Beth had always made Michael really flustered, since day one.

She was at their apartment, casually sitting on the couch and watching as Michael tried to round up Parker and get his things together so Beth could take him for the weekend. Usually it was pretty easy, but Michael still got nervous at the possibility of him fucking up and Beth laughing in his face.

But Parker didn't necessarily want to go to his mom's house, and he was making things a lot more difficult than they should have been. Michael really loved Parker, but he could be so exhausting sometimes.

"Daddy, let's play Mario Kart." Parker laughed, grabbing Michael's hand and dragging him back into the living room.

"No, Park, we have to pack up all your stuff." Michael dragged Parker back into his bedroom, which was a mess from Michael throwing around various items to put in Parker's bag.

"But I don't want to pack up all my stuff." Parker smiled sweetly, sitting down on the edge of his bed and grabbing his stuffed lion. "Why do I have to leave?"

"You're going to Mommy's house for a couple days. Come on, dude, you've been doing this for almost two years now." Michael rolled his eyes, shoving a few more shirts from the floor into Parker's bag.

"Ooooh." Parker nodded, seeming to understand now. "And you're going to come with?"

"No." Michael let out a big sigh, taking a seat next to Parker.

"But why not? You have to, Daddy, it won't be fun without you!" Parker whined. He shifted a little and wrapped his arms around Michael's waist, trying to keep him there.

Michael really didn't understand why Parker was acting like this. He'd been unusually clingy for the past few days, and Michael couldn't figure out why. He hadn't done anything different than he normally did, and nothing strange had happened to Parker either. The last few days had been the same as any other, yet for some reason Parker never wanted to leave Michael's side.

"That's just not how it works, Pac-Man." Michael gave Parker a small smile and ruffled his hair. "Some days you stay here with me and other days you go with Mommy."

"I think we should all go together. Mommy's house is nice, you'll like it." Parker said, his words muffled due to his face being buried in Michael's side.

Honestly Michael had only been to Beth's new house once or twice. It was pretty nice, with a cool kitchen and a nice backyard. But she had creepy neighbors.

"I can't, buddy." Michael sighed. He tried to get up but it was kind of awkward with Parker hanging onto him, so he picked Parker up too. "It just doesn't work that way anymore."

"No." Parker protested. "No, no, no."

"No what?" Michael groaned. He grabbed Parker's bag from the floor and shut off the light in his room, walking back down the hall again as best as he good with Parker hanging on him like a baby koala.

"No, Daddy, you can't make me go." Parker continued. He was starting to cry, which was just perfect, because Beth was right there in the other room and she was going to think that Michael did something wrong. Again.

Michael went and stood in front of Beth, who was still on the couch and mindlessly looking through her phone. He tossed Parker's bag towards her and it landed on the couch next to her, finally making her look up.

"Hi." She said, failing to notice that Parker was being a little baby once again and crying for no reason.

"Can you talk to him?" Michael asked, somehow prying Parker off of him and setting him down on the floor.

"What's wrong?" Beth asked, suddenly seeming concerned as she leaned forward, closer to Parker.

Parker stared at Beth for a moment before bursting into tears again and running back to Michael, hugging his leg so tight that it seemed like he was never going to let go.

"Okay..." Beth said slowly, leaning back in the couch again, like she was giving up.

"Don't take it personally." Michael chuckled, giving Beth a small smile while he rubbed Parker's back and tried to get him to calm down.

"Parker, sweetie, what's wrong?" Beth tried again and Parker slowly turned around to face her.

"Nothing." Parker sniffed, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his shirt.

"There's obviously something wrong." Michael sighed. He stepped away from Parker and sat down on the couch next to Beth, so they could both look at their son at the same time.

"No..." Parker trailed off and rubbed his eyes , trying not to look directly at either of his parents.

"Park, baby, if there's something wrong then you should tell us. Nothing's going to happen, we just want to help." Beth reached out and grabbed Parker's hand, pulling him closer to them.

There was a long pause, and the room was completely silent except Parker sniffling every few seconds.

"I just don't want Daddy to leave." Parker finally mumbled and looked back up at Michael, who was just confused at this point. They'd been over this before, Michael was never going to leave.

"What?" Michael questioned, "I'm not going to leave."

"Daddy's not going anywhere." Beth added, quickly glancing at Michael to make sure that she was telling the truth. Of course she was, Michael had nowhere else to go, he couldn't leave if he wanted to.

"Are you sure?" Parker cocked his head to the side and glared at Michael, who still didn't understand what he did wrong in the first place.

"Yes, I'm sure." Michael sighed. "I won't leave, Park, where did you get the idea that I was going to?"

