“What about your family?” Benito deflected. “Did they come looking for you?”
Mickey laughed without humour. “No. I mean, I think my mum might’ve wanted to, but me and my dad were done a long time before I hit rock bottom. We clashed, you know? He wanted me to join the army like my cousins. I wanted to work in social care so the old people in the home across the street didn’t sit in their horrible chairs all day and wait to die.”
“You wanted to work in an old people’s home?”
“Hell, yeah.” Mickey laughed for real this time and his face lit up so much Benitohadto touch it, just to check it was real. “Old folk are the best. They say the funniest shit.”
“I don’t know any. My grandparents died when I was a kid.”
“What about your dad?”
“Same.”
“How?”
Benito let his hand fall from Mickey’s rough jaw. “Heart attack. He dropped dead on the factory floor where he worked.”
“How old were you?”
“Eight.”
Mickey whistled. “That’s young for a kid to lose their father.”
“Maybe, but at least I had one—a good one—for that long. Gianna’s dad is a fucking wasteman.”
“She wouldn’t tell me about him when I asked. I thought he was dead too.”
“She’s not that lucky.”
“She is, though, to have you. I have a big brother and he’s never given two shits about me.”
Benito scowled. “He’s a fuckhead then.”
Mickey’s laughter filled the room again. “He’s a data scientist for some huge conglomerate, but okay. We’ll go with fuckhead.”
Benito enjoyed Mickey’s smile for as long as it was there. It helped with the rage building inside at the thought of anyone not seeing Mickey for the compassionate, kind man Benito needed in his life so badly.
“What about you?” Mickey said.
“What about me? Unless it’s more dead dad stuff. I’m kind of done with that.”
“Valid. I was going to ask what you wanted to be when you were a kid.”
“Oh. Well. A footballer, obviously. It was all kids round my ends did until they either got good or went on the road.”
Mickey’s grin turned dry. “You weren’t that good then?”
“I didn’t want to be. Football’s bullshit, man. I only played because there was nothing else to do. Hey, so, I have a question, if that’s what we’re doing right now.”
“It wasn’t, but okay, I’ll bite.”
I wish.“How did you find your way to Freefall? Have you always been into that shit?”
“Which part? Dudes? Or rough play?”
“Rough play. I know you had a girlfriend back home.”
“You like both, don’t you? You’re bi?”