Fifty Reasons to Stay (Book Three)

Chapter Thirty Seven- Chance

(Narrator's POV)

The next morning, Donnie woke up half dressed in bed, the laptop beside him and all the food and the table and chair from the night before were gone, as if it had all been a dream.

He looked at the screen. Their call had gone on until just a little after eleven thirty. Five hours of talking and planning and just.. He sighed, butterflies churning in his stomach. It'd been a good night. But he had to get up now and head out of town to look at his possible future home.  Donnie climbed out of bed, reaching for his clothes. He went back to the bathroom and started the shower, then opened the medicine cabinet to take the razor out. And this time, it wasn't for a bad reasons. He wasn't going to hurt himself.. he promised and he would keep it.

While Donnie was in the shower, Mikey slipped into the bedroom with a frown, searching through Donnie's belongings with solely the purpose of getting some payback. How dare he snoop through his little brother's room like that? His private life was private, and Donnie had the nerve to try and snoop through his bedroom! Had Mikey ever gone through Donnie and Leo's bedroom? Nope. Okay, maybe once, but he didn't actually go through the stuff, he just.. looked around the medicine cabinet for pills and that was all.

Mikey sat calmly on the bed, waiting for Donnie to come out of the bathroom so he could roast his ass.

Sure enough, Donnie came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, with just a towel wrapped around his waist. He jumped a little upon seeing Mikey. "W-what are you doing in here?" Donnie covered himself, embarrassed.

Mikey held up a pill bottle that didn't belong to Donnie, though he was acting like it did. "Oh, I just found this when I came in here to ask why you were snooping through my private business, but now I think I know why. You wanted to know what a homosexual relationship is like compared to your hetero marriage."
Donnie stared at him with a confused expression for a second before it hit him that Mikey was calling him a girl.
"I see you need a little help these days, hm?" He shook the bottle, then glanced at Donnie's phone.

Donnie snatched his phone off the table, eyes narrow. "Those aren't mine. What's your problem?"
"Why were you snooping through my room yesterday, Donnie?? Clara told me. Were you trying to take money??" Mikey shouted at his brother, standing up to meet him.
"No! I would never." And Donnie meant this. He loved his brother and money didn't matter to him. "I did not take a thing. I swear." Donnie sucked in a breath. "I just worry.. are you two doing okay?"

Mikey shoved Donnie backwards in pure anger. "That's none of your business!!! Don't you ever bring that up!!"

Donnie flashed back to that morning exactly one year ago when Leo left him. He noticed his entire body starting to tremble. "I wasn't trying to start stuff when I went into your room yet you are here trying to spread false rumors about my sex life. Who's at fault?"
Mikey scoffed. "What sex life?"

Donnie pretty much lost it at this point and shoved Mikey backwards roughly. He'd never laid a hand on his sibling before, but today was an exception. "Come on...Don't talk like that!"

But if Mikey was known for anything, it would be his ability to take what mattered most in the person he was fighting's life and turn it against him.

"Why, because I'm right? Leo's gotta be sucking up drugs all day if he even thinks you're slightly desirable. And you? You're using him to get protection, you were so scared of him leaving you that you tried to kill yourself to get his attention and make him guilty. You're messed up, Donnie!"

Donnie blinked away angry tears as he shoved his brother again. "You are just mad that we are okay again and your own marriage is finished!"

"Fuck you!" Mikey tried to punch Donnie in the gut, exiting the room with a loud slam of the door. But as he sat on the other side of it, all he could do was cry because his older brother was right about everything, though Mikey didn't want to admit it. He covered his mouth with his hand, sitting against the wall. God, Raph didn't even wear his ring anymore. Any day now he'd ask Mikey to move out and find someplace else to live. These was no way their marriage could be saved. They weren't like Leo and Donnie, and they couldn't work this out. They... simply didn't love or like each other anymore.