Love Me Back

“Where’s Mike?” I asked, a few moments after staring at the space he used to stand in. I looked down at my hand, seeing that Drella had gently intertwined her fingers with mine. I smiled, the ring on her finger chilled my skin in the best way. She squeezed my hand reassuringly and I looked up at her.

“I don’t know,” she finally answered, biting her lip a little. “I didn’t see him leave.”

“Neither did I,” I mumbled with a sigh. I was too caught up with Drella to notice. I didn’t want to ruin our moment, though. “I’m sorry,” I blurted out.

Drella laughed shortly. “Sorry? For what?”

“Er, I don’t know,” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I just feel bad for some reason…”

“It’s okay, Vic,” she smiled and leaned over, kissing my cheek. “It was perfect,” she murmured. My insides warmed up and I smiled back at her again. It was like she could perfectly read my mind and see that I was feeling bad about doing all of that in front of Mike—but it really was the right moment, I couldn’t have imagined doing it any other way.

“He probably just stepped into the hallway or somewhere to give us privacy?” I suggested, even though that’d be incredibly out of character for him. But then again, everything about Mike lately was out of character.

Drella nodded though and I released my hand from hers. I walked towards the door of our apartment and opened it up, sticking my head into the hallway. “Mike?” I called. The hallway was completely empty, and I called his name a second time and even walked out there, looking around. “He’s not out there,” I frowned.

“Did he leave?” she asked, coming back to the main room of our place, from apparently looking around inside. I nodded.

“Damn,” I breathed. I took out my phone from my pocket and dialed his number—it went straight to voicemail. “I’m worried about him, Drella,” I frowned. “Something’s wrong with him.” The Mike we knew from a few years ago would have still been here, jumping up and down in excitement. It was visibly noticeable the way he was now more closed off, especially to us.

“Me too… I know. Maybe I’ll go and talk to him?” she suggested.

“But where is he?”

“His place, probably. It’s not that far,” she said.

“True…”

“I’ll go,” she said softly.

“Right, ‘cause he hates me.”

“No, Vic,” she sighed.

“Sorry, you’re right to go. He’d respond better with you anyway,” I shrugged my shoulders. “But text me if you find him?” I asked.

“Will do,” she said. A flash of worry struck her face. I let her go but I couldn’t get her expression out of my head—the way she was so adamant about going to find him, the way her face twisted in a way that she knew something about Mike that I didn’t. I knew it was the same expression that I carried though—we were both worried about him. Running off was something Mike just didn’t do, unless something was really bothering him.

Then a thought occurred to me: did my relationship with Drella bother him? Was that what this was about?

I swallowed hard and shook my head. That couldn’t be true. Mike had always been supportive of us—hell, he even set us up! If he wanted her to himself he would have made that clear early in our friendship; he was always better with girls, anyway.

I ran my fingers through my hair and groaned. Today was supposed to be special, it was special—now Mike was going off and ruining the mood. What was he so sour about? Why couldn’t he just be fucking happy for me?

Instead of being concerned, I slowly grew extremely angry. He had no right to suddenly march back into our lives and then kill the conversation with his disappearing act. He was hurting Drella, our Drella. He was upsetting her when she was supposed to finally be happy. We were both supposed to be her home but he was fucking it all up.

I looked at the time on my wrist and my eyes widen as I realize that I have been standing here, mentally yelling at Mike for nearly fifteen minutes. Sometimes my thoughts made time warp, that always seemed to be a problem with me especially when I was writing. I shook my head and checked my phone, just as I received a message from Drella.

He’s at his apartment complex, it read. I frowned and sighed, grabbing my keys to my apartment and locking the door behind me as I leave. His place wasn’t too far away and I was too worked up to drive so I just walked quickly, gathering my thoughts so I didn’t explode on him when I saw him.

Drella didn’t say anything else to me—she was probably talking to him—so I just entered his apartment complex with the key I had but never really used. I jogged up the stairs to enter his place, but the door was cracked open and music was blasting from inside. Frowning, I stuffed the keys into my pocket and tentatively entered the place—I coughed from the smoke that attacked my lungs upon entering, it was completely clouded. My jaw was dropped to the ground as I slowly walked in, in shock.

Then anger surged through me—was Drella in here? She was pregnant for God’s sake!

