Chapter Three: Parties can be wild. That is, if you are there.

A week after the closet incident, I was leaving school one day after having detention. I figured I would go home and sleep. Then, probably eat something and watch a movie. Maybe I would take a shower so I wouldn’t have to do it the next morning.

I was walking out of the building feeling pretty confident that my plan was going to be the relaxation I needed. I had been successfully avoiding Candy at all cost and slyly shooting MiKey smiles and making small talk with him. I sat with him in the hall on some occasions during lunch, not wanting to be at my table. We would just chat about stuff. I found that talking to him was simple and easy. I didn’t have to put up a front and we had surprisingly a lot in common; liking the same movies and music. I hadn’t had simple common interests with someone for as long as I could remember.

Once I was off school grounds and near my car, I pulled out a cigarette. I lit it up and thought about detention, uneventful. It was already five thirty and with it being winter, it was dark already and really cold. I zipped up my jacket, inhaled my smoke deeply and let it out with a shaky breath. I was almost to my car, when I saw a non-moving form sitting by the fence. I walked a little closer and saw big wolf ears swiveling with every step I took. MiKey? I stomped out my cigarette.

When I got to where he was, I knelt down in front of him. He was sleeping; he didn't have a jacket on, just a long sleeved black shirt. He must have been freezing. I was confused. Each breath he took came out in a fog in front of his mouth. He had his tail clutched in his hands and held it to his right cheek. I shook him and he didn't stir.

"MiKey?" Nothing.

"MiKey." Nothing. I shook him a little harder.

"MIKEY!" I shook him even harder. He snapped awake and I let out a relived breath.

"MiKey what the f**k are you doing out here? Without a coat or anything? It's bound to be at least 18 degrees out here." He looked at me with surprised eyes.

"Angel?" I nodded then stood up and helped him stand. He was shivering and a little unstable.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" He stumbled a little then looked up at me.

"M-My D-dad was supposed to pick me…up." He was shaking all to hell so I stopped the slow walk we were doing and took off my jacket. It may have been thin but it was warm from me wearing it.

"Why the hell did he not come? Did he forget? How the f**k does someone forget about their own son?" He shivered hard again. He wasn't looking at me so he didn't know I had taken my jacket off.

"I d-don't know." I tapped his arm to get his attention. He looked up and saw me holding my jacket up. I stepped a little closer and helped him into it. It was a little big on me, so it swallowed him.

"Thanks." He whispered timidly like I was going to hurt him.

"Yeah MiKey, no problem." I patted his shoulder. "Now tell me where you live so I can take you home." He nodded and shivered again.

"Uh 702 South Grand Street. It's uh the…road near the…" I cut him off.

"Near the park, yeah? I live there too. 702? You live about 5 houses down from me. That blue one right?" He nodded. "Well, here it is."

I could see the look of shock on his face as he saw my car. I knew he was curious and wanted to know how I could afford such an expensive car but he didn’t want to ask. When we got in, we had to wait a few minutes for the car to warm up.

"My dad is…uh really well off and he doesn't spend much time with me. So, to make it up to me he bought me a car and named his school after me. I uh…don't like him much. I never see him so he buys me stuff." MiKey looked at me for a moment like he was going to say he wasn’t wondering but just looked away.

"Sorry." He whispered. I tapped the steering wheel as I pulled out.

"Don't worry about it. Everyone else knows. Besides it's not like I try to keep it inside and deep down I'm really sad, Dr. Phil s**t. I hate the old b*****d. My dad, not doctor Phil." I smiled and looked over at him. He looked out the window to avoid my look. "Are you okay?" He twisted his hands in his lap then grabbed his tail, so he would have something to distract him.

"Yeah." He shook again, still shivering.

I had to look back at the road. I could feel his gaze on me as I silently turned with the curve in the road. We rode like that for a while; silent and neither one of us said anything. A little way down the road I heard a sharp breath. I glanced over, only to see tears falling down his face. I wasn’t sure if he saw me but I wouldn't know because I quickly looked back at the road. He tried to wipe his tears away but it didn’t matter because his breath hitched.

"MiKey?" I said in the softest voice I could  muster. "Hey what's wrong?” I pulled over so I could look at him.

"MiKey, what's wrong? Huh? You can tell me okay. You can trust me I promise." He turned toward me.

"He did it on purpose." I was confused.

"What? Who did what?" I really wanted to touch him. I wanted to stroke his hair and make him feel better.

