Was that band Green Day?” I ask smiling innocently.
“The song was Holiday, he was the one driving.” Maddy rambles, “I think it’s Green Day, but I’m not sure.”
“Well it was Green Day and Mike is the bass player of that band.”
“You’re kidding!” Gail says her eyes bulging out of her skull.
“So you’re dating a rock’n’roll guy after all!” Maddy says happily, “Score!”
“Don’t say score.” Gail murmurs, “It means more than you know.”
“Huh?”
“It means you got sex.” I say and she nods. I don’t like hiding the truth from Maddy; I think she’s mature enough to handle it, she knows not to go around talking about that at school and stuff.

“So did you score?” Maddy asks a little too carelessly.
“No.” I say rolling my eyes, “I’m not that easy.”
“But he’s a rock star!”
“I’m not a groupie.” I sneer in return. “Groupies have herpes.”
“Oh and he did take your mom to a concert.” Gail adds.
“He did!” Maddy screeches as she jumps to her feet.
“Yeah, now you go to bed, its late.” I say messing up her silky light brown hair.

She rolls her eyes and trudges to her room, right before she gets to her door she turns around.
“Oh yeah, can I dye my hair red?”
“Red?” I ask cocking an eyebrow. She nods.
“Like the picture of you as a teenager, you had red hair.”
“Yeah but the chlorine from the pool will wash it out.” she stares at her feet.
“Okay then, when the season’s over can I dye it?”
“We’ll see.” I say as she goes into her room and shuts the door.

“So,” Gail says simply, “How far did you let him get?”
“Oh god.” I laugh as let my head fall back. “Not far, goodnight kiss.”
“You suck!” we hear Maddy yelp.
“Bed!” I call back, “And stop meddling in my sex life, you’re too young to know these things.”
“Doctor Phil said a good sex life is healthy and you haven’t had a boyfriend in ages!”
“Bed!” I call again louder, “And stop watching that bald creature!”
“She’s right you know.”
“Oh shove it.” I laugh as I grab my purse to pay her. “How much do I owe you?”
“Thirty.” I hand her the money and she gets up and heads over to the door.

“So are you going to see him again?”
“Yeah, expect to baby-sit again soon.” I smile, “Looks like I’m paying your way through med school.”

I’m shaken awake from my peaceful sleep by none other than wildfire Maddy.
“I went to bed now you tell me!” she exclaims. I pat the pillow next to me and rests her head down.
“Well he took me to dinner.” She nods, “We drank a beer each, I ate chicken brochette, he ate some sorta steak thing, you know with the mushrooms.”
“What restaurant?”
“We’ve been there, uhh I can’t remember the name, oh yeah Fire Grill.” She nods, “Then we were just about ready to leave to go to the movies when we heard two waitresses talking about the Skunk Club and the punk concert thing.” Her eyes bulge, “We looked at each other and it clicked. We went to the concert instead.”
“Did you go in the mosh pit?!”
“In the heels Gail sent me in!” I laugh, “Besides we got their late anyway so we’d really have to fight to get a good spot to mosh.”
“Can you take me to a concert?”
“I don’t know,” I sigh, “Maybe when it’s a garage band playing, there’s usually less people.”

RING! RING! RING!
“You’re phone!” Maddy exclaims as she leaps for the cell phone on my dresser. “Ohh its Mike.” She says sinfully, she flips open the phone, “Jade Prelia’s phone, Madison speaking.”
“Give me the phone.” I say holding out my hand, she shakes her head.
“Oh hello Mike . . . . we were just talking about you, good things of course.” She sticks her tongue at me, “Yup, she’s right here.” I take the phone from her and put it to my ear.

“Hi.” I say happily.
“Hey, told you I’d call soon.” I laugh, “So are you free tonight for a movie.”
“How about I treat you to lunch?” I suggest, “Since today is Sunday.”
“Sure.”
“Yeah so come over round twelve thirty, bring Estelle, I’d love to meet her.”
“Anastasia has her today so it’ll just be me.”
“Okay, well I’ve got to go now, so I’ll see you later.”
“Alright, bye.”

“So what are we making for lunch?” Maddy asks putting her hands on her hips.
“What time is it?” I grumble as I look over at my clock to see it’s eleven. “I don’t know, get dressed and we’ll go to the store.” She hops off my bed and out of my room.

I slowly get up and make my way to my closet grabbing just the regular black jeans and a red t-shirt with a yellow star on the waist. I step casually into the bathroom where Maddy is meticulously brushing her teeth, looking up every so often to check their brightness in the mirror. She doesn’t notice me as I make my way into the shower.

