"Daddy, why are you dressed so fancy?" Parker asked, staring up and Michael he paced around the room. He wasn't even dressed that fancy, he was just wearing a nice button up shirt and some nicer jeans that he normally did.

"He's going out for ice cream." Calum answered for Michael, walking into the room and plopping down on the couch next to Parker.

Michael and Parker were hanging out at Luke's house until it was time for Michael to go meet Beth at the restaurant,and Calum was also hanging out there for the night since he surprisingly had nothing else to do. Michael assumed that he was just waiting for another booty call so he could ditch them like he normally did, but Calum insisted that he wasn't going to. He'd been acting really weird lately, and for some reason he always wanted to spend time with Parker, but Michel didn't bother asking why Calum was acting that way.

"I am not." Michael snapped, sending a glare to Calum, who had grabbed Parker and pulled him onto his lap. Weird.

"What time are you leaving?" Luke asked Michael as he entered the room. He was probably annoyed with Michael, since all he'd done in the past hour was walk across the living room and back again about a thousand times.

"Like, ten minutes, God." Michael scoffed, also annoyed with Luke.

"Are you nervous?" Luke asked.

"Clearly!" Michael said, rolling his eyes because the answer was so obvious. Of course Michael was nervous about this, it was Beth, he had a good reason to be nervous.

"Daddy, are you going to go eat with Melly?" Parker asked from his spot on Calum's lap.

Michael really wished that Parker hadn't brought up Melissa, because she was the last person that he wanted to think about at the moment. She was really mad at him, and Michael deserved it; he was leaving her alone on her birthday. He just didn't want to think too much about her right now, he'd do something to make this all up to her another day, tonight he had to focus on Beth.

"Uh, no, Park, I'm actually going to go eat with Mommy." Michael said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

"But you and Mommy don't like each other anymore." Parker said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We still like each other." Michael shrugged. He and Beth were still good friends, Michael thought that Parker had figured that out.

"How does Melissa feel about you going out with Beth?" Calum questioned, actually paying attention to the conversation around him rather than the TV for once.

"She's upset." Michael shrugged.

"Dude, you're so screwed." Luke chuckled, "She's never going to forgive you for this. You're literally ditching her to go hang out with your ex-girlfriend."

"It's not like Melissa's my girlfriend or anything." Michael shrugged again, not knowing what else to do.

"Dude!" Calum groaned, smacking himself in the forehead and making Parker crack up. "She's basically your girlfriend!"

"I never asked her to be my girlfriend." Michael countered, although he knew Calum was right. Melissa was practically his girlfriend, it really didn't matter whether or not he asked her. Melissa obviously considered Michael as her boyfriend and he should consider her as his girlfriend, but he was finding that too hard to do.

"You're such an idiot." Luke whined, mostly to himself, and sat down in one if the chairs, curling himself into a ball.

"Can you all please stop insulting me? I'm going out with Beth, so what? Melissa will get over it." Michael snapped, growing more and more frustrated with his friends by the second for calling him out like this.

He knew that he was an awful person for doing this to Melissa, he totally understood. He'd already tried to call her almost a hundred times to try and apologize again, but she just wasn't having any of it. Michael deserved to have her ignore him, though, because what he did was really shitty.

"I like Melly." Parker spoke up again, sounding like he was in the mood to argue again.

"I like her too, Park." Michael assured him, hoping that Parker would understand that just because Michael was going out to eat with Beth it didn't meant he was forgetting about Melissa too. Michael was almost positive that Parker didn't and wouldn't understand, but he liked to think that he did.

"So go eat with her." Parker suggested.

"I already have plans with Mommy, bud." Michael said, reminding Parker.

"You had plans with Melissa first." Luke coughed into his shoulder, like he didn't want Michael to even hear him.

"She's fine." Michael repeated, still not wanting to talk or even think about Melissa. He should have just left Luke's apartment, Beth was probably almost at the restaurant anyway.

"Daddy, that's not very nice." Parker said, pouting again.

"Melissa is fine, oh my God, I'll make it up to her." Michael groaned, rubbing his hands over his face. "I'll buy her some flowers or something."

"You're so dumb." Calum said, furrowing his eyebrows. Michael had texted him the night before (after he cried for a good half an hour) and explained his whole situation, and since then Calum had been upset with him.

