Chapter Nine: Nice Hat:

He never wanted any part of this. All he wanted to do was sleep in today. But no! Fate had other ideas. Mick awoke to hearing his phone buzzing by his head. He grumbled to himself as his hand felt around for his phone.

“What?”

The conversation didn’t last long. He sat up in his bed. Mick was about to say no when something else caught his attention in the mirror.

“What the…?”

A pair of giant pink lips sat on his head. Mick blinked at first. He reached up to the lower lip. Nope. This was real. There was a hat in the shape of giant pink lips on his head. Mick became even more confused.

“What the fuck?!” he asked aloud.

“Mick?” the other voice on the line asked. “Mick, are you still there? What’s going on? What happened? Are you going to meet us on the battlefield?” Mick didn’t answer at first. He was too preoccupied with the hat on his head.

“Hello? Mick? Mick? Are you still on? Hello? Hello?”

“No,” he said. The man hung up before there could be more questions. Mick climbed out of bed and walked over to the mirror. He couldn’t stop staring at that hat. Where the hell did it come from? Mick lived alone. He didn’t have anyone over at his place. Mick frowned as a theory pieced together in his head. The man reached up and took off the hat. Good, his hair was still there. The hat wasn’t glued to his head either. But why was he wearing that gaudy hat in the first place? It looked like someone put Mick Jagger’s lips on Mick’s head in the middle of the night.

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his door. The man rolled his eyes. What is it now?

“Coming!” he shouted. Mick turned and walked out of his room.

“What?” he asked when he opened the door. Three men his age stood outside in the hall. Mick rolled his eyes.

“What do you want?” he asked. Why was he surprised by this? He should’ve known this was coming. That stupid hat didn’t let him focus on the conversation and what they were planning today. Mick would’ve said no and that would’ve been the end of that. But no. He got distracted and hung up. So here they were now.

One of the men pointed to Mick’s right hand.

“What is that?” he asked.

“Huh?” Mick asked as he looked down. He frowned.

“Oh…” Somehow, he still had that stupid hat in his hand. Mick lifted it up for a closer look. The other men had puzzled looks on their faces.

“Is that… a hat?” he asked.

“Uh-huh,” Mick said. He didn’t know why he brought it with him.

“Are those lips?” another man asked.

“Yeah,” the taller man asked. He turned it over in his hand. The next thing he knew, one of his “friends” snatched it out of his hand.

“Hey!” Mick shouted. Now, you have to understand that he was built like a bear. Mick towered over his friends. Not many people messed with him. Only his friends knew that he was a big softie at heart. The man who grabbed the hat put it on Mick’s head. He jumped back with a smile on his face.

“What the hell?!” Mick shouted. The other two men at the door tried not to laugh, but they failed. Of course they did.

“Nice hat, man!” a blond man said. Mick glared at him with his face bright red. He growled at his friends.

“Shut up!” Mick shouted. The men pulled out their phones and started taking pictures. Mick’s face grew redder.

“Cut it out!” he shouted. He lunged forward to grab one of the phones. His friends were faster on their feet. The laughing made things much worse. Their friend looked ready to kill someone. The blond regained his composure.

“Come on, man!” he said. “What were we supposed to do? You look so ridiculous!” Mick clenched his fists by his sides. His nostrils started flaring up.

“Where did you even get that hat?” the man who snatched the hat out of his hand asked with a curious look on his face. Mick growled again.

“I don’t know!” he said. “I woke up when Hugh called me and I spotted the hat in the mirror.” His friends went silent and looked at each other for a moment. Mick raised an eyebrow at them.

“What?” he asked. His friends all looked at him with confused and serious looks on their faces. Mick didn’t like where this was heading.

“Dude,” the blond man said.

“What?” Mick asked. How were they going to break this down and tell him? Their taller bear of a friend was starting to get agitated.

“Well, spit it out!” he shouted. “Tell me what the hell is going on!” The first man with curly brown hair took a step forward.

“You don’t remember the party from last night?” he asked. Mick narrowed his eyes and moved his head back.

“No…” he said. The friends looked at each other again. One of them was about to speak up when a cell phone rang.

“Hang on,” the shorter man with the dyed red hair. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. Mick looked over at his nervous friends. The taller man raised his eyebrow. Suspicion was on high alert in his head. What were his friends trying to pull a prank on him? And what the hell were they talking about with a party? Mick started digging around in his brain. The man with the red hair lowered his phone.

“That was our commander,” he said. He turned to his friends.

“We have to go out to battle,” the man said. His other two friends quickly went serious. Mick frowned and rolled his eyes. He already knew where this was heading. At this point, Mick was willing to try anything to not think about that stupid hat on his head.