"My dad. He left me there on purpose. He has poker games with his friends and when he doesn't he just picks me up when he feels like it. He won't allow me to ride the bus. He will probably be really mad that I got a ride home." I took a moment to just process the whole situation.

"Why would he do something like that? You don't deserve that." He wiped the tears from his eyes.

"I've been trying to figure that out longer than you can imagine." His eyes filled up with tears again and he tried to hide it.

"MiKey it's okay? I won't think any less of you. I promise." He leaned over so that his head was on my shoulder and he continued to cry into my shirt. I was kind of shocked at first because he was so shy that last time I saw him. I cautiously brought my hand up and touched his hair. I wanted to comfort him, but I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation.

He stopped crying after a little while and spoke quietly.

"Why are you being so nice to me? Most people think I'm a freak. They turn me away."

"You’re not a freak MiKey. Just because you have ears and a tail. People just don't know how to react when something is slightly different. There aren't many hybrids in America. I myself would kill to have wolf ears." He smiled a little. "Do you really want to know?" He nodded his head against my shoulder. "Promise you won't tell anyone?" He nodded again. "I hate, absolutely hate my friends. When I saw you I wanted to talk to you. You seemed truthful and I wanted a friend I could hang out with and not want to shoot myself 5 minutes into the conversation." He laughed.

"Really?" I nodded.

"Yeah pathetic right?" He shook his head this time. I lifted up his head and made him look at me. "You’re not like anyone I have ever met. You’re so shy, but you actually like me. There is just something about you MiKey and I can't quite put my finger on it." He smiled and this is the first one that seemed genuine. Our faces were inches apart. I closed in a little bit and he did to, my lips hovering just over his. I silently pressed my lips to his and felt the butterflies flutter in my stomach almost violently. The contact was comfortable in a startling way but I realized immediately how much of a mistake it was. It felt like an eternity but really, it was only a fraction of a second. He pulled away fast and sat back in his seat.

"I'm sorry MiKey I just got caught up in the-" He cut me off.

"You have a girlfriend." He grabbed his tail, a habit I realized he did when he was nervous. 

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Please don't be mad at me. We can still talk right? Please don-" He cut me off again. God what was wrong with me? I've known MiKey for a week and I’m already screwing up both of our lives. I can't figure out what it was that made me want to do that. My mind had gone blank and my primal instinct and attraction to him took over. It scared me.

"I- I yeah. I should be sorry. I'm not m-mad." He looked out the window. I looked out the windshield.

"I just made things incredibly awkward." I banged my head slightly on the steering wheel. He shook his head, looked away, and I started the car.

"Sorry, again." He nodded. Now he wasn't going to say anything. F**k, he was probably praying for the time to come when he could get out of my presence.

We rode silently the rest of the way to his house. He didn't say anything to me. When we pulled up, there was no car in the drive way so I was guessing that his dad wasn't home.

"Um…I guess I’ll see you later." I said softly. He nodded and grabbed the door handle. I reached over and tapped his shoulder. "And hey, again I'm sorry. I hope I didn't put a major malfunction on us ever talking again." He shook his head. I nodded.

"You can keep the jacket if you need it. I hope I didn't get you in trouble with your dad. I couldn't just let you freeze though. If he gives you any trouble then you can tell me." He nodded and got out. He grabbed his bag and before closing the door he whispered an almost inaudible "Thank You." Then he walked to the front door. I lit up a cigarette taking a long drag and letting it out through my nose. I had fucked up and reasoned that I’d be lucky if I ever got to speak to him again.

 

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My plans to relax had been ruined. Candy called me and practically begged me to go to a stupid party. Along with that, as soon as I stepped inside the house I knew something was up. When I walked into the kitchen my father was sitting at the table reading the newspaper. I honestly had not seen him in a week or so and that was just because we passed on the stairs when he was leaving.

I sat down across from him because I knew he wanted to talk. He doesn't just nonchalantly sit comfortable in his own home. It just was not him. He put down his paper and looked at me.

"Hello Benjamin." I cringed. I f*****g hate it when he calls me Benjamin.

"Hi." He just sat there looking at me. "Is there something you would like to talk about?"

"You know, you look more and more like your mother every day." It was true I do look like her. Straight, thick brown hair, sort of strong jaw line, fair, pale skin, rounded chin. The only two things I really liked about myself were my nose which was not to long with the perfect wideness to be handsome. And my eyes, the only thing I got from my dad. They are dark green with specks of black and yellow.

