Cleave

Tutoring with Mrs Peters started the week after I came home and she turned out to be one of the most boring people on the planet. She barely even looked at me and mumbled when she talked, making our sessions a complete waste of time because I couldn't hear her half the time. I think I would have been better off just doing the work packets by myself, but my mother insisted that I have a tutor so that she knows I'll actually do the work and not just Google everything.

Mrs Peters came to the house on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and stayed for four hours each session, before she left me with a list of what she wanted me to do for “homework” during the days she wasn't scheduled to bore me to death. Part of the deal for me being allowed to come back home was that I had to get good grades, otherwise I'd be sent back to my aunt’s, so unfortunately, I actually had to do the work that was set for me. My mother had insisted I take two extra subjects to make up for the fact that I only had 12 hours of “class” a week. I don't know where she got that logic from, but the woman is crazy so I'm sure it made sense in her mind. But it did mean that I had a lot of work to do in between my tutoring sessions, and it also meant that I didn't have any time to figure out a plan to try and see Angel on the weekend, which was getting close to ending without any satisfaction on that part. Elise had been out for most of the weekend and she was my ticket to getting to McDonald's, so everything was feeling pretty hopeless until she came bouncing into my room at around 6 o'clock in the evening on Sunday. She looked at me as I was lying on my bed staring up at the ceiling for a few seconds before she spoke.

“Get ready,” she said, grinning.

“For what?” I asked tiredly, sitting up slightly to look at her.

“What do you think? I'm taking you to your boyfriend, now hurry up and get ready.”

That woke me up. I scrambled off my bed and went to my closet to find a pair of jeans and a top. I was only wearing pyjama bottoms, so, after indicating to Elise to turn around so she couldn't see, I stripped them off and replaced them with my jeans. I threw my t-shirt over my head, ran my fingers through my messy hair to get it to sit a little better and grabbed a pair of socks, which I shoved on my feet along with a pair of shoes.

“Done,” I announced, and my sister turned around. She grinned.

“Nice. You clean up good,” she said. I rolled my eyes playfully and walked out of my bedroom. Elise followed behind me.

I stopped abruptly as I realised I didn't know how we were going to get away with this. “How're we…” I began, but she cut me off with a yell that echoed throughout the house.

“Micah and I are going now. Bye, Dad!”

Elise didn't wait for a response. She grabbed my arm and hauled me out the front door and all the way to her car.

“Does Dad know what we're doing?” I questioned once we were both in the car and Elise was pulling out from the curb.

“Not really. I told him we were going out for a bit of sibling bonding time because I really missed you and I thought that after all you've been through you could use a bit of time out.”

I nodded. “And Mom? Does she know?”

“Nah. Well, I guess she does now, but she didn't know before we left. We might get in a bit of trouble when we get back but you'd be used to that by now so I didn't think you'd mind,” she teased, and I laughed along with her.

The rest of the trip to McDonald's was spent in pleasant silence. I looked out the window, casting my eyes over the familiar sights I hadn't seen in a year and feeling a wave of affection for them. God, I missed home.

As Elise pulled into the McDonald's parking lot, my heart skipped a beat. I was feeling jittery with anticipation to see Angel again and I just hoped that he was there. He had to be there.

My sister and I got out of the car and made our way into the restaurant. There were quite a few people in there; several families with young children, a group of teenagers, a kids sports team, plus a few singles and couples scattered in between.

As Elise and I moved through the restaurant to get to the line for the counters, my heart sank when I realised that there was nobody there that I recognised.

Noticing the change in my mood, Elise nudged me, smiling gently. “Maybe he's out the back,” she suggested. I shrugged, but I had already given up hope that I would get to see him that night.

The line we were in eventually brought us to the front, where we were greeted by a bored-looking, greasy-skinned teenager. I took the opportunity to take a good look over the counter into the kitchen area while Elise ordered for us. Still nothing. I sighed in defeat before I tuned back into what Elise was saying to the cashier.

