The next morning Michael woke up early again and watched the sunrise, even though Melissa hadn't texted him and he wasn't even sure if she was awake or not.

He really liked just sitting out there and watching the sunrise though, because it was a lot more peaceful than the rest of his life usually was. He was used to having a kid by his side all the time, it was nice to just step away for a few minutes and sit in silence. Sometimes Michael really just needed to get away from everything going on around him for a moment and think.

He was thinking a lot this morning, about lots of different things. Mostly Melissa. It seemed that things always went back to Melissa, no matter what else was going on. He really liked her, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but Michael did feel a bit guilty about it and he wasn't quite sure why.

Finally Michael had determined that he was so guilty about this thing that he had with Melissa because of Beth. Sure, he and Beth were broken up and never going to get back together, but Michael was always going to care about her and a small part of him would always love her. It wasn't that easy for Michael to just snap his fingers and decide that he was over Beth. She was his first love, and you never really forget your first love, no matter what.

He just felt bad about liking Melissa, even though he was sure that Beth really wouldn't care, because she had her own boyfriend or boy that was a friend that also bought Parker tacos. Even knowing that, Michael was still worried that Beth might be upset or hurt that Michael was seeing someone other than her, since that hadn't ever happened before. But, like he said, Beth had her own boyfriend, she was over Michael.

Michael couldn't help but wonder if Beth felt guilty about moving on from him as well.

Maybe he was just being stupid, maybe you weren't supposed to be this hung up on someone. Michael told himself that he shouldn't even be worrying about Beth, he should be worrying about Melissa. Beth was part of his past and that was over, he shouldn't be thinking so much about her. He should be focusing on Melissa.

And Parker, Michael. He thought to himself, Definitely focus on Parker more than anything.

When the sunrise was pretty much over and Michael didn't have anything else to think about he went back inside and decided to wake Parker up, so they didn't have a repeat of the morning before, where they needed to scramble around to get dressed and ready again.

Michael quietly stepped into his room, where Parker was asleep on the bed, tangled up in a mess of pillows and blankets. Michael climbed into bed with Parker and wrapped both of his arms around his sun, pulling him closer for a moment and resting his head on the mattress, so Michael was eye level with Parker.

"Parker." Michael whispered, "Park, time to get up."

"No." Parker groaned, trying to roll over so Michael couldn't see him anymore.

"Yes." Michael laughed a little, holding Parker tightly so he couldn't get away.

"I want to stay home." Parker whined, his eyes still closed.

"You can't." Michael said, slowly moving the blankets off of Parker so he'd eventually give in and get out of bed.

"I think I'll just stay home and sleep all day." Parker sighed, turning towards Michael and snuggling his face into his chest.

"Come on, get up." Michael whined just like Parker had, "I told you we could get ice cream after school."

"It's cold out."

"Parker, are you refusing ice cream?" Michael questioned, shocked with what Parker had just said. He never turned down ice cream.

"I don't want to go to school." Parker pouted, finally sitting up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, his hair looking funny as it stuck up in all different directions.

"Why, Park? I thought you liked school." Michael asked, because usually Parker was pretty excited about going to school every day. He liked it, and he liked playing with Katie - who seemed to be the only friend he'd really made, but it was good enough for him. "Don't you like seeing Katie every day?"

"Kitty's mad at me." Parker said, folding his arms over his chest. He crossed his legs over one another and searched around for his lion for a moment, before grabbing it and hugging it to him.

"What? Why?" Michael questioned. He was beginning to wonder if Katie was actually a four year old girl, because she seemed very grown up. She knew big words like depressed.

"Because." Parker said sadly, looking down at his lap.

"Parker, why is she mad at you?" Michael asked. Now he was thinking that Parker had done something to upset Katie himself, which really wouldn't surprise him.

"I did something mean." Parker shrugged, looking up at Michael. He wore a slight smile on his face, like he thought that it was funny. Michael didn't think it was very funny, because he didn't exactly like his son telling him that he had done mean things to his friends at school.

"Dude!" Michael groaned in annoyance, standing up from the bed. "What did you do?"

"I'm not telling!" Parker shouted, looking annoyed with Michael as well. Michael knew that Parker just didn't want to get in trouble, even though he'd probably find a way to get out of trouble if that happened.

