You Were Trouble (Mickey)

[Michael Faucheux]

He opened his mouth to argue but decided against it. There was no winning with Dakota and Mickey knew he was wrong in the first place. It wasn't cool of him to kick out his siblings, especially the younger and newer ones. He sighed, chewing on the inside of his cheek. It was a nervous habit, something he did when he couldn't smoke. Last time he had lit a cigarette inside Dakota had absolutely flipped, not that she liked him smoking in the first place. He knew the risks but just couldn't seem to kick the habit. Perhaps a part of him wanted to rot.

"Yeah, I never really got any talks. Dad didn't really give a shit," he muttered with a shrug. Mickey couldn't just leave it at that, though. Everything has to be covered with a joke. That was his defense mechanism. "Figured it out myself pretty quick though!" He said with a forced laugh. Drinking, sex, and endless bad humor to ignore his feelings with. Great ways to pretend that they just didn't exist.

[Dakota King]

Dakota was on her way back to her cabin leader room when she paused at Mickey's statement. She turned around as she looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and sadness. "Your dad didn't..." Her sentence trailed off as she didn't know what to say. She couldn't imagine her family not caring about her. It was something that was unbelievable to her. She took a deep breath as she looked at her brother. She saw him differently now. She could understand why he acted the way he did and it just made her heart sad.

"I'm sorry Mickey," she said softly as she looked down at her feet. "I didn't know..."

[Michael Faucheux]

Mickey shrugged as if his father's absence didn't bother him. "It doesn't matter. I don't care." he said nonchalantly, shrugging. If it doesn't matter it can't hurt. He had told himself this over and over again until he began to believe it. If he was going to be in pain than it would be his doing. He wouldn't let anyone else have control of his emotions, his hurt.

And so he hurt everyone else. He could feel himself doing it. He had watched himself break more hearts than he could count. It's as if he wasn't even present while doing so. A part of him, the part that cared, detached completely to the point where he could do anything without feeling it. He couldn't figure out how to get back the part of him that cared.

"I think I'm just gonna go have a cigarette," he muttered, standing from the bed. He could taste the blood in his mouth, having chewed his inner cheek to a mess. He grabbed a pack from his bunk along with a lighter, glancing at his sister ready for her disapproval. Anyone trained in medicine knew cigarettes were shit for health.

[Dakota King]

Dakota pressed her lips together as she looked at her brother. That honestly did explain the entire thing about him having flings with various people in this camp. But it did make Dakota feel sad for her brother. Nobody cared about him, but she did. She cared about all of her siblings, especially because she was cabin leader. Maybe she had to show him that people did care about him here, even if he got on their nerves quite frequently.

She slowly nodded her to his comment. Normally, she would rag on him for smoking, but for now, she didn't think he deserved it. "I guess I'll see you later, Mickey," she said as she turned on her heels and walked into her cabin leader room.