Look What I Found!

Ch. 18

Richie and Mike were on their way home after Richie had picked Mike up from his friend's place. Richie had a near-death grip on the wheel as Mike sulked in the passenger seat.

"You didn't have to get me," Mike grumbled.

"After the stunt you pulled last week," Richie argued back.

Mike huffed, crossing his arms, "I never had to ask to stay the night at a friend's house before."

"Well, now you do. Especially if those friends are females-"

"They are literally dating each other, and Giselle is nonbinary, you uneducated asshole. Plus, Jacob was there too!"

"Sorry, my bad! But the rules still apply. You have to call first, so I know you didn't run off again or some shit like you did last week."

"I didn't try running away..."

"You packed your stuff up and walked out the door."

"Exactly!" Mike defended, "I walked out the door. You didn't stop me or notice until I was gone for a few hours."

"At least I noticed."

"At least..."

Silence settled over them, Richie deep in thought as he wondered about the kid's change in behavior from wanting to stay to wanting to leave. It was like he couldn't decide whether he enjoyed the comfort and protection Richie provided or hated it. The silence continued until Mike caught Richie pulling into the liquor store.

"Again?" Mike sighed, Richie, giving him a stern look. "What? You've already drunk this morning. I guarantee you've had two more drinks since then. We're constantly stopping here whenever we go out."

"Enough, Mike. Grown-up stuff. You wouldn't understand."

"Bullshit!"

"Enough, Mike!" Richie got out of the car, slamming the door shut. He could see Mike glaring at him as he walked inside but chose to ignore it like all the other times.

As Richie browsed the aisles, Mike sat in the car, scrolling through his new Instagram. Ruby and Jacob helped him set it up; His username was Skataboy200. He wanted to put Paladin101, but they called him dorky for it. But they also had his name set as Mike Tozier, which was what his Facebook was known for. Both set to private, with only them and the Losers being his friends on there. But he wasn't complaining.

He had gone through his friends' and families' accounts, curious about what they had been up to since he's been gone. But none of them have posted anything worth looking at in the past month. The only things on there were pictures of him and if found stuff. It broke his heart to the point where he wanted to go back. He did. He was just afraid to. He was afraid that they would look at him differently. Surely, everyone knew what had happened between him and his parents. He knew Holly would crack sooner or later.

And Will and El. How would they feel about this? They told each other everything, down to the last detail. They knew his parents were homophobic, but neither one of them would have ever considered them to be abusive. Hell, Mike didn't even consider it. He should have now that he thought about it. His dad would always push him around, literally, but he just thought that was how everyone's father was to their son.

Richie came rushing out with a bag full of bottles as Mike stewed in his thoughts. The bottles made a clinking sound as he opened the door, knocking Mike out of his thoughts. He gets in the car, placing the load in the back before pulling out some beef jerky.

"Here. I got you some beef jerky."

"Thanks," Mike drawled sarcastically but took it nonetheless.

Richie gave him another look as they set off back home. "Look, kid, I've had a stressful day. My ex-manager is trying to get me back in the gig, but it's just not working out for me, ok?"