Bad News | Punk Michael Clifford

thirty four

I groaned as the light from the morning sun shone through the window. Throwing a pillow over my head and rolling over, I tried to push the pounding headache away from my head.

What the hell happened last night?

Judging from the head pain, I definitely drank a little too much. But aside from that, I couldn't remember shit.

I trudged out of the room in search of Calum. Maybe he would have some insight into last night's events.

"Calum?" I asked, lightly knocking on his door.

There was the sound of shuffling feet, and the door opened, revealing a shirtless Calum who was only wearing a thin pair of black boxers.

"How are you feeling?" He questioned while gesturing for me to come in.

"Like shit...what even happened?" I said, sitting on the edge of his unmade bed.

"To be honest, I don't even know. Michael just brought you over to me and told me to take you home. You looked pretty shaken up but never told me what happened." He ran his hand through his thick hair and sighed. "I'll text him later and ask if you want."

"Yes, please," if I had seen Michael at the party then who knows what I said or did. I needed to know for sure.

Calum picked his phone up from his bedside table and scrolled through his contacts before composing a short message to the red haired boy.

"How about you go get ready, and we'll go out for some coffee and breakfast. It'll probably be a while before he texts back."

I nodded and mumbled an okay before heading off to take a much needed shower.

-

An hour later, Calum and I were sitting at a small café- ironically it was the one where we first met.

I had a half eaten blueberry muffin in front of me along with my coffee when Calum's phone dinged, signaling a new text message.

"What the fuck?" He exclaimed as his eyes scanned the message and then looked back up to me. "Apparently some dick tried to rape you last night, but Michael heard you scream and stopped the guy."

My jaw dropped in disbelief. Once again, I had gone to a party and nearly gotten my innocence- even though I'm not that innocent anymore- taken away. That's two for two now.

"Remind me to never go to another party ever again," I told Calum in all seriousness.

After taking in Calum's news, there was still one question that haunted me: why did Michael help me if he didn't even know who I was? I know that Michael is actually a nice guy, but seeing as he wanted absolutely nothing to do with me at the hospital, why would he help me? Maybe he didn't realize it was me? Or maybe, just maybe, was it because he still had feelings for me somewhere deep down and felt the need to be protective over me?

No matter his reasoning was, I was still eternally grateful, and I wanted to thank him. The chances of me actually seeing him again in person were pretty slim, and even if I did, he probably wouldn't talk to me. So I figured a simple text message would be the way to go.

Alyx: thank you for what you did last night...it really means a lot

After clicking "send," I waited a few minutes, expecting a "you're welcome" text at the very least.

But it never came.

"Can we go?" I asked Calum after impatiently waiting and finishing my muffin. I just wanted to go someplace where I could be alone for a little while. Calum nodded and picked our garbage from table, throwing it away.