“… And a 10 pack of chicken nuggets. Oh, and ketchup. Thanks,” she said cheerfully. “And by the way, is Angel working today?”

The cashier, who's name badge read ‘Myles’, looked at Elise as if she were speaking to him in Russian.

“What?” he asked slowly.

“Is Angel working today?” Elise repeated.

Myles shrugged. He looked between Elise and myself for a few silent seconds, before he announced our total and told us to have a nice day.

“Very fucking helpful. Thank you,” I muttered, as Elise paid for our meal and took our receipt with our order number on it.

Once our food was ready, we brought it to a table and sat down. Elise busied herself by passing out the food, while I couldn’t help myself and took a good look around the restaurant again. Nothing. This was a complete waste of time. I sighed deeply as I unwrapped my cheeseburger.

“He might be in later,” Elise said. I snorted in response. My sister rolled her eyes but stayed silent after that. She knows me well enough to know when I'm not in the mood for optimism.

Our meal was eaten in silence, which was only broken by my loud and dramatic sighs, but once we were finished, Elise looked at me sternly.

“Don't give up,” she said. “I know that's what you're doing. Just because he's not here now doesn't mean he isn't going to be here next time.”

“I know. I'm sorry. I was just… I really wanted to see him today,” I replied sadly.

“I know you did. But hey, at least you're not hours away anymore, right? You've got much more chance of seeing him here than at Tina’s.”

I flinched at the mention of Aunt Tina’s name, and Elise noticed. “Was it really horrible there, Mics?” she asked sympathetically.

“Pretty much. Only thing that made it bearable were my friends,” I said, feeling a sudden pang as I realised how much I missed them.

“Tell me about them,” Elise encouraged.

I told her all about Alex, Kyle and Mason; how they took me under their wing, so to speak, and kept me sane while I was away from my family and other friends. I even told her about my ‘relationship’ with Mason.

“Wait, you had a boyfriend while you were there? I bet Tina hated that,” Elise laughed.

“He wasn't my boyfriend, we just… Fooled around, I guess. But yeah, she hated it,” I clarified, laughing along with her.

I continued telling her all about my time away and by the time I finished, I had all but forgotten my disappointment in not seeing Angel. It was only when Elise suggested we leave that those feelings came flooding back.

We stood up and collected our rubbish to throw away. There were a lot less people in the restaurant now, since we had spent so long talking after we had finished eating, but it was still decently full.

Once we found a place to put our rubbish, Elise and I headed towards the exit, which opened before we could get to it, indicating that someone was coming in the other way. Elise and I stopped to let whoever it was on the other side come in. I could see two pairs of legs and feet, but that's it since I had my head down. I didn't want to look up and be disappointed that it wasn't Angel. Elise stiffened beside me and so did one of the two people who came in. The other kept walking, not noticing their companion had paused.

Elise nudged me hard in the ribs, causing me to yelp in pain. I wanted to look up to glare at her, but I was scared. If this was anybody but Angel standing with us, I didn't want to know about it.

“Oh, my God,” Elise muttered and grabbed my chin, wrenching my head up to face the person, who had a bright smile on his face and was laughing quietly at my stubbornness. His hair was a bit longer than it used to be, but it was still the same colour. His eyes were still the same. His smile. His laugh. The same.

We stared at each other for what was probably way too long to be considered normal, but it didn't feel like a long time at all.

He opened his mouth so speak, but he wasn't able to get anything out when the person he came into the store with came back over to our little group and ruined everything.

“Hey, babe, what's going…?” the guy began, trailing off. “Who's this?”

The tall, dreadlocked guy stepped closer to Angel and wrapped an arm around his waist in what was clearly meant to be a possessive manner. His eyes swept over Elise and I, narrowing at me. He knew who I was; that was obvious.

“Angel? Who's this?” he repeated when nobody said anything.

“Um… This is Micah,” Angel answered timidly. It shocked me. I had never heard him sound as intimidated as he did just then.

