catchacold | Drop Out

There were really moments when it was best to say nothing, because you didn't talk about someone's mother, you just didn't. So Leonard just nodded his head and followed behind Mick up the stairs, trying not to visibly shudder. "So, she's heard a lot about me?" Mick talking about him was much safer ground than him talking about Mick's mother, that much was for sure. He could just pretend this hadn't happened. Man. it definitely explained why Mick didn't bring anyone here. He was surprised he'd even taken him, but he supposed it showed how much he trusted him.

"I tell my mom a lot of shit, usually she's too drunk to grasp it, I don't know what she knows or whatever but I had to tell her who you were." Given he kept going back and forth to his house all the time. His dad was worried they were 'too close' while his mom thought it was nice that Mick had a friend. Mostly because she seemed to still be under the impression he was twelve. Once they were inside of Mick's room, he pulled out a bag from the corner and started throwing stuff into it. Mick's door had a giant hole in it from where he'd punched in, the bedroom was covered in scorch marks and one lonely poster of two naked chicks making out was on his wall, mostly to cover the other hole he made in one of his many raging out moments. It fit the theme of his house, at least. "I'll keep her away when we go back down. Sorry. She's not all there, she wasn't always like this but -- you know. Drinking. Pickles the brain or something."

"Don't worry about it, Mick. I know." Of course he knew. In their circles, it was common and Leonard had certainly experienced it more than often enough with his own father and so many other parents. It was a touchy subject, because even a drunk parent was still a parent and from all he knew about Mick, he seemed to really care about his mother, which must make this worse. Leonard leaned against the door, arms wrapped around himself. "Marks the first mother to ever hit on me, so there's that."

"Don't let it go to your head, she hits on everyone. She's trying to get revenge on dad. She damn near chased down the mail man last week." Mick snorted in amusement. "It was pretty funny actually." Which was probably why he stopped the guy and marched him back to their house, forcing him to have tea with him mom. What? He loved his mom... and yeah, it was just so funny. He finished packing his bag and then paused, turning to Leonard with an unreadable expression. "I'm ready to go, just gotta see my mom first... could you just like, I don't know, say bye. Be polite. I'll keep her away."

"Sure. I'm always polite." He could be, at least. Rarely chose to be, but that was another matter. "I'll be polite to your mother, Mick. Don't worry about it." He ran a hand through his hair, hoping he could be polite while she was at least two feet away from him. He smiled at Mick, briefly but hopefully it'd be enough to reassure him. "Just make sure she doesn't chase me down if I run." Hey, he had to get some privilege out of being the partner and not the mailman."

"I'll tackle her for you. Promise." Mick smiled at Leonard before heading back down, his bag slung over his shoulder. "Mom? Mom! We're going." He yelled out as he came down the stairs. As he got further down, he could hear angry words being exchanged in the kitchen and... aww, come on? Dad was back. Great. This was just great. What a show for Leonard to have to see.

"Oh go fuck yourself, you cheating asshole."

"I wouldn't have to cheat if you put a little effort in once in a while."

"Screw you, I don't need you! I could have any boy I wanted." His mom yelled as she threw the door open and came up to Mick, huffing a little but still passing him a brown bag full of food and kissing his cheek because she always had time for Mick. "Ignore your father, he's being an asshole." She stage yelled the last part before turning her hungry eyes onto Leonard. "Leaving so soon. You should come back, get to know each other better."

"He doesn't want to get to know you. No one does!" Mick's father yelled from the doorway, eyeing up Mick's friend with a dark glare that seemed to say 'stay away from my woman'. Yep, this trainwreck could get worse. "Besides, the amount of time they spend together, they're probably queers."

"Oh for fuck sake." Mick growled as he started to shove Leonard towards the door again. Time to leave.

It was very difficult to resist the urge to roll his eyes, but he had said goodbye nice and politely and surely that should mean he'd fulfilled his obligations as best friend and partner. Hopefully without needing to get into a fight with Mick's father on top of it all, but between being glared at for either being queer or being after Mick's mother, he wasn't so sure they could actually make it out fast enough. He was definitely trying. "Have a nice day."

