No One Does It Better

Kelly had invited me to go out to dinner with her tonight straight after work. I tried really hard to keep my mind off of Mike while I was with her…which didn’t really work seeing as Kelly wanted details.
“So, You know you can tell me anything…” She said curiously studying my face. “…You and Mike… Did you guys ever…you know, Like were you ever a thing?” She said slowly. I laughed slightly as she narrowed her eyes.
“No, I mean, we were best friends since we were about 5 years old.”
Kelly turned her head to the side “So you’ve never even considered Mike in that way…I mean he is attractive” She said with a mouth full of food making me giggle.
“Well, I’ve never really thought about him like that” I lied as Kelly lifted one eyebrow
“Sureeee” she said suspiciously. “So why aren’t you guys so close anymore?”
I sighed looking down at my plate. “…Mike fucked up”
She nodded her head understandingly and thankfully she changed the subject and didn’t mention Mike for the rest of the night…
…But that didn’t mean that he was off my mind.

---

“Bye Kel, I’ll see you on Monday!” I yelled as she drove off from dropping me home. I walked inside to find a note on the fridge.
‘Got called into work, I’ll probably be late. Don’t wait up.
Love you, Jake’
I sighed as I opened the fridge ready to devour it’s contents.

I was yelling at the people on the TV with a mouthful of food as my phone rang from next to me.
“Hello”
“Jessie!, I’m really sorry. I know it’s late and you’re probably busy but I didn’t know who else to call.” I heard a panicked voice say.
“Vic? What’s wrong?” I said turning off the TV in the background.
“Well you know how Mike get’s when he’s drunk…Well I called him an hour ago, he was yelling and he was alone and he wasn’t thinking straight. He said he was going to do something to make everyone’s lives better…Jessie I think he’s going to hurt himself and I don’t know who else to turn to…Please help me” He plead.
“I’ll be over in 5 minutes” I put on shoes, grabbed my keys and hurried out the door. I was pretty convinced he was okay, Mike’s all talk…. But sometimes he can get bad when he’s drunk…

----

Vic was standing out the front of his house as I pulled up. He climbed into the passenger seat with a scared look on his face. I turned to him giving him a sympathetic smile.
“Do you have any idea where he could be?” I asked quietly. Vic just looked at his hands and shook his head.
“I have an idea!” I said louder than necessary “Where is the nearest beach?” I asked. Vic looked confused and pointed me in the right direction.
I pulled up at the car park across from the beach, both Vic and I jumped out of the car and began walking down to the pier. Even in the darkness it was easy to see a silhouette sitting precariously on the edge of the pier. I knew Vic would be thinking the worst as he broke out into a sprint. I followed closely behind. When I got to the end of the pier, I saw the silhouette of two brothers sitting side by side. I smiled softly as my surroundings resembled my life 4 years ago. I sat beside Vic who looked at me with a smirk on his face as Mike was singing obnoxiously loud. He mouthed a grateful ‘thankyou’ to me which I returned with a soft smile.
As soon as Mike saw me sitting beside them, a dorky grin grew on his face “I didn’t know Vic had super model friends” I could hear Vic groan at how horribly lame that remark was.

I climbed back into my car and Vic helped Mike into his seat with great difficulty. Within minutes Mike was asleep in the backseat. Vic turned to me and whispered another thank you, I just nodded my head.
“…Vic?” I said in a whisper.
“Yeah?”
“Why now?” he looked at me confused not understanding what I was asking. “I mean, he had three years to want to fix things, why is it that he decided he wanted to do something about it now?” I asked as my voice cracked.
“He spent those three years wanting to fix things with you Jessie, he was just afraid that you didn’t want him to…I tried to convince him to talk to you, and he really wanted to…he just-”
“He could of rang me” I interrupted with tears welling up in my eyes.
“He didn’t think you would pick up and he couldn’t bare to hear you cry.”
“So now he doesn’t care about that?” I asked confused
“He still does Jessie, I guess seeing you after so long made him realise how much he has missed you and how much he wants to be the old him”
“He missed me?! Is that meant to make this all okay?! He had NO idea what I was going through! And he promised! He promised me that I would always have him when I needed him and I needed him more than ever!” I yelled as the tears started rolling down my pale cheeks.
“Jessie, you know that he wasn’t allowed to go and visit you”
“I know Vic, But they never forbid me to visit him. No one else would have understood! I had to see him, I was at breaking point and I needed him. But do you know something that I didn’t need? I really didn’t need my best friend to do what he did after I poured my heart out and I definitely didn’t need him to tell me that he had moved on and that I was ruining his life…” I choked out
It was obvious Vic didn’t know what to say. As much as he wanted to defend his brother he couldn’t tell me I was wrong. I sighed running my hands through my long hair.
“I’m sorry Vic, I didn’t mean to take that out on you. I just haven’t been able to say that before.”
He put his hand on mine and smiled “Don’t apologize Grover”
“I should probably take you two home” I said sighing. I looked back in my rear view mirror and saw Mike, who was no longer asleep. I looked at his brown eyes filled with pain as they mirrored mine.

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I stood at my locker as I balanced books precariously on top of each other and with a quick manoeuvre closed the door. Home time which means the weekend was now here.
“That’s going to be hell to open” I heard a quiet voice say from behind me. I spun around to see Mike standing there trying to force a smile. It was really obvious that he had just been lectured by his parents.
“What’s the damage?” I asked putting my hands on my hips. Mike nervously re-adjusted his back pack before answering.
“I’m fucked” He said trying to force himself to laugh “If I do something remotely wrong, They are sending me to Arizona to live with my Uncle” He choked out
I stared blankly at his face. Neither of us knew what to say. “But Mikey You-“ I began to speak but something had stopped me. Mike had put his hand on my cheek. He inched closer to my face. What was happening? I could feel his hot breath on my face as he moved closer. The space between our lips kept becoming smaller until it was no longer existent. Mike Fuentes was kissing me. Everything about this just felt right. Mike moved us so that my back was up against the locker. I could feel his tongue eagerly asking for permission which I accepted as my lips parted. I could feel Mikes lips move into a smile as I ran my hands through his hair. The perfect moment was ruined as someone cleared their throat.
“Schools over” The Principal said raising one eye brow. Mike awkwardly moved away from me. He gave me a sheepish smile before quickly grabbing my hand and pulling me out into the parking lot where we climbed into Vic’s car. I smiled looking up at Mike from next to me. He smiled back grabbing my hand and linking our fingers.
I don’t know how that just happened but that principal must have a death wish…