Human Sized Hurricane | Michael Clifford

Chapter 17 - Old Friends

While Michael was laying in the bath with his bloody shirt under his head dreary head, Ashton was leaning over the edge of the bath and sitting on the ground cleaning the wound. "So, are you going to tell me what happened or am I going to assume that there is a diamond sized bullet in your side?" Ashton asked, pouring some clear alcohol onto a cloth for a few moments. Michael gave him one of his old looks that Ashton knew well, making him almost fall backwards off his knees. "You didn't" He said and gasped. "I hate you sometimes" Ashton shook his head and pressed the rag against Michael's blood-soaked side, making him cry out in pain and writhe in the bath for a second.

He gritted his teeth and arched his back. "God!" He yelled, clamping his eyes shut.

"Don't worry. It'll wear off in a minute" Ashton said, pulling on a white glove and gathering a clean cloth. He poured some more liquid into the rag and began lightly cleaning the wound and at the same time numbing it. And after a few sweaty minutes, Ashton had cleaned the blood from around and inside the wound, confirming his suspicions that it was a gun shot. Using a pair of tweezers with his glasses on, he carefully pulled the bullet out and put it in a small plastic cup in Michael's hand, then got any remaining pieces he could see and began stitching him up.

"Ash? We're home!" Ashton's mum yelled up the stairs as she returned with the rest of the family.

Ashton yelled back. "Okay!" But didn't get up. "You've got to be quiet. And put that where nobody will see it, especially mum and Harry" Ashton whispered to Michael as he placed the pieces of the bullet into his palm. Then, Ashton quickly strapped a bandage to Michael's side and taped it securely before hurriedly clearing things away and washing the blood off his hands in the sink. Once everything was cleared away, the two boys shared the same meaningful look as Ashton pulled across the shower curtain, concealing Michael in the bath.

Harry, the little boy with blond hair started up the stairs with his sister following behind him, their coats coming off in the process as well as their shoes. Ashton exited the bathroom and shut the door, accidentally bumping into his little sister as he abruptly turned. "Sorry, Ashton" She said smiling, then carried in about her business and went into her room.

Ashton breathed a sigh of relief and jogged down the stairs, hearing the voices of his mum and step dad in the living room as they had a conversation about something that happened during the night. Deciding to give them a moment, Ashton went into the kitchen and got some juice out of the fridge, pouring some into a glass on the side. "If there is a crazy man wondering around then I don't want Ashton going out tonight" Ashton heard his mum say, in a voice a little above a whisper.

"I didn't know he was going out tonight" His dad replied, furrowing his brows and folding his arms. He raised his eyes from his wife just as Ashton walked past them to get something from the cupboard under the stairs.

"Ashton, baby, are you thinking about going out tonight with some of your friends?" His mum asked him, turning her whole body to face him.

The teenager tossed some of his curly hair out of his face and looked innocently at the pair, both of them eyeing him. "No. Why?" He questioned, knowing exactly their suspicions. His mum shook her head and smiled, dismissing the question as she approached her son with her arms outstretched. Ashton welcomed her embrace and hugged her back tightly, as she momentarily buried her face into his neck, enjoying the tender moment. "Okay, I'll be in my room the rest of the night" He said as his mum broke away from him.

"Okay, sweetie, goodnight" She replied, saying the final word at the same time as hue husband, smiling to him as she did.

Ashton smiled at their joint response and made his way casually back up the stairs, hurrying as Harry went to open the bathroom door, but it was too late, the boy was already in the room that smelt of sweat. Michael froze behind the curtain and waited for the person on the other side to finish their business and leave, which they took their time doing. Ashton knocked on the door startling Michael, but he didn't make a sound. "Harry, come on, I need to get something" He said to his younger brother in a complaining voice.

"Okay. Okay" Harry replied as he flushed the look and waste his hands, then unlocked the bathroom door and left, going downstairs just as Lauren sat down in the living room. Ashton entered and made sure the coast was clear before getting Michael up and out of the bath, making him go first across the landing and hide behind the door of Ashton's room. Then, to make sure his family didn't suspect anything, he cleaned the blood out of the bath with the shower head and picked up Michael's ruined blue shirt, tossing it across to where it landed on his bedroom floor. Michael grunted and panted as he knelt down to pick it up, then stayed in his knees behind the door staying deadly still and silent.

Once it was all clean and there was no trace of the sweaty, bloody boy left in the bathroom, Ashton wrapped the towel he'd used to clean the bath in an old purple shirt and buried the bloodied things in the bathroom bin, sighing with relief on his knees when it was done. But suddenly hearing footsteps running up the stairs, he got to his feet and pretended he was checking his hair in the mirror, to the great surprise of Lauren who sighed upon seeing her big brother in the bathroom again. "Come on, Ashton" She said, rocking back and forth on her heels.