Bad News | Punk Michael Clifford

four

I woke up the next day at about 1:30 pm. It took me a few minutes to remember where I was and to adjust to my surroundings. I picked my phone up off my desk and noticed a missed call from my mother. There was no voicemail, but I called her back anyways.

"Hello?" A tired voice answered on the other line.

"Hi mom!" I said cheerfully.

"Oh, hi sweetie. How are you adjusting?"

"Great! I met our neighbors last night. They invited me to eat dinner with them. They're really nice. And they have a son my age. His name is Luke." I rambled on excitedly.

"That's great honey." My mom replied rather unenthusiastically.

"Mom? Is everything alright?"

"Of course, Alyx. It's just the middle of the night over here."

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry mom!" I had completely forgotten about the time difference. "I should probably go then." I continued.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later. Bye, hun." My mom hung up.

I fell back onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. I suddenly remembered my plans for the day and sat straight up. It was now 2 o'clock, so I had about two hours until Luke showed up.

I skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen. I poured myself a bowl of cereal (luckily my mother had someone bring over some groceries before I got there.) When I finished, I rinsed my bowl out and stuck it in the dishwasher. Then, I headed back upstairs and jumped in the shower.

I wrapped one towel around my body and another around my hair and went to examine my wardrobe. I wanted something cute but casual since I wasn't sure if my outing with Luke was classified as a date or not. It also was only an amateur concert in the park.

I settled on a band tank top and denim shorts with my signature converse. I left my hair down and wavy and applied my makeup to look natural. When I decided that I looked good enough, I walked downstairs, sat in a chair in the living room, and scrolled aimlessly through Twitter.

At 4 o'clock on the dot, there was a knock on the front door. It was Luke.

"Hey," he smiled. "Are you ready to go."

"Yeah." I smiled back.

The park wasn't very far away from our houses, so we just walked. Along the way, we talked about bands (again) and shared random facts about ourselves. I learned that he had quite the obsession with penguins, and he learned that I had a nervous habit of biting my nails.

At one point during our walk, my hand brushed against his hand. We both glanced at each other but then quickly looked away, each of us blushing.

A few silent moments later, I felt Luke's hand against mine again. I looked down and saw him attempting to hold my hand. I interlocked my fingers with his and smiled up at him. Our conversation resumed and we laughed at each other's embarrassing childhood stories.

We finally made it to the park and walked towards the stage that had been set up for the event. There was currently some Beyoncé wannabe singing, and quite terribly if I might add. Luke and I laughed at her attempts from the side.

Luke stood behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist, and his chin resting on the top of my head. We had only known each other for a day, yet we were already fairly comfortable with each other.

From where we stood we had a perfect view to make fun of terrible performers and to people watch. We laughed until there were tears streaming down our faces.

I looked away from Luke and wiped the tears from my eyes, steadying my breathing. When I looked back at Luke, he was staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." He bit his lip.

"No, tell me! Is there something on my face?" I started to become self conscious. I had a bit of a problem with my image of myself. It started back in elementary school. I was a pretty chubby child and was bullied a lot for it. So, when I entered junior high, I started working out and I eventually lost the unwanted weight. So naturally I became self conscious whenever I caught somebody staring at me.

"No, you're fine. It's nothing. I swear." He bit his bottom lip again.

"Well, okay then." I said, catching myself staring at his mouth where he was still chewing on his lower lip. This time I was the one being caught.

"You're staring at me now." Luke said with an embarrassed smile.

"Huh?" He had caught me off guard.

"Damn, I wanna kiss you." Luke said under his breath. It was quiet but not quiet enough as to where I couldn't hear it.

"What?" My voice squeaked.

"Nothing. I- it's- I- nothing." He stuttered with color rising on his cheeks.

"Luke..."

"It was noth-" I cut him off. Somehow I had gotten a strange burst of confidence. I stood on my tiptoes, being that Luke was a great deal taller than me, and kissed him.

Luke stumbled backwards, clearly shocked.

"Sorry." I mumbled, looking at my feet.

"No, no. It's okay." Then he cupped his hands on my face and leaned down to kiss me. I kissed him back, feeling the cool metal of his lip ring against my mouth. It wasn't a very long kiss, but it was long enough.

After we finished kissing, I looked up to see that Luke had a goofy smile spread across his face. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Do you want to go get some ice cream or something?" He asked.

"I'd love to." I let out a small laugh.

A/N

Okay, that was a really long chapter! I know you're probably wondering when Michael comes in to play. That's gonna be soon! I hope you're enjoying the story so far! I always appreciate your feedback! Thanks for reading! <3