Mikey’s POV

I wake up with the biggest headache.
“I’m not drinking again” I say to myself, as I drag myself out of my bed and into the shower. When I go downstairs, my dad is in front of the TV, and my mom is on her laptop.
“Michael” I hear my mom say as I walk to the kitchen.
“Parent” I turn and say, and then continue walking to the kitchen.
“Do you have any idea what was the time when you came home?” She asks. Not this again. I get it every time I come home late, and it’s getting boring.
“Around 2?” I say, going through the fridge.
“And your room smells of alcohol” I hear her say. I roll my eyes, as I close the fridge door and fill a glass with water. “Don’t ignore me” She appears on the doorway of the kitchen.
“I was drinking water” I say filling the glass again.
“The school year has barely started, Michael. You need to get your act together this year. I am tired of you skipping class to hang out with your friends, and your late drunk nights! It’s stopping. Now.” She says, crossing her arms.
I look down. I love my mom, and I know she is right, but I had no energy to talk to her.
“Okay” I say after I realize she is actually waiting for my answer.
“Don’t just say okay, and then skip on Monday!” She says.
“I won’t skip school anymore. But I can’t promise about the late nights” I smirk. She arches an eyebrow “Kidding.” I say and hug her. She hugs me back.
“Here’s a shopping list” She says, putting a piece of paper in my hand, I groan. “Don’t give me that! You’re lucky I’m not grounding you. Get going”
“Can I have your car?” I ask her, as I put on my shoes.
“If you only had a license,” my mom smiles. I grunt and go outside. The store is a 10 minute walk. I check the list. Eggs, milk, pasta and cheese. Not really that long. She just wants to punish me while I have a hangover. Good parenting, mom.
I take my phone out and call Calum.
“Hello?” he grunts.
“Are you sleeping?” I ask him.
“Mhmmmm” He answers. “What’s up?”
“I have to do some shopping for my mom.” I say.
“You only use me for my car” he groans, and I hear shuffling.
“I also use you for your big-“ I start saying but he cuts me off.
“Don’t finish that sentence” He says. “I’m up. Come over and then we can go” He says. Technically it would take me the exact amount of time to get to the store as it would take me to get to Calum’s, but I still walk to his house.
The sun is peeking from behind the clouds, which hurts my eyes. I just wanna go back to bed, but I know that my mom won’t allow that. She would torture me home, so I’d rather be out.
When I get there, unavoidably, I see Addie’s house. And then the memory from last night rushes back to me. Outside the club. She kissed me. The feeling of her lips on mine comes back uninvited, and I absentmindedly touch my mouth with my fingers. I pushed her away. How did that seem like a good idea? There is a car outside and I’m not sure if it’s her mom’s or not.
“Are you gonna stay there stalking our neighbors all day, or are you coming in?” I hear Mali’s voice from the front door.
“Hey Mali” I say walking to her. She gives me a hug and then she is out the door. Their house is empty, apart from the shower water running from the bathroom upstairs.
“Honey, I’m home” I yell, taking my shoes off. I go in Cal’s room. The window is opened and a light breeze comes in from it. I walk to it, and look down. Addie’s door is opened. Does Cal know that she kissed me? I feel guilty. I know I shouldn’t because I didn’t do anything, but I still feel bad. Calum comes out of the shower after a while, wearing a towel around his hips.
“Are you trying to seduce me?” I ask. He laughs getting underwear from one of his drawers. I look at Addie’s again. I wonder if she is sleeping. Probably not. It’s 1:30pm.
“My head is killing me” I hear Calum from behind.
“Yeah, same” I say, forcing my thought to come back.
“Did your mom catch you last night?” He asks me, putting on a shirt.
“Nah…although she gave me shit before I left” I say. Calum laughs. Then he gets his keys, his wallet and his phone, and we are going downstairs.
“Who was that girl you were making out with?” I ask him, suddenly remembering. I don’t know why I bring it up. Maybe I think it will make me feel better about the kiss between Addie and me. Kinda hope so…
“Sarah or Selena or something like that.” He says, putting his shoes on.
“She kinda looked pissed when you went to dance with Addie” I laugh. I just want to talk about Addie. I don’t know if I should tell him about her kissing me. I know he likes her, but he hasn’t said anything about it.
“Yeah…” he says, and looks down, smiling. Did they kiss as well?
“What does that smug smile of yours mean?” I ask , poking him. Teasing him is the best way to get the information out. “Did you guys kiss?” I ask. Not sure if I want to know the answer to this.
“Nooo” He says. “We just danced” He says, and then we are walking to his car.
For a moment I am glad they didn’t kiss, and then I feel guilty because her and me did. I get into the passenger seat, and he gets in the driver’s.
“You look way too smug for just dancing.” I say. I don’t know why I’m pushing it. I think that maybe he is lying. But why would he lie? I’m not one lying right now. Well…I’m not actually lying, I’m withholding the truth.
“It’s just…” He says, and pauses. “The way we danced. I wanted to kiss her, but I never did, and I don’t know, man…it’ was really nice” He says, smiling. Pictures of yesterday are probably flooding his brain. I know they are flooding mine. Addie and me dancing was nothing like them. We were goofing off, making fun of the people around us, and laughing. They were…so intense. Should I tell him about the kiss? It was nothing. I’m sure she kissed me because she saw Calum kissing that girl. And it’s not like I didn’t want her to kiss me, I just didn’t want it to be because of that…
“Mike?” Calum asks. The car is stopped. We are in front of the store. I laugh it off and then we go to the shop. I buy everything on the list, all four things, and get cookies for myself. My phone rings as I am paying and it’s my mom, telling me to come home. Apparently I am not off the hook.
When Calum drops me off, I tell him that I’ll call him for tonight, if we are doing something, and then I go home. I help mom with making food, just to get her off my case a bit, and then I go in my room and play video games.