"Well that's what happened to Kitty." Parker said quietly and walked over to Michael again, climbing onto his lap.

"What? No it didn't." Michael insisted, shaking his head. Katie's dad just wasn't around a lot because he went on lots of business trips, that's all.

"Yes it did, Kitty's mommy told her, Daddy, and Kitty's mommy never lies to her." Parker pouted and glared up at Michael.

"Kitty is Parker's friend from school." Michael turned to Beth, just in case she was confused.

"Michael, I know." Beth groaned.

"Kitty's daddy didn't like Kitty's mommy anymore so he left." Parker continued, "I don't want my Daddy to leave."

"I'm not going to leave, buddy, ever." Michael assured him. "Now, you're going to go with Mommy for a few days and when you come back I'll be right here, I promise."

"I think you should come with me to Mommy's house." Parker said again, looking between both Beth and Michael and obviously hoping that they'd both agree. They glanced at each other for a second, only to shake their heads again.

"Parker, Daddy and I aren't happy when we're together anymore. It's much better if we just live in our different houses and only see each other sometimes." Beth tried her best to explain, even though Michael could tell that she was having trouble with this.

"But I'm happy when you're together." Parker pouted.

Michael just looked over at Beth again, hoping that she would come up with some sort of response for Parker.

"I know, and I'm sorry." Beth sighed. "This is just how things have to be now."

"Mommy, I liked it a lot better when you lived with us." Parker said, leaning in to Michael's chest and using it as a pillow.

"I know, baby, I'm sorry." Beth said again, sending another quick look to Michael. He had absolutely no idea what to do or say, so he was hoping that Beth would do all of the talking.

"I think you should come back." Parker gave both Beth and Michael a sad smile as he stared up at them. "You should come home."

"This isn't Mommy's home anymore, Park. She has her own home now." Michael finally spoke up, brushing some hair off of Parker's forehead.

"It's not the same." Parker said, pouting again.

"But Mommy's house is lots of fun, isn't it?" Michael attempted one more time to get Parker to go with Beth. "You always come home from there with lots of cool stories."

"But it's not - " Parker begins to get worked up again stops himself and ends up coughing, and Michael has to pat him on the back until he's finished. Beth just glares at Michael, and he sends a confused look back to her. "It's still not the same, Daddy."

"I know." Michael finally let out a big sigh and leaned back into the couch, bringing Parker with him.

The three of them sit quietly for a long time before Parker spoke up again, ending the awkward silence. "Can we play Mario Kart?"

"We have Mario Kart at my house, Park, we can play when we get home." Beth said, quickly standing up from the couch. It wasn't too late, but they had a long drive ahead of them, and Michael could see why Beth wanted to get going.

"Can we all play it together?" Parker begged. "Just one time?"

"Please?" Michael looked hopefully up at Beth, his eyes wide. When they were together they used to play video games all the time, and Michael missed it. He loved video games, and he got tired of playing with a four year old all the time.

"Fine, one game." Beth said, sighing as she sat down on the couch again.

"Yay!" Parker cheered and hopped off of Michael's laps, walking over to where they kept the game controllers and grabbing enough for all of them.

Ten games of Mario Kart and a few bowls of mac n' cheese later Parker had fallen asleep on the couch, and was laying across Michael and Beth's laps.

He was a lot more tired than he should have been, probably from the amount of times that he'd cried over the course of the night. Parker would be fine one second and then he'd be a sobbing mess the next, and neither Beth nor Michael could figure out why.

"So," Beth was the first to speak, starling Michael. "What do you think?"

"What do you mean?" Michael questioned.

"About what Parker was saying earlier." Beth said, swallowing hard. She kept her voice down, careful not to wake Parker up.

"I don't really know." Michael shrugged. "There isn't much that we can do."

"Yeah, I don't know..." Beth sighed, trailing off.

"Beth, there isn't anything we can do." Michael repeated. He didn't want Beth to get any ideas, because he was afraid that whatever she came up with would just ruin even more things.

"I know, you're right." Beth said, looking away from Michael and folding her arms over her chest. He knew that she was upset now, because that's what Beth always did when she was upset.

"We - we're not happy together anymore, right?" Michael asked, "That's why we broke up, right?"

"I guess." Beth shrugged, slowly turning towards Michael again. She let out a big sigh and ran her hands through her hair. "I don't know, Michael."

"You don't know what?" Michael asked, starting to get a little aggravated. Girls were so confusing, why couldn't they just say exactly what they mean?

"I'm just confused." Beth groaned and leaned back into the couch, crossing her arms again. "We were together and I loved you for such a long time and now that we're not it just feels... weird."

"Yeah, I know. I think we just fell in love too hard and too fast. That's why there's a kid laying on us right now." Michael chuckled.

