wasting time » lh ; mc

fifteen

And even though he thinks Michael is mad at him, Luke wants to know what's wrong. He may consider Michael his best friend, but that doesn't mean the boy ever opens up to him. Granted, Luke doesn't really open up to Michael, either. The only time Luke can remember being let into Michael's problems was during his panic attack, and even then he seemed to be in his own place that wouldn't allow Luke to get to him.

For the next few moments before the warning bell, Luke stands to the side of the cafeteria and watches Calum's mood continue to change, Michael's got progressively more broken than it was. He looked like a kicked puppy, and nodded every time Calum said something. He was guilty of something, Luke figured.

It was eating away at Luke to know the reason behind whatever just happened. As far as he knew Michael was just in a rough place at the moment, he didn't understand why Calum would scold him for it.

The bell sounded, and Luke sighed. I'll know eventually, I guess.

       Michael startled when Luke approached him during the last ten minutes of fourth period. The boy sat in the empty seat next to Michael. "I still think it's unfair we have AP Lang as out last class," he tried to ease into comfortable conversation, "I mean, it's practically torture."

Sitting confused and still a bit sad, Michael moved completely in his seat so he faced his friend. "Luke?" He hummed.

"Why are you talking to me?"

"Oh...you don't—that's okay, I can—"

Michael shook his head quickly, "No, I just figured I was rude to you and you wouldn't want to talk to me."

"You were in a bad mood, I get it," Luke smiled. "And besides, you're always kind of rude. But in, like, a weird and entertaining way."

"You're too nice to me," Michael groaned, letting his head drop down onto the desk. "I don't deserve this."

Luke shrugged, "Sure you do; you're my best friend."

Michael felt his chest tighten. He couldn't sit here and put himself through such nice things that he didn't deserve. It had taken him an entire night of thinking to realize that he truly was a shitty person. His life had been centered solely on himself and thinking he was the best at everything.

He told Calum about what happened yesterday, and Calum defended Luke—not that Michael was surprised when he did. It made him feel worse, sure, but Michael now understood that sometimes he did things that he deserved to be yelled at for.

Underneath the chatter of the class, Michael's thoughts were pounding against his skull, the fluorescent lighting not helping much with the headache they caused. "Do you think I can come over after school? I...I want to talk about stuff," he proposed quietly.

But, instead of the instant agreement he was used to, Michael saw Luke frown. "I don't know, Mike. Pen—"

"Penelope, yeah," he sighed. "I just thought I'd explain since I was an asshole." Michael is really trying not to be bitter about this girl. It isn't fair to her, because he doesn't have a clue about Penelope as a person at all, but it's a lot more difficult when she's all Luke seems to be focused on and Michael isn't used to not have his attention.

Michael doesn't like people abandoning him, that's all. He never had to worry about that with Calum because he has the same rule about dating that Michael does (or had, really) and focuses on sports. He's just not as hard on himself, he knows how to handle things a lot better than Michael, and that's probably how they get along so well: they balance each other out.

"We weren't going to hang out or anything, I was just going to call her later," Luke explained. But there was a blush completely covering his face and Michael hated it.