A/N: Hiiiii!

This fic is going nowhere normal at this point, so let's just see what happens, shall we?

Apologies for Mike's OOCness at the beginning.

Enjoy!

"Goddamnit, where did I put that thing?!"

"Mike, you shouldn't speak like that when your uncle is here to visit!"

"Jesus Mom, he's like, twenty-five."

"Still!"

Mike groaned. He put a yellow t-shirt on over his previously bare chest. He was already wearing jeans, having come home from a night out with Anne Maria and fallen asleep in his clothes. His hair had respiked itself, and he was trying to find his hair gel to slick it back again, but it had vanished. He gave up the search and went downstairs.

His uncle was waiting. He looked all formal in a blue sweater vest, white dress shirt and black pants. He had keys spinning on his finger.

"Let's go, Mike, I don't have all day."

"Ok, Noah, geez."

"So, how's your brother doing?"

They were now in Noah's car, driving to a nice little diner on the edge of the town. Mike lived on the opposite end, so it was a bit of a drive.

"Oh, him. I haven't seen him in a long while..." Mike sighed as he looked out the window. He hadn't seen his older brother since he'd left home to find a life elsewhere when he was nineteen and Mike was fourteen. After hearing nothing from him for days turning into weeks, the police were called in to search for him, but he wasn't anywhere in or near the vicinity so they gave up. Some people said he was dead, others that he was arrested and sent to jail for a felony.

One time Mike almost thought he saw him while hanging out with Zoey at the park nearby, but it must've been some trick of the light.

"I don't need a sob story, I just want a straight answer."

"I don't know how he's doing. I don't know where he is, no one does." Mike then raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

"We used to be friends. When I still lived around here. You were pretty young."

"Yeah, five years apart is a while for two brothers."

"Try having eight older siblings sometime."

Mike slid his focus back to the road.

"I heard from your mom you had some drama with a girlfriend of yours."

"She-it's complicated."

"Mm hmm, sure."

"No, really!"

"Explain when we get there. This kind of topic isn't meant for the car."

Mike shut up.

They reached the diner and found a seat in a booth near the back. Their waitress gave them menus and brought them water.

"So spill. How did the drama start?"

"I was crushing on this girl, Zoey. She was pretty, smart-"

"Is, idiot, she's not dead."

"Heh, right. She's pretty, smart, and we never had any drama. It was fine for a while. Then, this other girl moved here from New Jersey, Anne Maria. And something inside me went DAMN, she is hot. I don't know why exactly, but I started acting differently around her than I did with Zoey. I'm well-versed in getting into character from my acting experience, but this was me becoming my character for real. Me and Zoey were never really dating officially, so it didn't seem like a problem. Me and Anne Maria started going out, and, um, making out, which I guess made Zoey blow up. I tried to explain to her, but she wouldn't listen. Then we broke up, or stopped being friends. Whatever we were, we stopped being it." He put his head in his hand.

"Oh wow, that's some serious drama." Noah rolled his eyes. "If you're fine with who you're with, what should your exes opinion matter?"

"I still want to be friends with her."

"If she's still mad, let her cool off before talking to her again."

Mike nodded. "You seem to know what you're talking about."

Noah shrugged and sipped his water. "I've had one or two rocky relationships myself."

"Oh yeah. How's Cody doing, by the way? He going anywhere new with his music career?" Mike remembered Noah's boyfriend from seeing him in concert what felt like forever ago and then being introduced to him afterwards. He still had a signed Drama Brothers Tour t-shirt. It didn't really fit anymore.

"Meh, he gave up on that after his band broke up a few years back, and now he's trying to get into technological researching. He's always been a bit of a geek." Noah smiled a little.

Mike smiled back. "Cool! What about you?"

"Not totally sure yet. Something with history, it was my major first four years of college."

"Nice."

"Any plans for that yet, or are you staying here and living in your moms basement?"

"I was thinking of an arts school out of state. I want to get into professional acting."

"Mm, not a whole lot of money in that. But hey, if you somehow become famous then hit a roadblock in your career, you can't say I didn't warn you."

Mike laughed.

Noah cracked a smile.

They continued to discuss random things in their lives until Mike heard the door bell ring indicating someone walking in. He turned his head, then immediately whipped it back around. "Um, Noah?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh, Zoey just walked in." He sounded nervous.

Noah looked over to see her wearing a red hoodie unzipped over a black t-shirt, walk over to a booth opposite them.

"So, what? You don't need to talk to her."

"But what if she sees me? I don't think I can face her right now."

"Just pretend she's not there."

Mike glanced at her again, then focused back on Noah. They continued to talk.

Zoey, meanwhile, didn't see Noah at first when she walked in. She just saw Mike, looking the way he did when they were sort of dating, his hair sticking out everywhere, wearing a normal t-shirt, drinking water. She didn't see Anne Maria anywhere so she wondered why he was there by himself. Then she saw him with Noah. "Must be a friend of his. They look so alike.." She shook her head and let her thoughts wander. Her mind went to that morning weeks earlier when she had snuck out to ride the train, and her conversation with Duncan.

That had been the first time she'd opened up to a complete stranger. Yet he didn't feel like a stranger. He seemed to totally get her. Even though he was reserved and didn't open up, he held understanding in his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes. To add to it all, they had so much in common. She wondered where he lived, if they could maybe talk again sometime. She sighed loudly before getting out of her seat and walking out into the late afternoon sun

PLEASE review this. See you next time. :)