[edited 1/13/18]
Michael chewed nervously on his already chapped lips, his eyes staring intensely at his pastel pink converse that lightly scuffed against the concrete sidewalk he walked on. His lilac hair was a little messier than it normally would have been as he picked at the matching pastel pink nail polish that adorned his nails. They had just been painted the night before while he was over at his best friend's house but it was already ruined and half worn away.
It was his first day at this new school of his, the one that his longtime best friend was going to. It turns out, there were more people at his old school who were unaccepting of Michael for who he was than he had thought.
With his pretty clothes and makeup and his flamboyant personality, it was just a little too much for those who he had came to know at his old school. Calum, his best friend, had always told him how accepting his school was and finally, Michael had convinced his parents to let him switch schools. They weren't complete assholes and they weren't just going to sit around and let their only son get picked on.
So there Michael was, standing in front of the large school doors while his heart hammered against his ribcage. Michael wondered if anybody else could hear the steady thumping of his anxiety. What if Calum was wrong and people were not accepting of him? What if he didn't look good enough to meet the standards that were set for him here? What if, what if, what if... They all swam through his cluttered and sidetracked mind as a few students grumbled, pushing by him. Though they were polite, as if they hadn't yet realised that he was a boy.
Eventually, the feminine boy makes his way inside, pulling his thin sweatshirt closer to his body. It was borderline winter where he lived and therefore closer to Christmas. In the US, his accent made him stand out enough; but he as a person and what he looked like made him stand out like a sore thumb.
People in the halls gave him a double take, eyes widening once they saw that he was a boy. They looked him up and down, curious eyes roaming around but trying to not be obvious - although they totally were.
And to his delight, nobody picked on him.
In fact, all of the attention Michael received made him feel even more confident than ever. You could tell that he felt as confident as he looked, a little strut and swing to his hips. Michael had this quirky little smile on his face that made others seem to smile a little as well. Though they were off put by the way he dressed, they quickly got used to it and felt comfortable around the boy.
As a kid, Michael didn't get much attention unless he was dressed like a "boy" should dress. That was his childhood. Barely any attention lead to him becoming rather addicted to the attention that he had never received as a kid.
So Michael fed off of it, craved the attention and he can't help it.
Although he received attention and he loved it, Michael wasn't expecting anything flirtatious at this school to happen - not right away at least. Oh god he loved it and drank it up like it was water. The one nuisance he could have done without was Luke. Luke Hemmings. A straight fuck boy. It was sweet and innocent until it spiraled into something else.
Michael had been leaning against his locker, completely lost in thought as his fingers played with the fish netting under his ripped skinny jeans. The elastic band of the fish netting was up to just below his ribcage but you wouldn't be able to see that unless you lifted up his tight Metallica shirt that ended just above his jean's waistband. All the dark colors made his pastel pinks and purples seem out of place; Michael didn't mind.
It was safe to say that he was lost, very lost. He had no idea which way to go and no idea where the class. With wide does eyes, pinky pouty lips, and soft pale skin, he looked utterly lost as well. Michael jumped whenever he heard a loud noise or when somebody brushed against him. The jumpiness had been developed over the years of people teasing and poking at him, getting physical some days when he looked too "girly".
It wasn't until he felt himself bump into somebody tall and rigid. Michael dragged his green eyes away from his pastel pink converse to meet cerulean blue eyes. His eyes then traced down to the smirk that graced the man's face, a one or two day old stubble on his jaw. Michael's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment as he muttered out a soft sorry, getting a glimpse of his friend Calum out of the corner of his eye.
The small boy started to make his way around the tall and broad shouldered man but an arm came out to stop Michael from walking. The hand attached to the arm rested on Michael's shoulder and pushed him back to the area in front of him.
Michael shifted and noticed how the blond boy played with a black ring inserted under his bottom, slightly pink, lip. A lip ring. Michael blushed softly, not out of embarrassment this time however while the bell rang. This signalled first period was about to start but Michael wasn't paying attention until he felt his schedule on paper was taken out of his hands.
The blond stranger muttered some words in a raspy voice with an australian accent that Michael barely caught, "Take a left up here and it's the last door in the center at the end of the hell." then he was gone and Michael was on his way to first period. He didn't feel the piercing stare of those blue eyes leave his body anytime soon.
"Hey Michael." he jumped as he heard the familiar voice of his best friend come up behind him. Michael paused and smiled widely, his nerves easing away. The pair made their way to their first period class - conveniently the same class. Again, the stare hadn't left his body just yet and something about it made him self conscious, not confident.
