battle, michael clifford

► ALL TOO WELL, PART TWO.

► Like molars gnashing.

[ Sage Green,
November 24th, 5:40 PM ]

The lovely looking woman ran into Luke's arms and gave him a tight hug. Luke kissed her cheek and turned to beckon me over. He said, "Sierra, this is Sage!"

"Sage, meet Sierra!" He cheered. I extended my hand awkwardly and she smiled warmly, shaking my hand.

I extended my hand gently and she shook her head, pulling me in for a very tight hug. I was shocked but hugged her back. "It's so wonderful to finally meet you, Sage. You are stunning, honey."

My cheeks flushed. "It's so nice to meet you as well, and look at you!"

She blushed and grabbed my hand. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's shop!"

—

Sierra and I spent our time in the fake rooms while Luke and the guys tried to find things for their own house. We talked about my life and hers.

"You come from New Zealand?" Sierra asks, "Born and raised?"

I nodded proudly. "Yes! My accent is a New Zealand accent. I was born and raised in Wellington."

She nodded. "That's nice. I was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." She told me. "It was nice. Oh look at these bed sheets,"

"It's weird basically living in Los Angeles now since I was in Wellington a long time. Ooooh, those are nice!" I expressed, touching to feel the bedsheets Sierra pointed out.

"I'm glad you've entered Michael's life," Sierra hummed while walking down the aisle. "He used to be so shy."

I raised both of my eyebrows. "He was?"

"Oh yeah," Sierra laughed softly. "He was so shy. I wonder if he even spoke! But when you entered, he definitely became more expressive and happier."

I felt my stomach churn. Michael? Shy?

Before I could speak, Luke ran up to Sierra and hugged her. "We found everything we needed!" He shouted happily.

"Hello," Michael smiled. "What have you ladies been talking about?"

—

Everything was shipped from Ikea very fast, and bringing everything into the bedroom on the second floor was like the milk run in the gym, possibly worse.

Everyone was exhausted from the IKEA trip quickly and we went home. We brought everything into my bedroom and everyone was heavily breathing.

"Fuck," Luke grumbled, laying down on my bed. "I definitely lost like twenty pounds."

"I agree," Michael leaned against the dresser that was covered in plastic wrap. "At least they put together the dresser for us!"

"But not anything else," I groaned, my head against Calum's side.

"Unfortunately." Michael chuckled, putting his hair in a small man bun.

"Nope!" I shouted, getting up off the bed, "I'm gonna go help Sierra with dinner! Have fun!"

Before they could shout and protest at me, I bolted out of the door and to the kitchen downstairs. Sierra was cooking some kind of pasta, which I kindly appreciated.

A giant smile appeared on her face when she saw me. "Angel, hey." She handed me a water bottle. "What's up? How's it going upstairs?"

"It's going alright." I smiled

"Well," She smiled. "If you ever did want a break away from the guys, my home is lovely. It's nice smelling, not sweat smelling."

I grinned. "I would love that!"

After a hug, we continued to make dinner and talk about random things. A little bit after, the guys came running down the stairs and shouting. "We're done!"

They all grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and exhaled. "It was a lot of work, but it is finished."

I nodded and thanked them. We started eating and talking about how shopping was exhausting, but Michael leaned into my ear. "When we get done eating, can we speak upstairs?"

I nodded. "Of course."

Growing up, my parents never really showed each other love. Surely, they posed for the public and the town around us, but they never truly loved each other.

I watched as everyone laughed and spoke about how they were feeling which made me think about my life before my mom, Isabella, met Michael.

Me and my mom weren't close, but we were a daughter and mom duo. It would be a lie if I said I didn't miss her, how could I not?

After dinner, I washed up and walked up the stairs and into my bedroom— where all of the furniture was put about the floors of my room.

"Sage?"

I looked up and saw Michael peaking into my bedroom, which made me perk up. "Hey."

"Hey." Michael smiled and entered my room, closing the door behind him. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh." I exhaled, "I'm doing fine."

"No, I mean, how are you doing after . .  you know, your mom left?"

He tried to say the sentence softly, which made me laugh a little. "I'll be honest, being without my mom is hard. It's weird. But I noticed all of the differences in how I'm doing, so it's not bad."

"Differences?" Michael leaned against the wall.

"I'm more . . . excited to go out? I like being with people I call family, is what I mean."

Michael nodded. "I'm glad you feel that way."

"I'm trying to get used to it. It's nice being around you lot, I like it better than being around my mom in New Zealand. Just give me time."

Michael smiled and pulled me in for a small hug, "You can have all the time in the world. I'll wait."