#18 in TeenFic
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❝Don't,❞ he pleaded softly, offering her a tiny smile, ❝please don't make me a promise you will never be able to keep.❞ He released a quiet but deep breath, leaning forward even more, tilting his body towards her, until thei...
Nick had just pulled the car into the O'Connell house on Friday night after dropping Bree off at the Quake on their drive back from college, when he heard the low voice materialise from the shadows.
"Nick."
Nick's body jolted forward and his heart leapt; he began whipping his head around to try and locate the speaker.
His eyes landed on the silhouette stepping out from the shelter of the trees on the pavement.
"Mike?" He asked with disbelief, then it turned to outrage and annoyance. "You asshole! You gave me a heart attack!"
"Sorry," Michael said, not sounding like he was sorry at all. "Was going to meet you at your dorm as usual -- but remembered that you travelled back to Mauldin on Fridays after your last class. So I drove here earlier in the day."
Nick threw his hands into the air, feeling his panicked heart begin to calm down. "Why?"
"Because we need to have a really important talk," Mike told him, not a single trace of mirth or humour in his stance. He meant business tonight.
Nick shifted on his feet uncomfortably, darting his eyes towards the house, knowing fully well Eileen was somewhere in there. Dale had had to stay back in the dorms due to a game early tomorrow morning.
"What talk?" Nick asked, not bothering to mask the worry. "Is it -- is it father? Is he--?"
"Nick," Mike emphasised, narrowing his eyes the slightest bit. "Is there somewhere we can go?"
Nick chewed the inside of his cheek and glanced around the area, deep in thought. They couldn't go to a public area -- Mike's pictures had ended up on the papers long back and there was a good possibility of someone recognising him. And even if they didn't, the nature of their conversations were always so delicate that it had to be done in private.
He sighed deeply. "Rooftop," Nick muttered, nodding towards the flat space above Eileen's house, where he'd had that first date with Bree, watching a romcom on a projector screen.
Things had been so simple then.
Back then, his father was just the law's problem. Now he didn't seem to be that far away from Nick.
Back then, Michael was someone Nick thought he was glad to not have in this new life. Now, he wasn't so sure he wanted his brother to be gone.
"Is Eileen asleep?" Mike asked, and Nick didn't bother questioning how he knew her name.
