"Why am I here again?" Calum groaned, using his elbow to prop himself up against Michael. They were standing outside of the school, waiting for Parker and the rest of his class to come out. Michael made Calum come there with him 20 minutes early, because he didn't want to risk Parker coming out and not seeing his dad there.

"Because we're going out for ice cream." Michael shrugged. They were going out for ice cream again, because Parker loved ice cream.

It had been an extremely boring few days for Michael. He never had anything to do without Parker, so he literally sat around and cleaned his apartment all day. Michael was bored. It was only Thursday and he already wanted to take Parker out of school and just let him stay home all day every day.

They'd wake up late every morning, scramble around and eat cold pizza for breakfast, and then somehow Michael would get Parker to school on time and they'd part ways until later that afternoon.

After he dropped Parker off at school Michael would go back to their apartment and quickly call Parker's mom, letting her know that Parker had made it to school on time and everything was okay, and then she'd make up something about being too busy to continue the conversation.

Today Michael went over to Calum's apartment and woke him up, forcing his friend to get out of the house and come get something to eat for lunch. Really Michael was just bored and lonely, and he would have gone to one of his other friends, but they had their own jobs and girlfriends and things to do.

"Do you think ice cream will cure a hangover?" Calum asked, adjusting the sunglasses that he had on over his eyes.

Calum was the definition of a ladies man, going out every night and picking up different girls. He'd drink until he could hardly walk anymore and then convince a girl into taking him to bed, only to leave or kick her out the next morning. Michael didn't really agree with Calum's lifestyle, but Calum didn't agree with Michael's, so in a way it was fair.

"I don't know." Michael shrugged again. He was growing impatient, he felt like they'd been there for hours and Parker still wasn't out yet.

"Dude, calm down." Calum laughed, patting Michael on the back. He'd noticed the way that Michael was nervously bouncing up and down, and playing with his fingers while they waited, and it was annoying. "I'm sure he was fine."

"Do you think he missed me?" Michael asked, letting out a big sigh.

"I don't know." Calum shrugged. Calum really wasn't much help when it came to problems with Parker, because he knew nothing about children. That's why Michael usually went to his friend Ashton, or sometimes Luke, because they were better at advice than Calum was.

"I hope he was okay. He looked so upset again this morning when I dropped him off, like he was going to cry. I almost cried. I wonder if he - "

"You need a girlfriend." Calum interrupted, putting a hand on Michael's shoulder.

"What? Where did that come from?" Michael questioned. He didn't need a girlfriend, he was perfectly fine living on his own with Parker. His last relationship literally just ended, too, and he didn't need or want to rush into something else this soon.

"You're bored and weird and mopey when Parker isn't around. Like, you're always talking about how much you miss him. So you should get a girlfriend, or at least a dog." Calum shrugged.

Calum's only solution to anything was to get a girlfriend. Like you could just walk outside and go "hey, be my girlfriend" to some random girl and she'd agree to it. Michael knew that wouldn't work. Not for him, at least, but maybe for Calum.

"I don't need a girlfriend." Michael said. He'd had this conversation with Calum a million times, and each time it ended the same way: with Michael yelling at Calum about how stupid it was that he slept around so much.

"Yeah, you do." Calum scoffed. "How long has it been since you dated?"

"About a year?" Michael questioned, not seeing that as a big deal. Him and Parker's mom, Beth, split up right after Parker turned three, simply because things weren't working out between them anymore and they'd just fallen out of love.

There wasn't really anything more than that; no one cheated, they rarely fought, Parker was happy. Everything was okay, but they weren't happy. So instead of them staying together and being unhappy all the time, they decided to end things. Calum thought that was bullshit, but Michael insisted that it made sense.

Besides, Beth had just gotten some big job in a city a few hours away from where they lived, and if they'd stayed together they all would have needed to move. That's why Bethany agreed to let Michael take care of Parker, and every other weekend he would go over to her new house. There really wasn't any legal stuff to go through because they weren't even married, so the whole thing was pretty chill. Michael and Bethany were pretty chill as well, and were still somewhat friends. For Parker's sake, mostly.

"That's too long, man." Calum chuckled. He reached into his pocket and pulled his phone out. "Here, I know a girl, I can hook you - "

"I don't need a girlfriend!" Michael protested, grabbing Calum's phone from his hands. Michael wasn't sure if it was ever going to get through Calum's head that he was actually happy on his own, and didn't need a girl in his life to make him happy.

Also, Beth said no dating. She'd determined (actually they'd determined, because Michael agreed) that it would just confuse Parker even more if his father was constantly going out with other women that weren't Parker's mom. Michael understood that too, and he didn't care, because he didn't want to date anyone anyway. Of course Michael had told Calum this over a million times and he still didn't listen.

