hey jealousy // michael clifford

four

Much to her surprise, Michael was already awake when Avery got out of bed the next morning.

She knew how much Michael enjoyed his sleep, and she’d actually witnessed him sleep for almost a full 24 hours at one point, so it was safe to say that she did a double take when she walked into the kitchen and saw him standing in front of the stove. Instead of alerting him to her presence she just watched him for a few minutes.

It looked like he was trying to figure out how to turn the stove on and eventually Avery just rolled her eyes before clearing her throat.

Michael spun around quickly and Avery had to bite back the laugh that rose up in her throat when she saw that he was wearing one of her old aprons. His face flushed a light pink as he nervously reached up to scratch the back of his neck.

“I can explain.” His rushed to say.

Avery just shook her head as a small chuckle finally passed through her lips. “No explanation needed.”

For a moment it was like it used to be, as if nothing had changed and no time had passed, but then Avery seemed to remember that everything was different now. She cleared her throat again and looked away, and noticing what had just happened the smile dropped from Michael’s face.

“I um – I didn’t think you’d be up.” Avery stated when she was once again able to make eye contact with the boy in front of her.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He mumbled. He could have mentioned that it was because he knew she was just in the other room and he wasn’t used to sleeping away from her when they were under the same roof, but he really didn’t think that would help anyone in this situation.

It was silent for a few beats, Avery was looking at anything but Michael but he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her hair was all messy from sleep, there was make-up smudged under her eyes, and her pyjamas were all rumpled and unflattering but she still looked amazing to him.

“I was going to make something to eat, pancakes actually.” He said, breaking the silence. “But I couldn’t figure out how to work the stove…” His sentence trailed off.

Avery let out another short laugh despite herself. “Michael, it’s the 21st century, we now have these magical things called electric frying pans. You don’t even need to use the stove.”

Michael’s face once again went pink as he ran a hand through his hair and looked down at the floor. “Oh.”

Avery shook her head as she walked over to one of the cupboards and pulled out the frying pan before plugging it in so it could warm up. She could feel Michael’s eyes following her but she tried her best to ignore it and not think about it too much.

“Have you got all the ingredients ready?” Michael shook his head and without a word Avery moved around the kitchen pulling out all the things they’d need to make the pancakes.

The two of them worked in near silence, the only time they spoke was to ask the other to pass them something or when Avery had to tell Michael what to do.

Michael had really wanted to do this on his own. He’d wanted to have a nice breakfast waiting for Avery when she got up because he felt that it was the least he could do for her. But no, he’d even managed to stuff up something as simple as breakfast and he was beating himself up about it.

There was nothing for him to do while the pancakes were actually cooking so to avoid staring at Avery like the creep he was, he pulled out his phone. It was a short lived solution though because all of his friends were busy and he had no internet.

Almost as if she could read his mind, Avery took the phone out of his hand. He watched as she messed around with it for a few moments before she handed it back to him and when she did he noticed the Wi-Fi was connected.