Calum’s POV

I get home after I drop Mikey off, and I see Marissa, Ashley, Chris and Aggie come out of Addie’s house. I get out of my car, and Marissa eyes me like she’s gonna eat me for breakfast. I go inside and wait for them to leave, before I make the bold choice of going over at Addie’s without any previous announcement.
I ring on her doorbell, not wanting to run into anything inappropriate in her room. After a while, Lucy opens the door. Half of her hair is braided in small braids. She is wearing leggings and a hoodie.
“Hey” She says, and steps aside, making room for me to come in. “You just missed the party” She says, closing the door and locking it.
“Lucy who is it” Addie says, but her voice fades at the end of her sentence “Hi” She says. And we are staring at each other. Awkward.
“Are you a victim of the hangover?” Lucy says, walking to the kitchen. Addie and I just gaze at each other in complete silence. “Then come on down to Benson’s kitchen for a nice chocolate pancake. Bananas sold separately” Lucy is still talking like an infomercial.
Addie is the first one to break our eye contact, following Lucy in the kitchen.
She is already making the pancake dough. She breaks a couple of eggs. And then Addie and I are helping her. Lucy talks as if she is doing a cooking show.
“And now, lady and gentleman, we shall pour the pancake dough on the pan, and hope for the best” She says, and then does as she says. “You must turn the pancake over so it’s equally cooked, and ready for eating. If you wanna look cool, like me,” she says, lifting the pan and stepping back.
“Lucy, no” Addie says, taking a step back.
“Lucy yes” she says and throws the pancake in the air. It flips and falls flatly on the pan “IT WORKED!” She thrusts her fist in the air, and puts the pan down on the stove again. “And now, we put the pancake in a plate that one of my assistants will provide” She says. I take out a plate from one of the cupboards and put it next to the stove. Lucy carefully transfers the pancake onto it. “And this is how you make the Lucy pancake. Yummy, flat, and made with love”
Addie and I laugh. She continues with her cooking show for the next 10 minutes, making all the pancakes she can from the dough, and then we sit in the dining hall, bringing Nutella and strawberry jam with us.
“I am so happy this worked” Lucy says, putting Nutella on her pancake “I should have a cooking show”
Addie puts jam on hers, and I follow in Lucy’s footsteps. We more than half of the pancakes, and then Lucy is too tired to do anything else, so we end up watching Catfish on MTV. Addie and I share the couch, and Lucy is curled up on the other sofa.
Addie gets really into it, and Lucy falls asleep in the first five minutes.
“I swear if it’s the mom I want an award” Addie says, biting her nails. She looks so different than yesterday. Alcohol does wonders to people. After the big reveal on the show, we watch MTV music and Addie almost falls asleep.
“What do you wanna do?” She asks. I am on the brink of falling asleep.
“What do you mean?” I mumble.
“After high school. You never said” She says. I don’t know how to explain it to people. So I just try the most basic way to go at it.
“Make music” I say lazily.
“You see a future with your band?” She asks. It’s not a sarcastic remark, just a genuine question. I smile.
“Yeah. I mean, we’ve been goofing around lately, but we played like ten gigs this summer.” I answer. She props her head on her hand, and faces me. She has a little smile dancing on her lips “I don’t know…it sounds stupid, but I just really like the feeling on stage…” I look at her. Her eyes are closed, but she has a smile on her face. I’m not sure if she is sleeping or not.
“Are you gonna go to college?” She asks, after a moment, and opens her eyes. I can’t stop looking at her. She looks so beautiful.
