I sighed as I sent the last text to Mia. I groaned and sat down on the bench that was conveniently behind while messaging my forehead.

Why?

My intention wasn't to upset her any further, but this is my job. When I need to stay late, I need to stay late and to me , it's simple logic. Black and white. With Mia though, nothing could ever be just black and white. With her there was grey, beige tan etc.

I stood back up and angrily slammed my locked door, before heading back out to receive my next assignment all while trying to clear my mind.

———-

"Jesus, you're like a beast tonight man. What's got you all moody?" My friend Gio asked as we were finally getting ready to go home for the night.

"Women." I groaned while stripping off my old and dirty work shirt.

"Aye. You can complain when you got a wife , one son and three daughters." He chuckled, undressing likewise. "All I ever here is 'Daddy buy me this' "I'm hungry' 'I want'" he continued in a high pitched voice making me laugh.

"Alright Gio you win." I raised my hands in surrender before pulling my belt out of the loops.

"You're letting me win now? You've got the love bad." He chuckled shaking his head.

"I do." I muttered "It's hard." I admitted

"Estúpido" He rolled his eyes at me. "What did you think huh? That it's all fun and games? Of course loving someone is hard. But trust me man, if she's the one you'll know. You'll love all her annoying ass qualities , you'll tolerate her tantrums and vise versa. When it's bad , I know it's bad. But when it's good mijo, it's goooood." He winked at me emphasizing the good part and in turn make my smile widen.

Gio is older than me, but I mean my father was never there too much to guide me in making love or moral choices , and even though Gio is a hardass most of the time, he's always there in rough times to snap me out of whatever shit I'm going through.

I finished undressing and slipped on my sweats and plain navy blue t shirt with a green jacket Mia bought for me a few weeks back.

"I'm sick of you never wearing a jacket. It's weird

I walked out to my car and threw my bag in the back seat before getting in and connecting my phone to the charger.

With my phone connected , my playlist started playing automatically and I couldn't help but chuckle at the fact it was the one Mia made for me and insisted on it every time she was in my car.

"I don't dance now I make money moves" One of Mia's songs rapped at me.

I turned the volume down a little before sighing.

I told Mia I would leave her alone from the night, but I seriously felt the need to go to her and make things right.

That and I kind of had no where to sleep unless I wanted to sleep in my car. My dad's house wasn't worth all the questions and criticism.

I finally pulled out of the lot and headed towards a local 24 hour Walmart to pick up a few things.

I stepped out of the car and hurried in, feeling the weight of the day falling on my shoulders.

Inside I lazily grabbed some icy hot before tossing it into the cart before heading over to the frozen section and swooping Mia's favorite chocolate brownie ice cream.

I may or may not be preparing to bribe her.

I swung by the flowers and picked up some of her favorite roses before taking my items to self checkout and heading back out.

Since I wasn't on duty I pushed the speed limit, getting home close to midnight.

Grabbing all of my items I headed into our building , which was fairly well lit for everyone being asleep already.

I headed up upstairs hoping I was making the right choice in coming home tonight.

I slowly opened the door and stepped in before securely locking the door.

"Mi?" I whisper yelled, looking around for any sign of her.

I headed back towards our bedroom and took a deep breathe when I realized the light was still on.

"Mi, baby I brought you your favorite-" I stopped myself short when I realized she was sound asleep.

Her curls were gathered around her face , hiding everything except for the visible tear streaks.

She was in a pair of red boy short underwear (one of my favorites I might add) and a thin white shirt she often wore to class when she was running late.

I gave a small smile and covered her with the comforter and left the flowers on the night stand closest to her.

I put the rest of the items I bought into the fridge and made my way to couch, where I unsuccessfully tried to snuggle into and drift asleep.

Finally after about an hour of trying to fall asleep I put the television in and flipped around to the news , hoping it would relax me a little.

After a while it finally worked and I drifted off to bed.

———————

I groaned as my phone buzzed for what seemed like the millionth time.

I looked at the clock and seen it read 4am, making me cringe with how exhausted I felt.

I picked up my phone to see multiple missed calls from my dad and dozens of texts urging me to answer.

I finally swiped and dialed my house phone number to my dads.

"Dad, it's so early I'm not coming in-" I was quickly cut off by his frantic wording.

I quickly sat up , not used to hearing my dad so worried. Not since the passing of my mother.

"Dad calm down I can't understand you." I urged him.

"Phoenix, you're brother. Nick is missing."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorry for the long wait & confusion! I accidentally updated this chapter before it was ready!

Side note: if you have nothing to say don't say anything at all. Some of you guys are so extra about mistakes I make on this story that I write purely for fun!

Thank you for an amazing year and I hope 2018 brings everyone joy and true happiness! Thank you so much for over 200K reads , I hope this story was a good part of your 2017 & you will continue it into 2018!