In what felt like an hour but was actually several, Mike found himself under a starless sky, anxiously drumming his fingertips against the wheel of Lana's SUV. She'd parked it roadside from the graveyard, and Mike was thankful that he had kept the spare key.
His brain was wild and alive, running through the events of the day, ending with the fear of becoming Lana's murder suspect. He dashed away the idea, half-confident that the half-body wouldn't be an issue because of course dead body parts in a graveyard weren't exactly uncommon. With a sinking feeling, Mike couldn't recall if he'd actually buried Lana or left her corpse in the open among the spring flowers and blood spatter.
For a moment, he considered going back, then realized he wasn't sure where he was even currently heading. And then the SUV headlights flooded against a purple garage door and his brain was washed clean with a flood of memories that became tears, and he had been gone so long. Mike knew it wasn't supposed to be his home anymore, but it certainly felt like home.
As Mike stepped from the SUV onto the gravel of the driveway, he was swiftly introduced with twin waves of tired and cold. Tomorrow would be a good time to deal with his all of his issues, after sleep and food and a shower in a bathroom that doesn't contain fourteen other people. Mike took a deep breath and a moment to enjoy the sound of silence before entering the house and flicking the lights on.
“Surprise!” came a shout, as a single slender man in glasses and a video game t-shirt jumped up out of the darkness. A scrappy hand-drawn banner WELCOME HOME, MIKEY was strung across the wall, above the kitchen door.
“Greg, what the hell are you doing?”
Mike's gruff tone was taken in joyful stride, as the other man shrugged his shoulders with a gleeful smirk. “It's your first night out, and we were all planning a surprise party to celebrate, but then, y'know...” Greg gave an awkward fidget, hunting for his next words. “Stacey.” A pause, time stolen with the weight of the name of Mike's dead daughter. “It's hard to plan for a funeral, but I'd much rather plan a party. And here it is.”
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Greg approached, in a lurching waltz of a movement that was purely Greg, and latched arms around Mike's neck. A hug, because this sort of situation required hugs, but a little too tight, a little too long, and Greg's speech like a Pomeranian that smoked too much in it's younger days, “I made cake.”
Mike wriggled out of the hug and moved toward the kitchen, “I didn't know you baked.”
“I don't. Generally.” And it showed. The cake was a single layer of which might have been angel food cake with the base as a blur of burned chocolate chips. Greg knifed a slice into a bowl and ate it with his fingers, crumbs floating to the floor.
“Looks great,” Mike muttered. In his visions of his first meal outside the institution, it should have happened hours ago and involved home-made bread. He squashed the dismal thought with the silver lining of, At least this is home-made. Baked not with skill, but love – even if love could use some cooking lessons.
“Where is my sister, anyways?” Greg asked.
Mike took a bite of the cake, buying time to come up with a plausible answer of what the hell happened to Lana, but resulted in only a shrug and more cake.
Greg nodded conspiratorially. “Probably with Issac, then.” At Mike's quizzical look, Greg made a face of gross. “The guy she's seeing. She hasn't spent much time at home since. Yeh. Since.”
Mike nodded, rolling the name Isaac around in his head, trying to connect it with a face or something Lana had said, but coming up blank. “Speaking of home. Shouldn't you get to yours? It's late.”
Greg shrugged, grabbing a pair of drinks from the counter and offering one to Mike, “My roommate's boyfriend is in town, so I've been crashing here, at Lana's. Helping with planning of stuff and whatnot.”
“Sure, alright.” Mike took a swig of his drink, reveling when it hit the back of his throat with a soft burn. He quirked a smile at Greg, and they clinked glasses. The idea of disappearing into a drunken stupor was so very appealing.