"You need someone to do when Parker's not around." Calum shrugged. Michael hated the way he talked about it like this, like the people that Calum had sex with didn't matter. Michael didn't want to just have a wild one night stand with a girl, if he was going to have sex again he wanted it to be with someone that meant something to him.

"Someone to do? Really? I'm not you, Calum, I don't need to have sex every night to feel good about myself." Michael rolled his eyes at handed the phone back to Calum, who just shoved it back in his pocket.

"When's the last time you even had sex? Four years ago?" Calum scoffed. This is why Michael and Calum usually didn't get along when they were alone. Their conversations always went back to the fact that Michael and Beth had Parker at such a young age, and how they were in such an awkward situation now because Beth was gone.

"Just because Beth and I had Parker doesn't mean we never had sex again!" Michael yelled at then quickly covered his mouth, noticing that the kids were starting to file out of the front door of the preschool.

"God, Michael, I can't believe you're talking about such an adult-like topic in front of so many children." Calum said sarcastically, glancing around them to see if any of the parents of the children had heard. They had, and they were all glaring at Calum and Michael.

Before Michael could get another word out he felt someone hugging his leg, and he looked down to see Parker standing next to him.

"Pac-Man!" Michael yelled (really loudly so lots of other parents noticed that as well) and scooped Parker up into his arms. "How was it?"

"Bad." Parker frowned.

"Bad? Why was it bad again?" Michael asked, suddenly concerned. It was Parker's fourth day of school and every day he'd come home saying the same thing. Bad. Michael had been so sure that Parker would have a good time at school, he even told Parker that he would have a good time at school. Michael felt like he lied.

"'Cuz girls are gross." Parker pouted. He looked over Michael's shoulder and noticed Calum standing there. "Calum!"

"Hi, Parker!" Calum gave him a small wave, but then he went back to checking out a group of young moms picking up their kids.

"Daddy, can we still get ice cream?" Parker turned back to Michael, who was honestly hoping that Parker had forgotten about the ice cream. That was what Michael had originally brought Calum with for, but now he just wasn't in the mood.

But since Michael couldn't ever bring himself to tell Parker no, he ended up saying yes and then they got back in the car and drove to their favorite ice cream shop where Calum sat and checked out teenage girls and Michael continued to question Parker about his day at school and Parker devoured his chocolate ice cream, getting it all over his face.

"Calum," Michael kicked him under the table, trying to stop his friend from mentally undressing teenage girls.

"I'm not doing anything wrong!" Calum defended himself, finally snapping out of it.

"They're underage." Michael glared at him, scooting closer to Parker. He picked up another napkin from the table and handed it to his son, who just set it down and didn't even bother wiping his face off.

"You don't know that." Calum said. He looked over his shoulder and caught one of the girls staring back at him, so he gave them a wave, making them all giggle.

"They look twelve." Michael said sternly, kicking Calum again. He never liked the way that Calum seemed to pick up girls wherever they went, but he hated it more when Calum did it in front of Parker. It was gross, Michael didn't like it.

"I swear I just heard one say how much she loved high school." Calum turned to face Michael, then smiled at Parker, who was licking ice cream off of his fingers.

"She's probably, like, 15." Michael groaned.

"Daddy, can I have more ice cream?" Parker asked, and Michael just handed him the rest of his, because he wasn't going to finish.

"That's only a 7 year difference." Calum ignored Parker, still talking about the girls a few tables down from them.

"It's illegal." Michael stressed.

"Well, she's hot." Calum shrugged, turning back around to look at the underage girls again.

"Daddy," Parker said softy, tugging on the sleeve of Michael's shirt.

"Yeah?" Michael turned to Parker and picked up the napkin from the table, cupping the sides of Parker's face and cleaning the ice cream off of him.

"I made a friend today." Parker smiled, proud to tell his dad this good new. Parker hadn't mentioned making a friend when Michael had questioned him about school earlier, so he was excited.

"Really?" Michael asked. Parker held out the ice cream crone for Michael, who took a big lick of it before shoving it back towards Parker. Calum pretended to gag. "What's their name?"

"Kitty." Parker answered, smiling as he continued to eat his ice cream.

"Kitty?" Calum scoffed, biting down on his hand to keep himself from laughing even more.

"Uh huh." Parker nodded.

"Park, is, uh, Kitty a boy or a girl?" Michael asked slowly, because he just didn't get it. This was possibly Parker's first friend (well, if it even was a real person, because Michael was beginning to think that Kitty was just imaginary) and he seemed to be very interested in this 'Kitty' person. Michael was just curious.