"But you - "

"Girls are gross anyway." Parker giggled.

"Yes, but Katie wasn't gross. Come on, Pac-Man, you like Katie!" Michael attempted to change Parker's mind, but he didn't think it was going to work.

"I'll go get dressed." Parker said, hopping off of the bed, dragging his lion after him.

"No, Parker, come back!" Michael called after him, but he stopped, because it probably wasn't a good idea to argue about this right now. They were trying not to be late for school, and if Michael and Parker just stood around talking they were never going to make it.

It didn't take long for Parker to get dressed and find some food to eat for breakfast, and pretty soon they were on their way to school, where Michael was nervously awaiting seeing Melissa, who probably knew why Katie was mad at Parker. He had a bad feeling that Michael would get the blame for whatever his son had done, as usual.

"Hey, Parker." Michael said, squeezing Parker's hand to get his attention as they walked towards the usual place that they met up with Katie and Melissa. "You should apologize to Katie."

"You don't even know what I did." Parker laughed, looking up at Michael.

"Well I do know that the right thing to do is to apologize." Michael said, trying to stay optimistic about this.

"It's her fault." Parker grumbled, looking back to the ground again as they continued walking. Finally they reached Melissa and Katie, who just turned around and walked away when she saw Parker.

"See?" Parker said innocently, turning to face Michael. Michael just gave Parker another push towards Katie, telling him to go talk to her. "I don't want to!" Parker fought back, trying to run back towards Michael.

"Just go talk to her!" Michael argued, pushing Parker away again.

"I don't want to!" He repeated, louder this time, so a few other parents heard.

"You have to!" Michael said, and Parker stopping fighting for a second. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Michael, clearly upset.

"Will I get ice cream?" Parker asked.

"Yes, you'll get ice cream." Michael groaned, because he'd already told Parker that he'd buy him ice cream what seemed like a million times that morning.

"Okay, deal." Parker said, beginning to turn again. Michael stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder to keep Parker in his place.

"Come here." Michael said, getting down on his knees so he was at Parker's level again. He fixed the little beanie that Parker was wearing on his head and brushed off his jacket, that had crumbs all over it from breakfast. "Geez, dude, clean yourself up a little. You're a mess."

"That's your fault!" Parker argued. He tore the beanie off of his head and then put it on again, because apparently the way that Michael had tried to do it wasn't good enough.

"Oh, be quiet." Michael groaned, rolling his eyes. He gave Parker a small push towards Katie again and stood up, watching Parker walk away. "I love you!"

"Yeah." Parker said over his shoulder, waving Michael's comment away. Usually that would have upset Michael, but he knew that Parker really did love him, he just didn't want to say it here in front of a ton of people.

"What a dick." Michael mumbled to himself, and then he finally turned to Melissa, who had just stood and watched that whole thing. "Hi!"

"Hi." Melissa greeted him, still laughing about the whole conversation that she'd just witnessed between Michael and Parker.

"Hi." Michael repeated, leaning in and kissing Melissa quickly on the cheek. (He'd done the same thing yesterday when they said goodbye and Melissa said that she liked it so Michael thought 'hey, why not do it again?'). "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Melissa said, her cheeks turning red.

"Do you know why Katie is mad at Parker?" Michael asked, grabbing Melissa's hand and intertwining their fingers. It hand occurred to him that Katie probably told Melissa what was going on, because Katie usually told Melissa everything.

"No, she wouldn't tell me, she just said that she was mad." Melissa shrugged. They slowly started to make their way away from the school, because all the kids were being let in now and it was pointless to stick around any longer.

"God, so much drama." Michael groaned sarcastically, shaking his head. He didn't remember ever getting mad at someone when he was in preschool, everything was all rainbows and butterflies for Michael.

"I know, right?" Melissa chuckled.

"Did you sleep last night?" Michael blurted out, just to make conversation. He realized how stupid his question sounded and quickly corrected himself. "I mean, you weren't awake at 6am again, were you?"

"No." Melissa laughed at the way that Michael kept fumbling over his words, "What about you?"

"Oh, I woke up at about 5, maybe 4:30." Michael shrugged, as if it didn't mean anything and was completely normal.

"Why?" Melissa asked. She stopped walking, because they were at Michael's car now, and neither one of them knew if they should just part ways or not.