"So you think that if we didn't have Parker things would have turned out differently?" Beth questioned, looking between Parker and Michael.

"Well, of course things would have turned out differently. We probably would have waited a few years and I would have asked you to marry me and then we would've had kids." Michael explained. He knew that he should have just shut up, he was only making things worse. "But that's not how things turned out, and that's okay."

"I'm sorry." Beth huffed, taking a second to wipe under her eyes. "I'm probably making this worse. I just don't know what to do."

"Do you - Do you still - ?" Michael stopped himself, because he knew that if he finished his sentence things would definitely get worse than they already were.

But Beth already knew what Michael was going to say, and she answered anyway. "I think I do. I think I always will. I don't know, you were the first person I ever fell in love with, I think there's always going to be a part of me that still does."

"Yeah." Michael nodded. "Same."

Without saying anything they both knew that it was time for Parker and Beth to leave, so Michael grabbed his son and carried him out to Beth's car, trying his best not to disturb him while he slept.

"Michael," Beth said once Parker was all buckled up, still sleeping soundly.

"Yeah?" Michael asked, tearing his eyes away from the sleeping boy in the backseat and looking at Beth.

"You need to take Parker to the doctor sometime next week." Beth said (well she kind of ordered). It wasn't what Michael thought she was going to say at all, and it kind of caught him off guard.

"I know, I will." Michael nodded, not really meaning it. He would take Parker to the doctor when he felt like he really needed to, and at the moment he didn't think that it was necessary.

"Michael, I'm serious." Beth said, her hands on her hips. "It's been over a month since I first asked you to do it and his cough has gotten worse."

"You can do it yourself - "

"Michael."

"Okay, okay, I'll do it sometime next week, alright? I promise." Michael said just so Beth would stop talking. She got so scary when she was mad.

"Please? I'm worried about him, I just want to make sure he's okay." Beth sighed.

"I know." Michael cracked a small smile and made the first move of pulling Beth forward into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face into the crook of her neck like he always used to do and everything felt... right.

"I'll see you on Sunday." Beth finally pulled away after they hugged for a long time, letting out yet another big sigh.

"Yeah, Sunday." Michael nodded.

Once Beth and Parker were gone Michael went back into the apartment and started to clean. He needed something to do that would keep his mind off of whatever the hell happened earlier and the first thing he saw was their (actually Michael had stolen it from Ashton) vacuum.

Michael was brought out of his mad cleaning frenzy by his phone vibrating in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see that Melissa was calling.

"Hey!" Michael answered the phone, yelling loudly into the speaker.

"Uh, hey." Melissa laughed at the way Michael had picked up.

"What's up?" Michael asked. He turned off the vacuum and walked in to the checking the time on the microwave. It was around 10:30 now, he didn't know why Melissa was calling him so late.

"I was just thinking." Melissa started, and Michael let out another nervous laugh. He hates when girls started to think.

"Thinking about what?" Michael asked, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"I feel bad." Was all Melissa said, sending Michael into another state of confusion.

"About what?" Michael questioned.

"I've been really distant lately, I'm sorry." Melissa apologized.

"It's alright. I've been a moody little shit lately, it's not entirely your fault." Michael shrugged. He really meant it, and he said it all the time, it was both his and Melissa's fault that things had been so weird lately.

"Can I come over? Or can you come over?" Melissa asked, clearly not wanting to say any more until they were together.

"You can come over." Michael nodded. "I just vacuumed."

"Alright, I'll be there in a little while. Bye." Melissa said and waited for Michael to say goodbye as well before they both ended the call.

15 minutes later there was a knock on the front door and Michael opened it up to see Melissa standing there, rocking back and forth on her heels. She pushes past Michael and walked into the apartment, taking her jacket off and tossing it on the floor where Michael usually threw his and Parker's.

"It looks nice." Melissa said, taking a look around. She wore a big smile on her face, which was a good thing. At least now Michael knew that she wasn't upset.

"What does?" Michael asked, not sure what she was talking about. He was just a little distracted by the way Melissa had barged in here acting so happy.

"Your apartment. You vacuumed, didn't you? It looks nice." Melissa laughed. She grabbed Michael's hand and pulled him over to the couch, making them both sit down.

"Alright, what's going on?" Michael asked, letting out a small chuckle.

"I have to tell you some things." Melissa said, staring straight at Michael. He was finding it hard to just focus directly on her, his mind was racing. He was glad that Melissa was finally going to tell him what was going on with her, but he was also worried that he wasn't going to like what he'd hear.

"Alright, go ahead." Michael nodded, encouraging Melissa to continue. He grabbed one of her hands and held it between his own. "Shit, your hands are freezing."

