echo // hemmings [completed]

eight | tomorrow

—September 1st—

It was hardly a new day in Michael's eyes. He made his way home with his old mixtape sputtering 90's songs, and his clock reading a little past midnight. The evening where he lived was always pitch black, 9 PM looked like 7 AM and it was especially dark in the late winter. So staying up and waking up was always hard for him, but today he didn't really mind. Because today he was going to do something that had been keeping him up for weeks.

He had several boxes he picked up from the grocery store in his trunk and a set of markers in his cup holder. He just had to grab the tape he had forgotten at home. Michael thought he would be more nervous about this, he had even considered taking a cab in case his hands sweat too much and he couldn't grip the wheel. But today was a new month, and something he learned in the twenty years of his life was that you should never turn down a clean slate. So before the sun would rise, he was going to clean his slate and clean Riley's dorm room after weeks of waiting.

Her parents had emptied it for the most part, but there were things they left for Michael to clean up himself. Why Michael? Why not her boyfriend Luke? Because Michael knew her first. He knew Riley when she had braces in grade five and wore bright-colored hairbands. He knew her favorite hiding spots and her least favorite foods. And he didn't love her like Luke did, no one really could, but Riley was like a sister to him. She was his best friend.

Michael didn't know for sure what was left in her room, but he imagined it would probably be some old hoodies she had borrowed and never returned. Maybe even her ticket stub collection was leftover. Riley's favorite habit was taking something from everywhere she went, that's why Michael needed so many boxes because she had so many memories.

When the dreary boy rolled into the building parking lot, he saw that there was still light emitting from his 11th-floor apartment, considering that Michael had seen a girl with his socialite roommate, he wasn't surprised. Drew brought back a lot of girls, but as long as Michael's stuff was untouched and they didn't do it on their living room couch, Michael didn't really care. So all he was going to do was grab the tape from their kitchen counter and run back out. He wanted to be speedy, last time he needed something this late at night Drew was nude in the kitchen getting a snack in the middle of his "work out." And Michael made the mistake of making eye contact with him.

The door to their apartment was everything but quiet. There was nothing wrong with the door itself, but the shoddily built doggy door that was attached would swing relentlessly. Michael whispered a curse as he painstakingly cracked open the door. It was so noisy that Michael was surprised the girl who came earlier today didn't say anything.

Drew bounced up from his seat when he saw Michael come in, automatically extending a greeting.

"What's up Clifford?" Drew called with a friendly tune. Michael was surprised that Drew was isn't in his room, and he was even more surprised that the girl from before was next to Drew fully clothed, and fumbling with the television remote.

"You're watching American Sniper at one in the morning?" Michael asked in disbelief, before lowering his voice. "And with a girl? Aren't you smoother than that Kerrington?" Normally Michael wouldn't say anything, but he was in a good mood and felt bad for ignoring his roommate recently.

"Hey, Rowan's practically my own blood, don't go talking like I've got some kinky vendetta Clifford," Drew chuckled. He punched Michael in the arm and Michael scoffed. Drew was happy to see Michael in a playful mood, it was getting hard to breathe around their apartment.

"You've always got some kinky vendetta, you think these walls are soundproof?" Michael shot Drew a cheeky smirk and it's like a weight was lifted off his back, he hadn't smiled in so long, he didn't know if he still could.

"Any more of that talk and I'm letting Rowan near your stupid car models. I bet she would knock over four in two minutes on accident." Michael cracked up and Drew laughed with him, it took a few weeks but Drew had finally gotten a laugh and a smile out of him.

"What?!" Rowan exclaimed. "Don't spread lies about me like that!" She pursed her lips in annoyance and a wave of familiarity flashed over Michael. Michael couldn't place it at first, too focused on just enjoying the fact that he could smile again. But then he saw her and Drew argue a bit, he could see it. An American accent, and a love of movies, and even though she was shy earlier, she was now trading curses with Drew like it was no problem. Her hair was bleached and cut a little past her shoulders, not a dark chestnut color and just reaching the hips. Blue, steely eyes, heavily contrasting from a pair of rich, brown eyes he knew. And she was just a little taller than someone he missed dearly. Physically, she was a long shot from Riley, but her voice was unmistakably identical.

Michael's face was frozen for a moment, the corners of his lips slowly drooping downwards. But Drew didn't question it as he checked with Rowan if she had all her stuff. But she was acting odd too, not in a particular way—she still giggled and spoke nonchalantly—but when Drew was ready to say goodbye she kept looking over his shoulder at Michael. Drew figured she was just concerned for Michael after hearing about the accident in August. She was a little shaken when she heard, but waved it away when he asked if she was alright. And what was even odder was that Rowan said she was going to tell him something after the movie, something she advertised as important. But Michael came in and she started looking at him, saying she forgot what she was going to say.

For some reason, this annoyed him. They were childhood friends after all, yet she stared at Michael with some kind of empathetic look for the short time he was there and wouldn't even look Drew in the eye. Perhaps she was interested in him, Michael was a handsome guy after all, and for a split second Drew could just imagine them together. It was rather rash of him to make such quick assumptions, but that's how Drew felt when Rowan was around any guy, and he blamed his protectiveness or his brotherly instinct.

So that night, when Rowan waited in the elevator, she mumbled a string of names directed at herself, ashamed that she didn't have the backbone to confess to Drew and at least give her condolences to the green-haired boy. And once she was out of the building, Drew did his little habit of making sure she got to her car safely by watching her from the apartment window. He was too tired from thinking about the hypothetical to go to his room, so he laid out in the living room with a comforter wrapped around his body. And Michael almost tripped over the dark-haired boy's long legs as he drudged himself to the kitchen counter. But instead of getting the tape and leaving again, Michael's plan was now to retire his keys and get a good night's sleep. So if he woke up tomorrow and today's events still made sense, he knew he wasn't going crazy.

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a/n:  appreciate your comments and votes so much! hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving

xx