Chapter one: The world was on fire
His stomach hurt the moment he heard her voice on the phone. Right away he knew that this late night phone call had to do with Micky and as he heard the urgency in Trixie's voice, Mike knew that it was extremely important that he listened to what she had to say. The words seemed to slowly flow from her mouth and into Mike's ears, causing his heart to sink into his already hurt stomach. His thoughts turned to Micky and whatever bad situation he must have got himself into with that August. After a mental "Damn you Micky" Mike was able to put his hurt feelings towards his estranged best friend aside. He knew that no doubt if Micky was in any kind of trouble as Trixie predicted he was going to have to bail him out of it.
"…If they still haven't come home by the morning, call me back."
After hanging up, Mike sighed and walked upstairs. However he knew that even though he was going to bed, he was not going to get any sleep. When he lay his head on the pillow he looked up at the ceiling and then over at Micky's empty bed.
"I should have never told him to leave…"
Just a few hours later all six of them had gathered in front of the Monkees' house. They quickly went over who was going to go in which car and where they would look for Micky and August. Mike watched as Davy and Peter crawled into the back of Tulip's van before the van pulled out of the driveway.
"Should we be scared for them? That Tulip guy didn't exactly seem like the most… um… trustworthy driver around."
Trixie snickered "They'll be fine."
"You sure about that?"
"Hell if I know." She laughed
Trixie walked over to the passenger side of the Monkeemobile. Mike had followed her and opened the door, helping her in. When she was in she smiled softly as Mike closed the door. After getting in the car on the driver's side, he looked over at Trixie to see her smiling at him.
"What?"
"You're such a gentleman, Michael. Have you always been that way?"
Mike shrugged "I was always taught to be when I was growing up. Living with other guys I've never got the chance to show that side of me I suppose."
"Well that makes me feel special."
Mike grinned as he started the car "Let's get a move on, shall we?"
As they pulled out of the driveway, Mike's grin faded, as did Trixie's smile. The two of them quickly became serious and quiet. The only thing that they could think of was whether or not they would find their friends.
Some time had passed before they decided to stop for breakfast. They stopped in a near by diner, not knowing that Micky and August had left the town they were in just an hour earlier. Trixie saw across from Mike, looking down and picking at the food on her plate. He watched as she did this before he sipped on his coffee. They hardly spoke to each other as they sat there, hardly eating. He looked away from her and peered out the window, trying not to show that he felt as down as Trixie appeared right then. She ran her fork through her food again before actually taking in the bite. Mike reached across the table and lightly picked up her hands. He ran his thumbs over the top of her hands and she tilted her head up to look at him. A very slight grin fell upon her lips.
"Hey…" Mike looked into her pale green eyes "Don't look so down. It makes me feel bad to see you that way." Trixie's smile became brighter and she laughed "There we go. That's the smile I was looking for."
"Sorry Michael. I can't stop thinking about them. Especially Micky."
"Yeah I understand." He paused and let go of her hands "You ready to go?"
"Yeah. Well hold on a sec. I'll be right back."
Trixie got up from the table and Mike's head turned in her direction as she walked to the restroom. For a moment he leaned back in his side of the booth with his arm stretched out over the top of it. While waiting for Trixie to return, inspiration hit him. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and began to scribble down a few lines. When Trixie returned to the table, Mike stuffed the napkin into his pocket.
"Ready?"
"Yeah. Let's go."
Mike stood up, left a trip on the table and they walked away. After paying the check, Mike walked out to the car with Trixie. Once again Mike had opened the door for her before getting into the car. Trixie leaned over to her left to reach for the seat belt fastener. She didn't realize that Mike had done the same thing from the other side, until the two of them bumped their foreheads.
"Ow." Trixie pulled away and rubbed her forehead
"Uh… sorry."
"No it's ok." She turned her head back to look into his eyes that were staring back into hers "Oh…" She grinned sheepishly "Nice to meet you here, brown eyes."
Mike laughed and backed away "Um yeah." He nervously cleared his throat a couple times before starting the car "Let's go."
As the day went on, the two traveling companions began to grow restless in the car. The sun had begun beating down over the car, prompting them to roll the windows down. This caused quite a breeze to blow about them. Mike glanced over at Trixie a few times as he drove, seeing that she was constantly brushing her hair out of her face as it blew around wildly.
"You know you can roll that window up."
"No I'm fine. I like the way the air feels." Her hair blew in her face and she made an attempt to blow it away so she could see "I wouldn't mind my hair blowing around if it didn't go in my face. But I don't have anything to hold it back."
Mike reached down between the seats and picked up his green wool hat. He shook it out before handing it to her.
"Here put this on. It'll help control your hair."
"Your hat? Well I couldn't wear this."
"It's fine. Just don't tell anyone I let you wear it."
"Thanks Michael." She put the hat on and smoothed out the sides of her hair
Mike smirked "It looks… cute on you."
"Really? I've never been much of a hat person."
"You could have fooled me."
He grinned and looked back at the road. His eyes turned towards the horizon. The sky above it had filled with grey clouds. From the looks of things the two of them were headed for some heavy rain. Trixie looked down to the floorboard and saw a crumpled napkin near her feet. The napkin spiked her interest when she noticed what looked to be something written on it. She picked it up and carefully smoothed it out.
"What's this?"
"Oh I forgot about it. Just some lyrics I may use in a song."
"Do you always write your songs on napkins?"
"Well no. Actually I write on whatever I have handy. One time I even wrote on my arm and kept it there until I could find some paper."
Trixie lightly grinned as she read the scribbled lines out loud "Darkened rolling figures move through prisms of no color… hand in hand they walk the night, but never know each other…" She paused and read the next couple lines to herself "…questions but no answers… Michael this is beautiful and so profound."
"You think so?"
"I think this shows some great potential."
"Well hold onto that napkin. I don't want to lose it."
"Alright." She looked around for a safe place to stash the napkin before stuffing in down the top of her sun dress
"I kind of meant for you to put it somewhere like the glove box but that's a nice place for it too." He snickered
"You told me to hold onto it, not the glove box."
"Well Trixie you got me there."
Trixie giggled before looking out the window. After a few minutes she let out a little sigh and shook her head. This caught Mike's attention but he kept his eyes on the road.
"Something wrong?"
"I just have this bad feeling, Michael."
"We'll find them. Don't worry."
"I'm not worried about not finding them. Well I know August will be fine no matter where he is. It's Micky I worry about."
"You must know something that I don't."
She sighed again "I know August too well. And let's just say he hasn't had the greatest track record with relationships."
"Something you know first hand?"
"No but I've seen it happen to other people plenty of times."
"Seen what happen?"
"Well… basically it comes down to this. August reels you in with his charm. Then next thing you know you're in it so deep that your head is spinning and you have no idea what even happened to you. Then he'll even get you to do tings that you've never expected to do. And then without warning, BOOM! August rips your heart out by dumping you."
Mike whistled "Ouch. You sure you never experienced it for yourself?"
She let out a short laugh "You kidding me? Shit I ain't got the right parts to even be with him."
Mike only shook his head with a snicker. Although he found it weird it surprisingly didn't bother him to have just found out that Micky had been dating August. When it came down to it he wasn't one to judge especially his friends. He also found it funny how Trixie didn't seem to realize that she had just ousted the couple. The first few rain drops hit the car and they both rolled up their windows. Trixie took off Mike's hat and tossed it to the floor. She then ran her fingers through her long red hair to put the natural volume back into it. This was the first time where Mike tried to avoid looking at her the whole time they had been in the car. Right then he knew that if he paid attention to her like he wanted to, it would greatly distract him from what was really important.
