troubled (m.c.) REVAMPED

Eight

"He should be here soon," Luke said, breaking the silence between us that had lasted for at least 20 minutes now.

He seemed distracted, and it was obvious why.

"Speak of the Devil," Luke looked over to a car that had just pulled up.

The young brunette man that got out high-fived the driver and proceeded in our direction.

"Erm, Alisha, this is Calum — Michael and I's best friend," he said quickly, "Calum, this is Alisha — the girl's house Michael's staying at now."

"Hey," he said as he pulled me in for a hug and kissed my cheek, "Gosh, Mike's lucky to be living with you for a while, you're gorgeous."

I chuckled at him, slightly blushing at his sudden compliment.

"Speaking of which, where is Mike?" Calum asked whilst looking around.

"That's the thing," Luke trailed off.

"He hasn't gone off and had another threesome again has he?"

Ew.

"No!" Luke said embarrassed, "We don't know — we don't actually know where he is."

"You really called me to join your search party because you can't find Michael in a small shopping mall? Try and ring him, he can't be that far," he said as he turned around to walk back to his car.

"He went off with Ruby somewhere," I intervened.

He stopped in his tracks and turned to me with wide eyes.

"You know about Ruby?" he asked me.

"No, I've just heard her name a lot today," I chuckled awkwardly.

"Where did you last see them?" Calum asked with his teeth gritted and his fists balled.

"Literally just inside," Luke said as we all went back into the shopping mall.

"Why the fuck is Ruby here?" he asked loudly and rhetorically.

"Keep it down, man," Luke hissed whilst looking around, "You know how she is, she could literally pop out of nowhere right now."

Luke and Calum were discussing the problem just before my phone rang.

Both of them turned to me as I pulled it out of my pocket.

My eyes widened as I showed them who was calling me.

"Pick the phone up!" Luke shouted.

"Michael! Where are you? Are you okay?" I asked frantically.

"I'm fine, where are you?" he ask, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Why didn't you pick the phone up?" I yelled.

"Put it on speaker!" Luke said.

I nodded and did as he said.

"Where are you guys?" Michael asked through what sounded like gritted teeth.

"We're by Starbucks," Calum said as he was scrolling through his phone, probably texting someone.

"Is that Calum?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, it is fucking Calum," Calum said, "What the fuck are you doing with Ruby?" he hissed as he put his phone in his pocket.

"Not now, Calum," Michael groaned.

There was a silence between us all.

"I'll come and meet you guys now," Michael said bluntly.

With that, he hung up the phone.