Runaways > > Mikey Clifford

//Chapter 4//

When I awoke, Michael was still asleep.
I was facing him, him facing me, and he had his arm around my shoulder, and my head was buried in his warm chest. I felt... Secure.
It was still dark in his room, as it was probably around four in the morning.
I didn't move; I didn't want to wake him. I wanted to lay there in his embrace as long as I could. I still had a long time to sleep, so I closed my eyes. It felt like I had only just drifted back to sleep when I awoke again, because he had woken up and probably gotten embarrassed and moved away.
I waited a few minutes, then pretended I had only just woke up, groggily shifting on my back and slowly opening my eyes, looking to the right to be greeted by a smile from Michael, his back against the wall and his legs crossed, hands gripping his phone.
"Morning, sunshine," he said.
"Mornin'," I said, not faking the sleepy way my voice had sounded.
"Sleep well?" he asked, and I nodded with an "mmhmm".
"So whatcha wanna do?" he asked.
"No idea," I said.
"Wanna go hang with Luke and Cal?" he asked.
I thought about the pros and cons, pros being more people, cons being more people. I decided yolo.
"Sure."
I grabbed my phone to see it was now 11:30 in the morning.
His thumbs started tapping across the keyboard on his phone, and I took it that he was texting one of them.
A few minutes later, his text alert went off, which is the "duh-dum-tiss" drum sound.
"They said go ahead and come over," he said. "Calum slept over at Luke's house last night, so they're both there."
"Nice," I said. "I should probably get dressed. Bathroom?"
"Down the hall, first door on the right," he answered.
I didn't even change into my pajamas I'd brought last night. I don't know how I managed to sleep in these tight ass skinny jeans, but I did, so I'm not complaining.
I slipped off my shirt and sat on the toilet to peel off my jeans.
The struggle, man. It's real.
I slid on a pair of red skinny jeans I had brought, with a black and red Iron Maiden shirt, and again the black slouchy beanie I wore yesterday. I brushed my hair with the brush I had put in my bag, and sprayed on some perfume.
I replaced the hairbrush and perfume in my bag, along with the clothes I had slept in, and picked up my bag, heading back to Michael's room. He had already changed.
He was wearing black skinnies with holes in either knee, and also an Iron Maiden shirt that was the exact same design as mine.
I walked in and giggled, and he looked over to ask what was so funny, and smiled, allowing a laugh to escape his lips.
"I should.... Change," he said, still smiling.
He pulled off his shirt and threw it in his closet.
He looked through all his shirts, and turned to me.
"Nirvana or Arctic Monkeys?" he asked, but I barely caught it because I was preoccupied staring at his flat, slightly built chest.
He barely had abs, but I hadn't seen him with no shirt before, so it surprised me.
"Huh-- Nirvana, Nirvana," I said, barely catching what he said and answering as quickly as possible.
He seemed to notice, because he smirked and pulled out a Nirvana shirt with a picture of Kurt in a green filter on it.
"It's cold outside," he said. "Did you bring a jacket or anything?"
"No," I said, kind of embarrassed at my own stupidity to forget a jacket when there's nearly frost in the grass, it's so chilly.
"Here," he said, pulling a red and black flannel from his closet. "You can borrow this."
He threw it to me.
He even gave me one that matches my outfit, I thought. I slid it on.
It smelled like his cologne. Is it bad that I like that smell?
He pulled out a green and black one to match his own outfit and slid it on.
We pulled on our shoes and stood up.
"Let's go," he said, and lead me out into the living room and out his front door, him grabbing his lanyard and key off the hook as he walked out.
Luke's house was literally about a minute away. He lived in a cal-de-sac right off Michael's street. We walked up the brick walkway to the front door and Michael rang the doorbell. It only took about five seconds for a tall, skinny boy to come and answer the door. He must've been waiting for us.
He opened the door and held it for Michael and I to walk through.
Michael led me to the couch and sat down, patting the cushion beside him to indicate for me to sit too.
"Mars, this is Luke"-- he pointed to the tall boy that answered the door--"And Calum"-- he pointed to an oriental looking boy sitting across the room on the other couch--"Guys, this is Mars."
They both gave me a smile, wave, and a "Hey Mars" to which I replied by waving and smiling back.
Luke was probably around six feet tall, with floppy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was really slim, and really attractive.
Calum was also tall, but to a lesser extent. He had dark hair and tanned skin, and appeared Asian of some sort. He was also pretty attractive.
After Luke closed the door, he walked over and sat on the other side of Michael.
"You're right, Michael, she is cute," Luke said quietly, but loud enough for me to hear, and I blushed as Michael punched Luke on the arm and gave him a glare.
Luke noticed me blushing and started to laugh, knowing I had heard what he said.
"Have you heard Michael play?" Luke asked me.
"Huh?" I asked, not knowing what he was talking about.
"Guitar," Luke said.
"Oh, no, no, I haven't."
"We should sample a song for her," Luke inquired to the other two, looking from one to the other.
"Sure," Michael said, and they stood up and I followed them into the garage.
There were instruments laying around, a couple guitars against the far wall and a bass guitar across, and a set of drums that looked like they were hardly ever used in the back of the garage where we walked in.
Luke and Michael walked to the guitars and hooked them up to amplifiers that were towards the door of the garage.
Calum did the same with his bass.
They talked amongst each other, and I felt a bit awkward just standing by the door.
"Guess the song," Michael said.
Luke counted them off, and they all started playing, and I instantly knew the song, even without drums, but I wanted to hear them keep playing it.
