Selfish Machines

“Mike wake up, we have to go to school.” I say lightly shaking him.

“No.” He groans. “I’m just gonna stay a little longer.”

“No were gonna be late.” I say trying to wake him up. I kiss his cheek. “Come on.”

“Can‘t we just lay in bed all day today? Just you and me” He grumbles.

“You can’t miss another day were already on an in-school suspension.” I say crawling out of bed.

“Ugh!” Mike groans and grumbles holding the pillow over his head.

I exit Mikes room and go into mine. I grab some clothes and quickly get dressed. I go to the bathroom wash my face and begin to straighten my hair. Mike wanders into the bathroom, still half asleep. He can barely even keep his eyes open. He stands in front of the toilet, lifts up the seat and unloads his bladder.

“Mike I’m literally standing right here.” I say in surprise.

“Oh.. Yeah. Well, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.” He shrugs. I just laugh and continue to straitening my hair. He finishes off, flushes the toilet and crosses over to the sink. I move out of the way so he can wash his hands. He turns on the tap, rubs the soap coating every inch of his hands. After rinsing away the soap he splashes his face a few times. He moves out of the way so I can go back to doing my hair. He steps behind me with his hands still wet and rubs them all over my face.

“Don’t you hate when you piss and miss.” Mike says jokingly.

“Mike I literally just watched you wash your hands.” I wipe away the water laughing.

He sits on the counter watching me finish up the last of my hair. He grabs my makeup bag and starts looking through all the products.

“Why do you even wear this shit?” He asks holding up a bottle of foundation.

“Hey be careful that ‘shit’ cost me almost sixty dollars.” I reply grabbing the foundation out of his hand.

“Sixty dollars?? Are you insane?” He says baffled.

“I don’t wear it every day, it’s only if I go out.” I reason.

“Is it made of gold?” He asks twirling my tube of mascara in his hand.

“No, it’s just good brand.” I say grabbing the mascara from him.

“It’s not like you even need it. I don’t notice a different honestly.” He states as I’m applying my mascara.

“Typical guy thing to say. So you’re telling me you don’t notice the difference between bright red lipstick and no lipstick? You don’t notice when my highlight is poppin and I sparkle? Bullshit. Of course you notice a difference.” I say closing the tube of mascara and putting it back in the bag.

“True.” Mike agrees.

I put my stuff away and head downstairs.

I walk into the living room expecting to see a passed out Ronnie but he isn’t there.

“Hey Mike, Ronnie’s gone.” I yell up to him. I hear him coming down the stairs.

“Yeah he tends to just disappear and reappear when he wants to.” Mike says pulling a shirt over his head.

“Well then.” I say grabbing an apple and my backpack.

“You ready?” Mike says grabbing his backpack as well.

“Yup.” We both walk out the door and head to his car.

The ride to school was filled with random conversation. When we get to school we kiss and then go our separate ways.

At lunch time I went to the cafeteria I look around to see if Jaime is anywhere near by but I don’t see him. Instead I see Tony sitting at one of the benches alone scrolling through his phone. I walk over to the bench and sit next to him.

“Hey haven’t seen you in a while.” I say. Tony looks up from his phone.

“Yeah I’ve just been super busy, I guess.” He says with a slight dry laugh.

“Busy with Alysha?” I ask already knowing the answer. “You never hang out with us anymore, we hardly even see you.”

“Yeah I have been, you know what it’s like when you start dating someone new, you don’t wanna go anywhere or see anyone you just want to spend all of your time with them.

Sometimes it’s like the whole world doesn’t exist.” Tony says. It reminds me of what Mike said this morning about not wanting to go to school.

“Yeah, I honestly do. You must really be falling for her hey?” I ask.

“I really am.” Tony smiles. I’ve never seen him like this. “There’s something different about you.”
Tony squints trying to pinpoint exactly what it is. “Did you meet someone new?” He asks.

“Actually I did, he’s not exactly new and it’s a little complicated.” I confess.

“So who’s the lucky guy? Did Vic finally confess his undying love for you?” Tony joked.

“Yeah he did, am I the only one who didn’t see it?” I ask.

“Pretty much, you’ve always been blind when it comes to Vic. Have you never realized that out of his entire time knowing you he’s never had an actual girlfriend? But I’m glad you guys have finally gotten together.” Tony says putting his hand on my shoulder for a brief moment.

“That’s where it’s complicated.” I conceded. “Mike came on to me.”

“Wait what?” Tony gasped sarcastically. “Oh no the only girl Mike hasn’t tried to hit on over the past 3 years Mike’s finally hit on.”

“Tony he didn’t just come on to me, I thought that’s what it was at first was just Mike being Mike but then we got drunk and he told me he’s falling in love with me.” I said.

“How did Vic take that?” Tony asked; leaning in wanting to hear more.

“Not well, they got into this brawl about it, then they make up and turned on me. Then they pull the whole you have to choose bullshit but I’m sitting there like what the fuck? This is way too much to handle at once. So I tell them I choose both of them thinking that was the best way to end the fighting momentarily so there wouldn’t be anymore fighting but then Vic had to leave town for a few days so it’s just been me and Mike alone in his house for like three days now and…” I confess. I almost ran out of breath I was talking so fast.

“And..? And what?” Tony asks trying to soak in all this new information.

Notes