I Breathe You In Like Smoke [Pierce The Veil- Mike Fuentes fanfic]

~Chapter 10~

            “Oh my god, I can’t believe you got me to do this. What kind of poison did you feed me, Mike Fuentes?” My dad’s whole idea of giving me a week off was a horrible idea. He already got me a date with Mike, and now I’m sitting in a tattoo parlour getting ready for my first tattoo.

            He laughed as he took in my nervous state. He put his arm around my shoulders. “Everything will be ok, Isabelle. I’ll be here.”

            “Isabelle Stone?” Someone came out wearing gloves and tattoos and I took a deep breath before walking into the back while clutching Mike’s hand. “So I have your design here, is this good for you?” The only thing I wanted was a small heart on my wrist. It was conservative and fast.

            I nodded, sticking my wrist out for them to work their magic. I was strangely excited by all of this. This was going to be a day I would never forget.

            “Fuck it hurts!” I cried, clutching Mike’s hand with my free hand.

            “C’mon Isabelle, you’ve had to endure worse than this. Remember how much it hurts to stub your toe or get stung by a bee? This is nothing,” Mike said, while still laughing at me which was no help at all.

            “Just think of all the kids starving in Africa. That usually gets me through,” the tattoo artist suggested as they worked away at my small tattoo.

            “Ok, you’re done.” I was literally in there for like five minutes.

             I looked down at my wrist and the skin around it was red and irritated, but it was perfect. I loved it so much.

            “Thank you, I love it!” I enthused, beaming at my wrist.

            “It looks awesome,” Mike pointed out.

            “Of course it looks awesome, it’s on me, isn’t it?” I teased.

When we were walking back to my apartment, my iPhone rang. My dad has been calling me nonstop lately but I’ve just been ignoring his calls because I know all he’s going to do is yell at me about another thing posted in the tabloids. I’ve been ignoring all of the tabloids because I can’t stand to hear people talking about me.

            “Maybe you should answer it this time. What if there’s something wrong?” Mike said as he watched me stare at my call screen.

            I groaned at him. “Ok Mr. Curious. But you better be prepared to pick up the pieces when I end the call in a fuming rage,” I said before pressing the Answer button. “Hello?”

            “Isabelle, thank god you finally picked up! It’s Stephanie, your father has been in the hospital for the past four days. You need to come here now.” She hung up on me and I felt frozen.

            “Isabelle? What’s wrong? You’re scaring me, Isabelle.” Mike hovered around me, catching my phone as it fell from my hand and waving his hand in front of my face.

            “I have to get to the hospital,” I said, bolting in the direction of the hospital. I heard Mike groan as he ran after me, always trailing behind me until we were at the hospital.

            When I got inside, I was immediately directed to his hospital room by nurses that have been expecting me for the last four days. I felt so horrible. How could I be so stupid?

            “I’ll just wait out here...” Mike said awkwardly as the nurses stopped him.

            When I was finally in front of his hospital room, I took a deep breath and made my way inside. Stephanie was sitting by his bed, and my dad was sitting up watching the news. The news showed a picture of me and Mike holding hands. Fuck.

            “What the hell happened to you?” I asked, examining him in the hospital bed. He had no bumps or bruises. He looked perfectly fine for the most part.

            He sighed. “There’s something I haven’t been telling you. About three months ago I got a brain tumor. I didn’t tell anyone and it got worse four days ago when I had an aneurism. I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to worry about me while you were in the top of your game.”

            “Did Stephanie know about this?” I seethed. Frankly, I was a bit angry that he didn’t tell his own daughter about something so serious, so life threatening.

            He nodded. “That’s why she planned the family get together. We wanted to get everyone together and have a happy night before I broke the news later on. But you stormed out so I never got the chance. Then you wouldn’t answer Stephanie’s phone calls from my phone when I had the aneurism. I don’t want to start a fight, Isabelle. Let’s just put this all behind us before it’s too late.”

            “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me...” I backed away from them, straight into the door. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me something like this but he would tell Stephanie.

            “Isabelle, you obviously don’t understand. He-”

            “Don’t you dare talk to me, you lying bitch!” I raged.

            “You think I’m the lying one? You’re the one that’s being seen all over New York kissing and holding hands with your so called best friend,” Stephanie shot back.

            I turned around and opened the door, slamming it behind me. I charged down the hall until I found Mike in the waiting room.

            “So, how bad was it?” He asked, keeping pace with me as I charged out of the hospital.

            I didn’t respond to him, making sure to keep all of my emotions in as we silently made our way back to my apartment.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” Mike said when I was still silent. We were sitting on my couch together watching some show on TV that I wasn’t paying attention to because I was too busy trying to keep my tears in.

            “He has cancer. And he didn’t tell me.” That’s when the tears came. All of the tears that I had always held in just streamed down my face and Mike held me close to him, letting me soak his shirt. “I don’t understand...”

            “He’s just being a protective dad. My dad used to always keep things from me. When I was in the moment I never understood why, but looking at it now I know he was just protecting me.”

            I looked up at him, crashing my lips onto his as he wiped away a stray tear running down my cheek.

           “Mike... I want you to make me forget everything. Just for one night,” I murmured against his lips.

            “Of course.”