Quiet As A Mouse (Outsiders Fanfic)

Chapter 21- The Medicine?

Note to Readers: I was considering ending this one soon, but then I got the idea from one of the comments about 'shipping Dally and Mickey' (not verbatim), and I was thinking maybe I should just continue it. Please comment to tell me what you think.

After school Two-Bit insisted that we go over to the Curtis's, so I could baffle the rest of the gang with my newfound ability to speak and my, well, either hot or badass haircut, depending on who you talk to. I reminded him of what Aunt Kat had told me, and he offered to drop me off at home on the way to the Curtis's himself.

I walked in the door to find Aunt Kat cleaning up the kitchen, scrubbing counters, and the drying rack was filled with clean dishes still dripping water that was trickling into the sink. The whole house actually smelled clean, but I'd figured she'd had to work today.

I sat down at the kitchen table, greeting, "Hey, Aunt Kat. The kitchen looks nice," though my voice was still hoarse from not speaking for almost four years.

"Thank you, Mickey. Now, about that haircut," she started, glancing up at me from the counter she was relentlessly scoring with an old tattered washcloth. "Would you care to tell me why you suddenly decided to chop off all your hair? If you wanted a haircut, I could have called and made you an appointment," she said calmly.

"It wasn't exactly that..." I trailed off in a soft voice. I wasn't sure how to explain to her that the drugs were messing with my head and made me want to kill myself. Unless that had been me and not the medicine the psychologist had given me.

My aunt stopped scrubbing and looked at me, waiting for me to continue.

I sighed and tried to explain, "It could be the medicine. It worked just fine on Sunday night, so well I slept in late and missed school yesterday, not cause I was sick."

As I continued talking, I noticed Aunt Kat's gaze stray to the cut on my forehead and my black eye. She hadn't said anything about my banged up face that morning, and I could tell she was waiting for me to explain that, too.

"I was going to walk to school, but then I got jumped by the Socs, and that's where this came from," I continued, gesturing to my face. "So one of Two-Bit's friends took me over to the Curtis's and I stayed there the rest of the day. And last night, I was having this crazy dream thing, and then I was going to take my medicine cause I thought I had forgotten before I went to bed, but then I just somehow ended up cutting all my hair off. I was half-asleep the whole while, so all the details are a little fuzzy," I explained, watching her expression as her brows furrowed in confusion. I was pondering whether to tell her what I had really been planning on doing, but she opened her mouth to say something first.

"That could be because of the medicine. Sometimes it takes a while for your body to adjust. Next time you have an appointment with your psychologist, I'll come with you and talk to him," she offered.

"Won't you have to work?" I asked her.

My aunt sighed and said, "No. I got fired from my day job today. The manager wants to make the diner into some sort of sports bar, which involves getting rid of all the old ladies like me and hiring young, attractive girls more your age," she explained calmly, but I could hear the worry underneath her casual tone.

Aunt Kat had worked two jobs, during the day as a waitress and on weekends at a bar, to support us. And she was by no means an old lady, she was only thirty-five, and an attractive lady at that, with her blond hair and laughing blue eyes.

"I'm sorry. Maybe I could get a job," I suggested immediately, because I knew I should pull my own weight around here since they had taken me in.

"No. Don't even think that, Michael. It's my job provide for you kids, and to let you be kids," she said firmly, not yelling but stern. She never yelled.

"But-" I opened my mouth to protest, but she curtly shook her head and went back to scrubbing, conversation closed. She was as stubborn as her son.

"Now why don't you go hang out with your friends. I'm sure at least one of them likes that new haircut of yours," my aunt said flirtatiously with a wink. Of course she would suggest something like that since all of Two-Bit's, and my, friends were boys.

I rolled my eyes and cracked a smile, deciding to leave it alone and not argue with her about the job, and then I called, "Bye," over my shoulder and headed out the door.

I enjoyed the nice weather as I walked to the Curtis's, only to find everyone playing football in the backyard. I would have joined them, except for I was still sore from being jumped yesterday, and since I was so small, getting tackled by a bunch of boys didn't appeal to me. Also I didn't like football, so I just sat on the back porch and watched.

Darry almost didn't recognize me with my haircut, but Soda seemed to like it, he even came over and told me it looked nice until Steve screamed at him to stop postponing his predetermined epic loss of the game. He didn't phrase it quite like that, though.

I laughed and then watched the rest of their game, shouting encouraging and sometimes jokingly derogatory things to both teams and actually having fun though I wasn't really participating. But I didn't really care at the moment.