16

Mike’s POV

I heard them sneaking into the house from where I sat in the lounge room, despite the fact that they were obviously trying not to make noise. It was clear from the way they carefully weighted their steps, even Dani was making the effort although she wasn’t during very well and I knew immediately that she had drunk a large amount of the bottle she had taken. I didn’t go to them straight away but stood and strained my ears, listening intently.

A few minutes later, and only one set of feet descended the stairs. I walked to meet them and saw that it was Joey, who turned to look at me as he reached the last step. He opened his mouth to say something but eventually decided against it, his expression saying it all. In the end he simply waved his hand at me walking to the door and out into the street.

When I peered into Dani’s room a few moments later I found her already asleep in her bed, dead to the world and still wearing her clothes. Her face was red and stained with tears. I even thought I could see the beginnings of a bruise around her eye, which was something I couldn’t explain but worried me greatly.

I felt a pull in my heart as she shivered from the cold; her blankets were not covering her arms, a slight frown was apparent on her face. I walked forward and pulled the covers up to her chin, all the while realizing that this simple action of tucking in my little girl was yet another thing I had missed in her life. I sighed and left the room, wondering to myself what it was going to take to fix our relationship.

***

I groaned and lifted my head slowly off my pillow as I awoke for the second day in row with a vicious hangover. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, not wanting to leave the comfort that the soft sheets and pillows on my bed were offering.

“What?” I grumbled rather rudely to whoever was providing the loud knocking on my door.

When Mike opened the door and walked in, I put my head back on the pillow and pulled the blanket up to cover my face. I was not ready to face him yet especially when I was suffering from a terrible queasiness.

“Morning,” Mike said, walking over to stand near the bed.

“I’m not going to school,” I said, my voice was muffled but I didn’t bother to look up at him. “I’m sick.”

“I know your not sick Dani,” he said quietly. “I saw Joey last night.”

This made me look up. What the hell did Joey say to him?

“He didn’t tell me anything, he didn’t say anything to me at all actually, and that’s what worried me.”

“Good,” I said once again I speaking into my pillow, my back to Mike.

“That and the amount of alcohol you had drunk. Why’d you run off Dani?” He said, his voice laced with tired concern. “And why’d you take that bottle with you? You didn’t drink the whole thing did you?”

Will this guy just piss off and leave me alone? I thought. Doesn’t he get that I drank a lot of alcohol yesterday and that has caused a rather serious ache in my brain?

“Dani,” He added, trying to get me to respond.

Not to mention the serious pain in the ass that is my father.

“Answer me Dani,” This time his voice held a hint of forcefulness.

“Because of you, why else?” I snapped, finally sitting up properly and turning to face him; his eyes completely betrayed his simultaneous emotions of pain and complete confusion. “You don’t hate me here, I don’t like it here, so why the fuck should I stick around? And don’t have an aneurism over the drinks, you owe me anyways.”

I threw my covers away from my body as I stood, wobbling slightly from the pounding in my head and the swirling feeling I was experiencing in my stomach. I stormed from the room as steadily as I could, desperate for some aspirin.

Mike began to question my actions but stopped himself when he saw me reach for the small bottle of pills and shook two into my hand.

“My head hurts like a bitch,” I muttered.

Mike sighed and stood silently, trying to collect his thoughts and figure out what to say next. While he was thinking, a whole new train of thought popped into my brain, causing me to pause in my mission to get as far away from him as possible and turn to face my father.

“Tell me something, why did you come to the apartment that day? Why didn’t you just leave me alone? I was happy without you!”

“I came to see you because I wanted to see you. I thought you already knew that. I wasn’t to get to know who you are; I want to be a real father for fucks sake!” He yelled, finally losing his cool.

“No you don’t,” I said and closing my eyes in disbelief and disgust I walked back to my bedroom with Mike following behind. “Stop freaking lying to me! I heard you.”

“Dani, what are you talking about?”

“You don’t want me here! I heard you talking about me in your study yesterday morning.”

Mike continued to look at me with confusion, clearly not remembering what he had said.

“You said that it was bad that people knew about me and there was nothing you could do about my existence, as though you want to take back that I even exist.” Saying it out aloud like that, made the whole reasoning for my anger weak, even to my own ears. But I was in now and I couldn’t take the last couple of days back. “You don’t want me around. I know that you regret ever coming to see me. And…and now Mum’s gone…I don’t know what to do anymore.”

By this time, my cheeks were glistening and stained with tears. I fell to the floor, sitting up against the side of my bed. The fatigue and stress caused by the last couple of the dies, the sorrow I had felt constantly since losing Mum and the overwhelming effort it was taking to get to know my Dad was finally taking its toll.

