The day had already been monumentally shitty. The worst of the worst days. An absolute steaming-pile-of-crap day. So, really, it was only natural to finish it with a perfect cherry on top - his call from Death-Cast.
He was alone when the unmistakabl...
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𝙼𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚎𝚕 𝙳𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟸𝟷𝚜𝚝, 𝟷:𝟺𝟼𝚊𝚖
Michael watched his boss's kid rush from the room, the swirling pit of sympathy in his gut foreign to him as he and Zayn moved to confront Calum. He hissed out at him, taking a hold of the brunette's shoulder in his hand, "Harry's fucking dying?" all while Zayn had taken a defensive stance towards him, "What the fuck is wrong with you? You invited Ashton to ruin Mike's last day?"
Calum whirled around from where he'd been staring at the door Ashton left out of, wide eyed, and gave a frantic shrug of his shoulders like he was losing his sanity bit by bit. Michael could relate.
"Apparently. The Grim Reaper invested in a buy one, get one free special. It's fucking morbid around here today."
"Fuck," Zayn cursed, burying his head in his hands as he seemingly forgot his anger towards Calum for letting Ashton tag along in the first place. "I'm not gonna have a job anymore. What am I gonna do?"
Michael glared at the older man, making sure he was looking at him before spitting out through gritted teeth, "I don't know. Maybe enjoy not dying? Or, hey, maybe you'll get lucky and get your call tomorrow. Then you won't have to worry about it."
Zayn grimaced, guilt palpable as his gaze dropped to the floor. "Right. Sorry, Mike."
Michael realized how hard he was clenching his jaw and how tight his muscles were, making a conscious effort to relax himself and calm down. He let his face go lax as he sighed and shook his head. "Don't be. I'm just... dying, I guess."
Zayn frowned sympathetically as he took a step forward and placed a steady hand on Michael's shoulder. He squeezed lightly as they exchanged a heavy look.
"I know you are, bro. It sucks." He got as close to a smile as he ever did, which was pretty much a twitch of his lips, and shrugged nonchalantly. "I am gonna go poor once Harry kicks it, though. Not even joking. This is the best paying job I've ever had."
"This is the only job you've ever had." Calum rolled his eyes as Zayn shot a glare in his direction.
"Yeah, exactly, so how am I supposed to go to Mcdonalds after this? I don't want to come home smelling like grease. My wife would complain all fucking night."
"Since when do you have a wife?" Calum gaped, getting a stifled laugh from Michael and a deadpan expression from Zayn. Calum shifted his shock at Zayn to betrayal towards Michael. "You knew? You knew and you didn't tell me? We could've done so much damage with this information!"
Zayn hummed, wandering over to the pantry and beginning to search around in it. "Which is exactly why I didn't tell you."
Michael watched for a moment as the pair began a full-fledged argument that was certainly not of any importance, though it was nice to experience the familiarity of it, before quickly growing tired of the bickering and managing to slip away without either of them noticing. He took his sweet time winding through the dim hallway, fully intending to head back down to the break room, probably to have a smoke, until he heard the alarm system announce that the front door had been opened, which certainly wasn't normal for this time of night. He took it upon himself to do his job for once while he still could and went to check it out. He found nothing suspicious, but, rather, Harry's assistant, Niall, shaking snow out of his hair as he shrugged his coat off and hung it on the rack next to the door. It didn't take him long to spot Michael approaching and he was quick to greet the younger man with a pitying smile as he struggled to pull off his gloves.
