Chemistry; 5SOS

0.4

"Okay, it's been a week! Why hasn't she talked to us by now?"

"I don't know, Michael," Ashton replied, leaning back against his locker and closing his eyes.

"I can't wait for her to come to us, Ash," Michael admitted. "I need to know what she's thinking and I want her to know that it's okay if she says no."

"I know." Ashton stood straight up again. "I guess we can ask her to come over."

"I'm gonna talk to her at lunch." Ashton rolled his eyes, but didn't protest. Michael already had his mind set and there was no changing it. They started walking down the hall together, meeting up with Luke and Calum on the way for study hall.

Calum didn't have anything, so he sat there worrying about Cassidy. He texted her once or twice, knowing she wouldn't get them till later, but he still checked his phone.

"Cal, do you mind?" He looked up at Luke. "You've picked up and put your phone down ten times."

"Yeah...sorry, Luke."

"Look," Luke glanced over at the other two, seeing they were discussing their psych homework. "I know you're worried about Cass. But, she's our best friend, we know her better than anyone. We know that she wouldn't just drop us like that. Even if it is something big like 'we all like you'; we have that kinda relationship where we can't not talk to each other for that long."

Calum stayed quiet, processing what Luke said. "Th-Thanks Luke."

"No problem, Cal." They smiled at each other, and Luke got back to his work.

Next period, Michael had gym class with Cassidy. They both walked out of the locker rooms at the same time, glancing at each other then sitting in their respective spots.

Cassidy did her best to ignore him, but she kept catching herself staring at him. She noticed he dyed his hair, something he never did without telling her first. Her heart kind of fell at that.

One of those particular 'staring at Michael' moments caused her to trip on her shoelace and fall to the ground.

"Cassidy!"

Michael immediately ran over to kneel beside her. She propped herself up on her elbows, gazing up at him. "Are you okay?"

"No, my ankle..." Their teacher came over and told Michael to help her to the nurse's office. He helped her up, and wrapped an arm around her. When they got to the hallway, he picked her up. "Michael I don't-"

"Look, it's easier this way Cass," he cut her off. "Don't worry about it." She didn't reply.

About halfway there, she spoke up. "You dyed your hair..."

"Yeah...it was fading a lot and I wanted to tell you but," he took a breath.

"Yeah, I know," Cassidy mumbled. "I'm sorry, Michael."

"Don't be. Calum was right; it was overwhelming." She nodded. They didn't talk again till they got to the nurse.

Cassidy was given an ice pack and told to go back to class.

"She sprained her ankle and you just want her to-"

"She rolled her ankle," the nurse corrected him. "And she will be fine by Monday. I also didn't say she had to participate."

"Oh." Cassidy mentally face-palmed. "Right."

"Let's go." The nurse left the room. Michael turned, his back facing Cassidy.

"Get on, you dork." She giggled, quietly, as did as he said. They went back to class, only having around ten minutes left. He set her down so she was sitting on the bleachers, and he joined her. "Can you come back and sit with us at lunch today?"

Cassidy hesitated, but took a breath and answered, "Yeah, okay."

Michael smiled, making Cassidy do the same, and they were both reminded how much they missed each other.

After gym, Cassidy had ceramics, but after that was lunch.

She got her food, and walked/limped over to the boys. She wordlessly sat next to Ashton, and all eyes automatically fell on her.

"Um, hi," she mumbled. They all greeted her warmly, like nothing had happened, and she felt a weight lift off her shoulders. "I...I'm sorry guys. I shouldn't have just left like that, then not talk to you."

"We understand Cass," Luke replied. "We know it's kind of a weird considering how close of friends we are."

"Yeah," she agreed, quietly. There was a pause in the conversation, then Calum spoke up.

"Have...have you decided about us?"

"Um uh..." The words couldn't find their way out.

"It's a no, isn't it?" Ashton guessed.

"No, it's not. It's a...look, I'll tell you about it when we're not in the middle of school, alright?"

"Alright, fine. You can come home with us," Michael told her. Cassidy quietly agreed. "Other than that, how was your week?"

"Not bad, not bad."

And just like that, they started talking again. It was like nothing had happened between them. Everything felt normal for awhile, and they were all grateful for it.

That is, until about eight that night, when the movie they were watching ended, and the snacks were all gone, and it was time for Cassidy to talk about it.

Ashton turned off the tv, and the room fell silent. Cassidy knew she couldn't put it off any longer.

"So..." Michael started, quietly.

"Yeah."

She didn't talk for a solid thirty seconds. "I...I do want to give you guys a chance..." she confessed, almost inaudibly. Luke moved a tiny bit closer to he could hear her better. "But..."

"But what, Cass? You can tell us." Calum gave her a small but comforting smile. It didn't help her much.

"I'm scared." Cassidy stood up, walking across the room.

"Of what?"

"Of everything!" She turned back to face them. "We're best friends, I'm scared of losing that. I'm scared of getting hurt and I'm scared of you guys losing your friendship. You're in a band for god's sake; I don't wanna be the thing to jeopardize that for you."

"Cassidy-"

"And what if you get jealous of each other and I'm stuck in the middle, obviously, and I can't fix it and-"

"Cassidy!"

She finally stopped. She dropped her head, not finding the strength to look up at them.

"It's just...complicated I guess."

"We get it, Cass, seriously." Luke used his finger under her chin so she looked up at him. He smiled, and kissed her forehead, softly. Cassidy could feel her heart beat faster. "We know that all could happen, we think it's a bit unlikely anyways, but we think it's worth the risk. We all like you so much."

"You..." She looked at each of them for a moment. "You think it's worth it?"

"With how much we like you," Calum glanced at Michael. "Yeah, we think it is."

"So please..." Luke took her hand, leading her back to the middle of the room. "Let is just try it out. If it fails completely, we can pretend none of it ever happened." 

Cassidy locked eyes with Luke, Calum, Ashton, then Michael. They looked happy. She looked worried. But, in a matter of seconds, she broke a small smile.

"Alright, let's try it."