"Couldn't sleep." Michael shrugged.

"Okay, sure." Melissa said sarcastically, rolling her eyes again at him. Michael had learned that Melissa could always see right through his bullshit lies, so he didn't know why he bothered trying. "Oh, I have something to tell you!"

"What?" Michael asked excitedly, imitating Melissa.

She glared at him for a second before her face lit up again and continued to tell him. "I finally talked to my friend, you know, the one that works in the music store?"

"Really?" Michael asked, still trying to mock Melissa. She didn't think it was very funny.

"I hate you." She said, sticking her tongue out at him. She went on, "Yes, really, and he said that there's a job opening there, so you can go in sometime this week and check it out."

"Really?" Michael asked, and this time he was genuinely excited, not just trying to make fun of Melissa. He pulled her in for a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. "Mel, that's awesome! Thank you!"

"Oh, it's no problem really." Melissa said, brushing his comment off. "He owes me a favor anyway, so when I told him that my - you needed a job he was more than happy to give it to you."

"You're seriously the best." Michael mumbled into the crook of Melissa's neck, not ready to let go of her just yet.

"I know." She shrugged, putting her hands on Michael's shoulders and backing up a little, so they could look each other in the eye.

"I'm not even kidding." Michael smiled, his hands still around Melissa's waist. She was so close to him, Michael swore that she could hear his heart beating.

"I'm not kidding either." Melissa laughed, shrugging innocently.

Michael just continued smiling and leaned in a little closer, wondering if he should make a move and kiss her. He wanted to, really badly, but he wasn't sure if Melissa did, and it would suck if she pushed him away or something. Michael wasn't sure that he wanted to risk it.

Michael didn't need to risk it, though, because before he even had time to make the first move Melissa had put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him closer, gently bringing her lips up to meet his. He didn't even really have much time to react, because he kept the kiss short and sweet; he didn't want to ruin this by rushing things.

Honestly he would have been fine with pushing Melissa up against the side of his car and fucking her right there but Michael was a Goddamn gentleman and decided not to.

They slowly pulled away from each other after a few seconds, and it was pretty clear that neither one of them were very sure of what to say next. Melissa's cheeks were flushed once again and her lips were just a little puffy and shiny from kissing, and Michael could only imagine that he looked the same. She was so cute though, adorable even, and Michael really wouldn't mind if Melissa looked like that all the time.

"Sorry." Melissa said quickly, looking down at the ground and then back up at Michael.

"What? Don't apologize!" Michael said, hi words coming out harsher than he planned. He just wanted Melissa to know that the kiss was okay, he wanted it too, and she had nothing to say sorry for.

"I just thought that we were - "

"We are." Michael nodded, cutting her off.

"Okay, good." Melissa nodded as well, biting down on her bottom lip. She moved her hands back down to Michael's again and laced their fingers together.

"We could do it again?" Michael said, almost as a question. It was more of a request, really, because he did really want to kiss Melissa again, but he didn't know if she wanted to.

"Yeah." Melissa shrugged.

"Like, now?" Michael asked, and he wanted to slap himself in the face for being so awkward. Even when he was sixteen and just starting to date Beth he wasn't this awkwardly uncomfortable with everything, he didn't ask for permission before kissing her or request that they do it again.

"Well, yeah." Melissa laughed, rolling her eyes.

"Shut up." Michael chuckled under his breath, quickly leaning in and placing his lips on Melissa's once again. His hands moved up to her waist and he walked her backwards a few steps, so she was leaning up against the side of his car.

Melissa brought a hand up to the nape of Michael's neck and she twisted her fingers in the ends of his hair while their lips moved against each other slowly but still passionately enough for them to both know that the kiss really meant something.

After who knows how long, Melissa pulled away again, and part of Michael was actually thankful because he didn't think it would be very wise of him to sit there all day and kiss Melissa. He wanted to, yes, but there were some other things that he needed to get done that day.

"So..." Melissa trailed off, moving a piece of hair away from her eyes.

"That was cool." Michael said, nodding to himself. His eyes drifted down to the ground again, because he was trying to think of a polite way to tell Melissa that he really had to get going and couldn't stick around and do this all day.

"We can do that again. Later. Because I have to go run a ton of stupid errands." Melissa pouted, pushing Michael away from her so she could walk past him and start to head towards wherever she needed to go off to.