"A cat." Parker giggled. He got more ice cream on his nose, which Michael wiped off with his finger.

"Oh my God, Michael, your son talks to animals!" Calum said with mock enthusiasm, which earned him another kick under the table from Michael.

"Shut the fuck up, you fucking dick." Michael snapped at Calum, because he was honestly tired of his so called 'best friend's' shit. Usually Michael didn't swear like that, because of Parker, but he just couldn't help it. It wasn't rare that he got upset with Calum, but Michael hardly ever swore in front of Parker.

At least he liked to think that he didn't swear in front of him. He did, and that's how Parker knew just about every bad word in the book. But Michael always made sure that Parker didn't repeat the words that he heard his dad using, so it was okay.

"Daddy!" Parker yelled, abruptly standing up from his chair. "Daddy, you owe the swear jar a quarter."

"I know, Park, I'm sorry." Michael apologized quickly, trying to think of some way to make Parker forget what he'd just heard. He grabbed Parker and pulled him onto his lap, now that he was done eating. He's managed to cover his face with ice cream again, but Michael didn't bother with it right away.

"Sorry." Calum mumbled quietly, and then he turned around again and continued to stare at the young girls behind.

God, Michael thought, he's such a dick.

"My friend wants to meet you." Parker said after a few seconds, turning to face Michael as he sat on his lap.

"Oh? And why is that?" Michael asked. He wondered if Parker talked about Michael while he was at school. He wondered if Parker said things like "my dad's cool, he always buys me ice cream" or, "my dad has green hair, he's going to let me dye mine soon". Michael always wondered if Parker was proud to have him as a dad. It was a stupid thought, but a thought nonetheless.

"I told them that you had green hair. And now they want to meet you." Parker explain. God, he was such a tease. Michael couldn't figure out why Parker wasn't telling him if his friend was a boy or a girl. It was kind of weird, and Michael wasn't sure why it mattered to Parker. Maybe the friend actually was a cat.

"Okay." Michael nodded, not exactly knowing what else to say. "Well, maybe I can meet Kitty soon."

"They don't want to come over. I already asked." Parker frowned.

"Why wouldn't they want to come over?" Michael questioned. He could actually answer that himself. Kitty wouldn't want to come over because their apartment was an absolute mess and the second whoever Kitty was walked through the door they'd probably run away screaming.

"I don't know." Parker shrugged.

"Okay, buddy." Michael said as he pat Parker on the back a few times, trying to slowly ease them out of that conversation.

They only stayed at the ice cream shop for a few more minutes after that, because they'd all finished their ice cream and Calum was bored of looking at the girls. Michael dropped Calum off back at his apartment on the other side of town before taking Parker back to their own home, where they decided that they were going to play Mario Kart all night.

"Best two out of three." Michael said as their first game ended, which Parker had won.

"But I'm just going to beat you." Parker said innocently. He started a new game anyway, prepared to beat his father again. Michael wasn't even letting Parker win, he seriously sucked at Mario Kart.

"Where did you learn how to play this game so well, Pac-Man?" Michael asked, because he really didn't get it. It seemed like Parker just woke up one day and was suddenly a master at Mario Kart.

"Mommy's house." Parker shrugged.

"Mommy taught you how to play Mario Kart?" Michael questioned. He almost let out a big laugh at the thought of Bethany, his ex girlfriend, playing Mario Kart.

"No!" Parker giggled, "Mommy didn't teach me, her friend did!"

"Who's her friend?" Michael asked. He assumed that it was Sara or Taylor or Alex, one of those friends, who were always asking Beth to come out and get drinks with them even though they all knew that Beth had to work the next morning.

"His name is Jeffery. Or Jason. Or Jeremy." Parker said, and then he had to pause their game to think. "His name might be Jake."

"Wait, it's a guy?" Michael stood up from the couch, suddenly upset. Why did Bethany get to bring guys home to meet Parker? Wasn't there a no dating rule for them? It didn't really make sense to him. Michael wasn't allowed to date but Beth was?

"Yeah. He bought me tacos." Parker grinned back at Michael, who seemed to be having a mini panic attack. He didn't know if it was because he was upset that Beth had broken their little rule or if it was because he actually didn't like the thought of Beth with someone other than him, but he was upset.

Beth and Michael had never been with other people. They were each other's first everything. First kiss, first fuck, they had a kid together, for crying out loud! Michael didn't have any feelings for Beth anymore (at least that's what he told himself), so it shouldn't even matter, but he still felt weird. Like, he couldn't picture Beth with someone that wasn't, well, him.

"You don't like tacos." Michael said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I do now." Parker shrugged.

"Time for bed." Michael sighed, picking up Parker from the couch and practically dragging him down the hallway to his bedroom.