Luke started singing, and his voice was better than I thought it was going to be. He sang into the cheap microphone he had standing in front of him, but it seemed to work fine.
I looked over to Calum, who was hitting every note on time, his lips mimicking the lyrics silently.
My eyes moved to Michael.
His fingers were moving like crazy across the fingerboard, fret to fret, hitting every note perfectly.
It was a sight to watch, and I was mesmerized by his movements, the way his eyebrows furrowed as he watched his fingers to make sure they were moving right, his mouth slightly open.
He looked really... Hot.
He was shredding that guitar so hard it looked as though it was about to fall apart.
A layer of sweat gleamed across his face, making him look hotter, if that was even possible.
The song ended, and I clapped. The song was the classic American Idiot, by Greenday. Luke looked to me.
"Be honest, could you tell what it was before I started singing?" He asked.
I nodded.
"Damn," I said. "You guys need to be famous."
Luke's lips pointed up into a smile, and looked to Michael and Calum, who also smiled.
"Thanks," he said.
I didn't feel awkward anymore. I felt like I've known them for a while. Like I didn't just meet them today.
We went back inside after they put their instruments back, and sat down in the same places we sat in before we went to the garage.
"You look familiar," Calum said, finally speaking up.
"Yeah, I go to Falling," I said, and he nodded.
"Seen you a few times."
I nodded back. At least one out of these three recognize me. I've only been in this district, let's see, my whole life.
We kind of just hung out in the living room for about half an hour, before Luke suggested we go upstairs and play his new Xbox game he got. Some zombie game.
"I have four controllers," Luke said to me, and I nodded.
"I'm down," I said, and we walked upstairs and into Luke's room. He also had posters of all my favorite bands like Michael had. His room looked just like Michael's had when we had first arrived, pizza boxes laying around and clothes scattered on the floor.
He turned the game on and passed out the controllers, Luke and Calum on his bed, Michael and I on the floor, all facing the TV.
We started the game he said is called "Left 4 Dead". I've heard of it, but never played it.
I haven't played video games in years. Not like my parents would buy me a console, and the last time I played an Xbox was at my cousin's house when I was thirteen. We played Lego Harry Potter.
It took me a while to get the hang of the game, but once I did, I got into it, and we were all yelling at each other, "I'M DOWN!"
"REVIVE ME!"
"SHIT, A FUCKING SMOKER!"
Those Smokers are pretty annoying, grabbing you with their tongues and causing a smokey fog after you kill them.
We played that game for probably three hours. It was about 3:00 and we were hungry, so Luke called and ordered a couple pizzas.
"Hour and a half wait," he said, looking around at everyone as if asking what to do, and we all simultaneously picked up our controllers, and started playing the game from where we left off.
At about 4:40, the doorbell rang, and we paused the game, and Luke grabbed his wallet off his dresser as he exited his room and ran downstairs to get the pizzas, bringing them back up and plopping them on his bed.
We all grabbed a slice.
"So, I'm confused," Luke said, looking from Michael, to me, and back to Michael. "How exactly did you two meet?"
"I was on the swings at some playground," Michael started.
"I walked by and saw him, and went over," I continued.
"Wait, how'd you know he wasn't some psycho killer or something?" Calum asked.
"His galaxy leggings," I answered, and everyone started laughing, even Michael, who said,
"I'm glad I got them, then."
"Dude, why were you at a park at 9 at night wearing your galaxy leggings?" Luke asked.
"I was gonna sleep in them for whatever reason, and decided... So I didn't think of changing and... Yeah."
I think I was the only one who understood what he meant by "I decided".
A silence fell in the room, and it started to bug me, so I continued the story.
"So I walked up and sat down on the swing beside him and we ended up going into the woods," I said.
"We just found a place to sleep and woke up with twigs in our hair," Michael said.
"I see," Calum said. "That story escalated quickly."
Michael and I nodded at the same time, at the same pace, causing Luke and Calum to laugh.
We all reached for another slice of pizza, having finished our first piece.
After most of the pizza was gone and there was half of one left, Michael and I decided we were going to head back to his place.
We said bye to Calum and Luke and walked out the door. It was about 6:00.
We were a few houses from Michael's, and he seemed to have just thought of something, and broke into a run.
I followed him, running behind him.
He practically ripped the door open and ran inside.
"Michael, what--"
"My parents are coming home tonight," he said, running to his room and grabbing his duffle bag, throwing as many shirts and pants he could fit into his bag, along with a hairbrush cologne, charger, and his wallet.
He ran back outside, and he slammed the door beside him. He started calming down as we made it to the sidewalk.
"My house?" I asked, and he nodded. He was breathing heavily, out of breath from all the running. As we made our way to my place, we turned a corner off Michael's street only to see a car pull into Michael's driveway, coming from the other side of the road, red paint chipping, duct tape over one of the the back seat windows.
His parents stepped out of the car and didn't seem to see us, as there was a bush concealing most of us on the corner as we turned to another street.
Michael sighed in relief, and we continued our journey back to my house.
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//A/N//
OKAY OKAY I KNOW CALUM ISN'T ASIAN DONT ATTACK ME MICHAEL WILL CLARIFY SOME DAY I SWEAR IT HURT NARRATING THIS
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What did you think of this chapter? Tbh I think it was kinda boring.
I'll be updating probably later tonight, so be ready. This next chapter is far from boring.
*evil laughter*
Be sure to vote and comment!
<3xox<3
~~ari_the_punkmaster