I chewed my lip, my heart pounded against my rib cage as Mickey took a sharp elbow to his temple, then another to one of his oh-so-pretty cheekbones. I could see blood well up from one of his eyebrows almost instantly and I knew that he was going to have a wicked black eye. I was on my feet in a moment, walking over to the screen like I could actually comfort him through it.
I had no idea what I thought I was doing, but my fingers reached out to him, willing him to be okay. I was fairly certain that the fight was over, and he was about to lose, but then something flashed across his face I couldn’t describe.
He rushed forward, finishing pinning his opponent to the mat and managing to get his arms around him in a hold. One second, two seconds, three seconds later the man tapped out and the ref was sweeping Mickey off him.
I jumped up again, clapping my hands over my mouth. I was so full of relief, nearly wanting to sob with it while the announcer began to announce Mickey’s triumph. But there was also concern about his wellbeing pouring through me. It would be easy to get a concussion from a fight like that, and although I knew Mickey had a whole staff to take care of him, none of them were me.
I wanted to reach out. I… I felt like I had to. I just needed to make sure he was alright. Safe. Make sure he didn’t have to go to the hospital. I knew it was definitely pretty ballsy to walk out on him after having wild sex in his car, but before I could even debate it, my fingers were flying across my keyboard, typing him a message to him that I had no right to send. But what else was new?
Hey, Are you alright? I saw your fight; you took quite the beating.
I looked at the text and decided that might be a bit harsh. Like I was judging him for letting a few blows in which definitely wasn’t the case. I was in awe of his talent.
Hey, I watched your fight. Are you doing alright?
There, that would have to do it. I sent the text before I could chicken out and sat back down. I didn’t expect him to answer right away so I was surprised when I heard my phone notification go off.
I looked at the notification and my face fell when I saw that it was Michelle that messaged me, not her brother. The timing of that was… not great.
Well, good thing I had my big girl underwear on. I swallowed hard, then opened the text.
Mickey’s alright. He’s just been really down lately. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?
Guilt shot through my chest like a bullet. Through everything that happened, I just assumed that the hulking man wouldn’t care, or would recover quickly with any of the many groupies he was sure to have. I didn’t like hearing that that wasn’t the case at all.
Then again, was it really all that surprising?
I knew that he had liked me when we were younger. I also knew, no matter how much I tried to sweep it under the rug, that he acted kind of like he was still interested even now. I knew all that and yet I had still acted like a jerk. I was grateful that at least Michelle was there to keep Mickey company while I overworked myself to death, but that didn’t really ease the guilt bubbling up within me.
I had to fix this. I had to make it right. Between watching the snot getting beaten out of Mickey and hearing that he had been upset ever since our last kinda date, I was itching to do something. I reread Michelle’s message three or four times, trying to think of what to say, how to explain it all, until I realized it wasn’t exactly something that could be done via text. After several minutes, I finally typed a response.
Hey Michelle, you free at all? I think we should talk.
Amber
I bounced my leg anxiously, looking intently at the door of the small café where Michelle and I had agreed to meet.
It wasn’t exactly close to home, but it was at a midpoint between both of our places. I would have been fine with meeting closer to her apartment, after all, the less she had to travel the less time she spent away from her brother who might need her, but she insisted that halfway was fine.
She stepped into the door and I waved, trying to flash her a smile just like old times but feeling rusty and a bit foolish. Geez, I really had let things slip in my personal life, hadn’t I? Once Michelle and I had been inseparable, but as she sat across the table from me, I realized that we were indeed entirely separated.