Author's Note:
I'm sorry that this update took so long.
I wanted to update this much sooner but unfortunately life got in the way.
I've been forced to use all my writing inspo for my uni course,which is pretty boring at the moment.
My brother also had a baby, which sadly for many reasons isn't directly a positive thing for me.
My best friend more or less abandoned me and my mental health has been at an all time low, my depression has made me sleep for 15-18 hours a day or to have completely insomniac nights.

Warning, I did both write and edit this chapter while I was severly sleep deprived so I do apologize if there are more errors than usual or if the "quality" is lower than usual.

As always, thank you for reading :)

CHAPTER 15

If an outside had seen his grandmother that weekend then they would not have believed that she was really sick.
She had gotten a sudden, unexpected burst of energy and strength and she could get out of bed, walk around easily and even bake some of her delicious cookies.
Mike was glad that he had decided to spend the weekend at his grammy's house, it had been a while since he had seen her with this much energy and it gave him hope.
Sure, both the doctor and his dad had told him several times that she was very sick and that the odds were against her, but when he saw her baking cookies while singing along to some old song he couldn't help but to believe that she was getting better.
Despite having so much energy, his grandmother still needed to rest which gave him the opportunity to leave the house and visit Trevor.
All in all, he had a great weekend with his grandmother except for when it came to sleeping at night.
For some reason he had suddenly found it very hard to sleep in old room, at first, he had thought that it was because he had moved a lot of his stuff to Harvey's apartment and that it just felt empty, but the more time he spent trying to sleep the more he realized that it was something else that kept him from getting his rest.
Being back in his old house and caused a lot of memories to resurface which in turn caused the grief to make itself known again.
It had been so much easier to not feel the grief at Harvey's because it was a new place without any memories but now there were so many memories that he was completely overwhelmed.
After spending probably an hour or two in his bedroom he just couldn't take it, he had gotten out of his bed and walked through the hallway.
Mike had passed his parents' bedroom but instead of seeing them there, like he wanted to, he had seen Rose fast asleep and that just didn't feel right.
He had continued to his grammy's room and without the words he had gotten under the covers and curled up to her, jumping a bit when her warm lips place a gentle kiss on the top of his head.
The action reminded him of the time after his parents' deaths when he had spent almost every night in her bed and he couldn't stop himself from crying.
His grammy didn't question it, she just hugged him tight and whispered comforting words until he fell asleep and after this he spent every night in his grandmother's room.

As Monday came along, his grammy kissed him on the cheek and made him promise to come back and visit her as soon as possible before he left the house to go to school.
After school he would return to Harvey's and he found that he was actually really looking forward to seeing the man again.
Trevor was waiting outside the house, they were going to school together just like they used to before, or so Mike thought.

"We're skipping today, Mikey."

Trevor told him without even bothering to greet him first.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Mike answered, knowing that his grandmother and Harvey wouldn't be happy.
After the whole smoking incident and the more recent videogame theft, he wasn't too keen on causing more trouble.

"Don't be such a wuss, Mike."

Trevor said in a judging voice and they both knew that those words were all it took for Mike to go along with the plan.
Sure, Trevor wasn't the sharpest tool in the box but he had figured out how desperate Mike was for his approval and he had learned to use it against him to make him do what he wanted.

"I'll bring someone else if you don't want to."

Trevor said and the fear of Trevor not thinking that he was cool and stop being friends with him won over the fear of disappointing his grandmother and Harvey.
He turned back at the house, while mentally apologizing to his grandmother, and sighed in defeat. "Okay."
He said and Trevor's face lit up before they went right back to Trevor's house instead of walking left to school.
As they made their way to Trevor's house he told Mike what they were going to do instead and Mike was far from excited.
Trevor's older brother had invited them to hang out with him and his friends, something that Trevor had apparently been asking his brother for since forever, and according to Trevor his brother's friends were "so cool".
Mike had never met these friends but he knew that Trevor's brother was trouble, so he had no doubt that his friends was the same.