"Oh?" Michael questioned, raising his eyebrows. He hadn't expected Melissa to want to run off just like that. "Well, I could - "

"I'll see you in a couple hours, right?" She asked, cutting Michael off.

"For, like, five minutes." Michael said quietly, biting down hard on his bottom lip.

"So?" Melissa asked nervously, laughing a little.

"It won't be much time to talk...or do anything." Michael said slowly, trying to get Melissa to understand.

"Well I'll just text you tonight." Melissa shrugged, like it was a simple explanation.

"You can call me." Michael suggested, because as much as he loved the cute and quirky texts from Melissa he'd really just rather hear her voice.

"Maybe." Melissa shrugged, still seeming like she was a little on edge about something. "If I have time."

"Okay..." Michael trailed off. He tried to take another step farther away from Melissa but he ended up just bumping into his car and looking really stupid.

"I'll see you later." Melissa said, quickly turning around and beginning to walk away. She looked over her shoulder and gave Michael a short wave. "Bye!"

"Yeah, bye." Michael waved back at her, feeling a little disappointed. He kind of wanted Melissa to put up a bit of a fight, but now it just seemed like she wanted to leave.

Michael turned around and kicked one of the front tires on his car. "I fucked up!" He yelled to no one in particular. He walked around the side of his car and sat down in the drivers seat, leaning forward so his head was resting against the steering wheel. "I always fuck up."

*•*•*

"I think I ruined it." Michael said, taking a huge spoonful of ice cream and shoving it in his mouth.

Instead of going out for ice cream after picking Parker up this time, Michael had actually gone out to the store and bought two huge tubs of chocolate chunk ice cream and brought them over to Calum's house, because he knew that Calum would be the best at girl advice. Michael and Parker both needed it, because it seemed that Parker was in a situation similar to Michael's.

"Kitty hates me." Parker whined, his mouth also full of ice cream. Michael had given Parker his own little bowl of ice cream, so he and Calum could eat straight out of the tubs.

"Melissa hates me." Michael said for the sixth time that night, shoveling more ice cream into his mouth.

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you." Calum assured him, licking at his spoon full of ice cream. Calum was also upset, but Michael didn't know exactly why. It was something about him sleeping with the same girl more than once, and how he was apparently growing attached to her and Calum didn't liked it.

"Why else would she act all awkward after I kissed her?" Michael asked.

"I think she was just nervous, I don't know. You don't even know her that well, maybe she's never been kissed before." Calum shrugged, grabbing his beer from the table and taking a sip.

"I'm pretty sure she's been kissed before." Michael chuckled, "And she kissed me first, but then after I kissed her a second time she got weird."

"Dude, just text her." Calum scoffed, acting as if Michael was just stupid for acting this way. He actually was pretty stupid, because he was sure that he was just overreacting, but he couldn't help it.

All Michael seemed to do in his relationship with Beth was fuck up, and even though he wasn't in a relationship with Melissa just yet he really wanted to make sure that he did it right this time. He didn't want things to be complicated, he just wanted to have an easy relationship with her, and it was driving Michael crazy.

"Dude, she won't answer my texts." Michael whined. He did see Melissa when they were picking up their kids from school, but they only said a few words to each other. He did send her a lot of texts, though ("hi how are you" "mel are you busy right now can we talk" "are you ignoring me on purpose" "mel please")

"Dude, then I don't know what to tell you." Calum shrugged.

"Dude," Michael groaned, shoving some more ice cream in his mouth and getting it all over his face. "I fucked up."

"Swear jar." Parker said tiredly, because Michael was pretty sure that he'd eaten enough ice cream to enter a food coma.

"I got it." Calum whispered, digging around in his pockets for a second before pulling out some money and handing it to Parker, who just took it and shoved it in his own pocket.

"I shouldn't have kissed her." Michael said, slouching back into the couch. "I should not have kissed her."

"You kissed Melly?" Parker questioned, looking up at Michael with wide eyes.

"Yeah." Michael sighed, because he didn't seen any point in hiding that from Parker.

"Oh." Parker nodded. He scooped up a spoonful of ice cream and shoved it in his mouth again before speaking. "I kissed Kitty."

"You what?" Michael almost choked on his ice cream, and so did Calum, both of them leaning forward.