There, polite to one and all. Now they could bolt.

"We're off. Don't call me." Mick called as he finally got Leonard out of the door and didn't bother to look back himself as he hurried after him.

"And you've been in my God damn lighter fluid again, haven't you? I told you to stay out of my things. I swear to God, boy, if you burn anything else, I'm going to fucking kill you."

"I'd like to see you try." Mick growled under his breath as he unlocked his car and swiftly got in. He barely gave Leonard a chance to get into his seat before he took off, wheels squealing in the dirt as he drove away from the vague sound of yelling. And there was the reason Mick hated being at home. The anger, the noise, it all ended up getting him riled up until he was just as pissed off. That was awkward, embarrassing and horrendous... what did he even say to that? "Sorry."

Leonard buckled his seat belt and wished he could get Mick to do the same, but it seemed better to, for once, wait with telling him. This was a tense moment for so many reasons. He leaned back in the seat, turning his head to look at Mick. "Don't apologise, Mick. You know the many reasons I won't ever even bring you near my place when my dad's around. Ain't on you."

They couldn't change who their parents were. They could just hope that they weren't too much like him. Leonard already knew he had things in common with Lewis, he just hoped he could turn it into a positive. "Though I'm starting to figure out why you're so paranoid over being queer."

"I'm not paranoid and I'm not fucking queer." His dad used that as a go to insult all of his life. From when he fell over when he was five, skinned his knee right up to now, every little bit of emotion, every bit of sadness, every hint of pain and suddenly he was a homo or a fag and it didn't even associate with gay any more, it was just an insult. And he knew it was wrong to think like that but he did. He couldn't help it.

"Just makes me so fucking angry." And Mick knew that was part of his anger problems. They riled him up and let him loose on the world and it always flew back at him in the end but sometimes, it was hard not to be angry. "Can't keep his damn mouth shut. Just ignore what he said, he's just jealous of you and he thinks anyone who likes another guy is just gay or something."

"Yeah, I don't care. My dad ain't any better. Maybe I am gay and I still won't care." If anything, he'd probably enjoy how much his father would hate it. "Doesn't make you any less of a man, being gay. Not that such shit matters anyway. I could walk around all day in a skirt and I'd still be who I am. I know plenty girls tougher than men. Hell, the toughest people I know are all girls." Seemed to be the stronger sex, if he was any judge. "But whatever. Point is, you don't need to apologise for your dad. I'm not taking it to heart."

Mick would have listened more but he was angry and he wasn't much in the mood to be assured. He didn't feel great about his house or his family or his way of life as it was and now Leonard had seen it entirely. As the shithole it was. "Well... at least we now my mom likes you." That was something. In a way. He entered the slip road near Leonard's place and put the gas down, speeding his way in and out of cars because he felt like getting the hell away from his place and to somewhere a little nicer. "Sorry she felt you up."

"That's okay. Happens. I'm just too damn handsome, what can I do?" Hopefully the joking around could help. For someone who clearly wasn't encouraging it, Leonard got touched a lot more than one would think. He didn't actually believe himself to be overly handsome, kinda scrawny for one thing. But teenage girls could be shameless and they seemed to view it as a kind of challenge, especially given that Leonard didn't actually hit them. He had to draw a line somewhere and hitting women might not be it, but hitting innocent girls who just went to school with them, that was something else. "I've no idea how anyone resists my handsomeness."

"Then stop being so damn good looking." Mick grunted as he pulled off the slip road and back into the side streets, trying to find the turning they needed. "I don't know what they're getting at, you're kind of scrawny." Mick teased, smiling slightly and turning his head to Leonard, clearly amused. "Lift some weights, then we'll talk." And with that, he pushed up the indicator and made a left. "So do we need to pick up Lis or what?"

"Hey, if I lifted more weights, I'd be more good-looking, not less. I'm scrawny for your sake." Leonard snorted, glancing down himself. He wasn't actually planning on gaining that much more bulk, for his kind of work being as slender as he was while still having decent muscle as he had was a blessing, he had no need to become a human wall like Mick. This worked just fine, scrawny or not. "Yeah, she's still at the center."

