When the door slammed, Mickey knew exactly what was going to happen. He braced himself and took it.
He didn't let any tears fall, and he didn't speak when he was yelled at, he just stood there.
"YOU'RE FUCKING USELESS! YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!"
His face was red and sore, his entire body ached. He knew he would be covered in bruises.
Mandy was still crying, Mickey went to find her. She was in her crib; diaper near over flowing, she looked dirty, but when she saw Mickey, she seemed to calm down a bit-like she knew that Mickey cared.
Mickey knew he couldn't take care of Mandy, he knew that he couldn't make bottles for her, and change her diaper and give her a bath, but he could try.
He wished he could just run away and take Mandy with him.
He wished they could live with the Gallagher's and be happy and never have to see Terry ever ever again. But that would never happen.
Mickey knew he wouldn't be able to lift Mandy out of her crib, not by himself, but he could climb into it.
Mickey didn't really know what he was doing, he had seen his mom and Monica changing Mandy's diaper before so he tried.
He climbed into the crib, the bed creaked a bit, but not much, Mickey was pretty light.
He had the clean diaper and some baby wipes with him, he knew Mandy had pooped, and he knew that he had to clean it off of her.
She only had on a t-shirt and the diaper, so Mickey didn't have to try to take pants or anything off of her.
He pulled the little tape strips open, it was nasty.
Mickey didn't want to touch-shit. But he did it, because Mandy was his baby sister and he loved her, he was her big brother, he had to do that kind of shit for her when no one else would.
He used far too many wipes, but he had to make sure he got it all off, he didn't want Mandy to get diaper rash or some shit.
He put the clean diaper on her.
"I'm sorry Mandy." Mickey whispered as he climbed out of her crib, dirty diaper in hand.
Mandy was still whining a bit, Mickey figured she hadn't eaten in quite awhile.
He made his way into the kitchen, unnoticed. He threw the diaper into the trash can and climbed onto the counter to find a bottle in one of the cabinets.
Mickey found one that wasn't dirty. He really didn't know how to make the bottle, he didn't know how much water to put in it, or how much of that nasty smelling powdered shit to put in it, but he'd seen other people make bottles for Mandy. He knew that the water couldn't be hot or else it would hurt Mandy, he knew that it couldn't be too cold either because that would make her tummy hurt.
He just guessed at how much of each to put in, it didn't look too thick or thin and it wasn't very hot-it was pleasantly warm. Mickey snuck back into Mandy's room, if Terry or his brothers knew what he was doing they would stop him, Mickey knew they would. Milkovich's can take care of themselves-apparently even babies.
Mandy was laying not sitting this time, she was whimpering a bit, as if she knew she needed to not be so loud. Mickey set the bottle in the crib and climbed in. He knew Mandy could hold the bottle on her own, but he felt better sitting with her.
He pulled Mandy into his lap, so that she was leaning into his chest but still sitting on her own. He placed the bottle in her hands, she instantly began to suck down the milk. Mickey smilled, he was wrong, Mickey wasn't useless, he could do something right; he could love and take care of Mandy. He wasn't even five yet, but he could do it. He had to do it. If he didn't who would?
Mickey contiuned to sneak Mandy bottles, he would always sit with her while she drank them. He continued to change Mandy's diapers and once when his brothers were out beating someone up or doing some other stupid shit and Terry was passed out, Mickey managed to give Mandy a bath. It was a pretty shitty bath, Mickey had to get in with her, which was really fucking weird, he had to be naked, because he didn't want to get his clothes wet. They were in the tub for all of ten minutes, Mickey didn't wash himself, just Mandy.
They were running out of the powder shit Mandy ate as well as diapers and wipes. Mickey didn't know what to do. He knew that Terry wasn't going to buy them, and Mickey didn't have any money.
He knew that he couldn't take money from Terry or his brothers. He knew he had to steal the stuff for Mandy.
He didn't know how he was going to do it, but he had to do it for her.
