Author's Note: I finally managed to get another chapter together and hope you will like it.
I would also like to take the time to wish you a merry Christmas (or happy holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas) :D

CHAPTER 5

It was no surprise that Harvey's apartment was luxurious but Mike was still in awe of the apartment who looked like it costed a fortune.
He couldn't help but wonder what his life would have been like if Harvey had stuck around and been his father.
Perhaps he would have been a spoiled little brat whose dad bought him everything he pointed at.
Harvey showed him to the room that from now on would be his bedroom.
He had expected to be given an old guest room or something but instead he was met by brand new, expensive looking, furniture and even the wallpaper seemed new.

"My secretary picked all the stuff out, if you don't like it we can change it."
"I like it, it's nice."

He answered while he carefully sat down on the bed, running his hand over the blue covers.
The room really was nice, his secretary had done a good job and created a good base.
Mike just needed to personalize it a bit and then maybe it would feel more like home, it would never feel like his old room but hopefully something close to it.
Harvey put down his luggage and turned around to walk away but Mike stopped him, feeling a little stupid when he used the formal title instead of his name.

"You will let me visit grammy, right?"

The thought had popped out of nowhere when they left the house, that maybe Harvey would decide to control his life completely and not let him see his grandmother. Maybe it was an irrational fear but if there was even a small chance that it would turn out to be the truth, he needed to know.

"Of course, you can see her whenever you want."

The man seemed to be telling the truth and Mike relaxed, he even managed to force a smile when Harvey smiled at him.
He left the room, only to return a minute later asking if he wanted pizza and Mike said yes, but only if he could have cheese in the crust.

While eating their pizza, Harvey tried to have a conversation by asking questions like how he was doing in school or what he liked to do for fun.
Mike wasn't really in the mood for small talk but he didn't want to be rude either, so he answered the questions but didn't go into details and soon Harvey realized that he couldn't get a real conversation going so he started telling him a little about his work instead.
His job didn't sound as boring as Mike had thought and he ended up listening intently, he even laughed at a story about some guy named Louis.
For a second Mike thought that Harvey actually wasn't that bad, but then a voice in his head reminded him of his grammy's story and his good mood disappeared as fast as it had come.
He excused himself, claiming that he had a lot of homework.
Mike walked into his room and decided to unpack his bags, frowning when he found a picture frame underneath some clothes.
He knew he hadn't packed it so it must've been his grandmother, and when he saw the picture in the frame he knew why.
It was one of the few pictures that existed with both his parents, his grandmother and himself, normally his dad was behind the camera but not on this one.
They had taken the picture last year to use it as a Christmas card and despite wearing the ugliest Christmas sweaters that existed, they all hade big, genuine smiles on their faces.
Mike smiled and made a mental note to thank grammy before placing the photo on the nightstand.
After unpacking he spent the rest of the evening reading and texting Trevor until Harvey opened the door and said he should go to bed, making it sound more like a suggestion than an actual order.
He guessed that it would take some time for Harvey to get that parental authority, and even longer for Mike to actually respect that authority, if he ever would.
They said goodnight and Mike did go to bed, but he didn't fall asleep.
He had learned that the nights were the worst, it was then his mind started to think about his parents and it was then the grief hit him full force.
When it all got too much for him, he would usually leave his room and go sleep in his grandmother's bed but that was no longer an option and he would definitely not go to Harvey's room.
So, after lying awake, being tortured by his own mind for hours he finally cried himself to sleep.

When Mike woke up the next day, he was surprised to see that it was already 10 AM.
His parents, and his grandmother, would never let him sleep for that long even if it was the weekend.
Mike got out of bed and got dressed before walking out to the kitchen, where Harvey was sitting with a cup of coffee and looking through some folder.

"Good morning, Mike."
"Morning."

Harvey instructed him where everything was so that he could grab a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice.
He then sat down next to the man, quietly eating his breakfast while texting Trevor, who wanted to hang out this afternoon.
Grammy had told him that Harvey wanted to pick him up on a Friday so that they'd have the weekend to 'bond', but Mike really wanted to hang out with Trevor and while in the neighbourhood he could check in on his grandmother.

"Hey, is it okay if I go hang out with a friend today, and maybe visit my grandma as well?"

He asked and Harvey turned to look at him, and for a second he thought he saw disappointment in the man's eyes before he smiled.

"Yes of course."

Harvey answered and Mike almost felt guilty for wanting to spend time with Trevor instead of Harvey, but they did have the entire Sunday together and besides they lived together now, so they would meet almost every single day for the next couple of years.

"But I want us to exchange phone numbers, and you should be home by- "

Harvey interrupted himself, probably wondering what curfew an eleven-year-old should have.

"8.30?"

Mike suggested, which was a whole hour longer than his overprotective parents used to let him be out.
The man agreed to the time and they exchanged numbers before Mike got ready to leave.
Harvey even gave him money for a cab, since his bike was still at his old house and it was a long way to walk.

His grandmother looked so small and frail in the big bed, and the sight scared Mike.
It reminded him of how sick she really was and how close to death she could really be.
Despite the fact that she was having a bad day, her face lit up when her grandson walked in the room and she insisted on getting a hug, even if she couldn't even sit up without feeling an incredible pain.

"How's everything going with Harvey?"
"It's going great."

