Fifty Reasons to Stay (Book Three)

Chapter Twenty Four-Amends

(Narrator's POV)
Pleas do not panick when you get up. I wil be back.
-Donnie

This was it, Donnie couldn't handle it anymore. He had to do something, I mean, Mikey was the only living family member he was in contact with. The rest were scattered across the east coast, and.. most of them disapproved of his marriage and disowned him seven years ago when he'd called them all to explain. Yeah, he never responded to the several dozen messages he'd received over the past seven years on how 1) he was going to hell or 2) he was making a huge mistake or 3) do not ever speak to me again. And yeah, it really upset him back then, especially after he moved to the west coast. He wanted his family to know about his son, but they just would've said something negative.

So he couldn't just lose Mikey too.. he couldn't. He knew Leo was much too prideful to admit any mistake or wrong he had done to Mikey, and would never take him up to Seattle to see his brother if he asked.

Donnie decided that the only way to make things right with his brother was to go there himself.

On December 23rd, he made sure he got up before the sun did. This was going to be very difficult as Leo could catch him at any time, demand to know just where he thought he was going, then make him go back to bed. Well, that was not happening. The only problem was going to be how well or how terrible Donnie was behind the wheel.

Donnie opened his eyes, sunlight not even peeking over the mountains yet. Leo was turned onto his side, luckily facing him, and Donnie could tell he wouldn't be waking up for a while. But when he tried to get out of bed, Leo stirred, seeming to be waking up.

Don't wake up, don't wake up, don't wake up...

And as luck would have it, Leo's light snoring started up again. He sighed in relief and tip toed into the hallway. It struck him that he'd never really gotten out of bed before Leo did, mainly because he didn't like getting up at 5:30 every morning. He preferred sleeping in on the weekends and some weekdays, and now it made him consider the fact that it wasn't entirely fair. I could've helped out. I could've spent more time with him.

No time for that.

He left a terribly spelled note on the counter, took Leo's keys and left. The drive from Portland to Seattle was a total of three hours, and Donnie wasn't even sure how to get there, or how to drive Leo's high tech expensive car, but he used the GPS, and because he was actually a very intelligent person, he managed to figure things out, only knocking over one trashcan. But it was the Penn's, so who the hell cares?

He followed the directions and made his way into Seattle, stomach flip-flopping with both excitement and fear as he passed Raphael's Seattle branch of his company. That meant his house was just minutes away.........
~
Donnie knocked on the door. His hands trembled, and after a few seconds of no answer, Donnie rang the doorbell. He was panicking out of his mind, wondering if Mikey would get mad at him for coming over uninvited.

His hands started to clam up, especially when the lock clicked and the door opened. He mustered a smile, looking brightly at his brother. "Hi Mmikey!"

The door closed. Oh.

.....

Donnie stood, stunned, reaching up to knock again. "Brother?" He softly whispered, placing his ear on the wooden door. "I c-can hear...you." He said sadly, hearing Mikey's breathing on the other side. His mind didn't really click to the thought that Mikey didn't want to see him, he just really needed to talk to his brother.

The door, once again, opened, and Donnie managed to glance at Mikey wearing his pjs and his hair in a lazy style – but Donnie too was in pjs, and he also didn't brush his hair. Leo didn't dress him this morning since he left without him knowing. He snuck out, and he was sure going to get grounded – but he was a man, an adult. He was a spoiled one too, at that. Everything would be fine.