Only You (Punk Michael Clifford)

Three

When I arrive at the address that Calum gave me, I walk up to the medium-sized house. After a few knocks, an older woman, who I assume is Calum's mom, greets me nicely and lets me inside. She informs me that Luke and Calum are in his room and points me in the right direction. 

"Hey man, what's up?" Calum asks when I walk inside the room. Blink-182 is playing in the background as he sits in a desk chair and Luke lounges on his bed.

"Not much, just had to get out of the house," I say as I shut the door and take a seat on a beanbag in the corner of the room. 

"Why?" Luke asks plainly, not looking up from his phone.

"It's not important. You guys just sitting here?" I ask, looking back to Calum.

"Pretty much. We were trying to write some songs, but we gave up for the moment," Calum laughs.

"Writing songs? You guys in a band or something?" I ask, actually interested in something he was saying for once.

"Nah. We wanna start one, but a two guy band would be pretty lame. Especially if it was just the two of us," he laughs again. 

"Ah, okay," I say. I had actually written a few songs myself, but I refuse to show them to anybody. 

"You like Blink?" Calum asks after a few moments, eyeing my fingers as they tap my legs to the beat of the song.

"One of my faves," I answer. This was the most I had talked in front of them, in front of anybody in a long time actually. I didn't know why I was staying to hang out with these guys that I barely knew, but it was better than sitting in my house with an asshole of a dad. 

"You know, you're pretty cool," he says with a smile.

"Yeah for a guy who doesn't talk much," Luke says, still not taking his eyes off of the phone.

I don't know what it is, but something about Luke just made me want to punch him; at least once. On the other hand, I wanted to punch a lot of people. Maybe not Calum. 

- - - - - - - - - - -  - -

On Wednesday morning, I wake up to the usual horrible sound of my alarm clock. Instead of hitting snooze four times like usual, I force myself up. I stand up too fast and have to grip onto my headboard so I don't fall over from the dizziness. When I regain my balance, I walk to the dresser and throw on the usual outfit: black skinny jeans and a band shirt. I walk to the kitchen and find no trace of my father, which was a pleasant surprise. He must have had to go into work early this morning. For the first time in a long time, I sit down at the table and enjoy a nice bowl of cereal in the peace and quiet of my house that is usually filled with my dad's yelling. 

When I finish eating, I head to my car and start my drive to the other hell. For the past two days, I had been hanging out at Calum's house. I stayed late both nights, and yesterday it was just the two of us. Luke was hanging out with Brandi, and I wasn't upset that he wasn't there. So, when I get to my locker that morning and find the three of them standing there, I'm not surprised. 

"Hey Michael," Brandi says with a smile as she leans up against Luke. It was nice to see her in the morning, it brought a little bit of brightness to my usually dull days.

In the class before lunch, I talk to Calum the whole time as we work on worksheets with partners.  

"Yes Rachel?" I pause when I hear the teacher say. 

I turn around to see the blonde girl that I had noticed the first day. She is asking a question, but I didn't really hear her. Brandi was talking about someone named Rachel the other day, I wondered if this mystery girl was the same one. I couldn't look away from her as she tied her long hair into a loose ponytail, but when Calum waves his hand in front of my face I snap out of it. 

"Dude, will you just talk to her or something?" He says with a laugh.

"I don't need to," I say back, keeping my eyes on the paper instead of him.

"I see the way you look at her," he smirks.

"I was just wondering why she asks so many questions, that's all." I say. He shakes his head and we continue with our paper. 

When the class ends, I walk with Calum to the lunch room. We sit at our table after getting our food, Luke already sitting there again. Brandi comes around soon enough and of course starts talking up a storm about all of the running they had to do yesterday at practice. 

"Speaking of, did you decide about coming to my game tomorrow?" She asks me.

"Oh, I don't know..." I trail off. I had thought about it, but didn't know how it would be going to a school sporting event. 

"Come on dude, it'll be fun. We're both going of course," Calum says, talking about him and Luke.

"Please? It'd mean a lot," Brandi says with puppy dog eyes. "I think my friend Rachel is going too."

The blonde girl immediately pops into my mind. Now I definitely didn't want to go, but I couldn't say no to that pouting face.

I sigh before speaking. "Fine," I say plainly. 

"Thank you! I can't wait," she says and smiles that cute, little smile. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

That night after coming home from Calum's, I lay in bed as I listen to music. Who I believe to be Brandi's friend Rachel, sneaks her way into my mind again. Something about the way she spoke gave me a weird feeling inside, I didn't like it. I don't like to feel things, not since last time. I refuse to feel anything since last time. That's why I avoided everybody at all costs. It didn't seem to be working though; I was already letting too many people into my life, even if it was just a little bit. 

All I hoped was that it was a different Rachel and not the same one as the one in my class. That way, we wouldn't have any problems.