valentine ➸ mgc

03 - phone

tuesday,
august 19th
azura
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as i walk into the hallway of the kitchen, i look into the room seeing ashton standing there with an evident frown on his face.

"whats the matter? is everything alright?" i ask, worry filling my voice. he looks down slightly fiddling with his fingers. he shakes his head hesitantly. "no, nothing's alright. dad's locked himself in his room again"

"fuck" i breathe as i rub my hand across my face. he does this every once in a while. he locks himself in his room, smashes picture frames and comes out and pretends like nothing happened.

i gesture for my brother to follow me as i walk to our dads door, knocking carefully. i hear a few sniffled and a grumble for us to come in. "hi" he sniffles, tears carefully running down his cheeks.

we sit down next to him. i put my head on his shoulder in a comforting way, reaching out to grab his hand. ash joins me, the both of us holding his hand tightly.

a picture frame sat on his lap. it was a picture of me, my dad, ash and our mum. all of us smiling happily. i was about 5 or 6 when this was taken, ashton already being 10. "i just miss her so, so much. i couldnt bring myself to shatter this picture. we were so happy" he cries.

"i know, dad. we miss her too" ashton says softly. we hug him tightly, holding him close as he continues crying.

ever since our mother had died nothing has been the same. she was diagnosed with a rare disease that made her slowly slip away from us. i was only 10.

ashton and me tried our best to help our dad through this but he just wouldn't let us help him. we tried everything. he tried pretending it was okay, drinking away his sorrow. it never worked so he thankfully stopped.

hes been trying to be the best dad we could wish for. he would give us the world if we asked for it.

"im okay now, thanks for getting me through this. i couldn't wish for better children on this earth. i truly love you az and ash" he breathes exhaustedly.

----

as i walk in the door of a shabby diner downtown i make my way to the counter. i smile politely at the employee, giving her my order. i look around the diner, my eyes stopping abruptly at a familiar head of blonde hair.

i make my way to an empty booth, sitting down on the one side of the red leather bench. the leather was already peeling from the seats, the table barely hanging on. i stare at his head from my booth, for too long for my liking if im being honest.

my heart nearly comes to a stop when he suddenly turns around, his eyes immediately finding mine. i look away instantly. well shit. he's obviously noticed me.

before i even had the chance to process the previous event he was standing infront of the table of my booth.

"mind if i sit?" he asked, gesturing his hand to the bench across me.

"not at all, mr clifford" i smile politely. i fold my arms around my chest, feeling sort of uneasy that i was just sitting across him while ive had such inappropriate thoughts about him.

"ah, i told you before, its michael. mr clifford makes me feel way older than i actually am" he chuckles lightly. while his eyes are staring right into mine, i cant help but notice the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles, or the way he throws his head back while laughing.