Dreadlocks just looked at me for a few seconds before he stuck a hand out for me to shake, a smile forming on his features. I shook it carefully, wondering what the hell was going on.

“Max,” he introduced himself. I nodded a silent greeting. “Lovely to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you.”

I glanced at Angel, who was looking between Max and myself with a worried look on his face. “T-thanks,” I stuttered in reply, not knowing what else to say.

“And who's this?” Max asked, looking at Elise and flashing a brilliant smile at her. God, he's attractive. I could tell my sister was internally swooning, which she proved as she fell over her words as she made her introduction. Max smiled at her again. Why is he so damn smiley? Why wasn't this as awkward for him as it was for everyone else.

While Elise and Max started making small talk, Angel and I had gone back to looking at each other. He had more tattoos now. They covered his arms. His stretched ears were also a lot bigger. I could tell that he was noticing changes in my appearance as well, namely my lip piercings, which he acknowledged by tapping on his own lip with the tip of his finger. I nodded shyly, but smiled nonetheless.

“Babe, shouldn't you be getting to work?” Max asked Angel suddenly. Angel pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time, swearing as he saw what was on the screen.

“Yeah,” he replied sadly. He dug through his pockets again before pulling out a small piece of paper and the pen that was in his shirt pocket. He scribbled something on the paper and then handed it to me. I noticed that Max looked pointedly away as Angel did that but he didn't say anything, so I accepted the paper, finding a phone number written on it.

“Just so we can finally talk…” Angel said, more to Max than to me. “Um… Bye, I guess.”

Max, who had had his arm around Angel’s waist the entire time, pulled him tighter and kissed him deeply. I looked away, not wanting to see Angel being kissed by someone else.

“See you later, baby,” Max said. “Bye Micah, Elise.”

“Bye…” my sister and I both replied before he walked out the door.

“Please call me,” Angel said before he too walked off. Elise and I looked at each other in slight shock before we left the restaurant.

Waiting out in the parking lot was Max.

“You broke his heart, you know,” he informed me. The nice guy act was gone. Max was glaring at me in the most menacing way I'd ever seen.

“I d-didn't mean t-to,” I stuttered. Max scoffed and stepped forward. I automatically took a step back. This guy could have easily beaten me to a pulp and I liked my face arranged the way it was so I didn't want to be too close to him.

“You left him. I was the one that fixed him. He belongs to me now and he loves me so you can just back off. You don't deserve him so leave him the fuck alone,” Max snarled before he stepped even closer to me and snatched the paper with Angel’s phone number on it out of my hand, tearing it up into little pieces before my eyes.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Elise said loudly, while I could only look at the shredded paper that Max had let drop to the ground.

“I'm protecting what's mine. I don't want to hear about Angel seeing you or hearing from you again, or else I will make your life hell. Do you understand me?”

I stayed silent. I didn't want to accept Max's terms. This had nothing to do with him.

“Or, would you rather I make Angel’s life hell? How does that sound?” he threatened.

I looked up then to see if he was actually being serious. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was. I couldn't ruin Angel’s life anymore than I already had. Even if I can't be with him I still want him to be happy and safe. Defeated, I nodded.

“Good choice,” Max said before marching off to a nice black Jeep and getting into it without a backwards glance. Elise and I stood and watched as he pulled out of the parking lot. I was almost tempted to go back into McDonald's and get the phone number again, but I didn't want Max to find out and hurt Angel. I could feel my eyes filling with tears, which easily spilled over as Elise and I went back to her car. Once I was buckled in, I started to violently sob, the sounds wracking my body.

“I was so fucking close to him,” I wailed as Elise drove us home. She patted my leg sympathetically while she kept her eyes on the road.

“We’ll get to him another way, Mics. I promise. And his idiot boyfriend won't find out.”

“I can't. You heard what he said. He'll hurt him…or worse. I don't know this guy Elle, he could be dangerous. It's hopeless…” I trailed off, letting out another sob.

“It's not hopeless,” Elise insisted.

It was, though.