Never Let This Go (Michael Clifford)

Ch. 3 - The Spy and the Squealer

We just stopped by Waffle House and gotten fifteen waffles. I had told Michael that they were pretty big but he said the more waffles, the better. I had to once again try to convince him that I would buy them but he didn't budge this time so we came to a compromise. We halved the bill. Now we are on our way back to the venue.

"Put some music on," Michael says from the backseat. Alexis and I look at each other and laugh. "Suuuree," I say. Alexis connects my phone into the aux cord and plays Voodoo Doll (One Mic, One Take). Hey, what's up? It's 5 Seconds of Summer. We're gonna be doing voodoo doll, a new original.

"Oh God, no!" Michael says, horrified, reaching to the front and turning the volume down. "Why-how do you have this on your phone?" He asks, looking at me.

"Sit back and put your seat belt on, dude," I say, scowling at him. He looks at me surprised and says, "Yes, mother."

I laugh, "And to answer your question: I downloaded it from YouTube. I like this version better than the studio version."

"Wow, that's illegal," he says, laughing. "So? You gonna tell?" I retort back. Before he can reply, Alexis turns the song back up. ...even when you're far away from me ee eee... "Vocals on point, Michael!" Alexis says out loud. She covers her mouth and looks at me.

"Yes, Michael, your vocals are amazing in this song. You should be proud." I say, smiling. All I hear is him grunting, "Yeah, right."

So, he's not a compliment receiver. Maybe he hears it too often? Maybe he doesn't believe he's that talented. I'm about to say something but Michael says, "Let me see your phone."

"Why?" I ask, sassily.

"I wanna see what songs you have of ours."

"I think you underestimate how big of fangirls we are."

"Just...let me see." He says clearly done with my hesitation.

I huff and hand Alexis my phone. "Unlock it for him," I say. She nods and hands it to him when she's done. He scrolls through the songs seeing the ones we downloaded from YouTube and the ones from the album disk. Suddenly, his face scrunches up in disgust. "Unpredictable? You have Unpredictable on here?"

"Yes! Oh, my gosh, we love that song!" Alexis says, turning back to him with a smile. He just smiles back and shakes his head.

"Here. Stop here," he says when he looks out the window. I stop the car and we are in front of the tour bus from earlier. He hands me a bag of waffles and another bag to Alexis and takes the last two, "Come on." Did he just invite us in? Alexis and I stare at each other with eyes wide open. We hurry out the car and follow him to the bus.

Once inside, I immediately notice Calum and Luke sitting in the dining room area. I really want to scream and run to them and hug them but I decide to act cool. I look back at Alexis with silent excitement and just follow Michael's lead. "Hey guys, I brought you something back," he says, handing them a waffle. Calum smiles and says, "Who are they? And why haven't you introduced us?"

"This is Eliana and Alexis, the girls that kidnapped me. Eliana here is a spy and Alexis is a professional squealer."

Alexis plops down across from the guys and says, "I resent that I only squealed, like, twice."

Calum laughs and Luke finally speaks up, "Thanks for the waffles, but we need to talk about what happened today."

Michael rolls his eyes, "Come on, give me a break. I went to go eat with some lovely girls. I didn't break any laws. I didn't ruin our reputation or whatever the fuck management thinks I do all the time." Luke shrugs his shoulders and begins to eat his waffle. "I don't care what you do," he says after a couple of bites, "But we need communication, is all they're saying. Plus, you basically made security feel like they suck at their job."