The Better Life

We're gonna have a house party, we don't need no body

Felicity was sent to the Great American Cookie place and Brusters for some cake and ice cream plus the Cracker Barrel for food pickup. Which was all the way across town. It would take at least an hour to get it all accomplished.

Mickey Milkovich knew what he was doing. Hermmann was on his way to decorate, Ian was wrapping stuff, Carl was on Fliss guarding in case she came back early, and the kids were kinda trying to help. Thankfully, Jake arrived early and was tall. Or at least, he was taller than Mickey and could reach high places.

"DAMN IT, JAKE! When I say right, I mean our right! We have the same right!"

"Not in this democracy household apparently." Jake rolled his eyes.

"I'm too happy to discuss politics with you right now. Now be like Jake from State Farm and be a good neighbor and MOVE IT RIGHT OVER THERE."

Hermmann walked through the door. "The kids are bringing in the other decorations. I've got the good stuff for later. The kids had a whole argument over how my music is 'boomer music' whatever the heck that means, and don't send me out for anything else because I'll shank your ass."

"Good to see you, too, Hermmann," Mickey said sarcastically. "Crank your boomer shit up. If I don't hear Metallica's rendition of Turn The Page, I might lose it. Play the angry music for me."

"You better me glad I can turn my hearing aids off so I don't go any more deaf than I already am," Hermmann grumbled.

Jake finally got the sign in the right position. Mickey gave him the tablecloth and plates to lay out.

"When you're all done with this, would there be any chance I could use some of it?" Hermmann asked Mickey. "Gotta do Lee Henry's graduation party next and I've got most of it done. I'll give it right back, too."

"Yeah, no problem, Hermmann. That's fine."

Each one of Hermmann's kids came through the door, followed by Hermmann's wife.

"Hey, Mickey." She kissed his cheek. 

"Hey," Mickey kissed her cheek back. "How's summer break goin'?"

"As crazy as can be. They say having teenagers is easy but not when two of them have football practice and two of them want to go out with their friends but the only one that can drive is sick as a dog and Christopher's at work," she smiled though as she said it. "But it's fun because we can actually watch older people shows without worrying about scarring some children. Well, minus our youngest that's ten but he usually keeps to himself. And it's easier to keep up with them in public. You?"

"Oh, it's been good so far. Been crazy here as well with Felicity's graduation and Oliver's adoption coming up. Yev goes between mine and his mom's house now since we've got more time. He enjoys it but he says crazy stuff in Russian and I don't know what he's saying. I speak Ukranian and English, not whatever Russian she's taught him."

"You speak Ukranian?" Hermmann questioned from across the room. "Say something then."

(A/n: Don't quote me on this. I used Google translate because the only other language I can halfway speak is Spanish and I suck at that).

"ти мудак, але я тебе люблю."

"What'd you say?"

"You're an asshole but I love you," Mickey translated. "My mom was Ukranian and she taught me. She um, died a while back. It's okay though."

Mickey earned a pat of sympathy. "I'm good. I promise."

Lip was the next to walk through the door. "I got the party games put together. Not much but hey, it's here. And I know I'm gonna absolutely pass one of them. One of these I'm not gonna count you or Ian as a winner in though."

"What the fuck? Why?" Mickey's eyebrows shot up. 

"Because I'm pretty sure you know your kid like the back of your hand. So the 'who knows the grad best?' would be a piece of cake for you. And did anybody set up a present table yet?"

"Nope," Mickey said. "Because Carl and Liam are supposed to be bringing it and they're not here yet so gifts are either staying in the car or in the living room but I'd be careful because Gabriel has been in a destructive mood lately."

At the mention of Gabriel's name, the little corgi came bounding into the room. Lip instantly put his stuff down and picked the dog up. The dog wriggled all around in Lip's arms and licked his face. "This lil' guy? Nah, he wouldn't hurt a fly. He's too cute for that, aren't you, boy?"

Gabriel barked once in agreement. He looked over at Mickey. Mickey squinted. "You're lucky you're cute."

Lip blew the imaginary stray hair out of his face. "Gee, thanks, Mick. Been really trying lately. Decided to try a hair mask to try to get the full length curly strands coming from my for you page."

Mickey gave him the middle finger. "Go to hell."

"Already been there. Didn't sit right with me."

Mickey and Lip then stuck their tongues out at each other like children. Then Lip decided to ask a serious question while petting Gabriel behind the ears.

"What happens if anything goes down tonight?"

Mickey turned around. "You gotta follow me cause I gotta set this all up. But what do you mean?"

Lip trailed behind Mickey, waving to Debbie who just stopped by with Frannie. "Umm... like if something crazy happens. Like if a family member that's not Shaun shows up or if Mandy shows up drunk or Frank starts shouting random shit in your front yard."

"There's a 9 mm bullet with their name on it."

Lip stopped in his tracks. "Wait, seriously?"

"If it's my sister, I'll take her somewhere else. Don't fucking know but oh well. C'est la... something. I don't fucking know, I didn't get past ninth grade. Frank can talk to the gun and so can any fucking member of mine or Felicity's family that isn't Shaun and hasn't had contact in years."

Mickey put the stuff down to look at Lip. "Nothing is interrupting my daughter's graduation party. I'm damn proud of her and nobody is going to ruin this shit. Not you. Not me. Not our families. Not the fucking cops. Not even the motherfucking president of the United States can stop this fucking party. I've got a speech. I'm gonna cry. We're gonna blast music, play games, watch Felicity open gifts, and blast fucking music until 3 am where we're screaming the lyrics because we're kinda drunk or sleep deprived."

Mickey looked at Lip straight in the face, hard determination covering it. "You with me?"

Lip out Gabriel down. "I'm with you."

They even shook on it. Mickey was placing out the party games and attempting to put all the gifts into a corner of the living room. He put Lip on open taco bar duty, for the people who didn't want Italian food along with Dino chicken nuggets for the kids.

"Mick, I need your help here!"

"Coming, Babe!"

Mickey ran up the stairs. He knocked on his bedroom door. "What's up, babe?"

"Out of tape and this box is heavy and I'm not about to rip this wrapping paper again," Ian pouted. 

Mickey reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of tape. "Here ya go." He then helped Ian with the rest of Felicity's gifts. It wasn't much, just big ones that required a bit of help. Mickey carried them downstairs for Ian one at a time. Thankfully, Phoebe had shown up along with Liam and Fletcher.

"Guys!" Carl nearly broke down the front door. "Just saw you car, Ian." Carl was panting. "She's bout to pull up."

"Everybody! Get into your places! No, Yev, you can't hide behind Ian because he's tall."

"Jake, could you be any more obvious?"

"Hermmann, I'm not helping you out of that position if you stay in it. It's my off day and I don't feel like going into Chicago Med today."

"You're bumping me."

"Somebody please turn the lights off!"