The next day, Michael's floating on cloud nine. His head is a dizzy mess of happiness and his grin is a consistent feature on his face. He's finding himself doing silly that are quite uncharacteristic of him, such as giggling constantly. His stepmother notices his obvious change in mood, but doesn't acknowledge it further than raising an eyebrow at him.
Ashton, on the other hand, corners him after breakfast. "What's got you all smiley?"
Michael focuses on his socks, unable to meet his eyes. He can't tell him that he finally talked to the boy he's had a crush on for years, who just happens to be the same boy Ashton fancies. He can't tell him about the party that he attended, despite being forbidden by him to go anywhere. So instead he murmurs a quiet "nothing."
"Michael, I can see you blushing. Just tell me what happened."
His cheeks redden even more at that comment. He can feel Ashton's eyes boring into him, but he refuses to meet them. At a complete loss for words, he stays silent.
"Or don't tell me- that's cool too," Ashton grumbles.
The two stand awkwardly in the kitchen, resembling a conversation that took place between them a couple of nights ago.
"So.. uh how was your party?" Michael finally asks, careful to sound as inconspicuous as possible.
Ashton sighs hard before turning a rosy shade of pink. "Well it didn't exactly turn out the way I thought it would."
Michael fights back a chuckle, knowing very well what his stepbrother is referring to. His inner chuckle turns into a full on laugh- as he remembers the tipsy, talkative Calum that he released upon him- and he barely keeps this one from escaping.
Still he pushes further. "Oh? How so?"
"That Luke kid I told you about, yeah I didn't talk to him." Somehow Ashton doesn't sound all that disappointed about it.
"Shucks," Michael feigns slight sympathy.
Inside, he's never soared higher. Ashton wasn't able to hang with Luke because he found him first.
He talked to Luke.
He cared for Luke.
His arms were the ones in which Luke fell asleep.
Yes, the poor boy may have been beyond wasted, and he may have no recollection of any of that, but it still happened. That's all that matters to Michael.
"Yeah. I heard he got a little excited with the alcohol anyways," Ashton shrugs it off.
No kidding.
Michael's remembers the adorable haze that Luke's eyes were captured in. Luke had been so dependent on him, unable to stay even somewhat balanced on his own. He had been so out of it he was willing to cuddle up to a stranger to get some rest.
Caught in the memory from last night, Michael is unaware of the smile that has crept back onto his face until Ashton starts snapping his fingers at him. "See there you go again!"
"I- uh-"
"Whatever it is, it's gotta be pretty big if it has you this happy. Just tell me!" Ashton's voice begins to rise, but not out of anger. He may be a little annoyed, yes, but not angry. His curious streak that he rarely exposes to Michael is showing through again.
"It's nothing, really."
The lie is a blatantly obvious one, but Ashton presses no further. With a small utterance of "whatever" he stalks off to his room, frustrated with his lack of insight.
Michael hangs around by himself in the kitchen for a few moments longer. Calum's supposed to pick him up up shortly so all he can do is wait for him. Calum had earlier insisted that they were to go out for ice cream and though it isn't even noon yet, Michael is appeasing him. After all when Calum wants something, Calum gets it.
It's about ten minutes later and he's climbing into the car, only to have Calum start throwing questions at him too as soon as the door is open.
"Have you seen?"
"Have I seen what?" Michael replies slowly as he takes his seat.
Calum stares at him with widening eyes. "Oh god you haven't seen it yet. Have you been on twitter at all today?"
Michael stares back with a confused expression.The amount of disbelief and excitement in Calum's eyes is beginning to become unnerving. "No what are you talking about?"
"Here," Calum says, tossing him his phone before backing out of the driveway.
The phone is already opened to the social media site with a tweet from a certain Luke Hemmings pulled up. It reads:
"Thank you to whoever helped me out last night. My memory's a bit iffy right now but please let me know who you are."
Michael immediately starts choking on air.
That's him.
Luke just tweeted him indirectly. He wants to know who he is. He's sober and he's thanking him. It's all too much.
He feels pathetic when he notices he's shaking. "Fuck what do I do?" He whispers.
Calum glances over at him and shrugs. "Tweet him back?"
"No way." Michaels veins freeze over at the thought.
"Dm him?"
"He doesn't follow me."
Calum sits quietly in thought. Michael wants nothing more at the moment than to bang his head against the dashboard because his biggest problem revolves around his crush subtweeting him. Why does he have to be such a girl about this?
Finally, Calum speaks up. "Approach him in person."
"Are you crazy?" Michael blurts. The nerves of the situation are beginning to bubble up his throat.
"Bro, you're gonna have to face your fears one way or another."
"But.. what if he's disappointed when he finds out it was me?" He asks softly.
Calum shakes his head at him. "Don't think like that! And calm down he just wants to thank you."
Michael nods. Maybe he can do this. Maybe.
Absentmindedly, he clicks back on Luke's account, ignoring the fact that he's still on his friend's phone.
And right then, Michael Clifford swears he feels his heart stop mid-beat. There's a new tweet at the top, arriving only two minutes ago.
"Oh and I read the poem whoever you are ;-)"
Michael's brain is a repeating cycle of "fuckfuckfuckfuck". He completely forgot about the poem.
His face goes crimson red and he's gasping for air. That poem wasn't meant to ever be read by anyone. It was a spur of the moment thing, fueled solely by affection that is still unknown to Luke.
Calum sends him a worried look. "What's wrong..?"
Michael can't even form words to match his embarrassment.
They reach the ice cream parlor and Michael's still struggling. He then spills the whole story to his friend in a corner booth over a sundae.
A/N: hey so you probably noticed that I literally changed everything on here. The cover, my name, my icon- BUT ITS STILL ME I PROMISE. Anyways, I'm sorry if this chapter is shit. I've gotten 13 hours of sleep over the last three days and it's 1 am and I have school tomorrow. Wow I hate everything.
If you're interested, this is where I post my one shots (which I spend much more time on) http://archiveofourown.org/users/katiejo/works and my twitter is @hemmopotamus. Thanks for reading and I love you a lot .x
