Mickey - The View From Here - Gallavich

Start of a Bad Day

It promised to be a horrible day, so Ian let me sleep in while he did his morning workout. Today was a one-two punch, the day of “my" kid's christening, and the day my dad was being let out of prison. If I could have, I would have hid in Ian's bed, covering my ears until my fear and guilt finally gave me some peace.

My eyes fluttered open at the sound of Ian and his little brother, Carl talking about me down the hall.

“Mickey your boyfriend?” Carl wondered after he noticed me asleep in Ian’s bed again.

Ian was doing pull ups, using the door frame to Lip's room to anchor himself. Although Ian could be tiring nowadays, I would rather him too hyped up than lashing out with knives or baseball bats.

“We hang out,” Ian told his brother.

“He's in your bed,” Carl informed him.

“Yeah, his family is a bit of a nightmare,” Ian replied.

Carl informed Ian he had a new girlfriend, saying her family was a nightmare, too. Then, he wondered, “you love Mickey?”

Ian thought on this, unaware that I was getting out of his bed to throw on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. “I like how he smells.”

Out of curiosity, I smelled the shirt I was wearing to find it didn’t seem to smell like anything at all. “Whatcha asking stupid fucking questions for?” I snapped as I walked into the bathroom.

“You were nicer when you were asleep,” Carl informed me before heading downstairs.

As I took a morning piss, Ian leaned in the doorway behind me. “I gotta go to the church for the christening today.”

Ian crossed his arms over his chest. “Thought you didn’t care.”

“I don’t,” I told him, zipping up and washing my hands.

“Why are you going, then?”

Is this jealousy? It’s been a while.

“It’s my son, man,” I replied as I turned to face him. “You said I should try.”

“All right, I’ll get dressed,” he said happily before slipping back into the hallway and taking off his shirt.

“No, no. Look, it’s fine,” I assured him.

Ian coming along to the christening was probably the worst idea he had ever thought up. If my dad didn’t kill him, my wife would. Plus, after the whole knife to Kenyata's throat thing, Ian was now on the list of wildcards. I could come to terms with it if Ian murdered Terry, but Ian ruining his life again because of me, life in prison, the guilt, the label of murderer, I didn’t want any of that for him. Sure, we both talked shit about killing Terry or Kev or Kenyata, but that was talk, a ventilation of stress. I was never going to kill Kev. I was just pissed off. As for my sister’s abusive boyfriend, a good beat down would have sufficed.

“I’ll head over by myself. I'll be back in a couple hours,” I promised as I followed him back into the hall.

Ian turned and rushed me, shoving me up against the wall as he twisted my shirt in a fist at my chest. “What? You don’t want me to go?”

I shoved him back against the adjacent wall and slid my hands around his waist to pull his hips to mine. “Probably best if you don’t, tough guy.”

His green eyes turned cold. “Yeah, for you, maybe.”

My disappointment fell heavily over my body like a weighted blanket. I was hoping this was leading back into the bedroom. “Why you bustin' my balls, man?”

Ian trailed behind me into his room where I grabbed a pair of clean socks. Taking ahold of my hips, Ian forced me to turn to him. “Just wondering if we’re a couple or not.”

Seriously? I thought with a raised brow.

I flipped him onto his back in his bed, climbing on top of him to hold down his wrists.

I was hit with deja vu as Ian expectantly stared up at me, waiting for me to hit or threaten him, to tell him he meant nothing to me. It was so much like the first time we really saw one another, back in my old bedroom what felt like years ago.

With affection radiating from my core, I let my facial expression soften. “Of course we are,” I assured him, hoping that he never needed to call our relationship into question again.

This didn’t ease his mind. “A couple that hides?”

“Hey, it’s working so far, so good.”

“Getting kinda sick of it,” Ian informed me.

 “What the fuck, man?” I groaned as I got off of him and to my feet. This was exhausting and I could only deal with one problem at a time today. “How about you let me go deal with that stupid shit before I deal with your stupid shit?” I walked away, readying myself to face Terry again.