Too Cliché

Chapter 12: Help

Michael pulled on a shirt, the first one he had put on since slicing into his delicate skin. His wrists throbbed with a little heart beat in each cut. He needed to go get groceries since he hadn’t eaten in days. Michael missed Ashton.

“Maybe getting out of this shitty place will help clear my mind and distract myself from Ashton,” he thought out loud. So far on his research to find his sister, he scrambled across her Facebook page. He sent her a request since it wouldn’t let him see where she had recently been, but it said she was living residentially in L.A. which is where he had been staying. 

Michael pulled on his jacket and boots, glancing to see if snow had fallen. Yes. He picked up the keys to hid beat up truck and headed out.

He spent the whole day driving around, like he had for the past four days. Michael had printed out Kathryn’s most recent profile picture off Facebook and began questioning locals. He thought about printing out ‘Lost’ posters but thought against it, not wanting to get authorities involved.

Tired, Michael headed back to his shabby motel room with whiskey in hand. He wasn’t legal, but because of his look, no one questioned him. Michael hadn’t been taking care of himself, his hair was messy and needed to be re-dyed badly. Stubbled stretched across his chin and up into his hair line and dark bags hung under his eyes. Even if he found his sister, she would never recognize him in the state he was now.

Once he returned to the motel, he plugged in his laptop and began scrolling through his sister’s feed, looking for any clue he could find.

*buzzzzzz*

*buzzzzzz*

*buzzzzzz*

His phone was vibrating on the side table of the bed. Michael looked at the caller I.D. and Ashton’s name popped up. For a moment, he was going to let it go to voicemail, not sure he could calmly talk to Ashton. He checked the date, Luke is supposed to be in town. On the last buzz, he answered it.

“Hello…” he responded slowly.

“Hey, Mikey!” Ashton’s peppy voice rang through the phone.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed? Paul will be angry with you,” Michael said remembering the strict rules of the household.

Ashton laughed letting his eyes roll in the back of his head, “So what? When have I ever listened to him.” Luke sat on the end of Ashton’s bed, listening intently to the one sided conversation.

Michael nodded through the phone knowingly, “This is true.” There was a moment of silence before Michael remembered why he was hesitant to answer the phone in the first place. “Isn’t Luke there for a visit?”

Glancing at Luke, Ashton smiled. Michael could feel the happiness in his voice as he responded. “Yea,” Ashton beamed, “but I know you’re looking for your sister and I really want to help.”

Michael thought on this for a moment. “How can you help?”