troubled (m.c.) REVAMPED

Twelve

Ashton and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

"Here we go again," I sighed as he opened the door.

"What the fu—" Ashton began to yell before halting his sentence.

When Ashton and I entered the room, we were surprised by what we actually saw.

"YES!" Luke and Calum cheered.

"Well I see you all let bygones be bygones," Ashton laughed.

He went over and jumped on the bed where Michael was sat, "I'm on Mike's team!"

They were all sat on the bed, playing Fifa as if nothing had ever happened.

My phone started vibrating in my pocket.

"Wait, sh!" I yelled.

The game was paused and four pairs of eyes stared at me.

"Hi, mum," I said sweetly.

"Put it on speaker," Ashton whispered.

"You're so nosey," Calum whispered.

"Shut up," Ashton hushed him.

I did as he said and put my mother on loudspeaker.

"Hi, sweetie!" she said cheerily, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good, mum," I said.

"Good, what are you doing, honey?" she asked.

"I'm just, er, I'm at a friend's house."

"Oh, how fun! Is Michael there?"

"Yeah, he's here," I said.

"Hi, Mrs Woods!" Michael called out.

My mother laughed, "Maria, dear! Anyways, I was ringing to tell you and Michael something... privately."

I flicked my head towards the door to signal Michael to come out of the room with me.

We walked back into the spare bedroom and sat on the bed.

"Okay," I said, "Go ahead."

"Okay so as you know, the hospital is branching out to further areas and 'expanding their horizons' as they called it," she chuckled, "And that means our waiting lists are getting bigger and more overrun and—"

"Mum, what's wrong?" I questioned.

"I have to go to Seattle for a little while," she said.

"What? For how long?" I asked.

"I may not be back before Michael's gone, so I'm gonna need you and Michael to be the mature young people that you are and be responsible for yourselves and the house."

"Mum, we don't work! How are we supposed to cook and buy food and stuff?" I began to get panicked.

"Oh, don't be silly, Alisha! I'm going to transact money into your bank account for you! It won't be that serious just yet, I just need you to make sure you feed yourselves, clean the house and do those little things until I'm back, okay?" she continued.

"I can assure you everything will be fine, Maria," Michael spoke up, "We'll do everything we have to do."

"Okay," she said unsurely, "I'll pop back every one or two weeks for a while to see how you are."

"Okay, mum," I replied whilst biting my nails.

"Don't fret, honey, you'll be fine — I trust you to look after yourself and be responsible, and should anything happen, I'm near certain Michael will look after you," she reassured me.