Like You to Me

At twelve-o’clock my doorbell rang. My eyebrows knit together in confusion; I wasn’t expecting anyone. I uncrossed my legs and moved across my living room to the door, where someone was being quite impatient on the other side. It wasn’t like I was much happier about the situation. Whoever it was interrupted my Project Runway marathon and the bottle of Arbor Mist I was more than content with. As I unlocked the door and opened it, I became face-to-face with the elder of the Fuentes siblings. It was cold outside for a night in San Diego and all he was wearing was a baseball tee. The wind was whipping around him, causing his curly locks to fly in all different directions, and I almost felt bad for him. Then I remembered he showed up at my apartment uninvited and completely unexpected.

“Vic?”

He glared and pushed past me. I wasn’t a huge fan of the heat so I rarely turned it on. Once he realized this he groaned loudly and turned around to face me. There were goosebumps all over his body and I offered him a small smile to get myself out of trouble.

“Could you have taken any longer to open the damn door?”

“Well, you could’ve called!” I argued.

“I did!” He fired back and I frowned. It was typical of me to get so wrapped up in something that I ignored the world around me, but it wasn’t typical for me to ignore someone I liked as much as Vic. Just to double check his statement I headed back into the living room, pausing for a few minutes to see what was going on with the show, before reaching for my phone and checking to see if I did, in fact, have any missed calls.

“Liar,” I accused and held my phone up to show him that I hadn’t missed a call from him in at least a few days.

“Whatever,” he grumbled, “I just need your help.”

“With?” I raised an eyebrow at him before looking down at myself. My attire was completely inappropriate for going out.

“What do you think? My idiot brother is staggering around San Diego drunk out of his mind and Casey’s too drunk to go look for him.”

The news of Mike’s adventure didn’t shock me. It wasn’t the first time Vic had asked for my help when he’d gone missing but it was the first time it ever happened before four in the morning. Since Vic knew I wouldn’t tell him no, I just sighed. I instructed him to turn off the television and all the lights while I went to change. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be babysitting a twenty-five year old man but that was the role I’d assumed when Mike and I grew so close. If I would’ve gone to the party with him Vic never would’ve been bothered and I would’ve been free to enjoy my wine and television program of choice in the solitude of my apartment after I’d dropped Mike off when he was too drunk to walk anymore.

I trudged up the stairs and into my room, making sure to plan an outfit in my head on the way there. As a clothing designer it was a bad habit that I changed outfits more times a day than was necessary. Nothing ever seemed good enough. I would’ve chalked it up to me just being me, but even though I knew no one other than myself put that much thought into my appearance, I always had a subconscious yearning to impress Mike. I liked the attention, I guess. I liked knowing I was more than just his best friend, that I was attractive too.

As quickly as possible, I threw on a pair of jeans and a loose sweater. I wasn’t in the mood to impress anyone, not even Mike. I was borderline exhausted and just wanted to sleep until my alarm nearly scared me to death at nine the following morning. Fate and luck were never on my side, I’d learned that at a very young age, and things never worked out the way I wanted them to. When I wanted to have a quiet night in by myself, a panic-stricken Vic Fuentes showed up at my front door with a mission for me to accomplish. How I ever got dragged into Mike-related rescue missions always baffled me. It wasn’t like I was ever of much use; I was a tiny girl and always required someone else’s help whenever I tried to lift him and I was awful with dealing with drunk people.

The first time I was ever given the task of babysitting Mike when he was drinking was at one of Jaime’s parties. He’d just moved into a nice house outside of San Diego and invited everyone over to “christen” it. To the boys of Pierce The Veil, that meant trash it so badly he’d be finding plastic cups three years down the road. Watching him was my initiation, as they liked to call it. If I had any hope of sticking around for an extended period of time, I would have to be able to take care of Mike when he was out of his mind. I thought it’d be a walk in the park. I’d been around him when he was drunk prior to my assignment and he didn’t seem that out of sync. I was unpleasantly surprised a few hours later when he was so drunk he forgot his own name. He fell out of my SUV, fell face-first into the concrete of the parking lot of my apartment complex, and fell down the steps in my apartment when he tried to find the bathroom. He woke up the following morning with half of his skin black and blue and more questions than I was able to answer.

He said he liked it that way.