I had almost forgotten that Mike was even in the room until I felt him clasp my upper arms, gently pulling me to my feet. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into the kind of embrace that only a parent could give.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered and it didn’t take a shrink to hear the complete sincerity in his voice. “I’m sorry for everything that’s happened. You need to have that the only thing that I regret in my life, and that is that I walked away from you. I love you Dani.”

“I love you too,” I somehow choked out, surprising even myself.

We stood that way, our arms around each other, me leaning against him for support, for a while longer before Mike pulled back and gently guided me to the bed.

“Go to sleep, you look dead on your feet.”

I crawled under the sheets and was asleep before he had even left the room.

***

“You lost you what with who?” I exclaimed, absolutely astounded. I had always known that it would happen one day, but it had never occurred to me to prepare myself for it actually happening.

Alex laughed from where she sat cross-legged across from me mimicking the position that I was in, both of us on my bed. It was late in the afternoon, the same day as my emotional conversation with Mike, and I had only just awoken about half an hour ago to the sound of Alex storming into my room, announcing her return from James’ place.

“Me and James, we…um, yeah…” She attempted to clarify, the awkwardness of the topic preventing her from saying it outright.

“You’ve been here for half an hour and you’re only mentioning this now?” I had already told her about what had happened to me whilst she was with James that morning and the previous day. “My story is so boring in comparison to this.”

“So you and James, are together now?” I asked as Alex laughed at my previous statement. I smirked an ‘I told you so’ kind of smirk, thinking about all of the times I had teased her about how she would eventually inevitably realize that she was in love with James.

She smiled and nodded.

“What about you and Joey?” It was now her turn to wear a smirk, it was obvious she was attempting to get back at me for all of the years of my teasing her and James. “You two seem to be getting rather close lately.”

“Nothing is going on between us Alex,” I warned her.

“Oh really?” She folded her arms in front of her chest. “You cannot honestly tell me that you don’t find him attractive.”

“Nope,” I stand, pulling her to her feet and getting off the bed. “Now get out, I want to shower and you have officially brought this conversation to an abrupt end.”

She laughed and walked to the door, saying one last thing while I made to slam the door in her face.

“Oh you want him bad.”

***

The month or so that followed that eventful weekend went by rather quickly and surprisingly with little drama. Alex and James, after missing out on years in which they could have been together, were in an I-cant-live-without-seeing-you-every-second stage and I found myself spending more time with Mike and the rest of the Green Day family. I was even on friendly terms with Estelle again, which helped with the less drama part of life, we seemed to finally be moving on from the tension that had been there since we first met. And then there was Joey, the two of us had become basically inseparable and apart from Alex, he was my best friend.

Christmas was fast approaching and everyone I knew, including myself, were happily awaiting the end of the school term and the two week break that the holidays would bring.

“Two days left, my friends,” Bob had said one day in December, stretching and putting his arms around Wensday as we walked towards our regular lunchtime spot.
“I cannot wait.” I had muttered as Joey smiled in response.

Although the last two days of school seemed more like two years, in reality it wasn’t long before we were walking out into the parking lot, stopping to wait for Alex to pick Joey and me up for the last time that year.

“So what is everyone doing over Christmas?” Joey asked.

“I’m going to Ohio the Grand’rents.” Wensday said with a hint of disappointment,

“And I’m heading to New York to see my Dad,” Bob told us as he took Wensday’s hand. “We better get going; got to go spend some time together before my flight in the morning.”

A few moments after they walked away and a car horn sounded, alerting us to Alex’s presence in the car nearby. I turned to see James sitting in the passenger seat beside her.

“Jamie-Poo!” I squealed as I stuck my hands in the open window to grab the sides of his face, planting large kisses on his cheeks and forehead.

We made our way straight to Mike’s house as Mike and Brittney had surprisingly agreed to let James stay over the Christmas vacation as soon as Alex and I had suggested it. Strangely, I don’t think they minded having a full house, Mike hinted that it was just good to see me happy. And although it was noisy with us constantly jamming in the basement, Mike was keen to encourage our instrument playing.

When we reached the house I quickly deposited my school stuff in my room, collecting my drumsticks as I did so while the others grabbed some snacks from the kitchen. I met up with them again on the stairs heading down into the basement where we were planning on working on adding music to a couple of new songs we had written.

I smiled at the sight of Joey holding out a can of coke for me to take, a small blush rising in my cheeks when I accepted the offer and our hands touched lightly.