"Thanks." Michael said sarcastically, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt so they were about halfway up his arms.

"Michael, you really should have just told Beth that you had plans with someone else." Luke sighed.

"I tried to, but then she was all like 'Michael, please' and you know I can't just say no to her." Michael explained to them, though he knew that it really wasn't a good explanation at all. His friends were totally right, he should have just told Beth that he had some other plans and asked if they could do dinner another night instead.

"You make me want to walk into oncoming traffic, oh my God." Calum groaned. "Do you still love Beth?"

"What?" Michael asked, a bit startled from Calum's question. He didn't exactly want to love Beth, but he knew that he did, and he always would. It was practically impossible to just stop loving someone that literally gave birth to your child. Michael and Beth had been through a lot, and he was pretty sure that his feelings for her would always be there, deep down inside of him.

"Are you expecting Beth to ask you to get back together tonight or something, is that why you're insisting on going?" Luke asked, startling Michael again. Why were his friends interrogating him like this? And in front of Parker, too! Stupid.

"Um... Not exactly..." Michael said slowly, because he was lying. A part of him really did want Beth to say they should get back together, but an even bigger part was telling him that Beth only wanted to go out so she could tell Michael that she has a new boyfriend.

"You're really annoying me right now." Calum said. He gently moved Parker off of him, so he could stand up. "You and Beth broke up for a reason, and that reason was that you lost feelings for each other. Now I understand that you had this weird connection with her and are always going to love her in some way and she probably feels that way about you, too, but you're seriously blowing it right now."

"Blowing it?" Parker questioned, scratching the top of his head because he didn't really understand what Calum meant.

"He's ruining things." Calum muttered to Parker, who nodded back at him.

"What do you mean I'm 'blowing it'?" Michael asked.

"God, Michael." Luke groaned, because Michael was just being unbelievably stupid right now, and he knew it, too.

"I haven't met this Melissa chick, but from what you've told me I know that she's a really great girl. And when you talk about her, I can tell that you really like her. So why the hell did you turn down going on a date with her to go on a date with someone that you don't have a chance with anymore?" Calum asked.

"You know, you've been acting really weird lately." Michael said to Calum, trying to change the subject.

He knew that he was an idiot for doing this to Melissa and for saying yes to Beth. He knew. He just didn't want to admit out loud that he was incredibly dumb and probably ruined something that could have been really great. He honestly didn't know how to fix this, and Michael thought that maybe it would just be easier to leave it and go out with Beth anyway.

"I am not." Calum argued.

"Yes you are." Luke spoke up, agreeing with Michael.

"I just have a very strong opinion about this, that's all." Calum shrugged. He turned to Parker and grabbed his hand, pulling him off of the couch. "Come on, Park, let's go find something to eat."

Calum lead Parker out of the living room and towards the kitchen, where they were apparently going to find some food. Michael was still standing in the middle of the room, kind of amazed at the way that Calum was treating Parker. It was really weird, Michael had never seen his friend act that way before.

"I should get going." Michael said after a couple minutes of he and Luke staring in the direction of the kitchen, trying to figure out what was going on with Calum.

"I would say good luck, but I wouldn't actually mean it." Luke shrugged, standing up so he could walk Michael to the door.

"Thanks." Michael chuckled. He turned to the kitchen again and yelled for Parker. "I'm leaving, Park, I love you!"

"Bye Daddy!" Parker yelled back from across the apartment. "I love you too!"

"Beth we be around to pick up Parker later tonight, alright?" Michael turned back to Luke again. "Thanks for letting him hang out here."

"Oh it's no problem," Luke shrugged, "Sara's out with her friends anyway so it'll be cool to have some company for the night."

"Oh yeah, has Sara said anything to you yet? You know, about her possibly being pregnant?" Michael asked, because he couldn't help but wonder.

"Nothing yet." Luke said, shaking his head. "I'm going to ask her about it, though, but I need to do it in the right way. Like, what if she's not pregnant, she's just getting fat?"

"Well, good luck. I'll see you later." Michael laughed, patting Luke on the back a few times before walking out the door.

By the time Michael finally made it to the restaurant (he got lost twice) Beth was already there, sitting at a table near the corner, even though there were lots of other open places for them to sit. She stood up when she saw Michael walk in, immediately pulling him into a big hug. Beth looked really good in the dress she was wearing; she always looked good.