By the time I finish showering Maddy has long since left the bathroom. Allowing me the privacy to dry off and get dressed. As I leave the bathroom I tie my hair up in a tight ponytail pulling out a few strands to dangle by my cheeks.
“Maddy, are you coming with me to the store?” I ask. She turns off the television and stands up from her spot on the sofa.
“Okay.” She says, her shoes already on. “Just let me get my jacket.” She hurries off to her room and I pick up my jacket which I lazily left on the couch last night.

Within a matter of minutes we’d walked to the grocery store about a block away from our apartment building.
“I know!” she exclaims in the produce isle, “let’s have spaghetti.”
“Emph.” I say uneasily as I tilt my head to the side. “How about pork stir fry on pasta?”
“Yeah okay.”

Being a nine year old her diet consists of chicken nuggets, French fries and spaghetti anything else is either icky or disturbing.

An hour later I find myself covering the pan of food with a piece of aluminum foil. Mike was due to be here any minute and Madison was already setting the table.
BUZZ!
“Its him.” I say pointlessly, Maddy giggles into her hand then turns to me and makes kissy lips. I press the buzzer to let him in and she stops with the kissy lips. “Yeah, yeah.”

I go over and open the door just as he makes his way down the hall way.
“Hey there.” I say flirtatiously, I’ve got to admit he is HOT!
“Hey.” He smiles as he joins me in the doorway, we share a short kiss before heading inside.

“Smells good.” He says as he peels off his leather jacket. I take it from him and hang it up.
“Thanks.”
“We made pork stir fry!” Maddy says proudly. Mike chuckles a little. I head over to the stove to get the bowl of food and bring it to the table where Mike and Madison are taking their seats.

We each serve our selves and the conversation picks up.
“So you’re a punk right?” Maddy questions.
“Yeah, I guess you can say that.” Mike laughs, he found Maddy the funniest thing ever.
“How come your hair isn’t green or blue or something?” she rambles, “My mom used to be a punk, she had her hair a bunch of colours, so did her friends and my father had a freaky mohawk.” Mike goes into a slight laughing fit.
“I’ve dyed my hair almost every wild colour,” he pauses, “never had a mohawk but my friend Billie shaved on side of my head once.”
“Is Billie in your band?”
“Yeah, he’s the guitarist.”
“What’s your drummer’s name?”
“Tre Cool.”
“That’s not his real name is it?”
“His real name is Frank.”
“Eww.”
“He says the same thing.”
“How did he get a name like Tre Cool?”
“Maddy!” I exclaim laughing, “Let’s not play twenty questions.”

She shrugs and goes back to poking the sliver of green pepper on her plate.
“So you used to be a punk.” Mike says amused.
“Yeah, I was part of the whole Sacramento punk scene.” I laugh, “Badly dyed hair and a serious attitude problem.”
“Booyeah!” Maddy says raising her fist in the air.
“My band played quite a few shows in Sacramento in the early days. Fun crowd.”
“I might’ve even seen a couple of your shows.” I say casually, “I went to a lot of concerts when I started college.”
“But she had to stop when she had me.” Maddy says randomly. “But seriously Mom, your hair was awesome back then, you should’ve kept it like that.” She turns to Mike, “Do you want to see a picture?”
“Maddy, that’s not-“
“Sure.” Mike says smirking at me. Maddy scampers off to the bookshelf in the living room and grabs a photo album.

“Here.” She says opening the book at the table and pointing at a picture of me with bright red hair. In that picture I was with a couple of my old girl friends, the picture underneath was of me and Maddy’s father.
“This your dad?” he asks her pointing at the picture.
“Yeah, that’s my father.” She says putting the emphasis on the word father. She didn’t consider him her dad because he never came around.

RING! RING! RING!
“I’ll get it!” Maddy yelps as she hurries over to the phone, knocking the book to the floor in the process. “Hello?” Mike picks the book off the floor, as he does so I see it fell open to the page of pictures of me holding Maddy when she was a month old, my hair was its natural colour, I wasn’t wearing the usual freaky black eyeliner I wore constantly back then, these conditions showed how young I was, I was practically a teenager.

Mike stares at the pictures for a second then closes the book and places it on the table.
“Mom!” Maddy calls to me, “Its Aunt Dahlia.” She hands me the phone and I put it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Hey lil sis,” she jokes, “I was just going to take Kayla swimming wanted to know if Maddy wanted to come.” I look at Maddy who has big eyes.
“Yeah sure, you going to pick her up?”
“Yup, I’m just around the corner.”
“Alright.”

