Wasted Time

Chapter 22

Michael's POV

My eyes flickered open to see Emily hovering above me, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open.

"Hi," I chuckled. "What are you –" I was cut off by her lips meeting mine, pressing insistently against my mouth before sliding her tongue along my bottom lip. Shivers running along my spine, I opened my mouth, allowing her tongue to explore my mouth. She shifted closer to my side, lifting her leg over mine so that she was straddling me. Still teasing my tongue with hers, I felt her fingers undo the button on my jeans, and the sound of the zip gradually descending reached my ears. Slowly, she slipped her fingertips inside my waistband, making me gasp. Something was eating away at the back of my mind – this was wrong. Not just morally wrong, there was something strange about it. I squeezed my eyes shut as her fingers crept further over my hips and down my thighs, my jeans coming down with them. My brain fought to understand the situation, my eyes still shut and the only sensation I could focus on was her lips pressing hard against mine and her fingertips trailing down my legs. Suddenly, her touch lifted, leaving me feeling numb. I shook my head, trying to clear it, and opened my eyes.

I woke up panting, and desperately tried to calm my breathing and my heartbeat. Oh, man. I had got to stop having those dreams. I turned my head to look at Emily next to me, and she was, as I had known all along, still deeply asleep. I wanted to punch myself, but I was worried of waking her up with quick movements or noise, so I just pinched the back of my hand as hard as I could, biting my lip at the pain. Why was I such an idiot? I had promised myself I wouldn't take advantage of the situation, and here I was having inappropriate dreams about her!

I examined her sleeping face carefully. There were tiny red patches underneath her eyes, and a stray eyelash had escaped down to her rosy cheek. Her soft lips had fallen slightly open, and a few strands of hair had fallen across her face, but she still looked just as beautiful as ever. Asleep, she looked peaceful and happy, her face free of frowns or tears, and it reminded me of last year, when she was carefree all the time. I wondered if meeting us had really been good for her. So far, we seemed to have only brought trouble into both her and Maddy's lives, but they kept considering us friends.

I shook my head at the wonder of it and turned over gently so that I was facing Emily. I felt something uncomfortably poking my thigh, and I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone. Out of curiosity, I switched on the screen, and noticed an unusual amount of texts from my bandmates. I frowned and slid one across, typing in my passcode to reveal 10 texts from Ashton, getting progressively more angry, and a few from the others as well.

I read the first one and groaned. 'Mikey where are you? Don't forget we've got a meeting at 10:30!' I scrolled through the rest, which were basically the same message but with more exclamation marks and swear words added as they went on. I swore quietly. I had completely forgotten about this meeting, which was supposed to be very important. Hesitantly, I checked the time. It was 10:45. I swore some more, still being careful not to wake Emily, before texting Dean to tell him to come and pick me up.

While I was waiting, I carefully climbed out of Emily's bed, trying to disturb the mattress as little as possible, and scribbled her a quick note on a bit of paper lying on her desk to explain where I had gone. I glanced back at her before leaving the room, knowing I had a few minutes before Dean arrived. I desperately wanted to kiss her forehead, just softly, just once, but I had watched too many films and read too many books where people did that and got caught, so I sighed and closed the door slowly behind me before rushing down the stairs as quickly as I could.

I hurled myself into the back of the minibus as fast as I could, and Dean immediately started the engine, knowing what a hurry I was in.

"Thanks so much for this," I gasped. "I'd literally be dead without you."

"You probably still will be," he shrugged. "You know what Chris is like..."

I groaned loudly. Chris, our manager, took his work very seriously and above all, did not tolerate lateness.

"So... what were you doing at Emily's anyway?" questioned Annabell from the passenger seat.

"Oh, hey Annabell," I greeted her, feeling bad for not acknowledging her before. "Um... well originally I just went round for dinner..."

"You didn't – did you?" asked Dean, suddenly sounding shocked.

"No, no, nothing like that," I added hastily.

"Good," he breathed out. "I mean, Luke would never forgive you," he added quickly.

"She was just... she's still really upset about the breakup... she needed me." Dean nodded, understanding. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, I caught sight of myself.

"Oh wow, I'm a mess," I groaned, trying to sort my hair out.

"A hot mess," added Dean, winking. I smiled, shaking my head.

"You look great, Michael," Annabell confirmed, rolling her eyes at her brother's flirting, which I assumed she was used to.

"Thanks guys."

"Listen, if the others get at you, we'll back you up," said Annabell earnestly. "You don't deserve that, but I know you guys aren't on the best of terms at the moment."

"Thanks," I said gratefully. I had quickly realised that Annabell was a very caring, easy person to be around, and I was starting to really like her. I sat in a slightly anxious silence for the rest of the journey, frightened of what the other boys and Chris would say when I turned up so late.

Emily's POV

I rolled over and hit something solid. Frowning, I opened my eyes to see the fabric of a checked shirt in front of me. I raised my head, to see Michael gazing down at me.

"Morning," he whispered, barely audibly, and leant down to place a gentle kiss on my lips. My mind felt blurry, and I couldn't decide what my feeling were. Wasn't there some reason why I shouldn't kiss Michael? I couldn't remember. I just smiled, and leaned back up to kiss him again. His lips were soft and comforting, the only thing that seemed real in this world of confusion and pain. I smiled into the kiss, feeling his lips turn upwards too, both of us lost in our own universe of peaceful happiness.

A loud bang, like a door closing, woke me up, and I sat up immediately. Remembering that when I had fallen asleep, Michael had been next to me, I looked to the side, but he was gone. Images from my dream floated back into my conscious mind. Oh no. Michael had agreed to stay and comfort me as a good friend would do, and here I was dreaming about kissing him? Why did I have to be so awkward?

I groaned and slowly got out of bed. I was a little disappointed that he had left without waiting to say goodbye, but I probably weirded him out by asking him to stay in my bed anyway... Ugh, I mess everything up... I thought, checking my phone to see if he had texted me. I had no new notifications. I sighed and wandered across my bedroom, planning to get some breakfast.

A piece of paper lying askew on my desk caught my eye; I had a bit of a thing about everything having to lie straight. I went over to straighten it, noticing it was one of my carefully-written pages of notes from my lecture the day before, but as I did so I saw some unfamiliar handwriting on the bottom. 'Sorry – late for a meeting. Please call me if you need anything. Michael xx' I smiled at how considerate he was, despite being slightly annoyed that he had written it in biro on my notes.

I got myself a cup of hot chocolate and sat looking out of the window at the busy street below, still hating myself for being so needy and forcing Michael to do something he was probably uncomfortable with, and still feeling slightly lonely to have woken up alone, but the memory of his presence and the fact that he cared warmed me up more than my hot chocolate ever could have done.

A/N

Sorry, this chapter was a bit of a filler. Hope you liked it anyway, please vote and comment if you did!

Thanks for reading :D What's your favourite bit of the story so far?