Saving the Reject | Michael Clifford | Editing

t w e n t y f o u r ;

Charli

I'm not exactly sure how long the two of us sat there in the comforting embrace, but almost too soon, I felt Michael shift, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his phone.  "What are you doing?" I asked him gingerly.  The tears were dried by now, but the evidence of them were still in my voice.

"I'm telling everyone to go on without us."

"Go on where?" I asked, pushing my hair out of my face.  "Who's everyone?"

Michael looked at me, just as confused for a moment, then he seemed to realize.  "I guess I haven't told you yet," he started.  "I came here to pick you up.  We were gonna have a random day out with the guys, Evie, and some friends of Ashton's who are visiting."  Guilt washed over my exhausted face.  Of course, I thought.  The day I break down is the day I should be out with my friends, enjoying the day.  "But I'm more than willing to stay here with you if you need someone."

"Michael, you don't have to - "

"I want to," he answered quickly.  "I want to be the person to make you smile again.  One day out with everyone isn't worth leaving you unstable."

"Then let's go together."

Confusion crossed Michael's sincere eyes as they stared into mine.  "What?"

I moved to get off of his lap, standing up as he watched me, unmoving.  I held out my hand to him.  "Come on," I encouraged.  "We could both use a day just to get everything off our minds."

With a half smile, Michael took my hand, and pulled himself off the couch, lacing our fingers together like the night prior.  This once alien action began to become natural so quickly.  His fingers filled the spaces between mine like two puzzle pieces made to be side-by-side, and the thought evoked a kind of emotion I have never felt on this level before.  I didn't know what to call it.  But I liked it.  "How do you manage to do that?" he questioned.  My confused expression was enough to answer him.  "You got back up so quickly.  I spent all of yesterday sulking around, and you take maybe twenty minutes to get back on your feet."

I looked down a little, feeling slightly ashamed.  "Years of practice," I said quietly.

My refusal to look back up at Michael resulted in his thumb comfortably caressing mine, which changed my mind.  My eyes traveled first to our connected hands, then up to Michael who smiled down at me softly.  I returned it.

He thought being back on my feet was a good thing, but from where I stood on this tiny ledge surrounded by the emptiness of a metaphorical abyss, standing on my feet required the act of balancing, and I didn't know how much longer I could keep my composure.

*        *        *        *        *        *

The friends of Ashton's who were visiting were deemed to be not a couple - nor will they ever be a couple.  We all told them that we believed them, but it was difficult with Joshua.  When she wasn't looking, we all noticed him looking at Caitlyn like she was the most important thing on the planet.

It wasn't until we went to the store to get stuff for lunch that Evie told me what she sees in the situation.  "Caitlyn has a thing for Ashton," she confessed as it was just the two of us in the frozen food isle.  Why the hell are we in the frozen food isle?

"Oh calm down, Eve," I sighed.  "It's just new-relationship jealousy.  Dawson had it with Emmy, too."

"No, Charli, it's not that, I swear," she defended, looking up at me from her wheelchair.  "You know how Joshua looks at her?"  I nodded.  "Well, that's how she looks at Ashton," Evie ended quietly, looked at me somberly.