"Why am I here again?" Calum groaned, using his elbow to prop himself up against Michael. They were standing outside of the school, waiting for Parker and the rest of his class to come out. Michael made Calum come there with him 20 minutes early, because he didn't want to risk Parker coming out and not seeing his dad there.
"Because we're going out for ice cream." Michael shrugged. They were going out for ice cream again, because Parker loved ice cream.
It had been an extremely boring few days for Michael. He never had anything to do without Parker, so he literally sat around and cleaned his apartment all day. Michael was bored. It was only Thursday and he already wanted to take Parker out of school and just let him stay home all day every day.
They'd wake up late every morning, scramble around and eat cold pizza for breakfast, and then somehow Michael would get Parker to school on time and they'd part ways until later that afternoon.
After he dropped Parker off at school Michael would go back to their apartment and quickly call Parker's mom, letting her know that Parker had made it to school on time and everything was okay, and then she'd make up something about being too busy to continue the conversation.
Today Michael went over to Calum's apartment and woke him up, forcing his friend to get out of the house and come get something to eat for lunch. Really Michael was just bored and lonely, and he would have gone to one of his other friends, but they had their own jobs and girlfriends and things to do.
"Do you think ice cream will cure a hangover?" Calum asked, adjusting the sunglasses that he had on over his eyes.
Calum was the definition of a ladies man, going out every night and picking up different girls. He'd drink until he could hardly walk anymore and then convince a girl into taking him to bed, only to leave or kick her out the next morning. Michael didn't really agree with Calum's lifestyle, but Calum didn't agree with Michael's, so in a way it was fair.
"I don't know." Michael shrugged again. He was growing impatient, he felt like they'd been there for hours and Parker still wasn't out yet.
"Dude, calm down." Calum laughed, patting Michael on the back. He'd noticed the way that Michael was nervously bouncing up and down, and playing with his fingers while they waited, and it was annoying. "I'm sure he was fine."
"Do you think he missed me?" Michael asked, letting out a big sigh.
"I don't know." Calum shrugged. Calum really wasn't much help when it came to problems with Parker, because he knew nothing about children. That's why Michael usually went to his friend Ashton, or sometimes Luke, because they were better at advice than Calum was.
"I hope he was okay. He looked so upset again this morning when I dropped him off, like he was going to cry. I almost cried. I wonder if he - "
"You need a girlfriend." Calum interrupted, putting a hand on Michael's shoulder.
"What? Where did that come from?" Michael questioned. He didn't need a girlfriend, he was perfectly fine living on his own with Parker. His last relationship literally just ended, too, and he didn't need or want to rush into something else this soon.
"You're bored and weird and mopey when Parker isn't around. Like, you're always talking about how much you miss him. So you should get a girlfriend, or at least a dog." Calum shrugged.
Calum's only solution to anything was to get a girlfriend. Like you could just walk outside and go "hey, be my girlfriend" to some random girl and she'd agree to it. Michael knew that wouldn't work. Not for him, at least, but maybe for Calum.
