He's drunk. He knows that he's drunk. He's not in denial or too afraid to admit it and hell, with the amount he's drunk it would be a fucking miracle if he could remember his own name correctly.
And he blames that for why his fingers fumble with the buttons on his phone and he's ringing a number that he doesn't even know is connected or not. He doesn't even know how the hell he can remember the number off the top of his head, especially when he can't see the keys properly.
He knows he's probably using Mandy's phone, so maybe that's why there's a slick at the other end of the line and Mickey knows he's picked up. Even if he hadn't heard that click though, he would just know.
And maybe they both have this fucked up sort of intuition. Or maybe he really did use his own phone. But Gallagher doesn't say anything. No 'hello' or 'who is this?" Just nothing.
There's just silence.
Except Mickey can hear him breathing.
"Ian?"
He doesn't know why he uses his first name then, when he doesn't usually ever. Maybe it's the thought of all the people around him calling him Lip or Gallagher. Maybe it's just the alcohol.
Ian still doesn't say anything, but then Mickey never really expected him to.
"I miss you," he blurts out, and he definitely blames the alcohol for that one. It's worth it though, he thinks, when he hears the shaky exhale coming down over the line.
He would have thought Ian would have hung up on him by now.
But he doesn't, not even when Mickey doesn't say anything else. He doesn't know what else there is to say. He's apologise, but what difference would it make now? He'd say I love you, but Gallagher already knows that, he does. Even if he thinks he doesn't.
So Mickey just lies there with his phone pressed against his ear. And he falls asleep to the sound of Gallagher's breathing and with the thought that maybe Ian was doing the same thing too, just listening to Mickey breathe in the silence.