Cleave

A few days after Micah's birthday, I was back at school after our Spring Break with Prom and Graduation looming over. From the day I went back, it was about a month until Prom and then only a couple of weeks later, I would be graduating High School and finally getting to start my life, hopefully with Micah by my side. I was nervous though. I wasn’t very dedicated when it came to my studies, meaning that I probably wasn’t going to do well in my finals, and even if I did, I didn’t apply to any universities and the only work experience I had was McDonalds, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to get by in the real world.

The fact that I didn’t apply to any colleges was definitely a major problem with Max. In fact, we had had multiple fights about it, before I told him that it was my life and to fuck off out of it if he didn't like my choices. He still brought it up every now and again but I just ignored him and he got the hint.

Speaking of Max, I'd been back at school, watching everyone freak out about the prom and graduation for just over two weeks now and I still hadn't broken up with him like I'd promised Micah I would on his birthday. It wasn't that I didn't want to, because I really did, don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t know how to. Max had a temper and I didn’t know how he would react. Not to mention that he's smart. He would probably figure out why I wanted to end our relationship, even if I didn't tell him it was because I want to be with someone else.

In all honesty, I thought he would have figured out by now that I was seeing Micah from all the times in the last few he had invited me to come over and I had been "busy". And who knows? Maybe he did know, but just decided not to bring it up, waiting for the right time. It was something he would do.

I had been spending almost every day since Micah's birthday with him, mostly at his house, which is something I never thought I'd be doing. He had called me the morning after his birthday and told me everything that had happened between Rochelle and I dropping him home and his mother leaving. He sounded so sad and hurt, and it broke my heart. I knew that he never wanted to split his family up, so this had to be extremely hard on him.

I'd nervously waited on the phone, with bated breath, for him to blame me for everything and tell me he never wanted to see me again because I was the one who pulled the gay in him to the surface, but he surprised me and instead asked me if I could come over to his place to spend some time with him. Twenty minutes later, I was sitting at his family's dining table, eating breakfast with Micah, his father and sisters Georgia and Sara (Elise was sleeping in). It wasn’t exactly a comfortable experience but I appreciated the effort they went to to make me feel welcome. Micah's younger sister, Sara (who I had never met before), kept looking at me though, and I couldn't figure out why. It was almost like she was studying me and that more than anything made me nervous.

She only stopped when Georgia glanced at her and noticed her staring at me and told her to stop creeping me out. Sara had shaken her head slightly with a blush and looked down at her empty plate mumbling “sorry” under her breath, making Micah and Georgia laugh and their dad to scold them for it. Later I found out that apparently Sara has a thing for the “bad boy” look – tattoos, shaggy hair, stretched ears, etc. and she thought I was attractive. It was flattering but anytime I was in a room with her after that I (kindly) made sure she knew I wasn't interested in anyone but her brother.

I wasn't allowed to be in Micah's room alone with him, except with the door open, which kind of sucked, especially since all I could think about from the moment we got back together was him naked and writhing underneath me, but we made do with what we got. A few times we had to hurry to fix up our clothes and pretend we were just innocently cuddling when we heard footsteps approaching his bedroom. I have a feeling everyone in the house suspected what we were really doing but nobody said anything and so we kept doing it.

After one such incident in which his father walked into the bedroom to give me my ‘twenty minute warning’ (basically just to let me know that I had twenty more minutes until I had to leave for the evening) and we were hiding our naked lower halves under Micah's bedsheets, I had turned to Micah after his dad left and pulled him in for a long kiss. He sighed into it before pulling away, sitting up slightly so he was partially hovering over me and looking at me with a somewhat sad expression.

“What's wrong?” I asked as I reached up to push a strand of hair out of his eyes.
“You haven't done it yet. It's been three weeks since my birthday. I just… I don't want to be the one you're cheating on your boyfriend with…” he trailed off. He was right. I hung my head, ashamed.
“I know. I know, you're right. I'm sorry I haven't. It's just… Easier said than done, you know? I know that's not an excuse but…”
“I'll tell him right now, if you like,” he said with a small smile. He was quoting me from way back before we got together the first time, when he was going to break up with Isabelle and I had offered the same thing to him.

“No, that's okay. I will. I need to. I'll go tonight and do it. I'm sorry if I hurt you by making you wait. I didn't mean to,” I said. He didn't reply, only kissed me hard on the mouth and the conversation ended for the time being until his dad called to us from the kitchen that it was time for me to leave.

