HOLY SHIT IM NEARLY AT 100K READS WTF😱 I LITERALLY REMEMBER SITTING IN MY ROOM DEBATING WHETHER TO WRITE THIS OR NOT AND IM SO GLAD I DID! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH WOW💞
MICHAEL'S P.O.V
"What?!" she replies.
"I can't bare these tiny ass beds and gross toilets and smelly hallways. I want to buy a flat or something. And I want you to live with me." I reply.
"Are you fucking crazy!" She exclaims.
"No? think about it. A house that's mine and yours, just us, no Calum, no sharing a dorm, a nice toilet, sex whenever we want, we can be as loud as we want. Think about it." I smirk.
"Although it's tempting," she smiles. "It's still a stupid idea. We've only known eachother for a little over 5 months and a majority of that time we've hated eachother. What happens if we break up? am I supposed to just be homeless? where are we going to get the money to afford a place and things to go in it? it's just a bad idea, as much as I want to do it. " She sighs.
"Lauren, I have a flat that's for sale, it's a huge place, im gonna get a lot for it. Plus, my parents send me money every month because they don't know what to do with it. They're swimming in it." I reply.
"I have a flat for sale as well." She says.
"Well, there we go. If we both put money towards it together both of our names will be on the lease. We can drive to campus every morning or change our schedule to afternoon. It will all work out." I say.
"We've been together for just over a month. That's not long enough to move in together." She says.
"Well, im pretty sure you're the person I want to spend the rest of my life with so I don't know why we should hesitate." I say.
A flawless smile spreads across her face.
"I love it when you say things like that." She says.
"Why?" I chuckle.
"Because it makes all my doubts disappear, all of Calum's words become irrelevant and it's just us." She says. I find myself nodding in agreement.
although Calum was right, Lauren believes me. I can see she's falling into my trap and she's not all that bad, I could deal with living with her. just.
...
"Michael wake up!" she says, as she runs around the room.
"Im awake." I mutter sleepily.
"Please can you drive me into town?" She asks as I sit up.
"Yeah, why?" I ask curiously.
"Im meeting Chloe." She replies. I almost forgot about Chloe.
"Is this Ashton's Chloe?" I reply.
"Yes! well no, she was." She calls as she brushes her teeth.
I climb out of bed and pull anything on, im not bothered whether its clean or not, im only dropping her into town after all.
Lauren emerges from the bathroom, her hair in a bun, wearing black jeans and a navy blue wooly jumper with little ankle boots.
I pull my clothes on and hug her, engulfing her in my arms.
"You look beautiful." I say in her ear as her head is buried in my chest.
I feel her smile against my skin and plant a small kiss on her nose.
"Lets go." I smile.
We climb in my car and I drive her into town, listening to the shitty radio remixes as we sit in traffic.
"Im gonna see what the boys are up to." I tell her, glancing over at her sat in the passenger seat.
"Okay." She smiles, changing the radio station.
We reach the cafe where she used to work and I lean over and plant a small kiss on her lips before she leaves to meet Chloe.
I ring ashton, he answers quickly.
"What you up to today mate?" I ask as soon as he answers the phone.
"Me and Luke were gonna watch the match at the pub, see ya there if you want?" he says.
"Alright, ill get changed and be there in half an hour." I chirp before hanging up.
I drive back to campus, speeding slightly and get changed into fresh clothes quickly before setting off to the pub where me, ashton, Calum and Luke used to go a lot.
Ashton was stood outside, bringing a cigarette up to his lips as I pulled up.
"Michael!" Luke says happily as I climb out my car.
"Lucas." I smile, high fiving him.
"Calum told us about you're little... completed mission." Ashton chuckles.
"yeah." I reply chuckling and high fiving the boys.
Ashton steps on his cigarette end and we walk into the pub, Luke buys us all a lager and we sit in the corner, watching the football on the small tv.
"when did you start smoking?" I ask Ashton.
"when Chloe started pissing me off all the fucking time. when it started going downhill, the end of the honeymoon phase." he replies coughing, I can tell he's been smoking heavily recently.
I don't pay much attention to the game but ashton does.
He doesn't take his eyes of the TV as he sips his beer, slamming his fist on the table when the other team score.