Mickey knew he couldn't leave Mandy in the house by herself. Not that leaving her with Terry or their brother's would be any different, but he felt better knowing they were there even if they wouldn't do anything with her, let alone for her.
Terry was drinking, as usual. His brothers were either in their rooms or in the backyard getting high and shooting at shit with the gun they had stolen.
Mickey slipped out the door, he knew that no one had seen him.
He didn't know what store to go to, but the closest one was the Kash And Grab. He had been in there a few times with his mom.
A few people gave him strange looks as he walked down the street, but they didn't bother to say anything because-he was Milkovich trash.
He entered the store, instantly eyes were on him, but as soon as the people realized who he was they averted their eyes. Who cares about a little boy with the last name of Milkovich? No one.
Mickey remembed what the can of formula looked like, it was orange, he found that one on the shelf, and slipped it into the inside of his sweatshirt, he had worn one of Tony's old hoodies, it was big enough that Mickey could stick things inside it, but small enough that it didn't look hugeon him. He walked the short distance to the diapers, he couldn't rembember if the ones he had been putting on Mandy had a three or a four on them. He go the bigger ones. He was pretty sure that's what Mandy had been wearing. He hoped.
He began to walk out of the store.
No one said anything, no one was trying to stop him.
He had one arm inside the sweatshirt holding the diapers and formula, the sleeves were long enough that he could have that arm in and noone would be able to tell.
He pushed the door open with his free, sleeve covered arm.
He stepped out into the street, still no one tried to stop him.
He damn near ran down the street away from the store.
He had gotten away.
He got the stuff Mandy needed.
But what would happen next time? Mickey didn't want to think about that.
When Mickey was in bed at night, all he could do was think about that red-haired boy and his baby sister.
At night in bed, Mickey would cry. He would try to stay silent. He would scream into his pillow until his voice was numb, his throat was raw and burning. Some nights it felt like he was screaming his lungs out as the tears fell down his face, like slow streams.
Mickey didn't want any of this to be happening.
Mickey blamed his mom. It was all her fault, if she hadn't started seeing Monica then she never would have-if she hadn't been so careless in the middle of the fucking street. But Mickey knew he shouldn't blame her, if she hadn't gone to Monica, she would continued to get beat up. She would have still been hurt. Mickey knew that she had to get out. If she hadn't gotten out, she would've ended up killing herself. Mickey heard her talking to herself once, when she thought no one as around. She told herself that if she just took all the pills in the bottle everything would go away. All the shit would stop. Mickey didn't understand what that meant at the time, but now he understood perfectly.
The second time Mickey tried to steal formula-he got caught.
He thought for sure something bad would happen, cops would come but they didn't.
It wasn't the old man or even the young kid that worked in the store that caught him. It was an older lady that Mickey didn't know, who clearly didn't recognize him as a Milkovich.
She asked him why he was stealing formula, he didn't know what to say.
"Mom left. Dad doesn't care. Baby sister needs them." He only said a few words. He didn't want to say anything stupid, that would get him introuble.
"How old are you?" The woman was nice, she seemed to genuinely care.
"Turned five a few weeks ago." The womans eyes widened slightly. Mickey could see the surprise in her eyes.
"Honey, you shouldn't be doing this. Don't you have anyone to help you?" Mickey just shook his head.
"I'll buy you all the stuff you need for your sister. You meet me here in this store every Thursday. You know what day that is right?" Mickey nodded. He didn't understand why this woman was being so nice to him.
"I'll buy formula and diapers and wipes and anything else you need. You need someone to help you, let it be me." Mickey was speachless, he didn't know what to say.
"T..th..thank you." He stuttered as he spoke, the woman just smiled.
The woman kept her promise, she was there waiting for Mickey in the Kash and Grab every Thursday.
But every time Mickey entered that store, he was terrified that she wouldn't be there.
Note To Readers- How was that? Next chapter will be a few years later, and maybe, just maybe the boys will see eachother again :P -JJ