Michael felt empty.
He also felt stupid, because he thought that it was pathetic that he was moping around just because he wasn't with his kid for one weekend.
But mostly he felt empty, because Parker was a big piece of his life and when Parker wasn't there Michael felt like there was no point in anything. Parker was literally Michael's whole world, everything that Michael did was for Parker or because of Parker, and when he wasn't around things just didn't seem right.
This usually didn't happen to Michael, though, usually he could make it through the weekend without Parker. It was only two days, and it wasn't even every single week. Michael felt so stupid for being upset about this, but he couldn't help it. This was one of those weekends where he felt like he really needed Parker to be happy, especially because of the whole thing that happened with that dumb nanny on Friday afternoon.
So to fill the empty void in his life for the weekend Michael slept over at Luke's house, because his other friends were busy and Luke was always more than happy to help Michael out with whatever he needed.
The only downside was that Luke's girlfriend was there, and she was currently going through a bit of a baking phase, so she kept trying to get Michael to eat whatever she made. Michael didn't want to eat, he wasn't hungry, he was sad. All he wanted to do was drink and that's what he did all Saturday night until Luke cut him off. It was Sunday morning now, and Michael was trying to nurse a hangover so he'd be feeling better when Parker got dropped later that night.
"Here, Sara made coffee." Luke said softly, sitting down next to Michael, who was sprawled out all over the couch. Luke set the coffee mug down on the table, so it was there when Michael was finally ready for it.
"Thanks." Michael mumbled. He finally sat up, his head pounding.
"Sara's making a cake, I think, I don't even know. Something that has to do with chocolate icing." Luke shrugged. He leaned back into the couch next to Michael, patting his friend on the back.
"I don't want it." Michael said, shaking his head. Sara really sucked at baking, but no one wanted to tell her.
He loved Sara, he really did, despite her less than average baking skills. They'd been friends for years and she was the main reason why him and Beth got together in the first place. Michael really owed Sara everything, because without her he would have never started to date Beth and they would have never had Parker, and everything would be...different. Michael loved Sara, but she just couldn't eat another one of her cakes.
"I don't want it either." Luke whispered, nudging Michael with his shoulder.
"The last one was too dry." Michael added, in case Luke wanted to pass the message on to Sara so she could try to improve her cake-making.
"I know, I'm sorry." Luke sighed.
"It's not your fault." Michael chuckled, because Luke didn't have any reason to be sorry. He didn't make the cake, Sara did.
"She made these really great brownies the other day. I ate, like, four for breakfast." Luke laughed. He adored Sara, and that was the problem, because even though everything she tried to baked sucked he still loved her.
"They probably had weed in them." Michael scoffed.
"They did not!" Luke protested. He slapped Michael on the shoulder, appalled that Michael would even suggest that.
"I can't eat any more of her cakes, dude, they're too bad." Michael whispered, hoping that the next time Sara asked him to try some cake Luke would be able to get him out of it.
