Bad News | Punk Michael Clifford

sixteen

The next morning I woke to the sun shining brightly through my windows. I groaned and rolled over, pulling my pillow over my head. I had a throbbing headache, and I could only assume it due to the loud music and the other events of last night. Either way, I didn't plan on getting out of bed anytime soon. I preferred to sleep away my problems like any normal teenage girl. As I was suffocating myself in my mountain of pillows and blankets, I could faintly hear the muffled sound of my phone ringing on the nightstand. I really didn't want to answer it, but I figured I should at least see who it was. Then I'd make the decision on whether to answer it or not.

It was my mother. I had to answer it. If not, she'd keep calling until I did.

"Hello?" It was obvious that was the first thing I've said all day.

"Well hello to you too sunshine." She was laughing.

I groaned in response. She was way too chipper for my liking.

"Late night?"

"Yup." I said popping the 'p', hoping she wouldn't ask anymore questions.

Thankfully she didn't.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" She asked.

"What's tomorrow?" I honestly had no idea what she was talking about. I tried to rack my brain for something but came up empty handed.

"Your first day at your new school, silly!" She laughed at my cluelessness.

"Oh..." That put a real damper on my day. I hated school with a passion. And not knowing anybody was going to make it ten times worse. I was pretty quiet in nature so making friends was not going to be easy.

"Don't worry about it, honey. You're gonna do great! You already said that you made friends with the boy next door! What's his name again?" I could tell she was really trying, but it didn't make me feel any less nervous.

"His name is Luke." I sighed. I was still kinda pissed at him for last night, but my mom was right. At least I already had somebody that I knew at school.

"Oh, right! You two are just friends?" I could practically see the smirk on her face through the phone. Anytime I talked to a boy she automatically assumed that we were dating.

"Yes, mom. We're just friends." I rolled my eyes. Yesterday afternoon I would've considered us being more than that soon, but when he got angry at me for being with Michael at the party, all of that went down the drain. For now at least. My feelings would probably change later.

"Okay, honey. Have you made any other friends yet?"

"Um, yeah. I've met a couple of other people." Not a conversation that I wanted to get into, but she was going to pry.

"That's great! Who are they!?" She was practically jumping up and down on the other line.

"Well, there's Ashton. He's Luke's friend. Then there's Calum. He's Michael's friend. And there's Michael." Although I wouldn't consider Ashton or Calum to be good friends, they were still nice enough.

"Oh, who's Michael?" Out of all of those names, she had to pick his name.

"Just a friend."

"Oh, really?" I could swear she was spying on me.

"Mom. Michael is just a friend." I tried to sound serious. It's not like Michael and I were together, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that I wanted to be more than that.

"Alright, whatever you say." She was definitely smirking on the other end. "I'll let you go now. Good luck tomorrow, sweetie! I love you!"

"I love you too, mom. Bye." I hung up fast.

-

Today was the day. My first day at an Australian school. I was wearing black skinny jeans, an unbuttoned red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to a 3/4 length and a blank tank top underneath. Of course I also had on my old, worn out converse. I was actually feeling pretty decent about my appearance for once.

I awkwardly walked through the hallways to find my locker. Everybody was catching up with their friends, and I felt extremely out of place. I hadn't seen Luke yet, and I was desperately wishing I would've asked to ride with him this morning because then I would've at least had someone to talk to.

Almost as if on cue, I saw Luke's tall frame and quiffed up hair walking down the hall. It was obvious that he was a well-liked person around the school. People were constantly stopping him and talking to him. He smiled and talked back. I wanted so badly to go over to him, but I'm awkward so that wasn't going to happen. So I just stood by locker arranging my books.

"Good morning, Alyx." Luke said while opening the locker next to mine.

"Good morning, Lucas." I replied back in the same tone that he had spoken in.

He laughed and wrapped his arms me. I flinched a little at his touch, but I don't think he noticed.

The bell suddenly rang, signaling that it was time for class. I quickly pulled away from Luke and took off in the direction of my first class, leaving him confused. A few days beforehand, I was considering being with Luke, but now, I wasn't so sure. I didn't know if it was because Michael was pretty much my saviour or what, but I really wanted to see him again.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait too much longer. As soon as my house came into view on the walk home from school, I saw Michael sitting on my front porch step smoking a cigarette. I wasn't a big fan of those killing sticks, but somehow, Michael made smoking look hot.

"Hey." Michael said once I was close enough. A small smile appeared on his lips, but it didn't reach his eyes. The smile was more out of politeness, I assumed. There was something bothering him- I could tell.

"Hey." I smiled back. "What's wrong?"

Michael became noticeably more tense.

"Nothing." He bit his lip.

"You're lying."

"No, I'm not." He took another puff of the death stick.

"Michael," I spoke seriously, "there's something wrong. Just tell me."

"Why do you think there's something wrong?" He turned the question around.

"Well, you don't look happy for starters, and you're sitting on my doorstep, smoking. And I'm just gonna go out on limb here and say that's not because you're trying to be cool considering there's no one here but me." I explained. "That cigarette's for stress. I can tell."

"Damn, you're good." Michael whispered under his breath. "How did you know?"

"I can just tell." I waved off his question. There were important questions to be answered. "Now, what's wrong, Michael?"

A/N

Boring chapter, I know. The next one will be a little more interesting though, I think.

We didn't reach the comment/vote goal on the last chapter, but it's been 6 days so I decided to go ahead and update.

The more comments/votes this chapter gets, the faster I'll update. I kind of left you on a cliff hanger...whoops

I'm really awkward and don't know what to write. So sorry for the awkward authors note.

Also, if anyone wants to make me a new cover, that'd be amazing!