PLAY THE PART | mileven

eight

the faint sound of a tv running in the background was meeting his ears as he opened the door to his dorm.

he threw a quick glance around and saw lucas sitting on the couch, watching whatever was playing on screen.

mike closed the door, placed his keys to the bowl next to the door and shrugged out of his jacket to hang it up.

he lazily made his way to the other side of the of the couch, plopped himself on the firm furniture, (seriously — accidentally falling asleep on this couch can cause you more back and neck aches than you'd get by carrying a damn washing machine around for an entire day) and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.

he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking utterly defeated — which is something lucas immediately noticed.

"you okay?" he asked as he held on a bowl with one hand and held a spoon of cereal with his other one.

"no." mike groaned, "i fucked it up with el."

lucas snickered as he was chewing. "damn, already?"

"yeah." mike sighed and opened his eyes. "i kinda lashed out when i shouldn't have, i lost my temper for a second and i hate it."

oh, well, shit.

to be honest, lucas' initial thought was that it was the typical "boyfriend is too oblivious over what the girlfriend wants" type of fucking up, but hearing mike explain it further made him realize that it might be more serious than that.

which caught him off guard because mike rarely opens up about anything. they've been best friends since they can remember and yet, there's some type of shell around him that he doesn't open to anyone.

he stirred his spoon in the milk of the bowl, looking at him carefully. "have you tried apologizing?"

he subconsciously played with his fingers and nails. "i was trying to but she didn't listen and walked away."

lucas shrugged and took another spoonful of cereal in his mouth. "isn't that a natural response when you're mad? you don't want to be confronted with something right away and want to let some time pass at first."

mike blinked a couple times in realization.

what he says makes sense; even though el was looking far too calm when she left, he could see it through her that she wasn't actually feeling that calm.

she was hurt and upset by what he said, which he can understand. the aftermath of spatting at her to grow up and stop being childish left a surprisingly repelling taste behind.

this was exactly the type of person he never wanted to be, someone who spouts odious words in a moment of weakness to poison someone else.

he licked his lips, his raspy voice a lot more quiet than before, as if he's ashamed of what he's asking. "how much time should pass?"

lucas cocked a brow up, "you wanna try apologizing again?"

even though his gaze was directed to the ceiling already, he purposely was trying to avoid looking at lucas' direction. "obviously."

a knowing grin settled on his face as he observed his friend. "well, if it was up to me, i would give her some space but not too much space because that might make her overthink. let some hours pass before trying again."

he nodded. "thanks, i will."

since they never have an actual heart-to-heart conversation because of how closed off mike is, lucas tried to take advantage of the situation and talk to him.