★

"HOW'S MICKEY DOING?" IAN asked Mandy, handing her off the cigarette as Amara did her homework that was due next period. They sat in the courtyard of the school, even though it probably wasn't even past forty degrees out.

"They still have him at the jail ward over at the county," Mandy answered.

"You been over to visit him?"

Mandy shook her head. "No. Those d*ke guards pat you down like amateur gynecologists."

"That's one way to get a hand job, I guess," Amara muttered, not looking up from the half finished worksheet she was still writing on.

Mandy chuckled, giving the cigarette back to Ian. "How's Kash?"

Ian scoffed. "A couple of neighborhood-watch ladies came by the store, offered to throw him a parade."

"How heartwarming," the brunette retorted, and Mandy teasingly nudged her shoulder, the two of them giggling.

Mandy clicked her tongue. "Kash had better move his family back to Baghdad before Mickey gets out."

Ian looked at her weirdly. "He's from Evanston."

"Won't be nearly far enough."

"Your brother is scary," Amara told her, flipping onto the back of the worksheet, groaning once she saw twenty more problems. "Jesus, so is calculus. When the hell am I ever gonna use this? Never."

A shadow fell over them, and she glanced up to see Lip taking the cigarette from Ian's hand, ignoring her annoyed look. "Mandy," he greeted.

"Lip," the girl replied back.

"That's a nice outfit. What is that, uh, pirate wrench?"

"Wow," Amara shut her book closed. "For a second I thought he was being serious. Shoulda known better."

Lip threw a rolled up piece of paper at her from out of his pocket, and she narrowly avoided it. The ball of paper landed a few feet behind them, but none of them made any move to pick it up.

"What's your third period?" Lip asked his brother.

"Health," Amara answered. "He has it with me. Why?"

"Good, I could use the backup."

"What?"

Lip put the cigarette out, stepping on it with his shoe. "I think we need to miss some school."

★

"Where'd you get the car?" Ian asked from the front seat, mirroring Amara's thoughts as she glanced around the interior of the vehicle.

"Borrowed it from Steve."

"Ah," Amara breathed, leaning forward so her head was on the console. "You borrowed an already stolen car. This isn't illegal."

"Yeah, like stealing a candy bar from a random kid on the street isn't either."

"Hey," she defended. "I was hungry."

Ian shook his head, his gaze unfocusing as he stared out the window. Lip seemed to pick up on it as well. "You doing alright?"

He waved them off. "Lot going on."

"Yeah," Lip agreed. "It's weird having Monica back."

"That too."

A silence passed over them. "There's something else?"

Ian shrugged. "It's kind of hard to explain."

"Try us," Amara said, staring at him.

With a sigh, he turned to face the other two. "Mickey is gay. And we're doing it. Kash shot Mickey because of me. But Mickey would rather go to juvie than admit that he's gay. So I'm doing both Kash and Mickey, but not so much Kash lately."

"Holy shit."

"Huh," Amara mused. "I definitely wasn't expecting that. Hey, if it makes you feel better, I'm pretty sure Margot is dating a rich guy, so I might just fuck around and make him buy us a giant house. Then we can leave this shithole forever and act like it never existed."

"Oh, what, you don't like it here?" Lip teased. "It's basically heaven. It's charming." Amara shoved his shoulder with an eye roll, making him let out a chuckle. 

"Here they come," Ian said, and the three of them turned to see Monica and Roberta walking out of the house, Liam in their care. Lip started the car. "I think I'm gonna visit him today."

"Who, Kash?"

"No, Mickey. He's in jail awaiting sentencing."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Amara questioned. "Like, are you sure you guys aren't just fuck-buddies? Mickey doesn't seem like the type to settle down and enter a relationship."

"It's not...a relationship."

"Right," Amara said, completely unconvinced.

They sat in front of the test result clinic, about a half an hour later, and Amara watched with a grin as Roberta threw a temper tantrum on the sidewalk.

"He's not ruining my fucking family!" The woman snapped, her voice echoing off the surrounding buildings. "I swear to God, hes not gonna take my son away from me! Fuck this shit!"

"Her son?" Amara repeated. "She met Liam nineteen hours ago."

Lip snorted. "Well, they look unhappy. Point for us." The boys opened both of their car doors, and the blonde slid up his seat so Amara could exit the vehicle. He offered her a hand, which she gratefully took, and they crossed the street.

Lip walked up to the counter, leaning on it as Ian and Amara stood behind him. "Two woman who just left um, must not have been happy with the news they got."

"Oh yeah," the girl behind the desk replied. "It happens. Had a guy last month hang himself from a pipe in the men's room."

"Jesus," Amara muttered, sharing a look with Ian.

"So can I help you?"

Lip glanced back to his companions, before looking at the worker again. "Yeah, I think maybe you can."

★

"Carry the one," Amara instructed her sister at the dinner table, hours later. She'd decided to leave the boys to take their DNA tests in private, and even though they insisted she wasn't intruding, she still felt weird being there. They might've been her family, but she wasn't blood related to them, and being there at the time felt weird.

"Like this?" Silvia asked, and Amara nodded, looking back once she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Margot made her way into the kitchen, grabbing something out of the fridge—that surprisingly wasn't a beer.

Somebody knocked on the door, and before Amara could push herself up to get it, Margot turned the knob and pulled it open herself, revealing Lip. Her mother turned to give Amara a dirty look. "I thought I told you to not let him over here anymore."

Amara sighed, and walked over to the door. "I really don't know why you're trying to play the mom card right now. You haven't cared for the last six years, why are you pretending now?"

"I always—" Margot cut herself off with the shake of her head. "You know what, you're just like your father, sometimes it amazes me."

The older woman turned on her heel, stepping in the opposite direction to go back upstairs. Amara rolled her eyes, facing Lip again, who held up a bloody hand.

"Jesus Christ, what happened? Who did you punch?"

Lip grinned as he slid into the chair across from Silvia. "Frank. I punched Frank."

"Holy shit!" She mused, handing him an ice pack. "So, how was it?"

"Felt pretty fucking good, not gonna lie."

"Oh, I would love to punch my father," Amara said with a nod.

"So, your mom's sober now, huh?"

"Yeah," she replied, shrugging. "Five or six days now, actually. Normally, if it were anyone else, I'd be saying congrats or something. But she's like a female version of Frank. It's not gonna last long, before we know it, she'll be passed out on the floor again."

"I would love to punch anybody," Silvia interrupted, changing the subject. "But Amara said I'm not allowed to. She wants me to be the bigger woman or something. Well, I'm already the tallest girl in my class!"

"Yeah, that won't last long," Lip shot her down. "I mean, look at your sister."

★