Jemma’s P.O.V.
Michael insisted on going to Target for some reason even though I kept on telling him that the prices for food would be way cheaper at a regular grocery store.
"Target is funner and it has everything," he claimed as we stepped through the automatic sliding doors of the huge department store
"You’re such a little kid," I laughed rolling out a cart as we made our way to the food aisles
"A little kid who’s 12 feet taller than you," He exaggerated
Not gonna lie, Mike was pretty tall, around 6 feet if I had to estimate it, but I wasn’t all that short either, or at least I wasn’t average height for a girl my age. I was 5’7 according to my doctor and I take that with pride because I’ve always liked my height.
"When you see me with heels, you’ll only be 3 feet taller than me," I played along
"Yeah right," He said as we found ourselves looking through bags of chips
My pantry was simple, one bag of chips with some cookies and microwavable products and that was it, so the first thing I went for was a large bag of doritos, but Michael, on the other hand, was grabbing family sized bags of chips left and right.
"Jesus, there’s four boys living in that apartment, how much can all of you take?" I asked counting the amount of chips he placed in our cart in less than five minutes
"You’d be amazed at how much we can eat in a week,"
We went through every aisle with Mike getting five times the amount of food that I had. I was slowly starting to question whether he’d have enough money for all of the food he was stacking up on, but I never asked him because he seemed like this was just any other grocery trip.
"Is this what you feed all your big buff body guards?" I asked gesturing to our filled cart once we were finished with the food
"Oh, you know that they’re our security?"
"It’s kind of obvious seeing two grown men in all black monitoring four teenage boys," I said pushing the cart around to store looking for anything else I might need as Michael kept one hand on the handle bar inches away from mine.
"What is it that you do that requires security anyways?" I asked spotting a DVD of a movie that I’ve been eyeing for ages now. It was a horror film that came out a few months ago that all my friends went to see, but I never had the guts to actually watch it with them in the huge move theatre screens. I liked these types of movies because of the thrill I get in my veins, but I couldn’t deny the fact that they did freak me out sometimes.
"Nothing special," He shrugged standing next to me to look at the same film
"Oculus 2? I watched the first one and it wasn’t that good," He commented letting his arm lean into mine as the both of us read the back of the plastic dvd folder to see if it was interesting.
"Yeah, but all my friends watched this second one and they said it was really good," I said
"So I’m going to take this as you inviting me to a movie night," He managed to sneak in as I let out a laugh at how bad he was at being slick
"You are just the epitome of smooth, aren’t you Red?" I rolled my eyes as he took the dvd away from me
"If you don’t buy this, then I will and you’ll have to be the one to come over and watch it with me, but either way we are having a movie night," he said not giving me enough time to counter as he placed it in the cart
"That sounds awful, I’ll have to walk those 3 extra feet into your flat now," I fake groaned making him the one laughing now
I’ve felt this free around others before because I mean sure I was a people person, but with him it felt like I could honestly say anything and he’d have another comment thrown at me without even having to think. Our conversations just felt never ending regardless of what we were talking about and I absolutely loved it.
“The new fifa game is out!” Michael said when we were walking past the game aisle making him immediately gravitate towards the Xbox section
He pulled the cart over to the TV where the station was set up forcing me to go along with him as he picked up the controller and persuaded me to play.
“C’mon I’ve been deprived of my Xbox for a week now,” he pouted grabbing my hand to pull me over to the second controller as he handled the first
“I’ve only played this once and I sucked balls Michael,” I groaned as he ignored me and began the game
“Here I’ll teach you,” he said
“Press A to pass, x to slide and tackle, and b to kick it in the goal,” he explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world
“Wait what was to-” I was about to ask until the game started and he got the ball through me
“I fucking hate you right now how do you kick?!” I asked as he continued speeding his way past my team and laughing at my reaction
“You dick,” I whined messing with his controller as I struggled to get the ball after he scored a goal
“Jem don’t cheat!” He said taking my hand away from his controller and holding it in his to keep me from pressing his buttons
“It isn’t cheating if I have no idea what to do!” I said trying to play with one hand now since he was holding my other
“I’ll only help you make one goal,” he sighed taking my controller in his hand
“Wait no I want to learn it!” I said grabbing the controller back bumping his hip with mine
“Fine then,” he said going behind me having his arms on either side of me as he placed his hands over mine
At this moment I felt everything in me stop functioning. I don’t know what this boy had over me but I knew that I didn’t want it to stop.
“Okay look, are you looking?” He asked snapping me out of whatever daze I was in
I tilted my head up as it rested against his shoulder to look up at the screen while he spoke.
“This is going to be a lot easier since my team won’t be moving but you just take the ball and kick it to your players pressing the x button and…” He started guiding my fingers as I tried to nod to make it seem like I was paying attention but all I could really focus on was how fast I was feeling his heart beating against his chest since my back was pressed up against him and how warm his hands felt over mine. I studied his heart rate noticing that it was beating ten times faster than mine and it made me think that maybe he was the nervous one too. Before I knew it, he was already done explaining the basics of the game to me, but at this moment I couldn’t care less about the game.