He exaggerated a bit to avoid making her worry, things weren't great with Harvey but at least it was better than he had expected.
They started to talk and Mike found out that grammy would be on bed rest for longer than she expected, but luckily one of grammy's closest friend, a sweet lady named Rose, was moving in to take care of her.
Her friend was a couple of years older than grammy but she had the energy of someone half her age, and she was happy to help in exchange for living in the house for free.
Grammy was very happy as well, not only would she have her best friend with her all the time but she wouldn't have to hire someone to take care of her or stay at a nursing home, which would have been way more expensive.
When Mike left his grandmother's house a couple of hours later, they both felt calmer knowing that the other one was being taken care of.
He grabbed his bike and went over to Trevor's house, where they had a fun time playing video games until Trevor suggested that they would go out and meet up with some of Trevor's buddies.
Mike agreed to come along, even if he wasn't that fond of Trevor's friends who were older and supposedly 'cooler' than them.
It was the way their friendship worked though, Trevor was 'the cool one' and he was the boss and decision maker.
Everything Trevor did, Mike did too even if he didn't want to do it or if it was really stupid.
It was the way it had always worked, and the few times that Mike had said no they had started a huge fight, where Trevor made it clear that their friendship could be over within seconds.
Mike didn't have any other friends and he wanted to avoid losing his only friend, even if it meant that he sometimes had to do things he didn't want to do.
This became clearer than ever when they had been hanging out with the older guys for a while and they suddenly decided that it was time for a smoke break.
Trevor happily grabbed two cigarettes from the pack and offered one to Mike.
Every part of him told him no, his grandfather used to smoke everyday and had died in lung cancer a couple of years back.
Mike could remember every single word in the anti-smoking pamphlets he had read at the hospital but those words disappeared when Trevor spoke.

"Come on Mike, don't be a baby."
Trevor looked at him with a judging look on his face, and so did the older guys, and that was all it took for Mike to fall for the peer pressure and accept the poisonous stick.

When they returned to Trevor's house Mike just felt sick while Trevor acted as if he was the coolest person on earth just because he had smoked.
As soon as they got inside, Trevor's mother came down the stairs and told Mike that Harvey had called asking for him and it wasn't until that moment that he realized how late it was.
Trevor's parents weren't that strict and they never really cared if their son stayed out late, which meant that Trevor didn't think about what time it was.
Mike felt his pockets but realized that his phone wasn't there, it was still on Trevor's bedside table where he had placed it hours before.
He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he saw all the missed calls and text messages, he really didn't care about the ones from Harvey but the ones from his grammy made him want to punch both Trevor and himself.
His poor grandmother must be worried sick and she didn't need that right now. He felt so incredibly stupid when he texted Harvey saying that he was fine and that he would tell grammy that, feeling too guilty to actually call her himself.
Trevor's mother offered to give him a ride back to Harvey's apartment and she even offered to bring his bike, and he probably thanked her for the ride a million times when they arrived at their destination.

Harvey was sitting in the kitchen, with his arms crossed and an angry look on his face.

"I'm pretty sure we said 8.30, right?"

The man said with a calm, low voice that reminded Mike too much of his dad.
When his dad got really mad he always got that voice, and it was so much worse than yelling.

"Yeah, sorry I forgot."

Mike mumbled while Harvey stood up, still with his arms crossed.

"You forgot?"

Harvey shook his head in disbelief and yet again the man reminded him of James, which made him angry.
James should be the one to stand there being mad and not this man who didn't even want to be a father.

"Do you know how worried I was? Or how worried your grandmother was?"
"You shouldn't have talked to her, she shouldn't get worked up over nothing."

Harvey opened his mouth to say something, but quickly shut it as he sniffed the air and then he took a step closer to Mike, sniffing again as to make sure that the smell was really coming from him.

"Have you been smoking?"

Mike wanted to lie but his eyes betrayed him and Harvey shook his head again.

"Michael, you're eleven years old you shouldn't be out late and you definitely shouldn't be smoking!"

It sounded exactly like something James would have said, and it made Mike even angrier.

"Why do you even care?"
"Because I'm your father."

Mike had tried not to let his anger control him but Harvey made it hard for him.
The man just showed up after eleven years and tried to take over James' role, despite the fact that he hadn't wanted to fill the role from the beginning.
That just didn't sit right with him.

"You might be biologically but in other way James is my dad and he will always be. He gladly took the job that you didn't even want."

The anger disappeared from Harvey's face and it was replaced by confusion.

"What are you talking about? Of course I wanted it."
"Then why did you abandon me?!"

Mike yelled, suddenly unable to hold back the anger or the tears that had formed in his eyes.
Harvey's face softened even more and so did his voice.

"Mike, your mother never told me about you. I didn't even know that you existed until I got that phone call."

It was Mike's turn to be surprised, did Harvey tell the truth?
If Harvey hadn't abandoned him, then he had been angry at the wrong person this entire time.
Mike shook his head, it couldn't be the truth because if Harvey was telling the truth then it meant that his grandmother was the one who was lying and that just wasn't right.
She would never lie to him, never.
Harvey showed no sign of lying, but he was a freaking lawyer and they lied all the time.

"You're lying."

Mike said before pushing past the man and storming off to his room while the tears started to roll down his cheeks.

"I'm not lying, Mike!"

Harvey called after him, but Mike knew he was. He trusted his grandmother and his parents more than he trusted Harvey.

"Bullshit!"

He yelled at Harvey before he slammed the door shut behind him.