ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｓｅｖｅｎｔｅｅｎ

With his Thursday off for one of his younger brother's birthday, Mikey stayed in bed until eleven and his grandmother was coming up to see if he was sick. When she walked in, Mikey was curled under his blanket with his brother's Switch in his hands. He glanced up and beamed.

"Wassup?" he asked while going back to the game and turning the Switch as if that would help him steer in Mario Kart.

His grandmother watched with a loving grin on her mouth, and when he set the device down she asked him, "are you alright? It's eleven already."

Mikey's eyes widened and he looked at his phone that was playing music on his chest. He whistled and shook his head, surprised that he was playing for that long. He'd gotten up around nine after going back to sleep once Aiden left for school, and he decided to play his brother's Switch for a little bit. Apparently an hour went by real quick when all he was focused on was beating Bowser or Waluigi for first place.

Saving the progress he made, Mikey turned the Switch off and set it back where he grabbed it from, then walked down to the kitchen with his grandmother. She was in the middle of making sausage soup, adding the chopped up hard-boiled eggs into the slow cooker, and went back to it once downstairs.

"What're are you making, Nanny?"

"Sausage soup; it'll be done in an hour or so."

Mikey nodded and made himself a ham and cheese sandwich. He sat at the table and watched The Golden Girls that was on the tv. He was downstairs for a couple hours until he asked if they needed anything from the store—he was going because he needed deodorant and he was gonna get another smaller gift for his brother for tonight.

His grandmother handed him a list and thanked him, then he was on his way. Mikey drove to the store since he didn't feel like walking home with bags in his hands. There, he lazily walked around, looking at the shirts, and threw a pair of fun socks in the basket, then carried on his way.

.

..

...

Once his brothers were home from school, a mix between all of the schools, their grandmother gathered them in the kitchen. The cake she made was iced perfectly, sprinkles on the side, and a short 'happy birthday' written on the top. There were thirteen candles stuck in the cake for the age he was turning, and their grandmother was slowly lighting them.

The Balms sang Happy Birthday to the second youngest brother, the other sharing his birthday with Mikey in December, and Mikey made sure to have a second piece of cake for back up. He walked behind his brother with the plate of cake raised in his hand, then swung around his head and pushed the vanilla cake in his face, smearing it around.

Everyone laughed and the brother pushed Mikey away, the cake falling to the floor. Mikey beamed before wishing him, "happy birthday shithead."

Eventually everyone went to their rooms and Aiden and Mikey were on their cell phones. The older brother was watching TikToks and Aiden was texting. He had a small smile on his face and hid it from Mikey with his phone itself. He covered his mouth and glued his eyes to the device. Occasionally Jasper would text Mikey, but he slid away the notification on habit and didn't answer for another hour when he apologized for it.

Aiden came around to ask his brother, "do you like Jasper, Mikey?"

Mikey looked up from his phone and stared at Aiden in confusion. His eyebrows quirked together and he frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Do you like Jasper?"

Mikey shrugged nonchalantly, hiding his true emotions when saying, "well yeah, he's my friend, you idiot."

His younger brother didn't seem to like the answer, because he groaned and frustratedly asked, "then why do you have sex with him? If you're just friends why are you guys screwing?"

"Because—" Mikey cut himself off with no idea how to answer. He didn't know why he started that with his best friend. It'd probably be hard to stop in the future, especially since now there were feelings in the mix. Mikey groaned, throwing his head back and shrugging. "I don't know, it just happened."

"Well, then are you gay?"

Another question Mikey didn't know and he didn't like it. He didn't think about labeling himself since he didn't really find anyone attractive. Sure he dated girls, but that was only because they liked him and he felt like he had to, otherwise he was gonna miss out on something in high school. Plus, he only had one serious girlfriend and she was in their tenth grade; after that Mikey was single. The twenty-year-old didn't really put much thought into it since he was fine with being that way. But, he also didn't find any guys attractive. They were just seen as dudes and possible friends.

Mikey glared at his younger brother for asking stupid questions that he didn't know how to answer. But, he answered that one with a sharp, "fuck you, I don't know."

He turned over in his bed to ignore anymore questions Aiden had, and clenched his jaw and hands into tight fists. He wanted to forget everything that just happened, but Mikey knew that wouldn't happen. So, the young adult stuck to forcing himself to go to bed early in the night in hopes to rid his mind of all the racing its been doing.

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Filler chapter I guess. Next one it'll be back to Jasper x Mikey. I mean we did get some mention of Jasper, but he wasn't present in the chapter.

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