The Crisis Journal ⚓ Michael Clifford Fanfic

« Eighteen »

"Mom, this is Michael." Artemis gestured over at Michael, who gave a polite nod. "And this is my mom, Teresa."

"Pleasure to finally meet you, Michael." Mom smiled warmly at the boy. "I heard you and my daughter's getting quite good along with each other. She 's been...preoccupied, most of the time."

"Oh, pleasure's all mine, Ma'am." He bit his lip, "...And I'm sorry if I've been taking up your daughter's time most of the days. I really do love her company..."

"I can see right through it." Her mom grinned lopsidedly. "Do you mind waiting a little bit more? I'm sure my husband, Brenan, would lile to meet you."

"Not a problem, Ma'am." Artemis's mom excused herself as her daughter lead Michael to the couch. His hand entwined itself subconsciously to hers.

"She hates me, right?" Michael peered over Artemis. She furrowed her eyebrows before giving a reassuring smile.

"No, Mikey. She's actually been nice...and civil."

"What if your dad does?"

"Michael," she reached for his other hand, "Calm down. It's going to be okay."

She wondered why she was the nonchalant one here all of a sudden and it seemed like all the worry and paranoia transferred to Michael. His hands were clammy and quite shaking. She stifled a chuckle at his actions.

"Oh, is this the man, now?" Her dad made his way to the lounge room. Michael immediately stood, so did Artemis. He gave her dad a smile.

"Good morning, sir. I'm Michael."

"Oh my, the name of the brave archangel. Brave man, I'm betting?" Her dad gave Michael a firm handshake.

"I try, sir." He chuckled.

Brenan shook his head, "Point for humility, you have. I assume you and Art's going out?"

"Yes, sir--I mean, no! I mean, not yet--but I'd love to. W-we're just going to hang out...for the moment." He smiled sheepishly. Artemis giggled.

"Take it easy on him, dad."

Her mom laughed, "Where were you headed?"

"Michael and I were, uh... we're actually palnning on seeing a movie."

"Really?" Teresa latched her arm around her husband, "What movie?"

"We don't know yet...we'll see what we could watch at the cinemas."

"Okay. Don't want to keep you guys waiting, right Brenan?" Her mother gazed up at her husband, who's keeping his stare at the boy who's holding his daughter's hand.

"Yeah, sure. Artemis, did you forgot anything?" Her dad assured.

"Actually, I forgot my phone upstairs. I'll just fetch it real quick." Artemis raised upstairs, not wanting to leave Michael too long with her parents... especially her dad.

Grasping the phone with her hands, she checked the contains of her small bag; wallet, house keys, earphones and a stick of lip balm. Deciding to go down, her mom stopped her from steeping away from her room.

"Mom. What's going on? Where's Michael?"

"Oh, he's fine downstairs... having a little chat with your dad," Artemis squinted her eyes at her mom suspiciously. "Don't worry. I kind of like him, to be frank. He's courteous and nice, most boys your age aren't."

"Thanks, mom. But I think it's because he's very intimidated by dad." She snickered.

"Who wouldn't be anyways? Most people think he's in army or something! Funny enough, he only assists them medically."

"Fair point. I'm going down now," she smiled at her mom. "Need me to do anything else? Or bring you something home?"

"We're okay, honey. Go enjoy your date with Michael."

Art rolled her eyes, "We're just friends, mom."

"Mmm..." Her mom nodded, "isn't that what they all said?"

She snorted, "Bye, mom. Love you."

"Love you too, sweetie."

Coming down from the flight of stairs, she saw her dad and Michael, having a talk.

She cleared her throat, "Michael? Are you ready?"

The two men stood. "Oh, dear. Michael and I we're just having some small talk,"

Brenan shifted his gaze to the boy, "Take care of my girl, Michael. I'll leave you to it." He smiled firmly before patting his shoulder, meeting Artemis at the front door.

~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~~♥~

"What did you guys talk about?"

"Nothing, just... guy stuff..."

"Really?" She bit her lip, looking at him. She spoke for after the 10 second silence, "...But you do know I'm not gullible, Michael."

"I do know. You're one of the smartest people I know."

"Great. Then, what is it about?"

Michael sighed. He really like Artemis, but she can be quite nosy sometimes. "Okay, well, he asked what my intentions were. I said, at the moment, we are really close friends. Then, he interrogated me about school and family and stuff..."

Artemis straed off in the horizon, "Okay."

"Okay? That's... good enough for you?"

"Yes. I mean, as long as you aren't bluffing, then we're good." She gazed at him and gave a smile, making Michael smile back.

~♥~~♥~

Boo,

Michael and I hung out the whole day today. It was normal for the both of us but today, Michael just love to cling onto me. I didn't hate it, I also didn't like it as well.

Why? Because 1) it makes my stomach erupt some type of thing and my knees go jelly when he wraps his arms around my shoulders or hold my hand. 2) The space makes me feel claustrophobic...yet I kind of enjoy it.

Joe called in earlier, catching up to me and telling me how excited he is to move in. Calum also texted me, just asking how my day went.

This will be very short because I feell the need to arrange my room a bit. Oh! And Michael bought me Panic!'s Vices and Virtues earlier, I didn't know why, but I accepted it anyways. I asked him about it though, he said he only wants to give me the greatest albums he know and for me to enjoy it as well.

I think I forgot to tell him I already know this album.

Anyways, goodnight for now.

Kisses,
Art.