“Yes!” Madison exclaims as she runs off to her room to get her bag.
“Alright, see ya.” I hang up the phone and turn to Mike.

“That was my sister.” I say casually, “she’s taking Maddy swimming.” He nods just as we hear a honking from outside.
“She’s here!” Maddy exclaims, her bag slung on her shoulder. “Bye Mom, bye Mike.” She bursts through the door and seconds later we hear a car drive away.

“I saw a picture of you and Maddy,” Mike says casually, “You looked really young.” I could tell he wanted to know more about my past, and I don’t see much harm in it really.
“Well, like I told you I got pregnant shortly after I turned nineteen.”
“So did you drop out of college or-“
“I stayed in college, I was embarrassed as hell for like three last months of it being the only knocked up girl in my classes.” I say half-heartedly, “But yeah, my parents were super pissed at me, but luckily they didn’t kick me out of the house. My mom actually helped me through everything and after Maddy was born she’d baby sit when I had classes. Then when Maddy was about three I got a job for a radio station in Oakland so we moved here.”
“And Maddy’s father?” I let out a disgruntled sigh.
“When I told Lyle I was pregnant he wanted nothing to do with me,” I pause, “Then when Maddy was about a year old I got a call from his mother, apparently his brother let it slip that Lyle got me pregnant and that she wanted to meet Madison.” Mike nods, “She visits us every few months and talks to us on the phone a lot.”
“Yesterday you said that Lyle started wanting to be a part of Maddy’s life when she was four or something.”
“Oh that.” I say rolling my eyes, “Yeah, I was still pissed off at him but in a way I was glad he was taking an interest in Maddy, then it turned out that his mother told his girlfriend at the time about Maddy. Apparently this girlfriend of his was pretty keen on father daughter relationships.”
“Let me guess,” Mike says carefully, “When they broke up he stopped caring?”
“Yeah, that’s just about right.”

I realize we’ve long since finished eating so I pick up the plates and put them in the kitchen sink, “So I’ve told you about my past, now your turn.”
“What can I say?” Mike says standing up and picking the glasses off the table and bringing them to the sink.
“Tell me about your daughter, your ex I guess.”
“Well Anastasia and I had been going out for like three years, we were actually living together when we found out she was pregnant with Estelle.” We both casually lean against the counter, “Anyway, her parents hated the idea of us living together out of wedlock and Ana wasn’t about to tell them she was pregnant too so we planned our wedding in a month and made it seem like she got pregnant on the honeymoon.”
“So what happened between you?”
“It’s all fun and games when we were a small band, making just enough to get by. Then we had this explosion of popularity with the Dookie album, which was all good when we were dating. Then we had Estelle and recording and touring was too much for us to handle.”

I tilt my head and look at him a second before leaning forward to kiss him. There’s just something so magnetic about him. He wraps his arms around me and we go deeper into the kiss when CRASH! We both burst out laughing as we realize we sent the empty pot that was on the stove crashing to the floor.
“Well that was interesting.” I say as I pick it up and put it back.
“Maybe we should take this elsewhere.” He suggests, I can see he’s glancing at the sofa in the next room. Well it’s not so much a room as the next part of the apartment seeing as how everything is pretty much open except the bedrooms and bathroom. The apartment layout is besides the point as Mike and I make our way over to the couch where we start making out. I’m so friggin happy that my sister decided to take Maddy and her daughter swimming.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Its seemed like we just got comfortable on the couch but I peel myself away from Mike and head over to the door. I peer through the peep hole to see Maddy, Kayla and my sister Dahlia. I pull open the door.
“So Jade,” Dahlia says in her big sister voice, putting her hands on her hips, “Maddy tells me you have a new boyfriend.”
“Hi, nice to meet you.” Mike says coming to the door.
“Hi Auntie.” Kayla blurts as she and Maddy push past us and scramble into her room. Dahlia’s eyes bulge the size of baseballs.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know he was still here.” She apologizes, her face burning red, “I’m Dahlia by the way, Jade’s sister.”
“Yeah, I see a bit of a resemblance.” Mike says casually.

“I can take the girls-“ Dahlia starts.
“No, its okay, I have to get going anyway.” Mike says turning to me, “I’ll check my schedule but we definitely have to see a movie this week.” I can feel myself smiling like a giddy school girl.
“Yup.” Our lips meet shortly before he plucks his jacket from the closet hanger and heads out the door.

“He’s hot.” Dahlia gasps.