"So..." Michael said slowly after a few minutes of small talk (they talked about the weather and looked at the menu for a couple seconds).

"So." Beth said, also seeming a bit uncomfortable with this whole thing. Michael didn't really imagine it to be this awkward, he thought that they'd be able to act just as they had a couple years ago, when they were still dating.

"How's work?" Michael asked, only because he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"It's fine." Beth shrugged. "It's really the same, actually. Nothing big has happened in a while."

"Oh." Michael nodded. "I got a job."

"Really? That's great! Where?" Beth asked, and Michael felt slightly embarrassed. Beth had this really great job that paid a lot of money, and Michael was stuck working at a music store.

"That one music shop downtown. I actually think you and I have been in there a couple times." Michael shrugged. He knew that he'd been in there at least twice, years ago, before he even knew that Melissa or her cheating ex-boyfriend Matt existed.

"I think I know what you're talking about." Beth nodded, telling Michael to continue.

"Well, yeah. I got a job there. Actually it was my friend who - "

"Luke?" Beth interrupted.

"No."

"Ashton?"

"No."

"Calum?"

"No."

Beth paused for a minute, like she was trying to think of any more options. "The nanny?"

"Her friend - well, her ex-boyfriend- works there, so she talked to him and he basically handed the job to me." Michael said softly, not wanting to hear what Beth had to say next.

"So she's pretty close with her ex-boyfriend?" Beth asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not really sure, I haven't really asked - why do you seem like you're judging her?" Michael stopped himself, noticing the expression on Beth's face. "You're close with your ex-boyfriend."

"That's different."

"Not really." Michael countered. He knew that Beth would find some way to win this little argument, though, because she always did.

"We had a kid together."

"Well maybe Melissa had a kid with her ex-boyfriend, too." Michael snapped, even though he knew that wasn't true. He was just talking shit now, he was getting defensive, because he really didn't like the way that Beth was talking about Melissa.

"I didn't mean for you to get so upset." Beth said quietly, leaning back in her chair.

"I'm not upset." Michael sighed, rubbing his hands over his eyes. "I'm just confused."

"Why?" Beth asked, seeming genuinely concerned about Michael.

"I just..." Michael trailed off, contemplating whether or not he should just tell Beth the truth. Finally after almost a minute of thinking it over, he decided. "I kind of have this thing with Melissa, okay? I like her, a lot, and I did this really shitty thing to her and now I don't know how to fix it."

"What did you do?" Beth asked. She didn't seem upset at all about Michael admitting to being in a thing with Melissa, which was a good thing.

"Tonight's her birthday, and I'm here with you." Michael said. That's all he really needed to say, because Beth seemed to understand perfectly.

"What?" She almost yelled, scaring Michael. "What's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?" Michael questioned, scooting his chair back. Beth looked like she was going to kill him.

"Why aren't you with her?! If you have a 'thing' with her, then you shouldn't be having dinner with me on her birthday!" Beth yelled, using air quotes.

"You begged me! I tried to tell you that I already had plans!" Michael tried to keep his voice down, but at this point he really couldn't. He was so stupid, even Beth thought that he was stupid for doing this.

"I thought you had plans with Calum or something! If you had told me that you were supposed to go out with a girl then I wouldn't have pushed you to say yes to me!" Beth groaned. She put her head in her hands, as if she was blaming herself for this.

"I just thought that - "

"What did you expect, Michael? That I was going to bring you here and beg for you to take me back?" Beth asked.

"I was trying to keep an open mind about it." Michael shrugged, even though he knew now that Beth was probably never going to beg Michael to take her back.

"Michael." Beth groaned again.

"I didn't want to tell you that I kind of have a sort of girlfriend now!" Michael groaned as well, extremely frustrated with himself.

"Why? What's the big deal?" Beth asked.

"You said that neither of us should really date someone for a while, because of Parker." Michael knew that was a super lame excuse, but he hoped that Beth would understand.

"I really wouldn't have cared, Michael." Beth sighed. "I have a - "

"Right, you have your taco boyfriend anyway." Michael cut her off, sounding a bit bitter. He was mostly just bitter because the said boyfriend bought Parker tacos, but no one needed to know that.

"Taco boyfriend? His name is Jason." Beth chuckled.

"So he is your boyfriend?" Michael asked. He wasn't even upset (okay, maybe a little upset), he was just curious now.

