Snapshots | ✓

Twenty Four: Micah

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015

"Fuck men!" Hayes shouted, slamming the front door behind her.

Micah looked up from his laptop with raised eyebrows. "What did we do now?"

"I broke up with Jude and he started yelling at me in the middle of the goddamn Starbucks about all the other girls he's been fucking since we started dating!" she continued, ignoring him. "First of all, who the fuck does he think he is to yell at me in public like that? It was so humiliating but at least everyone there realized he was the crazy one, and a few of the other girls there started yelling back at him before he was escorted off of campus. What made him think that was a reasonable course of action? And second, why would he tell me that he'd been cheating on me after I'd already broken up with him? I understand that the point was to lash out and hurt me but why did he feel that was necessary? He just kept going on about this girl and that girl and how they were better in bed than I was and they would do the weird stuff as though I was supposed to feel bad about not wanting to go beyond my comfort zone. Like what a fucking prick."

Micah took a breath to respond but she cut him off with a raised hand, pausing from unpacking her grocery bag onto the counter beyond his line of sight. "And please don't say you told me so because I will kick your ass."

"The thought didn't even cross my mind," he replied. "I was going to offer to go punch him for you."

"Only punch him once?"

"I don't think there would be much of a fight after that."

She snorted a laugh. "Fair enough. No thank you, though, I don't think it would help."

"The offer still stands if you change your mind," he replied, looking back down at his work. "Not that I believe you couldn't kick his ass yourself if you wanted to, but outsourcing is always a good option in situations like this."

"How many of your sister's exes have you offered to beat up?" Hayes asked. She was going through cupboards so her voice was a little hard to hear.

"Not as many as you'd think. Misha didn't date seriously all that much before getting together with Cameron. Plus a handful of her exes are girls, and it felt wrong even joking about fighting them," he said.

"That must have been weird for you."

"Misha dating girls?"

"No, Misha dating your best friend who was also your roommate at the time, wasn't he?"

"Oh, yeah, that was... weird," he agreed with a grimace. "Walking in on them making out on the couch is going to be burned into my brain forever."

"Is that how you found out?!"

"Unfortunately."

"That's hilarious. Terrible for you, obviously, but still hilarious for everyone else."

"I don't know about everyone else. Cameron couldn't look me in the eye for a week."

"I don't blame him," Hayes said, dropping onto the couch next to him and shoving a bowl of decorated ice cream in front of him. There were sprinkles, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and sliced strawberries piled on top of several large scoops of ice cream. "I hope you like the cookie dough flavour 'cause that's all I bought."

"Um..."

"Sorry, do you want to put away your laptop first? I can hold your bowl if you need a moment."

"I'm a little confused as to what's happening," he said, but passed his bowl back and set about packing up his work.

"I just went through a breakup after dating the guy for seven months and you're pretty much my only friend in this city, which means you have been chosen for my post-breakup tradition of copious amounts of ice cream and watching the Bourne movies."