Lavish ~ mgc

Prologue

The sound of cars beeping and profanities being yelled out from raging drivers are all you can hear when walking the busy streets of New York City. The smell of trash mixed with food, perfume, and cigarettes fill your nostrils making you feel like your going to die if you breathe in too much. The sight of skyscrapers, shops, and homeless people are on every corner. There's so many people that walk the sidewalks that you're guaranteed to be bumped into, walking from destination to destination.

It was around 5:15pm when Cora and her best friend Pia were making their way back to Cora's house, with bags filling up both arms after doing some much needed swiping of Cora's fathers' credit card. Pia herself wasn't rich, but being friends with Cora came with a lot of perks I guess one could say.

Cora Grace. The epitome of what you would call a "spoiled brat that gets everything handed to her". The girl has never had to work a day in her life and yet walks around with nothing but designer on. She might as well be a walking advertisement for brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Versace, and more. Basically if it's not designer, it doesn't touch her body. At the age of 21 she has never had to pick up her pretty fingers for anything other than to hand them to the techs at the nail salon when getting a fresh manicure. Cora comes from an extremely wealthy family that has never known what it's like to struggle and most likely never will.  Her father was born into wealth with his father being one of the richest people in New York City and handing the family business over to him once he passed.

Just as Cora and Pia were about to turn the final corner before entering the building Cora lives in, they bump directly into a man, clearly in a rush. They thought he was just another drunk, homeless man running from the police. I mean it is NYC, you see that on the daily. He had on black jeans, an oversized black tshirt that said "NY State of Mind Records" across the right breast, and a black beanie which had blonde and black hair poking out of it. They ran into each other so hard the bags from today's shopping haul flew all over, with the contents inside spilling out onto the sidewalk.

"Hey! Watch where you're going asshole! These clothes are worth more money than you will ever see!", Cora screamed in the face of the man she just ran into.

"Oh my gosh I am so sorry! I would stay to help you pick this up but I'm already running behind and if I'm late one more time I'm going to lose my job. Once again I'm really sorry.", the man very frantically says.

"I don't care where you have to be, watch where the hell you're going.", Cora rolled her eyes and yelled at him as he walked away. More like he ran away.

Even though Cora and Pia would beg to differ from what they saw, this man that knocked them and all their stuff on the ground wasn't homeless at all. He wasn't homeless because he rushed from job to job, seven days a week, just to make ends meet. This man goes by the name Michael Clifford.

Michael Clifford couldn't be more opposite from Cora if he tried. He works for everything that he owns. He has had to work from the time he was old enough to comprehend how to work. Michael comes from a poverty stricken family that has only been able to survive with the shirts on their back because everyone works. He has been working and contributing to putting food on the table since the ripe age of 10. Whether it be walking dogs, washing cars, cleaning houses, or whatever else you can think of, Michael knew what it meant to hustle. With that being said he unfortunately also knew what it was like to struggle so bad that you don't even know if you're going to be eating that day. Now at the age of 21 he works at the local record shop during the day until 5pm, then heads straight to the dive bar where he's a bartender until 2am, heading home to sleep and start the cycle all over again at 8am the next day.

"Ugh can you believe that guy Pia?! The audacity he had to run into us, knock our shit all over the place, then run away like a scared puppy because he was late!", a very irritated Cora says to her friend while she's shoving articles of clothing back into bags.

"It's okay Cora. Don't let someone that you will literally never see again ruin your mood." Pia was always the one out of the two of them that tried to stay positive about things. This was why her and Cora worked so well. While Cora was bratty and bitter more often then not, Pia was bright and positive. They were the yin and yang of best friends. Balancing each other better than most would think. That is until someone ends up coming in Cora's life and balancing her out even more than Pia ever could.

Cora may come across as this complete spoiled bitch that looks down on anyone that is not in the same tax bracket as her but in reality that couldn't be further from the truth. Behind that rough and tough exterior is someone that is quietly aching to be shown how to live and be loved without a giant dollar sign attached to it. She has always been given this higher status in society based on her looks, with long dark brown hair, piercing green eyes, and a body most people pay to have, and her money. However if all of that was to be traded for a life not nearly as lavish and someone to care for her the way she so badly desires, she wouldn't even think twice.

She was raised in a house that had the motto "money can buy happiness" and it wasn't until she became old enough to form thoughts of her own and observe the outside world that she realized this wasn't true at all. She remembers watching children get dirty from playing at the playground while sitting in her mothers' office across the street, listening to her mother judge what kind of clothes they had on. She would say how embarrassing it was of their parents to let them leave the house looking that atrocious. Cora would sit there with her mother and listen to her say all these hateful things whiling wishing she could go outside and play at the playground because those kids looked a hell of a lot happier than Cora ever felt. She wasn't allowed to go out there due to her coat and shoes being too expensive to ruin. So instead she sat in the office, day in and day out, wishing to not have money one day.

"You're right. Let's get this shit home and give my parents a complete haul then lie to them about how much we charged to Dad's credit cards.", Cora laughed while pulling Pia towards her building.

The thing was, they thought that they would never in their lives run into that man again. Little do they know that this is the route Michael walks every single day from the record shop to the dive bar. If there is one thing that you can say for a fact, it is that you truly can't control fate and everything happens for a reason.

Author's Note
Hi everyone! If you made it this far thanks again for giving Lavish a read! I wanted to give y'all something to get you ready for the whole story so here it is. I don't think it's the best but at least you now know a little about the background of Michael & Cora. I won't be posting again until next week because I am heading up to help my brother move into his dorm this weekend.

Love all of you! <3