Love Isn't Easy, No Matter Who You Are

I was starting to get a headache just from being around Nick and Jordan. I didn’t know what was going on with Jordan but I knew that there wasn’t really anything I could do to get him to tell me if he didn’t want too. And he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in talking about his issues at that moment.

The ride up to Mike’s floor didn’t take that long and I was grateful for that, I didn’t know if I could stand the strained silence in the elevator any longer than the ride allowed. I wanted to get to Mike’s apartment; I was hoping that he could shed some light on the bitchiness of his youngest brother.

When we got to Mike’s door, I turned to look at the guys, neither one of them was looking too happy to be there now. “Well I sure hope Mike doesn’t need too much cheering up, you two, like this, will only depress him.”

Nick yawned suddenly, “Sorry,” he chuckled.

I smiled, “That’s better.” We both turned to Jordan. “Can you at least smile? This was your idea after all.”

As Jordan rolled his eyes at us before turning to the door to knock, Nick started to speak. “You know, even though I wish Mike was the one visiting us, I am excited to see him again. When he was out in January, I didn’t get to spend that much time with him but now…” he smiled at me. “It should be fun.”

“I know what you mean,” I linked my arm through his and held out my hand to Jordan. “I’m glad you did this Jordy.”

At first I didn’t think Jordan was going to say anything to us, he just looked over his shoulder but then he sighed. Shaking his head he told us we were driving him crazy. “You couldn’t be happy when I told you about it?”

“No,” Nick laughed, “That would’ve been too easy.”

When Eric opened the door a few seconds later, he found the three of us standing there laughing and joking around, like old times. “I was hoping you guys would show up,” he told us as he let us into his apartment. “Mike will be happy to see you.”

“Where is he?” Nick asked after we had taken off our shoes to venture further into the apartment.

“He’s still in bed,” Eric said, he pointed down the hall to our right. “I tried to get him out of bed but he’s mad at me.”

“Oh?” I raised a brow as he walked into the kitchen. “Why’s that?”

“Oh,” Eric picked up a knife, plunging it into the bottle of Mayo sitting on his counter. “Mike doesn’t believe that he needs to take a break from work, he thinks he’s fine, despite the fact that he’s always biting my head off when we are both home.” He retrieved his mayo loaded knife from the bottle and slapped it against the bread on the counter. “I really don’t see what’s wrong with wanting to spend some time with him at home and not at the bar where he decides he needs to work at the last minute.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” I told him and received dirty looks from the guys. “What? There isn’t anything wrong with that! You can’t have a healthy relationship if you never spend time together.” They didn’t look like they agreed; I knew they would be on their brother’s side, so it didn’t surprise me. Crossing my arms over my chest, I looked at Nick. “Spending time with Amy, wasn’t that the reason you cut back on your hours at work and moved in with her parents?”

“It’s not the same,” Nick protested.

“Oh?” I glanced at Eric, who was watching us with interest. “Why isn’t it the same?”

“Because Amy…” Nick trailed off, he shook his head. “Fine! It is the same.”

I smiled and looked at Jordan. “Hey Mike’s my brother, I’m not about to get involved in this argument without hearing what he has to say.”

“Fair enough,” Eric returned to his Mayo and bread.

“Is that your breakfast,” I asked.

“No,” he said while placing a variety of cheese, meat and vegetables on the bread. “It’s for my lunch,” he turned to me. “This is why Mike is mad at me, I got him to take today off work, but I couldn’t get the day off. Then he couldn’t get his shift back for this morning, so you know, I’m the bad guy.”

Eric looked tired, I was starting to wonder if there wasn’t something else going on between Mike and him that was driving a rift between the two of them.

“If you were going to be work ­–”

“Jordy!” I cut him off. “Why don’t you go see if you can get Mike out of bed? We can’t really hang out with him if he’s sleeping.”

For a moment I thought Jordan was going to argue with me, he stood there glaring at me for a while, I could just imagine what he was thinking and I knew I didn’t want him to say it out loud at that moment. In the end, he turned away from us. “Come on Nick,” he grabbed his brother’s arm but before he started down the hall, he glanced at Eric, asking him if Mike was dressed, when Eric nodded, the guys headed down the hall towards Mike’s bedroom.

In the kitchen, Eric chuckled sadly as he looked at me. “It’s been almost two weeks since Mike has even kissed me.”

“Eric,” I went to him, intent on reassuring him that Mike really cared about him but he shook his head.

“I can’t help but feel that it’s a matter of time before he leaves…” Taking a deep breath, he tried to smile but he couldn’t. “Mike already told me that he’s not happy here. Maybe I’m a fool for thinking that he just needs some time off work and some time with his brothers; maybe it’s me that he needs time away from.”

I didn’t get a chance to say anything to Eric, the scream of ‘cannonball!’ from down the hall told me that Jordan and Nick were about to jump on Mike’s bed.

And the scream that followed told me that Mike was awake.

But it was the ‘I’m going to kill you guys!’ and the footsteps that followed that told me Mike was up, chasing the boys out of his room.

“Great” Eric groaned, “Another thing for him to be mad at me for.”