Maybe it was because he had no idea what blondie had thought of him - just a dumb junior lost in the hallways? But that god forsaken smirk accessorized with a black lip ring made him feel something else. Michael never thought this way about strangers whom he didn't even know so he disregarded it and pushed it aside.
With that, the eyes eventually left his body once he had slipped into the math classroom. That didn't stop any thoughts from going on up in Michael's head.
; ; ;
It seemed that just one appearance hadn't been enough for the unknown blonde boy. In fact, now Michael saw the boy everywhere. Leaning up against a locker talking to someone - whether it was a flirting session with a girl or a 'bro talk' with one of what seemed to be his best buds. Passing by each other in the halls but not fully turning their heads, catching each other with their peripheral vision.
And so forth; everywhere Michael seemed to be, he couldn't help but notice the blonde haired blue eyed boy lingering just a little longer [whether he was walking slower than normal to catch a small glance or just leaning against a wall and staring without any shame].
And Michael? Well he was drinking the attention up like a thirsty dog left out in the boiling Australia heat - though he was in America and it was winter. Blondie seemed to notice this and continued on with that smirk of his resting on his face, the side with his lip ring more upwards than the other side as he noticed Michael liked to stare at it.
It was now lunch time and so far, no sight of the blonde boy who had seemed to catch Michael's attention and deliver the attention so well but not enough for Michael to really be sated. After all, mystery man had been everywhere else so far. He bit at his lip, sitting with some of his new friends while his teeth played with his pink lips.
"What's going on in that pretty little mind of yours?" Calum asked thoughtfully, swallowing the food in his mouth before speaking. Michael snapped out of the daze and simply shrugged, putting a forkful of the cafeteria's spaghetti and meatballs in his mouth so he wouldn't give in to Calum's, what he's learned to be, cunning ways of getting words to just tumble uncontrollably past his lips.
Calum's eyes narrowed with a growing suspicion that Michael wasn't being entirely truthful with his little shrug. For the tanned boy, Michael was easy to read most times. Just like now. Calum was particularly good at reading people like a first grader's textbook. Easy and simple.
Michael was more complex than that. Sometimes, trying to pry Michael open to read his true feelings and thoughts to study, was like a first grader reading a geometry book; mudded, highly complex, and harder to understand. Geometry problems, definitions, glossary and all.
"C'mon Mikey, spill." luckily, this was a moment in which he was easier to read than normal. Calum spoke confidently before shoving a plastic forkful of bland yet pungent smelling spaghetti into his mouth. Few complaints were ever made as the students didn't care, most of them bringing their own lunch. Michael, dissatisfied, wasn't eating any of the disgusting noodles.
Unlike Calum, Michael cared about what he ate. He sighed softly and looked up at Calum. Sometimes, he wished that Calum wouldn't read as much as he did into these emotions of his, "Well...there's this boy...-" Michael was cut off by the sound of his best friend choking on the chalky noodles in his mouth, a hand slapping the table a few times. Drawing attention to the table, Calum stopped and Michael was blushing something fierce.
He finished choking and swallowed the dry pasta that could use some sauce, "Oh my god who who who?" the boy was obviously more excited than Michael was as he rolled his eyes to show his "excitement".
"I don't know his name but if you'd let me fi-" he didn't get to finish, once more cut off by an overly excited Calum. Michael groaned into his hands, hiding his face with them, "Calum, hakuna your fucking tatas and let me finish." the smaller boy narrowed his eyes for extra measure. Of course, he still loved Calum with all his heart and would never give up for anything in the world.
"As i was saying, I don't know his name - yet - but I've seen him around a lot more than i did before when I met him at my locker this morning. He gave me directions to my first period class." Michael paused to smile thoughtfully before continuing, "He keeps...staring at me in the halls and smirking and god damn that stupid lip ring of his." Michael hummed softly in thought as he thought of that smirk that fit the blond so well. He couldn't figure out how he was already hooked on a boy on his first day of school- somebody he didn't even know.
"Lip ring? Michael, does he have slightly curly blonde hair and blue eyes?" Calum looked concerned, which made Michael feel a little nervous. He leaned forward slightly, nodding.
"Yeah that's 'im! Who is he?" Michael's eyes lit up a little. Calum felt pity, that Michael seemed so ecstatic. But Luke Hemmings was bad news for Michael to even remotely be friends with. From the rumors he's heard, Luke is a fuck boy with no good intentions - and not to mention a straight asshole. Calum has also heard what Luke once did to his best friend, Ashton.