Micah and I pulled on our pants and left his room without a word between us until we got outside. I said a quick goodbye to his father as I passed him on the way to the front door, which he returned with a smile. I followed Micah out onto the front porch and pulled him in for a kiss. I held on to his hips as he wrapped his arms around my neck to keep me close as we went about our nightly routine of making out until his father called him to come inside and a few minutes later, he did just that.
Micah and I pulled away, not wanting to make his father mad.

"I love you," he whispered to me, his eyes meeting mine.
"I love you, too," I replied, "And tomorrow, I will officially be all yours."
"Who said I wanted you?" he joked, and I lightly punched him on the arm. He kissed me quickly on the side of my mouth. "I can't wait till you're all mine."
"Me either. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Definitely," he said with a smile, before he turned to walk back into his house. I watched him go until the door shut and then I headed down the driveway towards where my car was parked on the street. Once getting in my car and starting the engine, I headed directly to Max's apartment. I had no idea if he was at home or working but I figured that if he wasn’t there I would wait until he got there. I wasn’t going to make Micah wait any longer.

As bad luck would have it, he wasn’t at home when I got there, so I sent him a text asking when he would be back. While I waited for his reply, I went around the house collecting the things that I had left there over the past year. There wasn’t a huge amount but enough to keep me busy until he wrote back saying that his shift ended in half an hour. I replied that I was waiting for him at his apartment, and then just sat in front of the television until he returned home.

He was wearing his white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck as he came in and I couldn’t help but remember why I thought he was attractive when I first met him. Max is honestly the kind of doctor someone would purposely break their leg for just to have him treat it. If only his personality matched his looks.

He removed the stethoscope and coat and put them on the dining table before turning to where I was sitting on the couch with the TV on.

"Hi, baby," he said. He almost sounded wary, like he wasn’t sure why I was there. I turned off the television and stood, coming around the couch to stand in front of him. I nodded to one of the dining chairs, indicating I wanted him to sit down, but he shook his head.

"Okay," I said quietly. I wasn’t sure whether that was in response to him refusing a seat or if that was the brilliant start to my break up speech, but since Max didn’t say anything, I continued. "Um, I really don’t know where to start. I- uh... shit. I don’t want to do this anymore?" It came out like a question, which wasn’t really what I was intending.

Max nodded slowly. "You don’t want to do this anymore. What, exactly?" He was calm, almost too calm and I knew that was an indication of his temper rising.
"This relationship. I want to break up," I told him, more confidently this time.

"Do you, now? Does this have anything to do with the fact that you've essentially been ignoring me for weeks? Being "busy"?" Max said, sarcasm evident in his voice.
"Yes," I said quietly.

He let out a small hum of acknowledgement and then was silent for a few moments. Then, "So, who have you been busy fucking? That's what you were doing right? Screwing some little slut behind my back?"

"Don't call him that," I snarled.

"He will never be as good for you as I am. I saved your fucking life and this is how you repay me?"

"Are you going to hold that over me for the rest of my life? It was your fucking job to save my life, you asshole! You didn’t do it just out of the generosity of your own heart."

"Yeah, you're right. And now I wish I never received your case in the first place. I should have just let you die. Done the bare minimum to make it seem like I did everything I could to save you but you were fucking stupid and drank yourself to the point where I couldn’t. I'm telling you now, baby, –" He spat the word at me. "– you're going to regret this. You shouldn’t have done this. You shouldn’t have cheated on me. I was the best you were ever going to get. Now, you're going to pay."

I scoffed. "So, you're going to threaten me? Real mature, Max. What are you going to do? Tell him I have an STD or something? Grow up. I don’t want to be with you anymore. Get the fuck over it. I don’t need a crazy stalker ex, just let me and Mi... uh, him, be happy." I silently cursed myself for nearly revealing that I was with Micah, but I hoped that Max didn’t catch it and just railroaded through the final couple of sentences of my speech. "I've got all my shit. Delete my phone number. Goodbye, Max."

With that, I marched to the door and left without looking back. I had adrenaline coursing through my veins and I felt like I was high. I did it. I broke up with Max and now I was free to be with Micah. I nearly tripped going down the stairs three at a time, but I managed to recover and made it back to my car in one piece. I then sped home to Drew's, where I happily told him the news before I headed to my bedroom for the rest of the evening. I shot Micah a quick text telling him I did it, then I just laid back on my bed, smiling up at the ceiling. I couldn’t wait for my life with Micah to begin.