"But, Daddy, you said best two out of three!" Parker whined. He squirmed around in Michael's arms, making him stumble over his own feet a few times as he walked down the hall.

"It's late, buddy, and you have school tomorrow." Michael sighed. He opened one of Parker's dresser drawers (Michael had organized everything while Parker was at school one day, and now the room was clean) and pulled out some pajamas for Parker to wear, with Spiderman on them.

"I'm not even tired." Parker pouted.

"You will be soon, you just have to try and go to sleep." Michael said. He quickly got Parker dressed in his pajamas with only a little struggling this time (Parker really was worn out) and then they walked to the bathroom so Parker could brush his teeth.

Once Parker was done getting himself ready for bed he took Michael's hand in his and dragged them down the hall, but into Michael's room this time.

"What are you doing?" Michael asked. He was slightly unamused with Parker now, even though none of this was his fault. Michael was just confused, and he needed a beer.

"Going to sleep." Parker giggled. He kept a tight grip on Michael's hand as he led him over to the bed.

"Why can't you sleep in your own room?" Michael groaned. Parker just giggled again and crawled into Michael's bed, making himself comfortable.

"I want to sleep with you." Parker smiled.

"But I'm not ready to go to bed, Parker. I'm not tired yet." Michael said, shaking his head. Parker continued to tug at Michael, trying to get him to come into bed.

"You just have to try and go to sleep, then you'll be tired." Parker said, repeating what Michael had just told him.

Michael rolled his eyes and finally gave up, letting himself fall onto the bed with his regular clothes still on, because he knew that once Parker fell asleep he would just get up and leave. Parker smiled widely at his father and made himself comfortable again, this time on top of Michael. Just as Michael thought that Parker was drifting off to sleep, he sat up.

"One second." Parker said, then rolled off of the bed and onto the floor, where he quickly got up and ran out of the room.

Michael just continued to lay on his bed and think about what Parker had just told him, about how Beth had a new friend that was a guy. He figured that he was probably just overreacting, that this friend wasn't a boyfriend, he was just a friend. Maybe he was from work, or something, and he stopped by the house quickly to deliver some...tacos?

Before Michael could think about it too much Parker came running back in the room, this time carrying his stuffed lion. Michael should have known that Parker wouldn't have made it through the night without it.

"I'm ready now." Parker announced, climbing on top of Michael again.

"Okay, goodnight." Michael sighed.

"No, I'm not going to sleep yet." Parker argued, shaking his head. He cuddled up with his lion anyway, making himself comfortable once again.

"Why not?" Michael whined. He just wanted to sleep now. If he couldn't have a beer, he'd rather sleep.

"Because I want to stay up late and talk about adult stuff with you." Parker laughed. Michael laughed at this too, because he hardly ever talked about "adult stuff", unless you would consider the conversations he had with Calum to be adult-like.

"But I'm not even an adult." Michael laughed. He ran his fingers through Parker's long hair, lifting it off of his forehead. Michael loved Parker's hair. Beth always wanted Parker to have short hair, but Michael fought for long hair and now that Parker is old enough to actually have his own opinion, he fought for long hair too.

"How old are you, Daddy?" Parker asked curiously.

"67." Michael shrugged. He totally would have said 69, but he knew (hoped, really) that Parker wouldn't understand what that meant so there was no point in making a dirty joke like that.

"You're old!" Parker gasped.

"I know." Michael nodded, continuing to play around with Parker's hair.

"What if you die before me? Since you're so old, what if you die?" Parker asked, and Michael's smile from before quickly faded. He didn't even want to think about the possibility of him dying and leaving Parker behind. "What if one day you die and I'm still alive, then what happens?

"Pac-Man," Michael practically choked out. Great, now he was going to cry in front of his son. How manly. "I'm only 23."

"Oh, that makes more sense." Parker nodded, like he didn't even notice how upset Michael suddenly was. He probably didn't.

"I think it's time to go to sleep now." Michael whispered, and Parker agreed. He snuggled into Michael's chest some more, without saying another word. Maybe he knew that he'd made Michael upset.

"That's okay, I'm tired anyway." Parker whispered.

"Okay, Parker, goodnight." Michael nodded, and then he wrapped his arms protectively around Parker and kissed the top of his head before closing his own eyes.

"Love you." Parker mumbled sleepily, and seconds later he was out like a light.

"Love you too, buddy." Michael yawned, and then he fell asleep shortly after as well.

-

this was a really boring filler before we get to the good stuff

lol michael's actually going to fall for a girl eventually but for now you're getting lots of michael and parker fluff (I almost said marker but that's gross we don't ship that here no)

anyway I double updated cuz I was bored so I hope you all like this goodbye