fortuity - mgc

fourteen

lily stared at the facetime call coming through. she looked a wreck, her face was red and tear-stained, due to the crying. hesistantly though, she accepted. setting her phone up on her desk, lily watched michael's camera come into view, they were both silent.

"i'm sorry."

michael spoke up, making lily look up, "it's okay" she responded, her voice cracking. he paused, not sure how to start whatever conversation he was going to have.

"did i make you cry?" michael asked, he was not ready for whatever answer he was about to receive. she shook her head and shrugged. "not really? it's just been kind of a lot lately, you know?" michael nodded. "and i thought you were mad at me or something and i just -" lily tries to continue but michael has cut her off completely.

"what? no im not mad at you, at all." and lily smiled. which made michael feel a bit better. "i just didn't know if i was an asshole for talking about you while you were wide awake. or if you even like me or whatever." she had to suppress her laughter which made michael look up, "what?" he asked, titling his head to the side.

"or whatever?" lily laughed again, covering her mouth with her hand. "michael you are so clueless." he pouted and sighed, "i am not." michael frowned, folding his arms. "of course i like you." his head shoots up, eyes wide. "what." he spoke, he had no idea what was real at the moment.

he felt like he was dreaming. "you know what i said, why do you think i've always tried to be near you?" that's when michael realized, he was clueless. it's been three months since he first met lily, so much has happened in such a short window of time that he had no idea.

michael had no idea what to say or to do, he's never felt this way about anybody before. sure he had a crush on luke when they first met in the fifth grade, but he thought that was normal for friends. surprise! it's not. for the past three months he denied every word that all his friends said about lily liking him, and turns out he was the wrong one. which is no shocker to anybody.

they sat on call for a few more hours, talking about everything. every single thing. lily was beginning to fall asleep, and michael tried to tell her he could hang up so she could sleep. "no, please stay." was the response he got everytime from a tired lily. he's never slept on the phone with someone, he didn't really know how it worked. did they mute and sleep? would they hang up in the morning? he had no clue.

when michael woke up, he checked the time to see he'd woken up forty minutes earlier than he planned to. the dim light from lily's room casted lightly onto michael's face. he was trying his ultimate best to see what she was holding so tight to her, but couldn't exactly make it out. he just assumed it was a teddy bear.

there wasn't alot that michael could do right now, as he did't want to wake her up. so he just laid there, staring at the ceiling. he was beginning to fall back asleep when he saw lilys light flick on, which blinded him as much as it did her.

lily groaned and buried her head into whatever stuffed animal she had. michael heard her mom walk into the room, but he couldn't see her. "get up, lilian, you can't be late today." lily silently nodded. "now, lily." her mother retorted, lily poked her head up, "i'll be up in a second, mom.." she slurred, obviously still tired. "no, you say that and then you are always late." lily looked up again, confused.

"i literally never am? i've never been late once." she sat up a bit while talking. michael sat in silence. "do not talk back to me, it's too early for your fucking attitude lily." she groaned again, falling backwards onto her bed. "don't roll your damn eyes, either. i'm getting sick of your shit."

michael's brows furrowed, he didn't know what the fuck he was witnessing. "what shit? you're never home to even see me in the morning!" she raised her voice slightly, he could tell by the way her voice cracked that she was about to cry. "don't start the waterworks on me, i'll give you a reason to cry." michael heard the door shut, and heard lily stifling back her sobs.

that's when she looked over at her phone, "oh my god did you hear all of that..?" lily asked, very quietly. michael nodded. "i'm sorry, she's like never home and then picks a fight." michael put his finger up to his lips, telling her to shut up.

michael was three stops before lily, and 5 stops after everybody else. he watched her walk out of the house, in his sweater again. lily's face was entirely red and she got on the bus, sitting down without a word. he didn't really know what to say. "good morning." sydney spoke up, tapping lily's leg to get her attention.

lily looked up briefly, giving her a smile. she was leaned against michael, who had his arm around her. they weren't dating, but they were damn well aware of their feelings for each other. michael mouthed 'not a good morning' to sydney, who nodded, understanding.

the day went by painfully slow for all of them, it was the last day before their break, so they knew that today would've gone as slow as humanly possible. lily's phone pinged, she forgot to turn her ringer off before she got to the school. quickly apologizing, she opened her phone.

'anybody wanna go somewhere after school?' it was from erin, she didn't feel like going anywhere. she wanted to sit at home and sleep. but, apart of her didn't want to go home either, she knew her mom was going to be itching for another argument.

'yeah sure, im down.' lily responded, a separate notification appeared at the top of her screen, from michael. 'u okay?' she smiled a bit, she's not too sure why. 'yeah, i'm fine' she typed back, seeing the texting bubble appear immediately. lily loved the little things, and one of those little things were texting michael. 'good.' she reacted with the heart on his message, setting her phone down.

she knew that this break would be ultimately better than her previous ones.