"I mean, not officially. He works with me and we've been friends for a while, we've gone out a few times... We're supposed to be talking about you." Beth said, stopping herself.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do now." Michael shrugged. He was basically giving up, because he knew that Melissa hated him now and he'd basically ruined everything.

"Go to her!" Beth yelled. "Duh!"

"I don't know if I should - "

"Michael Gordon Clifford! Go to her house and apologize right now!" Beth yelled again, scaring Michael even more than before.

"You're such a mom, it's scary." Michael whined, folding his arms across his chest.

"Go." Beth snapped.

"We haven't even eaten yet!" Michael protested. Their waiter actually hadn't come back to check on them in a really long time, this place didn't have very good service...

"Go!"

"Okay, okay, fine. Bye." Michael said, standing up from his chair. He turned away from Beth, not really knowing if he should say any more of a goodbye or not.

"Call me later and tell me how it goes." Beth said as Michael walked away from her, and he couldn't help but let out a short laugh.

*•*•*

Michael parked his car in front of Melissa's house, extremely nervous about what he was about to do. He hadn't really thought very much about what he was going to say to her, he didn't even know if Melissa was home, but he hoped that this would work out.

Michael let out a sigh and pulled out his phone, because he figured that it might be safer to just call Melissa first.

"Yeah?" She picked up after a few rings, not sounding very happy about the fact that Michael was calling.

"Mel, babe, hi." Michael said quickly, hoping that she didn't hang up on him.

"Don't call me that."

"Are you home?" Michael asked, ignoring Melissa's comment.

"I don't know."

"How do you not know?" Michael almost laughed, but he thought that it would be the wrong thing to do.

"Aren't you supposed to be on a date?" Melissa asked bitterly. Michael was watching the house, and he saw a light go on upstairs, so he knew that Melissa was home. He got out of the car and started to walk towards the front door.

"I'm supposed to be on a date with you."

"You were, before you decided to drop me for Beth." Melissa said.

"Can you just open the door, please?" Michael asked, wanting to talk about this in person.

"I don't know."

"You're driving me crazy." Michael groaned. He leaned up against the front door, after ringing the doorbell about five times - even though he knew that would annoy Melissa.

"I know."

"Please come open the door." Michael begged. There was a beeping in his ear, signaling that Melissa had ended the call. A few a seconds later the door opened, and Michael turned around quickly, trying to smile at Melissa.

"Hi." She said and grabbed Michael's wrist, pulling him inside.

"Hi." Michael said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

"Why are you here?" Melissa asked.

Michael paused for a minute, not knowing what to say. "...Happy birthday?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Are you still upset with me?" Michael asked.

"What do you think?" Melissa scoffed. She ran a hand through her hair, moving some strands away from her face.

"I think you're being a bit ridiculous." Michael said, letting out a short laugh.

"You're not really helping yourself right now." Melissa glared at him, folding her arms across her chest.

"I'm so sorry." Michael said softly, trying to take a few steps towards towards Melissa. She just stepped away from him and turned around, walking into the kitchen.

"Melissa!" Michael called after her, following Melissa.

"I don't understand why you're trying so hard." Melissa sighed. She leaned up against the counter, in the same spot she was standing that one time Michael decided to pick her up and throw her into the pool.

"I like you." Michael shrugged.

"But what about Beth?" Melissa asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What about her?" Michael asked, shrugging again.

"I thought you were going out to dinner with her?" Melissa asked, raising her eyebrows at Michael. He took a few more steps closer to her, resting his hands on her shoulders.

"I did, well, kind of." Michael stammered, trying to find a way to explain this.

"So, what happened? Things just didn't work out?" Melissa asked. She kept her eyes on the floor, not on Michael. "Did you not have a very good time? And then you just came to me as a...second choice?"

"No, not at all." Michael assured her, even though she was almost right.

"I just don't get it, Michael." Melissa sighed, finally looking up at him. She was about to cry, Michael could see the tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Hey, don't cry." Michael said softly. He moved his hands so they were cupping the sides of Melissa's face and leaned in, so their foreheads were almost touching. "Mel, please, don't cry."

"I'm sorry." She sniffed, wiping at her eyes. It was almost like she didn't even notice the way that Michael was holding her, or maybe she just didn't want to acknowledge it. "I just thought this would be different."