When I rejoined Vic in the living room, he was twirling his keyring around his finger. I was surprised he hadn’t shouted up the stairs for me to hurry up (he’d done it before on many different occasions) and tell me that we couldn’t waste any time because Mike was probably halfway to Oregon by now. To that I would’ve responded that I hoped he brought clean underwear with him because he was a grown man and not my responsibility in the slightest.

Truth be told, as I climbed into Vic’s truck, I was happy to be there. We’d spent too many nights to count just driving around. Most of the time we’d end up at the beach where he’d pull a case of beer out of the bed and we’d just drink. Sometimes we’d both end up too drunk to drive home so we’d push the seats back and sleep until the sun was too bright to ignore. I had some of the happiest moments of my life with both of the Fuentes’s and I don’t think either of them realized how much they meant to me. I was happy I was the one Vic turned to when he needed help with Mike. Even though I wanted to be warm in my bed, I was much happier with Vic.

“Can you try calling Mike? I doubt he’ll answer but I have no fucking idea how we’re gonna find him.”

“Relax, Vic,” I laughed, “we’ll find him.”

Vic glanced over at me and I offered him a reassuring smile. It warmed my heart just how much he cared about his brother, and his family in general, and I truly considered myself lucky to be able to call him my friend. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Mike’s number. It rang a few times before someone picked up.

“Mike?” Silence. “Mike, where are you?”

I never got a proper response but I could easily make out the sound of waves breaking against the shore. Disconnecting the call, I told Vic to drive to the beach near where Casey lived and we’d start there. It was cold and I wasn’t looking forward to walking up and down the miles of beach trying to find him, but he was probably so drunk he’d walk into the middle of the ocean thinking it was the way home. You would’ve thought that someone who drank as often would’ve learned to handle his alcohol better, but that wasn’t the case. Mike acted like a small child whenever he was inebriated.

The drive was short and quiet. I could tell Vic was worried and I didn’t want to make the situation worse. I was good at that, it was almost like my number one talent, so I just stayed silent. I was a lot more laid-back than the man sitting to my left; when Mike went missing or wandered off in the middle of the night I didn’t give it much mind. If someone were to kidnap him, they wouldn’t keep him very long before he wore on their nerves so heavily they offered us money to take him back. Vic, on the other hand, had bigger concerns. His intentions were gold but they didn’t mix well with my carefree attitude toward most of the scenarios we found ourselves in.

Once Vic put his truck in park and killed the headlights, he was out and on the beach before I could even get my seatbelt off. I sighed for what felt like the millionth time that night and followed him. There was no sign of Mike anywhere so Vic and I decided to go in opposite directions. My Toms were heavily worn so I let out a string of curse words every time sand slipped through the tears. It didn’t take long before they were completely filled so I took them off and started walking barefoot. The sand was freezing and I cursed again.

“Mike?” I shouted at a figure about thirty feet away from me. I could tell it was him without having to see his face. Something about his body language always gave him away. “Mike, what the fuck are you doing?”

He looked up at me from where he was sitting and flashed a drunken smile. He slurred my name, “Shea!”

“Come on, Mike. We’ve got to get you home-”

“Aww, sit with me, Shea! It’s a nice night, isn’t it?”

“You’re drunk. Get up, let’s go.”

“But, Shea-”

“Let’s go, Mike.”

He sighed but stopped arguing with me. To say his first attempt to stand was a failure would be an understatement. His legs got crossed so badly he fell face-first into the sand, making a small oof sound as he hit. I voiced my disapproval in the form of a loud groan and grabbed his arms, doing my best to pull him up. Once he was finally on his feet, unstable as ever, I slung his arm over my shoulder. Most of his weight shifted on to me and I dreaded the walk that was in my immediate future. Carrying Mike was damn near impossible. The added resistance of the sand made it worse.

Through my struggles, I managed to get my phone out of my pocket to call Vic. He answered immediately and I sputtered out that I needed help and rattled off landmarks as best I could. Landmarks was a useless term seeing as all I had to work with were rocks and sand dunes. It didn’t matter, though, because I saw Vic’s form emerge from the shadows within a few minutes.