"Yeah, guess so." He nodded and picked his paper up again. "Anything else?" Without looking up from his paper he spoke again.

"I have the rest of the week off do to a foreigner surgeon that has just gotten familiar with the building. My boss told me I could have off to let the doctor have my patients for the week. So, I was wandering? Would you like to do something tonight? Maybe go see that new movie or uh go bowling or something? You know, catch up." He finally set his paper down. I eyed him up. It was weird because he barely ever spoke to me much less asked to do anything.

"Well, uh maybe tomorrow? My girlfriend was begging me to go to this birthday party thing for one of her friends." He nodded, looking unaffected.

"Girlfriend eh? Well of course, you have to please the misses. Maybe some other time. Like I said, I have the whole week off." I nodded and bid my farewells, before going to my room to get ready for that party.

 

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When I showed up to Candy's house I walked slowly to the door. Her house intimidated me. Well, not so much of her house as the father that owns it. I think his name is Jason or something. He was like a gorilla, huge and brawny. He was also extremely protective of Candy. Needless to say he scared the s**t out of me. Every single time I walk in the house her dad is there. Oh my little Candy is up stairs getting ready to go, he’ll say. Then he will get extremely protective from nowhere and tell me to respect her and not to hurt her because she loves me. She doesn't love me. She is only with me because my dad has money, a lot of it. Also, she gets to tell her friends that she screwed the head of the basketball league.

The thing that weirded me out the most was that her dad was gay and had a husband who is the complete opposite himself.  Apparently, when her father was really young he got married to her mom and they had her. Her mom died during the birthing process and then when she was a month old Jason met Kinney aka the handsome husband, and then 3 years later she was the flower girl at their wedding. It didn’t bother me that he was gay, but the whole situation seemed ironic to me and made me uncomfortable.

When I got up to the door I knocked slightly. Kinney opened the door after screaming 'be right there.'

"Hello Angel. Um come in. Candy is up stairs. Doing something girly. I don't know probably putting on make-up." Then he yelled for her. I smiled at him, as I walked through the door. When I got in there I quickly swiped the room with my eyes before sighing from relief. He seemed to notice because he laughed before sitting down in one of the chairs and motioning to the couch.

"No Jason isn't here right now. Some conference or another. Don't let him intimidate you. It's all an act. He has to be the sweetest man in existence." Sweet was definitely not the vibe I got from him.

"Could've fooled me." I said kind of nervously.

"Yeah. I know, he just gets really protective of Candy. In all honestly he wouldn't hurt a fly." He scratched his stubbly cheek. 5 o' clock shadow worked for him.

"Yeah, still he scares the s**t out me. I guess it's the loud voice." He nodded.

"So, Candy tells us your father owns the school building?" I nodded. "How's he?" I just shrugged.

"I wouldn't know. B*****d never shows his face." Kinney just nodded like he completely understood.

"Ah. And your Mother?" I combed my hair with my fingers.

"Uh she left when I was 13. Haven't heard from her since." He gasped.

"Oh s**t I'm sorry. And Candy told us all of this and I still f*****g asked. I'm sorry." I shook my head with a little bit of a laugh.

"No really it's ok. It really is. I was really close to her. She never really spoke to me. She was too worried about her spirit group." He was about to say something else, then Candy ran down the stairs, screaming my name.

"Angel! Angel! You didn't even call me to tell me you were coming. I thought you were going to meet me there?" She threw her arms around me and squealed then kissed my cheek.

"Yeah well, I finished getting ready pretty quickly then I couldn't sleep so I decided to come get you." She squealed again then grabbed my hand and drug me to the door. Then she let go and ran over to Kinney. She kissed him on the cheek. Then ran back to me.

"Bye Daddy, I love you."

"Bye sweetie have fun. I love you too." We were walking out the door when he shouted to us. "You better be back by curfew or your father isn't going to be very happy." She smiled big.

"Okay Daddy, midnight. I'll remember." She closed the door and ran to my car, jumping in the front seat before I could even get halfway down the sidewalk. It was going to be a long a*s night and it was only eight thirty. Damn, it shouldn't be this hard...