“… Then you press b to make a goal. You got all that?” He asked resting his head on my shoulder
“Oh uhm yeah,” I cleared my throat noticing how dry it was at my words
And with that, he went back to his spot next to me leaving a cold space behind me as I sighed.
“Okay now take the ball and-” he began to instruct me before we both heard someone calling out his name
“Michael!” A girl almost screamed as she walked towards us
“Oh my god it’s really you,” she breathed as Michael gave her a hug leaving me even more confused
“Yeah it’s me,” he let out a chuckle as they let go of each other
“Can I take a picture with you? Can she- oh my god,” she asked before her eyes averted to me to another look of sheer surprise
“Hi,” I waved to her as she looked at both of us
“You’re friends with Jemma? Is this a real thing? The fandoms have been shipping you two together for months now,” she began rambling before I cut her off
“Wait fandoms? He has a fandom? You have a fandom?” I asked Michael as he looked at me with the same confused expression on his face
“It’s not specifically my fandom. And hold on, you have one too?” He asked
“I’m sorry to interrupt this, but can I take a picture with both of you before I have to go?” The girl asked as I realized that she was basically in the middle of this
“Oh yeah of course,” I answered as both Mike and I smiled for her selfie
“Thank you so much,” she hugged us before leaving
“Okay just who the hell are you?” I asked
“Who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?” He countered
“I asked you first,”
“Well I asked you second,” he argued
“How does that statement help you in any way?” I furrowed my eyebrows as he surrendered
“Okay fine… I’m in a band, it’s as simple as that,” he reasoned
As simple as that? Considering her reaction to meeting him, I’m pretty sure it’s not that simple.
“Oh really?” I asked not believing him
“Well, you could say that we’re a pretty big band,” he started unfolding his little secret from me
“Pretty big?” I asked as he sighed and took my hand to lead me somewhere
“After I show you this, then you have to tell me who you are,” He demanded stopping right in front of the cd section
“Alright,” I agreed
I didn’t even have a secret from him, he just never asked my what my occupation was so it would never come up in one of our conversations. But I asked him multiple times what he did considering what out of the ordinary things I’ve seen him have to deal with in my short timespan of knowing him but he never told me the entire truth.
He reached for a cd before handing it to me as I stared at his face on the plastic folder then back at him more than once.
“5 Seconds of Summer? You’re shitting me,” I stated comparing the cd to him by holding it up to his face
“You’ve literally seen the other three guys on here before and you’re staring directly at me,” he answered but I refused to believe it
He seemed like any other 18 or 19 year old boy I’d meet in LA, the only difference was his bright red hair and aussie accent.
Fuck. Now it makes sense.
“What do you play?” I began hitting him with questions to see if he was really telling the truth
“Guitar,”
“Do you sing?”
“Occasionally,” he shrugged
“What are your bandmates names?”
“The one with the quiff is Luke, the black haired one is Calum, then the last one is Ashton,” he replied making me remember last night when I read those names on the boxes inside of the elevator
“Still don’t believe it,” I shook my head
“What is it going to take for you to believe it then?” He asked
“Uhm… Do you have a video?” I asked not knowing what it would really take
“I’ll get you something better, tickets to our concert this Friday,” he said with a smirk on his face like he just came up with the smartest idea ever
“Wow free tickets I feel like I should be honored,” I said sarcastically
“Now tell me who you are,”
“Well I make videos,” I said not knowing how to word the type of videos I make since I just do whatever I feel like
“What kind of videos?”
“Uh…” I began trailing off thinking of how I should describe it
“Do you- are you a pornstar?” He asked half joking but I could tell the other half was partly serious
“Shut up,” I gave him a light slap on the arm as he laughed
“I make YouTube videos you dumbass,”
“So you’re a youtuber, you could’ve said that in the first place,” he said
“You think a 15 year old girl would know who I am if I did porn?”
“You’re right, if you were a pornstar, I wouldn’t even have had to ask who you were,” he said as I bursted out laughing making the people walking past stare at us
“Shhhhhh I know I’m hilarious,” he praised himself before having to cover my mouth with his hand to get me to be quiet
He started laughing too which wasn’t helping me at all and when I was finally able to find my composure, Michael had one hand cupped over my mouth and the other rested at my waist. It was surprising how good the lighting was inside the department store because I could really tell how green his eyes were from how close he was standing in front of me.
“Sorry to interrupt, I just need to reach for this album very quickly,” a random guy said awkwardly as Michael and I separated from each other to move out of the way
“Uh I think we should go pay for our things now,” I suggested trying to avoid the weird vibe from what just happened
I don’t even know how long we were standing there that close together, but I’m slightly disappointed that it ended. When we were walking to the register I started to think back on what the girl said earlier “the fandoms have been shipping you two together for months now”.
Of course I knew what shipping meant, but Michael and I? I didn’t even know the guy until now but apparently people were anticipating this moment for a while. So does that mean that this was meant to happen?