"Sure, sure, pass the buck on it." Mick mocked as he took the turning he needed for the center and relaxed a little more, his tension already easing up a little. "So you're saying that you gotta be scrawny to help me? I call bullshit on that one. Man up and join me at a gym sometime. No wonder those assholes in juvie used to call you a twink." Boy, he was so lucky he had Mick in juvie or he'd have never of gotten out of their alive.

"You know I'm fit. I don't need to become like those idiots at your gym, as long as I can scale any building and get inside without opening the window too far." Much more practical strengths, he thought. "That and so some girls pay attention to you. It's all out of the goodness of my heart. Also, they called me a twink cause they thought I'd bend over for them, not as if that many of them were stronger than I was."

"Whatever, you keep telling yourself that, scrawny." Mick teased as he pulled up outside of the center and turned off the engine, turning to Leonard with a playful smirk. "Girls look at me plenty fine. Always have done, always will." And he was very happy to enable that because it was good for his ego. And sometimes his ego needed it. He pushed his car door open and slipped out, waiting for Leonard to do the same. "Where are we picking the kid up?"

Leonard rolled his eyes and followed Mick outside, checking his phone for the time. "Should be inside, we are just before nap time. Means she'll wanna sleep as soon as we get home. They always knacker them out so they get a break." Which was also the upside about getting there just then, meant he could get Lisa to nap and have some time to himself before she woke up. Or, in this case, some time with Mick. He headed for the center, one hand in his pocket. "I told her you're staying for a few days and she's so happy. I used it to make her brush her teeth."

"Cool, we can watch movies. I packed some in my bag. I got Alien, Predator, Street Fighter and Pacific Rim." And they probably wouldn't watch them all in nap time but they could get a solid amount of one watched at least. Then when Lisa went to bed, they could just pick it back up. "You used me to promote dental hygiene? Not sure I'm loving that. Come on, don't make me a bribe, I stand against it." Kind of. Or more likely, he felt like being awkward. "We'll get her straight to bed."

"I told her that if she didn't brush her teeth, I'd tell you not to come. So she told me that she hates me, but she brushed her teeth." Whatever worked. "You can judge me right after you find another way to make her brush." Because he had dealt with that while she cried about how toothpaste tasted for the very first time. Suddenly seemed to taste fine when seeing Mick was at risk. Leonard smirked and walked down the hallway until they reached the playgroup, pausing by the open door and just waiting for Lisa to--

"MICKEY!" She was already running toward them.

"... Point." She was awkward to get to brush her teeth sometimes. And eat healthy. And put to bed. The amount of hours Mick spent trying to get her to sleep while she chatted away or asked for another story, it was insane. He often ended up nodding off first, clutching a book to his chest and drooling on her princess sheets.

Mick smirked as she came running and simply bent out and caught her as she flew into his arms. He lifted her up and gave Leonard an amused look. "That was quicker than I expected."

"Told ya." Leonard watched Mick and his sister and then walked over to talk to the person in charge, to make sure he'd been seen and they wouldn't assume he kidnapped her. Meanwhile, Lisa was already chatting to Mick excitedly.

"We were playing cowboys and I was the boss of the gangster cowboys, like that movie you showed me! I didn't let them shoot me though, I won." She tended to make sure of that. "Can I be a cowboy when I grow up?"

"Yeah, sure. You can be whatever the hell you want to be." It's not like anyone would have the balls to tell this one she couldn't. Except Leonard, obviously. This girl was scary, she knew how to command and only one person could really give her a reality check. Mick watched Leonard talking to the guy in charge as Lisa babbled away, nodding along absently.

"You wanna play cowboys this weekend?"

"Yes!" Lisa played with Mick's hair, rubbing it where it was hard because of the gel, because that was always fun to do. "And I want to have pizza and burgers and Chinese and wings and ice cream and cake and cookies and chocolate and what do you want, Mickey?"

Leonard had handed over some money and was already walking back to them, nodding to the door. "We can go. You tired, Lis?"

"Nuh-uh!"

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boilover - 2016-12-29 23:10 (UTC) - Expand

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catchacold - 2016-12-29 23:17 (UTC) - Expand