reckless | mgc

twenty two

"Mom, that isn't fair!" Addy shouted across the kitchen, throwing her bag on the chair and walking into the room. She threw her hands up in the air, staring across the house at her mother who was not happy.

"We told you that you were not allowed to see that boy anymore," her mother said calmly, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "You disobeyed us. So you're grounded. Anything else you don't understand?" Addy groaned loudly, glancing over at her car keys that had been confiscated earlier. She'd been found sleeping on the couch in Michael's hoodie, (it said 'CLIFFORD' on the back in block letters, which made it harder to say it was Calum's) and her parents, to say the least, were furious.

"He's not a bad person!" Addy argued, moving closer to her mom and getting angrier with each second. She didn't understand why they couldn't change their ways. In the beginning, Addy thought he was a terrible person too. But she saw the side of him no one else had taken the time to uncover, and she wanted her parents to see it, too.

"Addy, look at him! Tattoos, piercings, his hair! How in the world could someone like him be attractive to you? He's trouble, Addy, and we didn't raise you like that." Addy rolled her eyes, sighing exasperatedly and crossing her arms tightly too.

"He's not a bad person," she repeated calmly, hoping that her mother would be rational. She barely knew him at all. She'd only found out about him after that fight they'd had earlier that left her grounded, (it was kind of forgotten about since her parents were gone so often) and she'd seen a picture of him in Addy's yearbook before they'd even started talking. Yeah, he was kind of a shitty person in some ways, but to be honest, so was everyone else. And being with Addy had given him motivation to clean his life up so they could both be happy.

"You're so innocent, Adeline," her mom said, using her full name which made Addy cringe. "He's not like you and he never will be. Why don't you see Luke Hemmings? He's a respectable, smart, clean boy with good parents." Addy almost laughed out loud at the idea now, even more than she would have before. If only her mom knew that he was the one who got Michael into this mess.

"Yeah, let me call him up right now," Addy replied sarcastically. "Oh wait, I can't." She rolled her eyes, gesturing to the cupboard where her phone sat. Her mom had taken that away, too.

"Addy, all I'm saying is that you don't need someone like him. I don't like him, your dad doesn't like him, and that's final. No means no. You are to stop seeing him, do you understand?" Addy nodded, not even trying to argue any further. She knew there was nothing she could do to change their minds and she didn't feel like trying.

"Can I invite him over for dinner?" she said suddenly, thinking that it might change her parent's minds.

"So I can tell him what I think of him in person?" her mom sneered. "Sure! Tomorrow night, your father and I will show you what you've done." Without saying anything more Addy turned around, trudging up the stairs and slamming her bedroom door.

-

"Okay," Michael said from across the lunch table. "So what do we do now?" He had actually come in to the school cafeteria today, sitting way in the corner with Addy in hopes that it would go unnoticed. So far, it seemed to work.

"I want you to come over for dinner," Addy said, her eyes locked on Michael's. "And I want you to pull out all of the stereotypical bad boy stops."

"What's that gonna help?" he asked. "They already hate me."

"Exactly," Addy countered, making Michael even more confused. "For once, they'll think they made the right decision. They'll see you, with your hair and your tattoos and your piercings and black clothes and they'll think they've done what's best. But then, once they realize you aren't an asshole maybe they won't be so hard on us. They were our age once too and I don't get why they don't see that."

Michael looked up at Addy, a small smile on his lips.

"That might work?" he said, almost like a question. "Addy, that might work." He was full blown smiling now, looking like he was about to stand up and give her a hug across the table. "So when's dinner, Miss Ellis," he said in a fake accent, holding out his hand for her to take. She giggled and grabbed it, feeling her cheeks get pink.

"Seven o'clock tonight, Mister Clifford." Michael smiled wide again, squeezing her hand once before letting it go and turning around, grabbing his backpack off of the floor and heaving it up onto the table.

"I have something to show you," he said, digging around in the front pocket. He pulled out an envelope, opening up the top and pulling out some money. "A thousand dollars," Michael said, smiling again and holding it out for her to see. She raised her eyebrows, reaching out and taking it out of his hands.

"Where'd you get all of this?" Addy asked, counting and recounting all of the money. And sure enough, she was holding one thousand dollars in cold hard cash.

"Don't worry about it," Michael said, taking it back from her. He put it in the envelope, putting it back into his backpack and setting it down on the floor. "We're okay, Ellis. After tonight, Luke will be off my case and I can make a good impression on your parents." He reached out, grabbing her hands across the table. "I'm gonna finally be able to do all of this the right way."

Truthfully, Michael hadn't asked Addy to even be his girlfriend yet. He was waiting until everything was worked out so that they could start off in a good place. He'd been thinking about it for a really, really long time. Michael had given all of the drugs back to Luke, pulled the money out of his savings and was about to clean up his life - he wasn't interested in that shit anymore. Addy had pulled him out of the dark.

"Do what?" Addy giggled, looking a little confused. Michael squeezed her hand lightly, pausing for a second.

"Whatever this is," he started, gesturing between their hands. "Whatever we are. I don't know, I just, I like this, Ellis. Damn it, you make me all fucking mushy. But I like this a lot. And I feel like I wasn't in a very good place when we met, and then you made me look at everything and I wanted to change. So I'm gonna clean up this shitstorm that I started and I'm going to take you on a real date at a nice place and I'm going to be better. We can even dress up if you want. I just want to do things right with you. I don't want to, you know, not be enough."

Addy's face was so red she could've sworn all the blood in her body was in her cheeks.

"God, why do you have to do that?" Addy laughed, pressing one of her hands against her burning cheeks in attempts to stop the blushing. "You're so god damn cheesy, I'm gonna die." Michael smirked, letting go of her hand.

"Don't make fun of me," he whined, laughing a little. "For God's sake Ellis, my last girlfriend cheated on me because I wasn't cheesy enough! I'm not good at this." They were both laughing now, earning the stares of a few people around them. Normally it would've pissed Michael off, but for the first time in his life he didn't care what other people thought of him. He was happy.