Team Sparia

Chapter 33 - "So, if you ever hurt her, you'll have to answer to me."

Spencer's POV
I was sitting in the living room enjoying the quiet when I heard a knock at the door. I frown, I hadn't been expecting anyone and Aria was out for a walk with Romeo. I get up and answer the door and I'm surprised to see Mike standing there. "Mike?" I ask unsure of why he was here.
"Can I come in?" He asks nervously. I notice he's hiding his hand. I turn my head to the side slightly in question. "Is Aria home?" He asks urgently.
"Not right now." I answer stepping back so he can come in. "Mike, you're bleeding." I take his hand in mine. He had wrapped it in a tea towel which the blood had seeped through. I unwrap his hand gaining no protest from him in anyway other than him wincing slightly. I can see he's cut his knuckles pretty bad with a few shards of what appeared to be glass or mirror fragments embedded into his fist. "What happened?" I ask looking back up at him. He was biting his lip either from pain or from not wanting to talk.
"Please don't tell Aria. I don't want her to worry anymore than she already does." Mike pleads looking me in the eyes. "Promise me you won't tell her." He says desperately. I lead him to the couch and fetch the first aid kit from the bathroom. I kneel in front of him and re-examine the wound. It looked pretty painful and I still didn't know how he had done it.
"I'm going to need to pull out the shards that still stuck in there, clean it, which will hurt, and then dress it." I tell him picking up the tweezers. From what I could see there wasn't that much glass in his fist. The cleaning it would hurt the most since it was antibacterial.
"Sounds like a plan." I feel his eyes on me as I work on pulling out the shards of glass.

Now that they weren't embedded in his hand, I could see that they were reflective which meant he had probably punched a mirror. "I got into an argument with my dad." Mike confesses. He has his eyes closed tightly and his body language is tense.
"Well clearly you didn't punch him." I say smiling trying to lighten the mood. I was being as gentle as I could but Mike still winced every time I touched the wound. He laughs slightly like a huff of air coming from his nose.
"I got angry and I punched a mirror instead of his face." His breathing was ever so slightly rising a clear sign he was in pain.
"Better than his face I suppose." I squint my eyes in concentration trying to see if I had missed any pieces of mirror.
"I'm not so sure." Mike says sarcastically. When I was satisfied that I had pulled all shards of mirror from his hand I grabbed the antibacterial wipes.
"I'm not going to lie, this is going to hurt like a bitch." I say and Mike laughs.
"I can handle it." He says nodding for me to go ahead. I dab his wound and instantly his hand recoils back into himself a grunt of pain escaping his lips. "Sorry." He mutters extending his hand again. I take hold of it resuming my position.
"It's okay." I dab it again and Mike scrunches his eyes closed trying his best to not let the pain get to him. Once I was done with cleaning the wound I wrapped it up neatly in a clean white bandage. Mike looks at his hand and I feel sorry for him. He was right, Aria did worry about her little brother more than she was willing to admit to him. "I promise." I say and Mike frowns at me. "I won't tell Aria." Mike smiles thankfully at me.
"Do you have any pain killers?" He asks.
"Yeah, just let me clean up before Aria comes home with Romeo." I start to pick up the little pieces of mirror and the tea towel soaked with blood throwing them into the trash covering them so Aria wouldn't see. I then pack the first aid kit away and return it back to the bathroom.

"I feel obliged to give you the brother talk." Mike says after a moment of silence. I raise an eyebrow at him in question and he smiles. Mike always had one of those smiles that made you want to smile too. "Look, Spencer, I've known you pretty much my whole life, since you've known Aria that long, and I consider you as a second sister to me. You've helped me before when I couldn't go to anyone else for help." I knew what he was referring to. It was back a few years when Mike had gotten into a dodgy dealing and he needed help to get out of it. "I mean, you patched up my hand today. You're engaged to Aria and I know I'm not her older brother but I'm still her brother and it's my job to protect her. So, if you ever hurt her, you'll have to answer to me." Despite the fact that Mike was practically threatening me, I found it extremely adorable how much he loved and cared for his sister.
"I get it." I place a hand on his shoulder and smile. "I don't want to hurt Aria."
"And if she ever hurts you, I'll talk to her too because I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to her. And she's the best thing that's ever happened to you - don't you ever forget that." Mike says seriously. I nod my head in response. I felt the same way completely, Aria was the best thing to ever happen to me. Just then the apartment door opens and Aria enters with two coffees and Romeo at her side.
"Hey Spence, I got you a coffee-" Aria stops when she notices her brother sitting on the couch next to me. "Mike?"
"Uh, hey." He says awkwardly. I knew he didn't want Aria to ask any questions but I also knew that he probably didn't want to go home yet either.
"What happened to your hand?" Aria asks. Mike glances down at the bandage before looking back at Aria.
"I got hurt when I was playing lacrosse." Mike looks at me for a little extra support.
"Yeah, he needed to redress it after the nurse did it at school, so, he swinged by and I did it for him." I say and Mike shoots me a thank you glance.
"Oh, okay." Aria pauses before shrugging it off. "Do you want to stay for dinner?"
"That'd be great." Mike says standing up to give his sister a hug.
"How about he stays the night? You guys can have a sibling bonding night." I suggest knowing that Mike probably didn't want to go home tonight. He looked so thankful and relieved I was surprised Aria didn't notice.
"You sure?" Aria asks.
"I don't want to intrude." Mike chimes in though he sounded eager.
"You're not intruding, I insist besides my dad texted me before and said that Melissa was back in town, maybe I should do some sibling bonding of my own." I say.
"You're staying for dinner though?" Aria asks handing me the coffee she had bought me.
"Of course." I reply loving the taste of the coffee.
"I'm starving," Mike pipes up. "what are we having?" He asks.
"Chinese?" Aria suggests and Mike and I nod our heads in approaval.
"Alright I'll order." Aria goes into the kitchen to call the place. Mike settles back on the couch beside me.
"Thanks Spencer." Mikes whispers.
"Don't mention it." I dismiss, patting Romeo on the head in a greeting since I hadn't seen him since Aria had took him for a walk. I guess I really did have to go see Melissa. She's been different lately, almost sisterly, enough to make me slightly suspicious but, I had to admit, it felt nice. I'd go say hi to my dad and sister after dinner.