“I don’t know” I answer. “I don’t think so. Mikey is not going. I don’t know about Luke-“ She cuts me off.
“But do you want to go?” She asks.
“I don’t know…” I answer. Our voices are so low, sometimes when she speaks I really have to listen to distinguish what’s the muffled music coming from MTV and what are words coming out of her mouth. “I mean, if I did I would go to a music academy…if I get in. But I don’t want to spend 4 more years learning and spending money on something I can learn with experience, you know? It’s not science or physics, it’s like art, it takes practice to make perfect, and the best way to learn is through experience, so I don’t really see the point in it” I say. The words come so easily. I’ve tried explaining this to a lot of people, and I always end up sounding stupid. Addie smiles again.
“Well you guys should really stop goofing around then” she says, lazily. I let out a low laugh.
“I’ve been distracted” I say, and then I realize what that actually means and for a moment I think she doesn’t hear me over the TV.
“With what?” She asks, opening her eyes. My heartbeat accelerates.
“Well…” I try to think of a lie “I don’t know. My mind just hasn’t been on banding at all” I say.
“Well you can’t blame it on Marissa” She says and smiles, as if this is the cleverest thing she has said today.
“So funny” I say, hitting her lightly with a pillow. She lets out a lazy laugh, and then her head falls on my shoulder.
“What are you planning to do?” I ask after a moment. My heart is beating faster again, and not for the same reason as earlier.
“Go to Uni. Get some experience and then open my own publishing house” She says.
“How did you figure it out?” I ask her. She mumbles something I think it’s what? “How did you figure out publishing books is your thing?” I rephrase my question.
“Well I can’t write, and I love books, so I might as well publish them. I’ll be the firs one reading manuscripts and then I’ll say whether we publish this book or not. I would literally read for a living. Can’t get better than that.” She says, and snuggles closer to me. I put my arm around her, and she makes herself comfortable.
After that I she kind of drifts to sleep, and I try so hard not to myself. I want to savor every second of this. She smells nice, like almonds and vanilla, a smell I didn’t realize I’ve been craving. Her breathing evens out. She looks so cute, her arm draped around my stomach. I don’t want to move. I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to be with her.

Addie’s POV

I feel his heartbeat under my cheek. It slows down, and it stabilizes. My eyes are closed, but my mind is rushing. I don’t want to get up, but I don’t want to risk Aggie and her friends coming back. That is drama that could be avoided.
And just as if some cosmic entity, or irony, read my mind, someone tries to open the door. I jump up, and Calum looks at me, confused. Before I can tell him to go into my room, and that this could be Marissa, and that I am not in the mood to deal with her and her friends again, I hear a voice outside. A very familiar voice. A voice that haunts me in my nightmares sometimes. My heart stops for a moment, and I don’t move. Calum is even more confused by my reaction.
Lucy slowly gets up. She doesn’t look tired anymore. She’s alert and ready for a fight or flight reaction, like an animal.
“Who is that?” Calum asks, fear mixed with uncertainty in his voice. Lucy and I exchange a look. We both know what this means. Calum is looking at me, waiting for an answer. But I can’t say it.
“Her dad” Lucy answers instead of me. And then it becomes all too real. And before I know it, my vision is blurry and I have that ugly lump in my throat.

Notes

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