chapter 8✿

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The rest of the day was spent crying in bed and calling Ian a countless amount of times. After the first 30 tries, I stopped. It's now around eleven pm, I go downstairs to grab dinner. I haven't eaten since breakfast and I am starved. I tip toe around to make sure not to let Michael hear me. Just as I am getting a bowl out of the cupboard, the front door opens. I turn my head quickly to see my mother stumble inside the house.

"Mom? What's wrong with you?" I ask her. She looks quite intoxicated.

"What's wrong with me?" She slurs. "What's wrong with you? You look like you've been crying for days."

"Yeah I-" I begin before she cut me off.

"Look, I'd love to stay and hear your sob story about why you've been crying but quite frankly, I don't give a damn. Nighty night." She says before staggering upstairs.

What just happened? Why is my mother drunk? I leave my food in the kitchen and walk upstairs, knocking on Michael's door. He doesn't answer, so I let myself in. 

"Michael?" I ask. 

He doesn't even look over at me. I wave my arms in the air. He looks over at me and pulls the headphones from his ears. 

"Oh sorry, I didn't hear you come in. Everything okay?" He asks.

"Not really," I begin. He sits up on his bed and waits for me to continue. "Mum just walked in completely drunk."

He sighs. "I'm not surprised." He shakes his head.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, May. Just leave it alone." He says sternly.

"No! Damn it Michael, tell me what the hell is going on! Is that why Mum's always gone? She's out getting shit faced? I'm in the dark here, let me in." I cry, extremely frustrated.

He lets out a breath. "May, there's a lot you don't know." He pauses. "And I think it would be best if it stayed that way."

"That's it!" I scream. "I'm going home. I don't need this." I turn around and leave Michael's room.

He quickly follows me to my room and grabs my arm. "Alright, May. I'll tell you what's going on, but you need to stop threatening to leave every time something goes wrong."

I nod my head. "Alright, I'm sorry. Please just tell me what's going on."

He sits down on the edge of my bed and I quickly follow, sitting beside him. He lets out a sigh before starting what I had a feeling would be a very long explanation.

"Mum's been like this for a while now. She gets drunk a lot. Sometimes high too. It's ridiculous. She's a grown woman acting like a teenager. When it first started I didn't say anything because I hoped it would just be some kind of short depression phase after the divorce. But, it became a regular thing. Sometimes she wouldn't even come home for days. I never said anything to her though since she was my only family in Sydney, I couldn't risk losing her. But then one day she came home completely drunk out of her mind and started throwing things. I couldn't take it anymore so I finally told her she's ridiculous and needs to stop all this shit. She didn't take that too well and she uh- well, she- she hit me a couple times. After that I packed a bag and stayed at Luke's for a week. Her and I haven't talked much since. That's why I've been so excited for you to come, I needed to see real family." He says, out of breath.

I felt like the wind has been knocked out of me. When did my Mum become such a horrible person? Her and my Dad never hit Michael and I. That was something they never did. They would yell at us, but never physically lay a hand on us. I quickly wipe the tears that formed in my eyes and hug Michael. 

"I'm so sorry, Mikey. I-I didn't know." I say quietly. "If I knew I never would have yelled at you the way I did."

"I know, don't worry about it." He says, pulling away. "Only you and Luke know though, so don't tell anyone else."

"Of course not, Mikey." I say to him. 

We talk all night and eventually by three in the morning, I go to sleep. I barely got any sleep at all though because all I could think about was the type of person my Mum now was. I couldn't even imagine how Michael managed to put up with this all. What was I going to do now? I couldn't leave him alone with her. I couldn't go back to Melbourne without him.

I wake up the next morning and go straight to Michael's room. I knock on the door. 

"Come in." Michael says. I open up the door to see Luke and Michael sitting on the edge of Michael's bed, playing Fifa.

"Oh, I didn't know you had company. I'll come back later." I say, shutting the door. 

"No, wait!" Michael says. "What did you need?"

"Oh, I was just gonna ask if uh- if you wanted to go for breakfast but you're busy. We can go another time." I say. 

Michael laughs, but I didn't realize I had said something funny. "Breakfast? It's a little late for that." He says. 

I furrow my brows and look at his alarm clock. 2:42 it read. 

"I slept this long?" I gasp. 

"Yeah, but we can go for lunch?" Michael asks. 

I shake my head. "No, that's okay. You have company."

"Well, Luke can come." Michael says. 

"Would that be okay?" Luke asks. 

I sigh heavily. "I guess." 

"Woah, don't get too excited." Luke says, laughing. 

I don't respond, I just shut the door and walk back to my room. I tried not to say to much to Luke because he was the whole reason Ian and I weren't talking.

