BAD OMENS ✬ luke hemmings

6.3 | michael

Call him a little obsessive, but Michael has been watching Aria like a hawk because he is sure she's keeping something from him – not a small something, but something big, something related to her relationship with Luke. Michael is positive that something is wrong, and the leather jacket he'd seen hanging on her desk chair is perfect evidence.

The bracelet can easily be explained away, but the leather jacket and the Polaroid behind her phone case—yes, he knows about that because Aria leaves her phone lying around, and the stickers fail to hide the white frame of a picture – are topics that girl will not be able to weasel her way out of. Michael cannot possibly think of any logical reason why Aria would keep a Polaroid of the blond in her phone case – and it's relatively recent, too! From her birthday!

Michael would not say he's disappointed. He's mad that she's been keeping this from him – even though he can try to understand where Aria is coming from, he's still pissed the fuck off. All he wants to know is why Luke? Out of everyone in the world, she's chosen Luke? He's a dick! Not to mention, she's being hypocritical!

What happened to hating Luke? What happened to everything he'd done to her? What happened to all those fights and arguments based on the fact that the blond is a cocky dumbass with an ego bigger than him? And sure, Michael can't be too angry at Aria's hypocrisy since they both used to say the same things about Calum less than a year ago, but still! Luke has always been the one person that they've sworn to hate.

Okay, fine, maybe this isn't Michael's battle to fight, but he's been here. He's been part of the feud since the beginning! He's stuck by Aria; he has been there for her, and he's had her back since the first day – their friendship began because they hated Luke, and now it could be ruined because she no longer hates Luke. No, Michael's being dramatic, but he wouldn't know what to think if his theories are true.

Honestly, he feels betrayed, and he's been fighting to keep his mouth shut until after school when he can privately call Aria out on her bullshit.

He sits next to her in the auditorium, his fingers digging into the sides of his arms. At the same time, a leg bounces impatiently, and from the corner of his eye, he watches as she mindlessly scrolls through her phone – texting Chiedza, opening messages from her sister, and passively liking others' posts. Michael's checked her following. At least she's been smart enough not to show any public relation to the blond.

The girl turns off her phone, slipping it into her back pocket before leaning forward to talk to Sade, who sits in the row in front of them. Does Sade know? Michael wonders, sulking into his seat and staring blankly at the stage – empty aside from the podium at the far right and the big projector that displays a black screen.

Of course, Sade knows; Aria tells Sade everything she doesn't tell Michael, and to be fair, most of the time, Michael doesn't want to know half the things Sade does – except now, except when it involves one of the biggest betrayals of his entire life! Fucking girls.

"Michael, you look bored out of your mind," Calum's voice, and a nudge of his hand on his head, brings the boy out of his sulking. "Look a little bit happier; it's our last official day of school." He adds, sitting right behind Michael, with Luke – obviously – next to him, but behind Aria.

Michael turns his head to face Calum, not missing an opportunity to glare at the blond, who returns one before glancing down at his phone – who's Luke texting? The answer comes when he hears and sees Aria's phone vibrate from the back pocket of her jeans. "It's an hour and twenty-minute assembly to do what? Listen to the teachers give out awards to their favourite students?"

"Well, not only that, there's gonna be a video." Calum says, pointing to the projector on stage, "You know how we had to put a bunch of photos into the folder?" He explains, waving a hand in circles, "Like the photo of us as a baby and etcetera."