"I just don't understand." Mike said rubbing his face as he walked by Annie, who sitting on the couch, for the 15th time. She was studying her hands carefully, her red curly hair covering her face.
"You mean you don't see the resemblance?" Abby said from behind him. She had a cold look in her eye as she watched him uncomfortably pace the room.
"Of course I can see it." He snapped at her. He looked back at Annie who was looking at him with a curious expression, as if trying to recognize parts of herself in him. He sighed when the thought of how hard this must be for her passed through his mind. "I just don't understand why she never told me." His lowered his voice to barely a whisper.
"Oh," Annie sighed. "She told me that she didn't think it was fair to tie you down at 18 with a child. She said she had made the choice to keep me and didn't want you to have to choose between us and your life." Annie watched him as this sunk in. His eyebrows furrowed with frustration and anger and he turned to the window. "I think it was because she was scared."
"Scared?" Mike bit back a bitter laugh.
"Yea. She was scared that if she told you, well, you might leave her. She was afraid to do it alone, well, ok she did it alone, but she was afraid to be forced to raise a kid alone. So she made the choice to do it herself before you could." There was a hint of agitation in her voice as she said this and Mike turned to look at her. He met her cool blue eyes and felt shocked.
"You think I would've left her? You think that just because she was having a baby I would've taken off?" He said, trying to hide the hurt in his voice.
"I don't know. It's just that's what normally happens."
"I loved your mother." He said pointing a finger at her. "It was her who screwed me over. She chose for me! Never even gave me a chance."
"You're forgetting she was a kid herself." Abby added. "She was young and scared of being rejected."
"She wasn't a kid last year or the year before that." Mike snapped. "She has had tons of time to tell me. She's just too selfish and spoiled and-"
"MIKE!" Abby shouted her eyes wide. Her gaze drifted to Annie sitting on the couch looking at him with a horrified expression and tears in her eyes. He sighed, guilt overtaking all the other emotions.
"I'm sorry."
"This was a mistake." She said standing up, wiping her eyes.
"No Annie, wait." Abby said. "He didn't mean it. Trust me."
"No, I can't stay here." She said pushing past Abby and heading towards the front door. Mike looked at Abby and she glared back.
"Go!" She whispered. "This is your one chance to have a relationship with your daughter!"
"She doesn't want-"
"Go Mike!" She snapped. He sighed and chased after her. She was already half way down the driveway when he caught up to her. Tears were streaming down her face and it was a pink, probably from embarrassment and the tears.
"Annie wait! Please." She turned away from him and kept walking. "Please. I'm sorry about what I said about your mom. I just…please, let me explain." The amount of sincerity and pain he felt must've been obvious to her because she stopped walking and turned slightly towards him. "She…When she left, it killed me. It hurts to think about her." He sighed. "Please, come back inside. At least stay the night." She looked up at him; her make up smudged under her eyes, her hands shaking. "Please…"She sighed and looked down the pitch black street. Then she wiped her eyes, pulled her bag onto her shoulder and turned back. He couldn't help but smile a bit. She stopped in front of the door and turned to him. There was a hard determined look on her face. He could see Abby standing in the hallway watching carefully.
"Look. I turn 18 in a month. I just need a place to stay until then. After that, I'll be out of your way." She snapped shocking both Mike and Abby, all sign of tears gone.
"Of course you can stay." Abby said.
"I don't recall you buying this house." Mike said, slightly amused and slightly annoyed.
"She's you're daughter Michael!" Abby snapped. "Don't be an ass!" He looked at her worried face and then Annie's strong, determined expression and squinted his eyes at her.
"Just a month?"
"MICHAEL!" Abby shrieked.
"Just a month." Annie said with a nod.
"Alright, you can stay." He watched her chest literally deflate with relief. Abby shook her head, sighing.
"Thank you." Annie said with a short nod, and pulled her bag father onto her shoulder. This was something that he had discovered she did when extremely uncomfortable.
"Is that all you traveled with?" Abby asked and Annie's cheeks went pink.
"I…I just took what I needed. The rest is being put in storage until I'm 18." She said looking down at her shoes.
"Well I'll show you your room." He said heading off down the hallway. He became aware that she wasn't following him and he turned to look at her.
"I have a room." She said with a shocked expression.
"Would you prefer to sleep on the couch for a month?" He asked, trying to hide his amusement.
"No, but I just…" She pulled on the bag again. "Thanks." She said shortly and followed after him.
"I've got an extra room." He said to her.
"Its for all those girls he brings home." Abby explained. "He's got a no sleeping rule!" She teased and Mike was shocked to see a quick smile cross Annie's lips.
"Don't listen to her. She's just jealous that she's never been invited over." He said over his shoulder.
"You wish!" She mumbled and he smiled.
He stopped in front of the yellow room, opened the door and turned on the light. He stepped into the room and Annie followed him. She looked around, with an expression he couldn't read.
"It's nice." She said quietly. "Very fem-"
"Feminine I know. I have a niece, so I figured this would be her room, when they stay over." Annie looked at him with a bright expression.
"I never even thought that I'd have…" the look faded and then she turned away.