I quickly get ready and meet Michael and Luke downstairs. 

"Alright, let's go." I say. 

We head out and get into Luke's car.

We get to the diner and go into the first booth we saw. I try not to say much to Luke. 

"May, are you alright?" Luke asks. 

"Yup." I say, popping the p. 

"Have you talked to Ian?" He asks. 

I immediately look down. Usually, by morning, Ian would text me and apologize for being a jerk. I would say it was okay and then we wouldn't talk for another day. Then the next day he would call me again and tell me he's really really sorry and then we'd get back together. But, Ian didn't text me this morning. He wasn't following the normal routine we had.

Michael notices I was obviously upset when Luke brought up Ian. Michael brings his hand to his forehead, shaking his head. He then brings his hand up and slaps Luke upside the head. 

"What the hell!" Luke exclaims.

"You're an idiot! She obviously doesn't want to talk about it."

"Mikey, it's okay. I actually think I'm going to go home." I say, grabbing my bag. 

Michael puts his arm out and stops me. "Remember what I said about not leaving?"

"Michael, I'm just going back to the house, not Melbourne. Relax." I say, giving him a small smile. "I'll see you back at the house."

I don't bother saying bye to Luke. I feel bad being rude to Luke when he didn't do anything wrong but, the only way I would get Ian back is if I stop talking to Luke.

I was home for about an hour when Michael and Luke came back. 

"May?" Michael calls. 

"In my room." I say back. 

Michael and Luke both come into my room. 

"Hey." I say. 

"Hey. Um, I know you probably won't be up for it but, Cora's having everyone over tonight and it would be really great if you came." Michael says. 

"Jeez, do you guys have parties every night?" I ask. 

"No, not every night." Michael says chuckling. 

"Maybe next time, Mikey." I say. 

"Come on, please?" Luke cuts in. 

"If you're really having a shitty time then we can leave. Okay?" Michael says. 

I quickly think it over and give in. "Fine."

I might as well go because if I don't, I would most likely spend my night calling Ian over and over and then crying when he doesn't answer. 

"Good. It's at 9. One sec, I gotta piss." Michael says, walking into my bathroom en-suite, leaving just Luke and I.

I direct my attention to my phone when Luke speaks up, 

"Did I do something wrong?" He asks. 

"No? Why would you think that?" I ask him, not bothering to look up from my phone. 

"Because you're treating me like something you scrape off the bottom of your shoe." He laughs hesitantly. 

I exhale loudly and look up at him, "Look, Luke. I'm sorry. I don't mean to treat you like shit. It's just; Ian and I are kind of fighting because of our tweets back and forth. I kind of thought Ian wouldn't be mad at me anymore if you and I just stopped being friends." I explain, realizing what a bitch I sounded like. 

He furrows his eyebrows. "So now you're letting him decide who you're friends with?" He asks, clear anger in his voice. 

"No Luke, it's not like that." I say standing up. 

"He treats you so bad, May." Luke says, sighing. 

"No he doesn't!"

"He treats you like complete shit! Fuck, May! Why can't you see it?" Luke asks, raising his voice as well. 

"Why do you even care so much!" I yell. 

Michael for sure could hear us, why was he taking so long? 

"Because," Luke pauses, looking over to the closed bathroom door before returning his attention on me. He lowers his voice. "Because I care! I don't want you dating Ian, okay?"

"And why not?" I ask. 

He fell silent. 

"Well?" I ask, getting frustrated. 

"Because I don't want you dating anyone!" Luke says in a tense whisper. 

Why was he telling me all of this? Before I can reply Michael comes out.

"What's with the yelling?" He asked. 

Luke and I turn to look at Michael. 

"I was uh- just apologizing for earlier at the diner." Luke lies. 

Michael laughs lightly. "And you did it by yelling at her?"

"No, I yelled at him. I'm just on edge today. Sorry for yelling, Luke." I lie straight through my teeth. 

"I'm the one who's sorry. Forget everything I just said." Luke says. 

"But, I thought you apologized?" Michael asked. I feel bad for lying straight to Michael's face. He's like a kitten, so innocent. 

"I uh- I did. I meant forget everything I said at the diner. I gotta go, I'll pick you up at 9 Michael. Oh, and you too, May." Luke says before rushing out of my room and out the front door of the house. 

"What the fuck just happened?" Michael asks, standing there confused as ever. 

I don't reply. Instead, I just roll my eyes and go into the lounge room to watch tv. I sit there but don't focus much on whatever show was on. All I can think about is what Luke said to me. I don't want you dating anyone. What was that supposed to mean? I need to talk to Luke. I need to settle whatever was going on here. And I'll settle it all at the party tonight. This pointless drama needs to end.

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