Love sick series: the Mick Diaries

chapter 6 Mick's resolve

Mick returned to his room, feeling numb and dazed. He lay back down on the bed where moments before, he'd almost had his first kiss.

Thanks, mom. Mick sighed, and he could almost imagine the lingering scent of Ohm's deodorant in the air. Had the handsome senior really tried to kiss him? Or was it just his imagination? Things had progressed so fast from the day before it made his head spin just to think about it. He sat up, needing a cold shower badly. He started emptying his pockets and his hands came across a crumpled piece of fabric.

Ohm's handkerchief. He stared at it a while. He wondered why he'd even stolen it. It felt like such a good idea at the time. He smiled, remembering how tender Om had been while attending to him. Was it just the affection of a senior towards his junior? Or perhaps something more? Mick sighed again, and tossed the hunky into the washing pile. Now he really needed that cold shower.

Dinnertime was an excruciating affair. His mom alternated between gushing about Ohm to berating Mick in front of his sister. As for her part, Jen just complained about the noise they were making while she had been trying to study.

"At least it was quite beautiful," his mom said in their defense. "I can't wait to attend your performances, Mick."

"I'm just in the marching band, Ma. Maybe next year," he said, rolling his eyes. He didn't tell her about Ohm's plan to include him in the Live Show. He was sure she'd want to come and film him or do something equally embarrassing.

"And how come we haven't seen this handsome Ohm guy before? He's quite a bit older than you isn't he?" She asked.

"He's my senior, of course he's older. He's in the 11th grade, Ma."

"You should have seen him," his mother addressed his sister. "He was very tall and handsome, too. And such nice manners." Now it was his sister's turn to roll her eyes. "You could learn a lot from him, Mick."

"Yeah some kind of manners would be nice. You nearly gave mom a heart attack this afternoon. I had to go with her around your school asking everyone if they'd seen you! It was so embarrassing," Jen said to Mick angrily. "All those...boys...staring!"

"I'm really sorry," Mick said in a small voice. How many times would he have to apologize, he wondered. It wasn't as if he did it on purpose. "I won't do it again."

"Make sure you don't," Jen said. "And you're so doing the dishes for the rest of the month."

"Week!" He countered, and they bickered back and forth before agreeing that he'd do two weeks' worth of chores to make up for his lapse.

Back in his room, Mick checked his laptop for messages, and to his surprise, he got a few more invites on Facebook, all from strangers who seemed to have one thing in common - They were already friends with Ohm.

Hi, you're cute, can I get to know you? Said one. Mick felt himself start blushing unconsciously. Cute? Me?

Are you single? Asked another. He had no idea how to reply to that.

While others were just friend requests without any message at all, including one each from Film and Per. He felt flattered, but confused at the sudden attention. What had happened? He decided to just accept them all for now and not reply.

And then he opened a message that contained an attachment that made his blood run cold.

It was a picture of Ohm and Mick at the food court. Ohm's back was facing the camera, but Mick's face could be seen clearly, and a hand could be seeing touching his lips with a handkerchief. The sender's name was TheTruth AboutMick.