"Okay, first off I just want to say that I'm so sorry for being such a moody bitch all the time. I don't know, that's just how I act. " Melissa shrugged, staring down at their hands. "And second, I'm sorry that I seem like I'm keeping secrets from you. I'm really not, I just wanted to wait and tell you everything when I knew that I was ready. And finally, I'm sorry for - "

"Damn, did you rehearse this?" Michael asked, cutting her off for a moment.

"What? No, I - Well, just a little." Melissa laughed. "Anyway, I'm sorry for taking so long to figure all of this out, but I think that I'm finally ready to explain all of this."

"Okay." Michael nodded quickly, just wanting Melissa to get on with it already.

"I'm not going to turn this into a huge sob story, alright? I'll try to tell you everything as fast as I can so you don't get bored." Melissa said, letting out another small laugh.

"I'm sure I won't get too bored." Michael shrugged. He wanted Melissa to know that he was interested, and that he cared. She shouldn't feel like she needed to shorten the story for his sake.

"Whatever." Melissa scoffed, shaking her head. "When I was 17 my parents split up, but I knew that it was going to happen for about a year before that, and it put me in a really bad place. I wouldn't say I was depressed, I was just really sad."

"Alright." Michael nodded.

"So, you already know what happened between Calum and I, do I need to explain that?" Melissa asked.

"I'd really rather that you didn't." Michael said shyly. He still felt weird about the fact that his current girlfriend had given his current best friend a blowjob, and he didn't like thinking about it a lot.

"Okay." Melissa nodded, continuing her story. "So right after my parents broke up I met Matt while I was walking down the street and I was probably crying about God knows what. But we hit it off and then I wasted the next three years of my life with him."

"Alright." Michael said.

"Like I said, I was in a pretty bad place at the time, and Matt helped me through a lot. I told him everything and he was there for me when I needed him. I trusted him, and, I don't know, everything just seemed so perfect." Melissa said, letting out another big sigh.

"But he cheated on you." Michael said before Melissa could say anything else. Sometimes Michael felt that he needed to remind Melissa that Matt had cheated on her, and that definitely wasn't okay, because it seemed like she forgot.

"Yeah, I know." Melissa said, glaring at Michael for a second. "He cheated on me because he got bored, and then I realized that Matt was just a jerk the entire time and those three years were just a big mistake."

"Okay, I understand that." Michael nodded to himself. "But I'm still a little confused. You seem like you hate him so much, why do you always go off and talk to him?"

"He's been doing this for the last two years." Melissa scoffed, rolling her eyes. "He always used to call me at least once a week and just ask if I was doing okay. Now that you're working at the store with him I think he just has an excuse to actually see me."

"So... What do you guys talk about?" Michael asked.

"He just asks if I'm okay, and how I'm feeling." Melissa explained vaguely. Michael wasn't going to beg for details now, though, he understood that it was hard for Melissa to tell him all of this in the first place and he didn't want to bother her about it any more. "It's actually really annoying. I think he just feels bad for cheating and he wants to make up for that."

"Do you want me to talk to him about it?" Michael asked. "I can be all like 'hey man, lay off of my girlfriend' and then I'll punch him."

"You will not." Melissa laughed, playfully slapping Michael on the chest.

"Alright, maybe I won't." Michael chuckled. He leaned back in the couch and pulled Melissa closer to him, feeling a lot more relaxed now.

"Are we okay now?" Melissa asked, looking up at Michael. She had her heard resting against his chest and his arm was wrapped around her waist, and they were as close as they could get to each other.

"We were always okay." Michael shrugged and pressed his lips to the top of Melissa's head.

"I'm sorry for everything." Melissa said quietly.

"I know." Michael nodded. "And it's okay. I understand that you needed some time to figure out if you wanted to tell me all of this."

"It's just, because of Matt, I - "

"I know, you trusted him and then he screwed you over." Michael said, slowly rubbing Melissa's back. "I'm not going to do that."

"Promise?" Melissa looked up at him again, a small smile on her lips.

"Yeah." Michael nodded, swallowing hard. "I promise."

-

Michael's so chill though

THIS CHAPTER WAS LONG AND CONFUSING AND IM NOT SURE IF I LIKED IT BUT IDK MICHAELS CONFUSED AND SO IS BETH AND SO IS MELISSA AND SO IS PARKER BUT MELISSA FINALLY EXPLAINED SHIT SO THATS COOL

if anyone has any ideas for what should happen next please tell me because idk what I just did with michael and beth like what the hell was that and now idk what to do with the story

ok thanks for reading bye

Parker will be cute in the next chapter alright I promise