"Michael...stay away from him." No please, no sugar coated sweetness, no pleads or questions. Just a cold, hard demand which was out of character for Calum.
To keep Calum happy, he nodded.
; ; ;
It still amazes Michael at how Calum could already read his emotions though they had known each other for no more than a month. Though Calum had trouble at times, he tended to do a pretty good job at it. Which is why he kept an eye on Michael as if he knew that Michael had no intentions on believing Calum's warnings of the blue eyed blonde.
At the end of the day though, Calum lost sight of the lilac hair in the crowded hallways. Calum thought it would be easier to spot him with dyed hair, but there were many things with the lilac color, distracting Calum left and right.
Michael stayed by his locker this time, pressed against it while he waited for the hallway to clear out - and hopefully lose Calum in the process. Not that Calum's company was annoying, because it wasn't, but Michael needed some think time. And who better to interrupt that time none other than the boy with soft blue eyes and tousled, curlyish blond locks.
"Hey there sweetheart." his voice would make any girl or guy fall to their knees, in Michael's opinion. A good mixture of smooth and raspiness. A sweet sounding pitch that wasn't too high and squeaky but not too deep and monotone. Michael tilted his head to look at the taller boy standing in front of him now, his cheeks turning a little bit of pink.
He thought he would be prepared enough to face the boy, look him in the eyes. Those sinful blue eyes that never strayed far from Michael, "Have you had enough of just simply staring from afar?" Michael feigned his sudden confidence boost, trying to regain his composure. Michael didn't want to let his defenses down around someone who he didn't even know - not well at the least.
The blond boy that Michael now knew as Luke, seemed a little surprised to see such confidence from Michael, who half the time was timid and shy. But it was quickly seen through with those chilling blue eyes piercing right through his outer shell, straight through. Luke threw a crooked smile in the smaller boy's direction, leaning in as he rested his hands on either side of the feminine boy's head.
"I just wanted to get a better look at one of the prettiest things in this school." Luke retorted after a moment of pausing to craft his clever response. Michael raised in eyebrow while casually leaning back against his new locker.
"I'm merely one of the most?" Michael questioned and because of his height he was easily able to slip right under Luke's arms, "Reconsider that and I'll reconsider something myself." the smaller boy started to walk slowly and tauntingly down the almost empty hallway.
Michael could now hear some sort of desperation in Luke's voice with some clumsy and rushed footsteps behind him, "Reconsider what, doll?" the boy didn't sound like he was used to having to chase after somebody else. Michael stopped walking all of a sudden, turning his head to face the blond Hemmings. Luke was confused, the pet names normally got all the girls. It got him whatever it was that he wanted but perhaps it was because Michael never met Luke before this day.
"My opinion on you." Michael then started to walk again only to be pushed against a locker that wasn't his by the blond boy sharing the same accent that Michael did.
"In that case, you are the prettiest thing in this school." Luke was now cocky, his hands holding the smaller boy in place now. Luke took his time, taking in what he considered to be a bitchin body.
Michael started to wonder, was Calum's warning something he should seriously take into consideration? Speaking of the tanned boy who coincidentally also shared a similar accent and origin to Michael, Calum came striding down the hall. His eyes searched the halls and when his eyes landed on the feminine boy, he slowed his pace down to a normal one.
He took in the lovely smile on Michael's face compared to the cocky smirk rested on Luke's pierced lips. Calum huffed, already feeling sick to his stomach watching Luke do such a thing to an innocent boy.
Luke was straight. He liked girls.
So why was he talking, flirting, with a feminine boy?
Calum had no time to question Luke as he grabbed Michael by the wrist - as gently as possible, "Cmon Michael let's go study." Calum snarled, not even making eye contact with Michael, but looking Luke right in the eyes. Nothing seemed to make his cocky facade fade. Unfortunately.
"See you around pretty thing." Luke said once Calum started dragging his lilac haired friend away. Not that Luke minded. Because there Michael was, swinging those hips all on purpose. He had a perfect view.
"Oh Luke dear, I'm not a thing." and this was the last thing Michael said to the blonde that day.
; ; ;
so? How was that? Was it good? I hope it was. I've spent all day - well, when I could today bc of work - typing this out with my sick self.
chapter questions:
Why does Calum resent Luke so much?
What do you think Luke supposedly did to Ashton?
Why do you think Michael craves so much attention?
And when is your birthday?
Mine is May 31.
well I hope you enjoyed this !
- 🌙