 

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The party had to be the lamest one in existence. I looked over with the cheap beer in my hand, and saw Candy flirting with Shawn. I took one sip of my beer when we first got there and realized it was piss warm and awful. I hadn’t drunk anything else though. Candy, however, had four beers already and she was smashed. I felt my phone vibrate against my leg so I jumped slightly. I got up and screamed to Candy over the music that I would be back in a minute. She didn't say anything so I just went outside to the front yard. I answered quickly so they didn't get my voice mail.

"Hello?" There was hesitation on the line.

"A-Angel?" I hadn’t recognized the number but when I heard his voice I knew it was him.

"MiKey?"

"Y-Yeah I-I I'm sorry I-if I am b-bothering you." He sounded like he was crying but trying hard to not let me hear it.

"No MiKey, of course not. I told you, you could call me anytime." He choked on a sob.

"I-I n-need help."

"MiKey, calm down. What is going on?"

"I just n-need help."

"O-okay where are you? What happened?" He seemed to stop crying and now it was just heavy breathing.

"I-I I'm at home. I think my nose is broken. I d-don't know."

"Okay I'll be there in a minute alright?”

"O-okay. Angel…thank you.”

"I'll be right there."

"Um…come around back to the s-sliding d-doors. I-It's my bedroom."

"Okay."

He hung up. I took a deep breath and jumped in my car. I decided I could always call Candy later. One of her friends could take her home.

 

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I was standing knocking softly on the glass doors. I opened them and walked in when I didn't get a response. I walked to a wood door just opposite of the sliding glass ones that had a poster of a band on it. I assumed it was his room. I thought about knocking again but decided to just take a chance and open the door, he was sitting on his bed with his knees pulled up to his chest, shaking and holding a towel to his face.

"Oh s**t MiKey." I knelt down in front of him. "Who the hell…" I trailed off, when the realization that his dad did this to him hit me. I fumed.

"I'm sorry. Why? Why didn’t he do this?" He didn’t respond but just looked to the floor, tears falling over silently.

When a moment of silence passed I looked at his face. He held the towel over it so I lightly grabbed his hand and pulled it away. His cheek on the right side was swollen and his eye was swollen slightly and was a little blue. His lip was cut and slightly bleeding and his nose looked as if it was bleeding but had stopped. I gently touched his cheek. 

"Um I don't think it broken. But, for once my dad is home and he is a doctor and can tell us if it is. Okay?" He nodded.

"Okay." He was tonguing the little cut on his bottom lip, I shivered.

"Come on. I'll help you up okay?"

"Yeah." I stood up and grabbed his hand. I lifted him up on wobbly legs and I hugged him. Though I knew it was probably inappropriate because I had kissed him before, he needed comfort. He was pretty much unresponsive besides the fact that his arms were wrapped around my midsection. It was killing me that he was being so quiet. I could feel it in me that I already cared about him and scared me. It was dangerous to care about him. I pulled away again and began walking. He could walk well enough that he didn't need my assistance. I put my hand on his shoulder anyway. His ears were pinned down to his head.

"MiKey? Please say something, anything." I said desperately trying to get something from him and I wasn’t even sure what that something was. He looked at me through tear soaked eyes.

"God, I'm f*****g pathetic." I was shocked at his response. He continued before I even had a chance to speak. "I cry all the time. I can't take care of myself and I can't stand up for myself when my dad decides to beat the s**t out of me. And the very last thing, I have to rely on a stranger to help when he has much better things to do." He didn't cry this time just scoffed at himself. I wasn’t expecting that reaction.

"MiKey, come on, don’t say that. The whole point is that you shouldn't have to fight. You cry and it's the only thing that reminds me we're human. I can't even shed a f*****g tear. I haven't cried since hell, I don't know. I didn't cry when my mom left, and I didn't cry all the times my dad wasn't there for the important things. Do you know how fake I feel because of that? I wish I could show god damn anything, but I can't. Look, it doesn’t bother me that you needed me tonight okay? I've known you for what? A week, maybe two? And I already know you make me feel real. You know something? It scares me to f*****g death." He looked surprised by my response but he couldn't have been more surprised than me.

"I'm sorry." He said. I nervously laughed.

"Don't. Don’t say you are sorry." He looked up at me.

"What-" I hugged him tight, wrapping my arms around him in hard embrace. Slowly and unsure his arms came up and around my middle. Then more confidently he pressed his face into my shoulder.

"Let’s go see my dad alright. He can help you."

"Y-yeah." I could hear the confusion in his voice but I didn't care.