The football results end up being 2 all, ashton groans in annoyance about how one of the opposing players 'cheated' when we all know they didn't.
My phone buzzes and I receive a text from Lauren.
'Hi, hope all is going well, me and Chloe are at Starbucks, ill ring you later, love you x'
My smile widens and ashton frowns.
"Still talking to Danielle?" he chuckles.
"No, fuck no." I grimace. "Me and Danielle lasted about 3 hours. Im texting my girlfriend."
"Lauren's your girlfriend?" he asks.
"Yeah." I reply simply as my fingers tap the screen.
"You took all this too far man." Ashton says.
"I don't understand what you mean." I reply.
"I didn't think you two were gonna become serious." He says. "It just doesn't seem like you."
"Well we are. And im happy. I wouldn't change it for the world, as cringy as that sounds."
Luke smiles, it's a smile I haven't seen before. It's almost like a 'my son won sports day' smile, as if he's proud of me.
We continue drinking for quite a while and although im not drunk, im not sober either.
'Are you okay to pick me up?x" a text from Lauren reads.
'I don't think it's a good idea, I've had a few beers.x' I reply.
'Okay, no worries, Chloe can drop me at campus, see you later x'
Me and Luke decide to have a game of darts while ashton talks to some men at the bar about cocktails.
"Fuck sake man, let me win for once." Luke chuckles as I hit the middle of the target.
I laugh as he completely misses the board.
"I give up, surfings more my thing." He says.
"Fuck off is it." I chuckle. "You look like you can surf, but you can not."
He laughs and shrugs, sipping his drink.
"Shall we get going?" ashton asks, emerging from the bar, taking a cigarette out of his pocket and placing it between his lips.
"Yeah, I don't know if im safe to drive though." I say as we exit the pub.
"You'll be fine." Luke says as him and ashton climb in the back.
I play the radio and drive down the road slowly and carefully.
"Mind if we hang with you for a bit?" luke asks.
"Shit, you can't, im staying in Lauren's dorm until Calum stops being an ass." I say.
"It's okay, are you alright to drop us at my mums?" ashton asks.
I nod and chuckle, remembering the blurry memories of Ashton's house party.
"Fuck!" Luke shouts as a car swerves in front of us.
I gasp, but am glad when all ends up okay.
I pull up at Ashton's mums shakily and climb out.
"Come in for a bit." Ashton says, walking to the door.
"Okay." I say, following behind.
We sit in his room, playing xbox and eating pizza.
I check the time, it's 9pm.
"I've gotta go, ill speak to you both soon." I say, climbing off the bed and pausing the game.
"Okay bro, laters." Ashton smiles.
"In a bit." Luke waves as I leave the room.
I climb in my car and set my head on the steering wheel, breathing heavily as I turn the key and begin driving back to campus.
The drive back is smooth, at least no cars swerve in front of me.
"Evening!" I call as I walk into her dorm.
Lauren climbs off her bed happily, hugging me and dodging me as I go to kiss her.
"Beer breath." She chuckles.
I laugh and manage to latch my lips on to hers cheekily for a split second.
...
"How was your day then?" I ask as I emerge from the bathroom, a towel hung loosely around my hips.
"It was good, it was lovely to catch up with Chloe." She smiles.
"Do anything interesting?" I ask as I search through my pile of clothes for a pair of fresh boxers.
"We did some shopping and brought a coffee and then we went and watched a Rom com at the cinema." She says.
"Typical girls." I chuckle. "So, what did you buy?" I say as I pull on a pair of ugly, stripy boxers, clearly brought by my mum.
"All will be revealed." She smiles cheekily, leaving me lurking with excitement.
She pats the bed next to her and I don't hesitate to climb in, allowing my eyes to close slowly as my arm is wrapped around her waist.
"Michael?" she asks.
"Yeah?" I reply sleepily.
"You smell." She chuckles.
"Are you 7 or 17?" I reply.
"I don't know." She chuckles, causing me to laugh and bury my head in the crook of her neck, the smell of her strawberry scented perfume filling my senses, the light ticking of the clock and sound of the crisp wintery air slowly sending me to sleep.