“For fuck’s sake, Mike, try not to be so helpful,” Vic snapped as soon as it was his turn to carry him the rest of the way to the truck. Mike giggled, causing a rush of anger to Vic’s face. “Here, Shea. Take my keys and start the truck.”

I nodded and jogged to where we’d left it over an hour ago. Once it was started, Vic and I started the daunting task of actually getting Mike inside. It went smoother than we expected and we were back at my apartment within twenty minutes. The entire ride was filled with Mike’s obnoxious drunk serenades and him rattling off all the things he’d had to drink like he’d made a list and checked it twice. Apparently we were supposed to be impressed; Vic was reaching his boiling point and I was too afraid of setting him off to laugh so I stayed quiet again.

“Shea, can we have a sleepover?” Mike squealed as soon as Vic put the truck in park to let me out.

Vic and I exchanged glances before I sighed and nodded. “Only if you’re quiet. If my landlord gets one more complaint about you I swear to god he’s going to kick me out.”

“I’ll be quiet,” he whispered, “I promise!”

Vic rolled his eyes, scoffing at his brother’s child-like behavior, and helped him out of the truck. My apartment was on the second floor of the complex. It wasn’t anything spectacular but it was within my price range and it had a beautiful view of the city. At twenty-three it was more than I could’ve asked for. The only thing I resented about my apartment were the two sets of stairs it took to get to it.

“Mike, pick up your damn feet! How the fuck are you gonna climb stairs with your feet on the ground?” Vic whispered harshly. It was nearing one-thirty and he was doing his best to get his point across before he started shouting.

“They are up!”

Even though I’d been trying so hard to keep it inside, I finally ruptured with laughter. Mike’s feet were planted flat on the ground. “Come on,” I urged him, “I have a few bottles of Arbor Mist in my apartment you can have.”

At the sound of alcohol, Mike’s feet were up and climbing the stairs faster than I’d seen him climb them sober. Vic looked at me like I’d just found a cure for cancer and shook his head. We followed Mike up the stairs and both shared a laugh, for the first time all night, when we saw him puking over the side of my balcony. I grimaced when I heard it hit the concrete of the parking lot.

As soon as my door was unlocked, we helped Mike to the couch and instructed him not to move. He nodded and began fiddling with the remote for the television, trying to figure out how to turn it on when he was seeing seven of them floating around. Vic wrapped an arm around my shoulder and exhaled so heavily it felt like the weight of the world had just been lifted from him.

“Thank you,” he whispered to me, “for this -- all of this. You didn’t have to do this. I know how big of a pain in the ass he is-”

“It’s fine, Vic,” I smiled. “I don’t mind, really.”

He pressed a kiss to my cheek before wrapping me in a tight hug. I know I took a lot of stress off of him and he was eternally grateful for me. Those were the moments where I could actually give him something back for all the selfless things he always did for me. He did a lot of things for a lot of people and never asked for anything in return. It felt good to do something for him, to take at least a little bit of a burden off his shoulders, because it was the only way he’d ever let me repay him. He’d never ask for material gifts. All he ever wanted was the company, support and love of his friends and family.

Once Vic was gone, I turned my attention back to Mike. He’d gotten the television on and was watching an infomercial quite intently. I got a blanket and pillow out of a closet and walked back to where he was. He looked up at me and smiled again.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks, Shea,” he replied as he took the blanket and pillow from my hands. I started walking towards my room when he grabbed my hand and turned me around to face him. “Will you lay with me?”

The desperate and sad tone his voice had all of a sudden acquired nearly broke my heart. This side of Mike was rare; it only came out a few times a year and it had the same effect on me every time. It was like he knew I couldn’t tell him no; that tone and the way his eyes were nearly begging me always drew me in. He could get me to do absolutely anything when he was like that. It just further proved that I was absolute putty in his hands. Mike Fuentes had me wrapped around his finger so tight I was sure it’d began cutting the circulation.

He wrapped me in his arms before fixing the blanket so it was covering us. It wasn’t the first time I was in that position with him but it was the first time that I couldn’t control the way my hands began shaking or the way my heart sped up. Knowing it’d never be more than what it was right then made me want to break into tears. How I hadn’t realized that I was head over heels for him before Vic pointed it out was a mystery.

I wish it would’ve stayed one, though, because then it wouldn’t have hurt so bad to know that I’d never have him.