"Anyways close go in the dresser, obviously. Bathroom's just down the hall and there are clean towels in the cupboard beside the laundry room." He said pointing out the doors to her. When he opened the cupboard door to show her the towels she cringed. He looked back at the closet and tried to figure out what she was freaking out about. The towels were shoved into the narrow cupboard, some about to fall out. He shrugged, finding nothing crawling in there and closed the door. "That's my room." He pointed to the double doors. "Kitchen's down that way, along with the living room and the Man…I mean family room." He said pointing down the hallway. She nodded and turned around to look at the place again.
"This place is...really nice. Nothing like my…" She turned away, heading into the room.
"Like what?" He followed her.
"Like…. my old place." She said sadly.
"Where did you live?" He asked carefully.
"New York. Mom and I moved out of Gran's place when I was 6. We moved t our first apartment, our only apartment actually. It was completely different than this place."
"How so?" Mike was shocked at how curious he was about Annie's life. She sat down on the bed, feeling the duvet and sighed.
"Well my old room, it was half, not even half the size of this room." She smiled sadly. "Barely had room to move, but it never mattered because I normally slept with Mom anyways."
"Why? Did you have nightmares or something?"
"No, not really. My window looked down onto a bar that never really cared how loud the music was."
"Hm…New York." She smiled slightly and looked around the room again. He pictured her in a tiny pink room, with a small bed that had flowers on it and a small dollhouse on the ground where she would play while Maria made dinner. He shook his head and sighed.
"Well, I'll let you get settled in. If your hungry there might be some pizza in the fridge if Abby hasn't ate it all."
"Very funny!" Just as he had expected she had been listening and shouted back at him. He smiled at Annie, but she just watched him with that same unreadable expression.
"Thanks..."She whispered. He smiled at her.
"Good night." He closed the door behind him. He hesitated outside the room, before sighing and heading back down the hallway to the man cave.
Abby was lying on the couch picking at her nails. He sighed, picked up a beer from the table and sat on the couch, to which she placed her feet on his lap again.
"Well, well. Aren't we the devious one!" She said with a smirk and smiled brighter at his confused expression. "You know getting a girl knocked up in high school."
"How was I supposed to know?" He rubbed his face and took a long swig of his beer, which was now warm.
"Well did you talk to her?"
"You know I was talking to her."
"She sounds like a good kid." She said sitting up straighter.
"You got that from her talking about her old apartment?"
"No I got it from the way she talked about her mom. Plus the fact that she crossed the entire country right after her mom died, to find you."
"Yea well…"
"Plus she's opening up to you." He laughed.
"Where you watching the same scene that I was?"
"She told you about her room! That means something." Abby explained and when Mike gave a snort of disbelief she further explained. "She should be holding back from you, after all you're a complete stranger. But there's something about you that she feels comfortable with and she, after 20 minutes of knowing you, gave you some sort of insight to her life." Mike thought about this for a moment and sighed.
"I don't know how to raise a kid."
"Um, maybe you missed the memo, but she's only here for a month, which means she's 17, almost 18 and therefore does not need to be raised. You don't really have to do anything if you don't want to, just make sure she's fed and clothed and comfortable." Mike sighed again.
"I don't know." He said and then Abby punched him. "Ouch! What was that for?" He rubbed his arm.
"You're a complete idiot! You bitched and complained that you never got a chance and that she left before your could chose, blah blah blah. Obviously she knew you well enough because look at you. You've got the easiest part now and your backing out."
"I'm not backing out!" He snapped.
"Your thinking about it." She said. "You're being given a chance Michael! A chance to have a relationship with the daughter that you never knew you had. She needs you to be there for her, give her some fatherly advice now and again and comfort her when she's sad about her mother! That's a gift! You should be thankful and stop fucking thinking of yourself for once!" Abby stood up and started picking up the beer cans.
"I know how important this is and I'm not thinking about myself. I just don't want to screw this girl up." He defended.
"She was screwed when you impregnated her mother!" Abby snapped, and then realized what she said.
"Don't hold back, please." Mike snapped angrily, and headed into the kitchen.
"Listen, I'm sorry. But you make me so angry!" She sighed and placed the cans on the kitchen counter. He leaned against the stove and looked at her.
"I don't know…how to…"
"I'll he-lp…you…" She said slowly, regretting saying it as soon as it left her lips.
"Great!" He said sarcastically.
"You need help so much, I'm…willing to help you."
"What can you do that will help me?"
"I don't know. I can go shopping with her for clothes. If she needs someone to talk to about girl stuff I'll be here."
"I don't know if I want my daughter around you, you're a bad influence."
"Cute, being protective already." She said sarcastically. "Anyways in exhcange for my help, you can help me with Colin."
"I thought we already agreed what my payment will be."
"What are you going to give me then?" She said putting her hands on her hips.
"I never asked for help."
"You will though." She said turning and heading down to the green room.
"I don't think so." He looked at her puzzled. "What are you doing?" He asked as she opened the door.
"Having a sleepover." She winked.
"Pardon?" He stared at her with complete disbelief.
"I'm too impaired to drive home and so are you. So I'll sleep over. Don't worry I'll make the bed and be gone in the morning before you wake up." She smiled brightly. "Goodnight." And then the door closed and he stood staring, unable to move.
She had a lot of nerve, inviting herself in, lying on his couch and then sleeping in his bed, or at least one of them. He groaned as he turned off the rest of the lights and walked quietly to his room. The house was completely quiet; the only sound was from the air conditioner. He tore off his t-shirt and jeans and crawled into bed and lay perfectly still, slightly afraid of what the future held.
