Getting tossed from the Wild Pony was easy on Christmas Eve. Michael wasn’t the only lonely drunk and his mouth could get him into quite a bit of trouble if he really wanted to go there. He went there tonight by insulting the only person he shouldn’t have: Maria. He then found himself dragged out by his shirt but there was nowhere he could go as drunk as he was so he climbed up onto the tailgate of his truck like it was a mountain to conquer. He found beer tucked away and kept drinking.
“Ready to fight the world?” Alex asked, decked out in uniform and Michael scowled.
“What are you doing here?” Michael shot back as he held onto his beer protectively, not wanting to part from it. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
“It’s ten. I got off an hour ago,” Alex commented as he watched Michael with hard eyes. “But I didn’t even make it home before I had to come back out.”
Michael scoffed. “You’re not my babysitter.”
“No, and neither is Maria,” Alex said firmly. “How long had you been spending Christmas with Max?”
With a scowl, Michael lifted his beer and paused to say, “Since he got his own place,” before he kept right on drinking.
Alex gave a hint of a nod but otherwise remained unreadable beyond the hardness in his eyes. Michael didn’t know if it was because he had to come out here or the reason he had to come out here. Micheal did know he shouldn’t have said a word about Maria’s mother. Losing his mother though had made Michael jaded about parents, especially those who were alive. That compounded with Max dying? He couldn’t take it.
“Then what gives you the right to say that maybe Mimi will forget that it’s Christmas?” Alex demanded as his hands slid out in front of him and wrung themselves. He was angry and Michael would have felt worse if he wasn’t drunk on whiskey, acetone, and pain.
Michael exhaled heavily and put his empty beer bottle in the six-pack holder. “You here to badger me about mistakes all night?” he asked without looking at Alex, he couldn’t. That would hurt so much more.
“It’s supposed to get down in the teens tonight and you can’t sleep it off in your truck,” Alex said evenly, which was remarkable considering the emotional that was palpable to Michael.
“Okay,” Michael said and dropped to the ground before groaning softly at the dizziness from the alcohol. He closed the tailgate and patted around for his keys and when he found them he started walking toward Alex’s car.
“You’re not the only one who isn’t holding it together, you know,” Alex said as Michael passed him by.
Michael sniffed and lifted his head. “That supposed to make me feel better about myself?”
“No,” Alex said curtly. “It’s not.”
Michael spun around and held his hands out. “Then, what does it mean?”
“Stop hurting people because you’re hurting. Stop fighting the people who want to help.”
“I don’t need your help!” Michael spat the words but Alex didn’t even flinch.
“I didn’t mean me, Michael.” A pause. “Maria is not your enemy.”
Michael shrugged and slapped on a fake smile. “Okay,” he said and turned to go to Alex’s car, again.
Hearing Alex sigh, Michael stood next to the passenger side door and waited. When the car unlocked, Michael poured himself into the seat and leaned his hot face against the cool window. He was soon asleep and didn’t wake up, not even when Alex got him to cabin and Kyle came out to help carry Michael inside.