The older boys, who were all around seventeen, were very loud and they all smelled like they hadn't showered in weeks and had just sprayed some cheap deodorant all over themselves.
They were listening to loud music while they drank cheap beer and smoke weed, while Mike and Trevor was seated on the couch.
Both of them had been given a beer, Trevor had pressured Mike to taste it but he had found it too disgusting to drink from it more than once, but Trevor somehow managed to enjoy the awful taste. Mike was feeling bored and very uncomfortable but his friend looked like he was in heaven, it was hard to understand how people like this were the kind of people Trevor looked up to.
If it weren't for the fact that they ha went out to a cabin in the woods , that apparently the older boys used to hang out since no one would interrupt the or complain about them here, Mike would have found an excuse to leave a long time ago but he was stuck.
When Trevor was distracted by the older boys, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and saw all the missed phone calls and messages from Harvey which filled him with guilt
The man was obviously very worried and he had probably talked to his grammy too and she really didn't need that kind of worry right now.
He sent a quick "I'm fine." so that they would stop worrying that he had gotten kidnapped or murdered or something.
As soon as he sent it, Harvey called but Mike put his phone in his pocket again, partly because he didn't know what to say and partly because Trevor had told him to turn off his phone and would see a phone call with Harvey as Mike being a tattletale.

It felt like he spent an eternity in the small, bad smelling cabin, just sitting there while the rest of the boys seemed to be having the time of their life.
He had tried to ask Trevor when they were going to leave but Trevor had frowned and called him a lame party-pooper before he had accused him of being a bad friend that only cared about himself and not about Trevor and his happiness.
His words made Mike feel guilty and after that he sat quietly and waited for the other boys to be ready to leave.
The older boys finally decided that it was time to leave, when they all seemed to get hungry at the same time and decided to get some food.
Mike followed them outside but hesitated once they reached the car.
Trevor's brother was going to drive him and Trevor but he was also noticeably drunk.
Mike knew that he shouldn't get into a car with a drunk driver, Trevor's brother could easily crash and that thought made his eyes water.
Even if he hadn't been in the car with his parents, it was way too easy for him to imagine what it was like, it was way too easy to imagine their screams and he could see their lifeless bodies in front of them.

"Mike, come on!"

Trevor ordered, obviously annoyed and Mike looked at him, trying to silently get him to understand why he hesitated but his friend didn't seem to understand at all.

"Get in the car or we're leaving you!"

Trevor said angrily before he jumped into the car and Mike automatically moved towards the car afraid of Trevor being mad at him.
Once in the car, Trevor's brother took off before Mike even had the chance to buckle up and he felt the panic rising.
He had been stupid to get into the car, he damned himself for letting Trevor control him and wished that he had let them leave without him and then called Harvey.
Facing Harvey's disappointment would have been so much better than potentially facing death.

Trevor's brother drove as if he was on the run while Trevor just laughed, as if this was some joyride.
Mike closed his eyes while trying to calm himself down, but he immediately opened them again when he heard Trevor shout.

"Watch out!"

His warning was too late and just seconds after he had called out, the car crashed right into a car that was parked on the side of the road.
The crash wasn't big and it seemed like it was only the cars that had been harmed.

"Shit!"

Their drunk driver exclaimed before he stumbled out of the car to inspect the damage while Mike felt tears roll down his cheeks.
If the crash had been more serious, like his parents' accident, he could have died and he couldn't even imagine what an incredible pain that would bring his poor grandmother.
Trevor turned back to look at him and it wasn't until he saw Mike's tears that he seemed to remember what had happened to Mike's parents but he didn't say anything until his brother returned and then he just told him to drive Mike home.
They quickly left the scene without even leaving a note for the parked car's owner.

Mike walked into the apartment building, shaking like a leaf.
Trevor and his brother had dropped him off and told him to not tell anyone about the crash, that was all they had said, they hadn't even asked him if he was okay or tried to calm him down.
He somehow managed to get to the apartment, even if he felt like he was second away from collapsing on the ground and cry until all of his tears had ran out.
He didn't know what time it was but it wasn't late enough for Harvey to be home, which meant that he could cry in peace without needing to explain why.
At least that's what he had thought until he walked into the apartment and heard Harvey's voice, it sounded like he was talking to someone on the phone.
The man had probably left work early to be here when he came back home and he was reminded of the guilt and he felt incredibly stupid for skipping school and worrying people.
He silently walked further into the apartment until he could see Harvey and as soon as he saw him, the tears automatically started again.
Despite the fact that he had wanted to be upset on his own, the sight of Harvey made him change his mind.
The lawyer seemed to notice him, and the state he was in, because he promptly ended the phone call without even saying goodbye to whoever he had been talking to.

"Mike, what happened?"

He asked but Mike didn't answer, instead he just ran over to him and wrapped his arms around the man in a tight hug.