His Darling (ON HOLD)

Chapter 7: A Couple of Misfits

"Yeah it could've been a long walk talk to fix this; The seas were getting rough, but I thought we were worth it; Worth a try, worth a fight, shows you what I know..." - Hunter Hayes

MIKAYLA'S POV

"A couple years later dad got married to Ellie and nothing else really changed until a few days ago when mom apparently found us again. That's when dad decided to split us up by sending me out here and the three of them going to Knoxville."

He just sat there dumbfoundedly for a while, I guess not really sure what to say. His mouth was slightly ajar at what happened to me. His eyes kept glancing from my face to my arms to my legs and back. At this point I had taken all of the makeup off of my arms and thighs so I could show that the scars were actually real and that I wasn't making the story up. I couldn't help but feel really anxious with the way he was taking the news, afraid of him leaving me again because I was broken and damaged; not like when he and I were living peacefully in Hell's Kitchen together.

Suddenly he looks away and just stares at the floor, raking his hand through his mop of raven hair. His lip began to tremble and I saw a lone tear escape his eye before it fell to his shirt and soaked into the fabric.

"Max?" I whispered. He shook his head and got up off the bed and started pacing around the room. I knew he needed time to absorb what I just said to him; it's not every day your best friend finally comes back into your life after years of being apart and one of the first things they tell you is how and why they and their family were running away from their psychotic mother.

After a few more agonizing minutes of silence, he looks at me again. But this time he has a lot more tears running down his face and he can't seem to stop them. He steps forward like the tears aren't even there and takes my hands in his before standing me in front of him.

"Mikayla, I... I honestly have no idea what to say about this, but I... I'm so sorry, Mikayla."

And that was all it took for him to break down in my arms, which wasn't exactly what I expected happening when he and I reunited. I thought we'd be laughing it out like old times. He wanted to know, though, and I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it from him forever. And I knew that if I didn't tell him then Charlotte would have no trouble in doing so. So it was either do it now or let him find out from someone other than me and him get pissed off about that.

Either way, I am starting to regret it quite a bit.

"Max, there's no reason to be sorry." I said softly, "You had your career to focus on and we lost communication with each other anyway. How were you supposed to know?"

"I just wish I could've been there for you and Stevie, you know? Hearing that happened to the both of you is way too nerve-wracking for me. God, especially with how young Stevie was. Poor, poor Stevie..." He kept on rambling like that for quite some time about regretting leaving Stevie and I to deal with that on our own.

"I do know one thing for sure, though." He suddenly piped up and said. But this wasn't like his sad, broken voice like he was using a couple minutes ago. This time his voice was a lot lower, more anger laced within it even.

"What's that?" I asked. He suddenly looked in my eyes, but his warm, brown orbs had become pitch black.

"When I find this Ryder guy, I'm going to lay his ass out for laying his hands on the both of you like that." I rested my hand on his bicep, the gesture waking him up from his raged trance.

"Enough about me and what happened, okay?" I asked, "Let's talk about you. What have you been up to all this time?"

"Well, for starters, I was on a few Nickelodeon shows for a while, that was fun. I also managed to make it on a couple of criminal shows as a minor character aside from Crisis, and then I was in a couple other movies. But as for acting that's about it. I started making music in about 2010, but haven't really gotten that popular really until Gibberish came out. But I've been loving the ride. Since then I started a band with my friend Ryan called Party Pupils and made mostly my own music but that's really about it." I let him finish before I laughed a little bit and confusing him.

"What's so funny?"

"One thing I forgot to tell you before I asked you that," I laughed, "Stevie has no idea you and I were best friends and is probably the biggest fan of yours that I've ever seen and had me watch everything with you in it with her." His face turned pink and about reached his ears at my statement, causing me to laugh more.

"Why did you let me say all of that then?" he asked.

"Because I didn't want to interrupt you."

"Okay, I'll give you that."

"So did anything else happen to you while you were gone?"

"Well, not a whole lot. There's only one thing that a few people really know about, and I feel like you should be one of those people that knows."

"Well I'd hope I'm one of those people, Max, or else you and I reunited again for nothing." That got a laugh out of him, helping lift the rest of the dampened mood.

"I, uh... I got married." My eyes bulged out at this statement.

"Married!?" I asked.

"Yes, but let me explain the rest of that, okay? It gets kind of messy." I nodded at his request before joining him back on the bed.

"Her name was Emily. Emily Cannon. An immigrant from Brighton, England. She and I were introduced to each other by a mutual best friend of ours named Katie, who also helped me propose to her. She and I had always joked about having a harp player outside on our balcony waking us up in the morning in a kind of paradise dream we had. I was able to propose at the place we had our first date, with a harp accompanying me in an acoustic kind of version of Lights Down Low before I popped the question. We got married on April 1st of 2016. Talk about April Fool's Day to me, huh?"

"What do you mean, Max? You talk about her as if she's amazing." He took a long pause, unsure of what to say next. I understood what he was trying to tell me about cut him deep. I was not ready to hear the rest of this conversation.

*Please just tell me she died and you're still mourning. Please let it be nothing worse than that.*

"A few months later we found out she was pregnant." He said with a cracked voice, "I was so excited to be a father, you know? She went to an appointment a few days later, and I let it slip thinking she just went to get the official test to see if the one from the drug store was a fluke or not. Turns out not only did she get that test, but she had also requested a paternity test. Turns out she had snuck behind my back with the man she was seeing to go take a paternity test and there was a match. The baby wasn't mine. She cheated on me and conceived someone else's kid." More tears rolled down his face as mine began to flow, too.

"I demanded a divorce immediately, both civil and under rabbinical law because of my family heritage. Rabbinical was easier, obviously, since I have to divorce her whether or not I forgive her anyway. Civil divorce was a lot harder. It was a harder process because she would never sign anything. It was all most likely because I had more money than the father and she thought she could use me as financial support. But I have no ties to the child, I have no obligation. Thankfully I got a judge to finalize it within six weeks rather than an entire year. I don't think I could have watched her go through pregnancy and birth of a child that's not mine. So after I was finally free from her, I shut myself into my music and promised myself no relationships for a long time. The public has no idea I'm divorced. Hell, right now they have no idea that I was even married."

"Max..."

"It's over now, Mikayla. No need to worry about me." Suddenly something popped into my head that I thought may cheer him up.

"We're just a couple of misfits, huh?"

"Yep... just a couple of misfits. But what's the matter with misfits?"

"Nothing. It's where we fit in." I suddenly got us bursting into song, singing the little misfit song from Rudolph like we would when we were little.

And it was then that we let all of our worries fade away, even if only for a little while, and felt like kids again.

Now we know about what happened to Max since he left New York. Think it can get any crazier than this? ;)

Now to rest my fingers because for some reason they're starting to spaz out for some stupid reason -.-'

Stay tuned for the next one!