"I'm sorry." Michael whispered.

"I don't know why I thought that I could compete with Beth. You're always going to love her, so why do I even try?" Melissa mumbled. She pushed Michael away from her and walked a few steps in the other direction, like she was going to leave the room.

"You're right." Michael said, because he didn't want to lie to Melissa. He reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to him again. "I'm always going to have some feelings for Beth. At least, I think I am. It's really hard for me to just forget about her, because we went through a lot. But right now, Mel, I don't want to be with Beth. I want to be with you."

"Really?" Melissa whispered.

"Yes, really. I like you, a lot, and I'm so sorry that I was stupid and went out with Beth instead of you. I was confused, and I didn't realize at the time how much of an idiot I was being. I want you, Mel, and not anyone else." Michael whispered back, leaning in more. He was surprised that he was even able to say all of that without stumbling over his words or messing up, because usually he would have.

"You really mean that?" Melissa questioned. She brought her hands up so they were resting on Michael's chest and played with the collar of his shirt, still not looking at him right in the eyes.

"Why would I lie?" Michael asked, wrapping his arms around Melissa's waist.

"I just - " Melissa cut herself off and swallowed hard, and Michael could tell that she was about to cry again.

"Shh, it's okay." Michael whispered. They were really close to each other now, their noses were brushing against one another's and if Michael just leaned in a little more they would be kissing.

"No it's not." Melissa argued, barely shaking her head.

"Yes it is." Michael countered back.

"I'm just confused." Melissa said quietly, pulling back from Michael again. She walked away from him, into the living room, and he followed her.

"Well that's perfect, because I'm confused too." Michael gave Melissa a cheesy smile. He grabbed her hand, pulling her down on the couch next to him.

"I just... I don't want us to be, like, in a relationship and then have you run off and do whatever Beth says whenever she wants it. I'm scared." Melissa admitted, staring down at her lap. She intertwined Michael's fingers with her own, and played with them while Michael tried to figure out how to respond to her.

"That's not going to happen, though." Michael finally said after a few minutes of silence. "I like you and only you, and I promise that I will never, ever, ditch you for my ex-girlfriend again. I'll be a good boyfriend, Mel, I swear."

"Boyfriend?"

"Oh, Jesus Christ. I'm your boyfriend, am I not?" Michael groaned, which made Melissa laugh a little.

"I mean, I guess you are." She shrugged.

"Do you want me to be your boyfriend?" Michael asked, feeling slightly embarrassed because for a second he was sure that Melissa was going to say no.

"Is this your way of asking?" Melissa finally let out a big laugh, seeming to be feeling a lot better now.

"I didn't think I needed to ask." Michael pouted, "You already told that Matt guy that I was your boyfriend anyway."

"Can we just not talk about Matt, please?" Melissa groaned, furrowing her eyebrows at Michael.

"Well, I don't really know what else we could - "

Michael was cut off by Melissa leaning forward and pressing her lips to his, silencing Michael immediately. He was startled at first, like he always is, but after a second he relaxed and moved his hands off of Melissa's lap and to her waist, pulling her closer to him.

"I'm sorry." Michael whispered again against Melissa's lips, because he wasn't sure that he'd said it enough.

"I know." She whispered back. Melissa moved her hands up to the buttons of Michael's shirt and undid the top few, running her hands over his chest.

"Please forgive me." Michael muttered, his hands snaking their way up Melissa's shirt. He was pretty nervous, he hadn't done anything like this in a really long time, he was afraid that he'd mess this up.

"Uh huh." Melissa nodded as best as she could with her lips still pressed to Michael's. She moved forward and pushed Michael up against the back of the couch, crawling closer to him so she could sit on his lap.

"You really do drive me crazy." Michael whispered, his lips moving down to Melissa's neck.

"I know." She laughed. Michael just rolled his eyes and continued to suck at Melissa's skin, because he really couldn't get enough of her.

"Shut up." Michael mumbled.

"Okay." Melissa laughed again, and Michael fell backwards on to the couch, pulling Melissa down on top of him.

-

I feel like a lot happened in this chapter and idk if I like it or not but I hope you do

like melissa wasn't really mad at michael she was just disappointed and kind of scared but they worked it out and now they're dating whoa

also I hope this isn't moving too fast please tell me if you think it is idk I'm always so insecure about my writing ugh