"I don't think she wanted me to, but I did it." Parker shrugged, blinking a few times like it was hard for him to even keep his eyes open. He ate some more ice cream anyway. "She won't talk to me now."

"What kind of kiss was it?" Calum asked, a very serious tone to his voice.

"Cal, he doesn't know what that means." Michael said, reaching behind Parker and slapping Calum on the back.

"I just kissed her!" Parker said, clearly confused.

"Oh my God, you're like four years old!" Michael groaned, slouching down even farther so he was almost sitting on the ground. "Why are you kissing girls?"

"Aren't I supposed to kiss girls?" Parker asked.

"Ugh." Was all that came out of Michael's mouth as he shoveled some more ice cream in it. He hadn't planned on talking to Parker about girls and kissing them and all that until years from now; he still felt like Parker just turned one year old yesterday.

"Just focus on being a kid for now, Park." Calum said, patting Parker on the back.

"Kitty still hates me." Parker sighed, letting out a little groan as he slumped over and laid down with his head in Calum's lap. Usually Calum would have pushed Parker off of him, but today he didn't do anything. Calum was acting weird.

"She'll get over it." Calum said, assuring him once again.

"Girls suck!" Michael yelled suddenly, letting himself fall all the way to the floor so he was sitting in front of the coffee table. He grabbed his beer and finished off the last of it, even though he was practically drunk on ice cream already.

"Girls are great, it's you who sucks at talking to them." Calum laughed.

"Oh, shut up." Michael groaned. He reached for Calum's beer and tried to drink that too, but Calum stopped him.

"Stop it." He said, slapping Michael's hand away from the bottle. "You have to drive home."

"I ruined my relationship with her before it even started!" Michael whined, throwing his hands up in the air. Parker slowly crawled off of Calum and sat down next to Michael, leaning his head against his dad's shoulder.

"I think Melly likes you, Daddy, she'll talk to you soon." Parker said softly, obviously trying to make Michael feel better.

"I hope so." Michael said, leaning over and giving Parker a kiss on the forehead for no real reason, just because he wanted to.

"Even if she doesn't like you, I still do." Parker said, falling over so his head was on Michael's lap, just like he'd done with Calum a few minutes earlier.

"Don't let him fall asleep." Calum warned, because whenever Parker fell asleep at Calum's house it took Michael forever to actually get out of there, because he didn't want to wake Parker up.

"Thanks bud." Michael said, ignoring Calum. He tickled Parker for a minute, making him burst into a small fit of giggles.

"I love you, Daddy." Parker said when Michael was done tickling him, letting out a little yawn.

"He's going to fall asleep!" Calum said, louder this time, hitting the back of Michael's head with his foot.

"Shh!" Michael turned around, glaring at Calum. And before either of them knew it, Parker was asleep.

Michael sighed and set the ice cream down on the coffee table, slowly getting out from under Parker and moving back to the couch, sitting down next to Calum. Just as he sat down, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and Michael almost let out a squeal.

"She texted me back!" Michael whisper-shouted, showing Calum the phone. He opened up the message, and was disappointed once again.

Mel: michael

"What?" Michael whined again, handing the phone to Calum so he could see the conversation. "How am I supposed to respond to this?"

"I got this." Calum said, biting down on his lip as he typed back a response.

Michael: bitch get over here and suck my dick

"Calum!" Michael shrieked, wondering why the hell Calum would do something like that. He wanted to win Melissa back, not scare her away.

"She'll love it, trust me." Calum chuckled, handing the phone back to Michael, a big smirk on his lips.

"She'll never talk to me again!" Michael groaned, throwing his head back. But just as he said those words his phone buzzed again.

Mel: what's your address

And even though Michael was still embarrassed about his stupidly smart best friend and he knew that Melissa wasn't serious, her response gave Michael some hope. He didn't think that things were going to be so awkward anymore, he felt that everything was going to be okay.

-

THIS WAS A FILLER IM SORRY BUT OMG A LOT OF THIS REALLY MADE ME LAUGH MICHAELS SO AWKWARD I LOVE IT

and he and melissa have known each other for like almost two months ((I think)) so they're not moving too fast okay this is okay it's all good

idk what else to say

oh yeah calums got a bae now ((kinda)) oooh

and there's still drama lol