I walked further inside, the appearance of Mike’s apartment was shocking. It was trashed completely, beer and whiskey bottles littered the unfurnished floor along with the butt ends of cigarettes and empty cartons. I wandered over to a rotten wood coffee table that sat in between two torn up couches. I gasped at what I saw—small plastic baggies, some empty and some full of a fine white powder. I never used it but I sure as hell knew what it was. Cocaine. “Fuck,” I muttered, covering my mouth with my hand in horror. My eyes started to burn and surprisingly I felt no anger—only hurt. Hurt because Mike was hurting, and I had no idea. He was destroying himself. I’ve neglected my brother when he’s obviously needed me. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I gasp, blinking over and over again. My hands shook as I took out my phone, dialing Mike’s number. He doesn’t answer—where was he? Where was Drella. I go to call her, but then—

“Who the fuck are you?!” a voice booms as someone grips my collar and yanks me backwards. My head cracks on the disgusting ground and I groan, bringing my hand up to the sore spot. “I asked you a question! Who—the—fuck—are—you?” he screamed, kicking me in the ribs at each syllable. I gasped, trying to hold my hand out to stop the painful blows, to get the guy to calm down so I could explain myself, but he was unyielding and sent one into my gut. I groaned again as bile dripped out of my mouth from the impact.

“Wait, wait, wait!” I screamed as he beat me, he was intoxicated of some sort, clearly out of his fucking mind. But I was beginning to feel out of my mind as well as his foot soared towards my face. I held my hands up as a weak defense and his foot hit my palms instead. I was able to muster enough strength—thanks to adrenaline, possibly—to scuffle away, all the while coughing hysterically and wincing in pain. “Fuck,” I cried.

“I’ll ask you again—who the fuck are you and what are you doing in here?” he growled. He was standing threateningly close to me, his teeth gritted and his fists clenched. I licked my blood covered lips and took a breath.

“I-I’m sorry, holy shit. Mike. My brother is Mike. I was looking for him,” I explained as quickly as possible. His eyes widened and then narrowed suddenly. He lifted his hand up and wrapped his fingers around my throat, slamming me back against the wall. I gasped for air.

“Are you Vic?” he spat. I choked and wriggled around, trying to escape. I couldn’t even answer as he pulled me back again and slammed me into the wall. I nodded as best I could with his sausage fingers around my neck. My vision spotted and I felt like I was going to pass out any second now.

But then in that next second he dropped his hand and I buckled over, gasping for breath. I held my side and my stomach, and then I saw droplets of blood hit the floor at my feet. I touched my fingers tenderly to my nose—it was bleeding, it was definitely broken.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” I cursed to myself.

“Get out. Call the cops and I’ll kill you,” he threatened. I nodded and dragged myself to the door. “Get out!” he screamed. I nodded again and stumbled out, my body and mind in complete shock and adrenaline tingling in my veins, probably the only reason why I was still conscious.

I clutched onto the wall for support as I tried to get as far away from the apartment as possible. I almost couldn’t remember where I was and why. But as I got to the outside, a breath of fresh air but it also burned my skin painfully, I heard an angry yell.

“What the fuck!?” I heard. I coughed into my arm and took a deep breath, straightening myself out. I heard something crack but I couldn’t really feel the pain. I wiped my face with the sleeve of my shirt and followed the sound. It was gone now, but it echoed in my brain.

I wandered around the complex to the park that the apartment complex had behind it, as a sort of aesthetic appeal even though the grass was dead and the playground was rusty.

Through my blurry vision, I made out two people. I groaned—they had been out here the whole time. As I made my way towards them, my body ached and I didn’t think they saw me—they looked distracted, completely oblivious to the world, explaining Drella’s vagueness in her text.

But then I stopped walking completely. I fell to my knees because I simply couldn't hold myself up anymore, it was unbearable what I felt and I couldn’t support myself.

My body was broken but when I saw Mike grab my Drella’s face and kiss her lips, the pain I felt in my heart was too shocking and painful to even compare.

Notes

Hey sorry this took so long. I'm trying to update all my stories, because it's been a while. So voila, an update.

Also if you care I edited chapter 6 (the last chapter) but only in a minor way--i just changed the setting and stuff because it was blocking me and i needed to take care of that. But it probably won't bother you too much/is unimportant. So yeah