My work day was just ending, which meant my day was really just beginning. Getting off of work at three-thirty every day meant that I could make it to the Fuentes home in time for Mike's breakfast-lunch special. Since Mike's schedule was more evening-oriented than mine, it meant that he would be getting out of bed right around two in the afternoon. Then he would lay in bed for thirty minutes and just reflect on whatever goes on in his mind. After that would be time for him to shower, brush his teeth and basically take care of his hygiene. Then he would get dressed and make breakfast. But since it’s lunch to me, I call it the breakfast-lunch special, because by the time I get there there's always a special plate waiting in my spot.

Except today, the food wasn't ready yet and my spot was taken by a blonde woman. I learned very quickly not to call these women "Mike's sluts" because most of them were nice, respectable females with an honest conscious and strong mind. It was Mike that was the slut. Even though Mike didn't have girls over as often as people thought, it did occasionally happen. The only thing that bothered me about it all was that Mike was off schedule. One tiny flaw could throw my entire routine out of whack, and when that happens, my stability goes whack.

"Ah, there you are, Sindel," Mike said as he turned one head over his shoulder.

"You're behind schedule, Mike," I noted as I looked down at the ticking hand of my watch. "I'm usually here between three forty-five and three fifty-two and you know this."

"Hey, I don't remember ever actually inviting you to come over every weekday so you can eat my food that I cook."

"Yes, you did," I corrected, pointing my finger at him as he turned the heat of the stove down. "May twenty-sixth, 2011. You invited me over for breakfast to celebrate your first day in your new house."

"That was one time!" Mike exclaimed, smiling nonetheless.

I shrugged. "You never specified."

Mike rolled his eyes and turned back to the stove, this time turning off all of the burners, while muttering something along the lines of "this fucking woman."

"Mike was right, you do have a great memory and sassy attitude," the blonde woman chimed in.

I was surprised that she had spoken to me, and even more surprised to hear that Mike had told her about me. "Basically all there is to me, really." I let out a small laugh as I briefly looked her over. She had many tattoos and short, blonde hair. Her makeup was done to perfection and she was dressed in a large jersey and tall socks with black, chunky heeled boots. "I'm Sindel," I said, holding out my hand.

"Alysha," she smiled, taking my hand. "Your name sounds so familiar..."

"Mortal Kombat," Mike chimed in. "Sindel is Shao Kaun's Queen that Quan Chi brainwashes and brings back from the dead."

"Yeah, my parents were young when they had me and decided to use their favorite video game as a baby name book." Alysha had a blank expression on her face and I realized that she probably didn’t know anything about Mortal Kombat. “Yeah, I realize that not everybody grew up with such nerdy parents.”

Alysha laughed a bit and waved her hand, and thus waving the conversation away. “Mike, you heard the woman. Hurry up with that food!”

“I like this one,” I commented, pointing at Alysha while nodding my head in approval.

Mike approached the island in his kitchen and put a plate in front of each of us: mine with chorizo, one tortilla, and scrambled eggs. Alysha’s was also customized: chorizo and three tortillas with a side of sour cream. “I like this one, too,” Mike replied, winking at Alysha.

“I can see that. You already know her breakfast preferences, huh?” I picked up my fork and took a stab at the largest chunk of egg. Alysha swallowed down her bite while smiling at Mike. They exchanged a look for a long while and I started to feel like I was missing something. “I think I’m missing something here,” I voiced, looking between them.

Alysha giggled and looked down at her plate, shaking her head as she did so. I looked to Mike, my eyebrows furrowed so much that I probably had a unibrow. Mike’s cheeks turned a shade of crimson that I had never seen on him before – Mike didn’t get bashful around any of the women he brought home after a night at the bar. The women were usually the same: large breasts, perfect hourglass figures, and a tone of voice that made me wish I would suddenly go deaf to rid me of the agony. But Alysha wasn’t like that. She was beautiful, but a different kind of beautiful than Mike usually went for. She didn’t have bimbo-like breasts, her voice was sweet, and she looked intelligent and like an exceptionally normal person and not like a porn star. Something was going on, and the thought of it gave me anxiety.

Alysha left as soon as she cleared her plate and Mike walked her out to say goodbye. When he came back in, the crimson he had on earlier was paired with a childish grin. He sat down beside me, letting out a content sigh as he began to eat his own serving of breakfast.

I stared at him as he ate, waiting for him to explain what the hell was going on. He knew that I was waiting, and he continued to eat without a word just to irk me. I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I slammed my fist down on his knee, causing his reflexes to kick, which then resulted in him ramming his toes into the island. He groaned loudly and let out a whimper before choking on the food in his mouth. After swallowing down the food that was lodged in his throat, he took in a deep breath and shouted out, “Okay! Okay!”

“Don’t play games with me, Michael.”

He winced. “Don’t call me Michael. Only your dad calls me that when I’m in trouble for something.”

“Out with it!” I commanded, lifting my arm up to reveal my fist, threatening to plummet back down on his knee again.

He held his hands up in defense. “Okay! Fine. You really want to know?” He smirked, playing with my impatient nature once again.

I moved my fist down, but he stood up quickly. “Okay! Alysha is my girlfriend!” he blurted out, out of breath from dodging my attack. “We’ve been dating for three months and have been official for one month.”

My fist slowly went back down to its spot in my lap. My brain was reeling, trying to make sense of the words Mike had just thrown at me. The words ‘girlfriend’ and ‘Mike’ didn’t go together. It was like my brain had to form an entirely new algorithm just to comprehend a single sentence that included each word.

Girlfriend. Mike.

Mike. Girlfriend.

They just didn’t work together. I couldn’t make sense of them no matter how hard I tried. Was the world ending? Had I just entered the Twilight Zone? For a minute I thought that maybe I was on a reality show - Punked, maybe? Because there was no way that this was actually happening.

“Well, gee, thanks. I thought you’d be a little excited or something,” Mike mumbled, climbing back onto the island stool. He picked up his fork and pushed around the eggs on his plate, his features drooping because of the reaction, or lack thereof, that I had to his news.

I didn’t respond because I still couldn’t understand. My brain had shut down all other open tasks to focus on making sense of the situation. The last girlfriend Mike had was his soul mate, or so we all thought. When he ruined that relationship, we all figured that Mike was going to be a man-whore forever. He was never going to settle down. He would live out his days with different women crawling into bed with him at the end of the night. Nobody, not even his own brother, saw even the idea of a girlfriend in his future. But now, here he was, telling me that he had actually committed to someone.

“Can you say something, please?” Mike asked. He dropped his fork down, the sound of the silverware clanking against the plate somehow made everything register in my brain. This was happening.

“Wow,” was all I could manage to say.

Notes

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Well, here is the Mike story that I have been working on for a while now. Since my other Mike story is ending soon, I decided to start up another one. Here is the prologue to what is going to be a very long, very intense, and very drama-filled story. I hope you will join me for the journey, because it is definitely going to be one you don't want to miss.

In case you don't know already, I do have several other stories! If you want to check them out, click here. And as always, thank you so much for your support on all of my stories, and I hope you all enjoy this one, because I have thoroughly enjoyed starting this and am looking forward to what this story is going to bring. The topic is very close to me, so the emotions in this story are going to be very real. I hope you enjoy! xoxo