I know. This was supposed to be Brittany's, but I just couldn't do it. I've spent a week staring at the same 180 words for that chapter, and then yesterday I saw the first lines of the conversation at the end on a commercial or something, and it was like wham hi I'm Mike's chapter so write me now. And I did, and I'm not as sure about it as I was about the others, but I'm still posting it. So review pretty please with another chapter on top.
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Mike Chang can tell you two things about himself: He's freaking awesome, and… well that really just sums it all up. He gets decent grades in school, he's a stud at football, and is untouchable when it comes to beer pong.
When he's sixteen he writes a perfectly edited paper about a quote by Abraham Lincoln: Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
It's written the night before it's due and he gets a B+. Life's perfect, at least his is, but sometimes he sits down and wonders when it will break apart at the seams.
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He falls for Brittany the day football practice starts freshman year. Sylvester pulled out all the girls during sixth period, and guessing from the scattered bodies on the field, they've been running laps since.
While the coach's are yelling at each other (well more like Sue yelling and Tanaka turning really, really red), he's distracted by the blond blur who's twirling her way around the field. She's talking to a group of other girls, laughing occasionally, and it's like bam hello future wife. She's stunning, tall, with legs up to there, but that's not what he notices first. No, what he notices first is the smile that she sends his way before turning her back to him.
It's bright and big, and reminds him of sunshine. (Or skittles. Because hello skittles are kick ass, dude.)
Puck catches up to him, helmet in his hands, and a smirk on his face.
"Dude, why are you staring at Brittany Van Roy?"
"I'm not star- wait that's Van Roy?" He looks over again, wondering how in the hell the girl with the braces and the flattest chest in all of Ohio blossomed into that in just three months.
"Yeah, hot huh?" Maybe Puck means it as a joke, but a spark of something that tastes strangely and annoyingly like jealous flares up in his chest, and he smacks the helmet in Puck's hand before pointing at a fuming Tanaka.
"Let's go, coach looks like he's going to snap something."
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When he's ten, he considers his family pretty normal, but life's a bitch so daddy gets caught embezzling money, and suddenly he's another statistic in the fucking book of like… statistics and shit. Whatever.
He was never really that close to his dad anyway, he worked a lot, but his mom's always been his best friend, and shit if he knows how to fix this mess.
His mom finds therapy like some people find god though, so he gets to sit on a couch twice a week acting like he doesn't give a damn. Like he doesn't stare at his ceiling every night and play let's make a deal with God.
It gets easier as the weeks pass, and when Noah Puckerman offers him a shot at the end of the summer before ninth grade, he thinks to hell with it, and slams it down. Two weeks later, and Molly Chapman takes his virginity in the spare bedroom of the Hutchinson house.
(Daddy issues fucking suck, dude.)
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Their sophomore year, he finds Brittany making out with Santana in an empty hallway, and to be honest it's too hot to be disappointed over.
Finn joins Glee because of Rachel Berry, and somehow they all get roped into it too, which isn't bad just… annoying. But he gets to 'bust a move' and evidently he's not a bad singer, but the moment he realizes that he's never going to leave this club comes on a Friday.
She doesn't notice him at first. Practice ended an hour ago, and everybody else is gone, but she's still there, music loud eyes closed, and he loses his breath for half a second. He's always known she could dance (Halo anybody) but not like this.
Her moves are graceful, quick and slow all at the same time and he feels like he's intruding on something private, something special. But as he's turning to leave, she opens her eyes.
He expects a giggle, a flawless, full blown smile, what he doesn't expect is the small grin, the seriousness of her eyes that contradicts everything he's ever know about Brittany Van Roy. She grabs his hand, pulls him close, whispers dance with me.
Then she giggles.
That's where it starts.
Three months later when Quinn has her baby, they spend the entire twelve hour process stealing things out of coma patient's rooms', because Brittany hates hospitals. After, she takes his hand and smiles at him, and damn if he doesn't pray that this will be forever.
It's not. Four years later and he's having a conversation with his best friends, in the kitchen of their… his home.
"You just lost your wife, Mike. It's okay to slow down for just a second."
He whirls around, suddenly furious. Maybe because he's smashed, but probably because right now he just doesn't care enough to pretend like he's fine.
"I lost my wife? I didn't lose her, she was taken from me. I didn't misplace Brittany, like she was a set of fucking car keys, Puck! Brittany's gone, one minute she's standing there and the next she's gone. Her heart stopped, and you want to know what the last thing I said to her was?" It's rhetorical, but he pauses long enough for Finn to take a step forward and Puck to take one back. Matt doesn't move.
(Its four years later, but daddy-issues still take precedence when it comes to emotional break downs. Puck will always be a coward, and Finn will always pretend not to be. And considering it's just surprising that Matt is even still there.)
"I told her that obviously she lost my socks, because they just don't get up and walk away. The last thing I did with my wife before she fucking died was fight about missing socks."
"Fuck."It comes from all four of them, and when the kitchen counter's contents smash to the floor, not one of them flinch.
Breathing hard, he glances at the scar that runs from ear to ear on the back of Finn's head, and wonders what the hell they all did to deserve this.