all mine | ft. michael clifford

twenty-three;

Dedicated to @sophiakitten - thanks for reading/commenting/being rad. x

Special POV: Michael Clifford

I couldn't sleep at all on our night in Portugal. Every time I thought I was close to getting some shut-eye memories of Mali deliberately going out of her way to come and lip lock with me had me snapping wide awake again. God, she was such a confusing human being. But so addictive. Everything about her had me completely fucking gone. And up until last night I was sold on the idea that she wasn't at all interested in me in the same way that I was in her. Now? I wasn't sure. But you don't just kiss someone for the hell of it. Not like she had. She'd done so in a way that felt desperate, like she was about to leave forever and in true Mali form, like she was about to die. You don't just kiss someone with that kind of emotion and not have it mean anything. It meant something to her. And it sure as hell meant something to me.

To conclude, she was driving me crazy.

Hence why I couldn't concentrate throughout sound check and stage set up. I was miles away, wondering how on earth I could get her to kiss me again. I'd seen Ashton and Olivia's relationship crumble before my very eyes. I'd watched a person's career come between two people who we all thought would get married and stay together forever. My career was the exact same as Ashton's and I was expected to deal with the same responsibilities and "business trips" away from home that he was. I wasn't sure if I'd be any good at being Mali Cross' boyfriend – or anyone's boyfriend for that matter. I was travelling a lot and even when I was home it was only for a short amount of time, preparing for our next string of shows. So no, I didn't know if I'd make a good boyfriend. All I knew was that I wanted her to myself. I needed her to be all mine.

"Mike, End Up Here from the top, yeah?" Luke was saying to me from where he stood in the center of the stage.

We were supposed to be running through the set but the guitar in my hands felt too heavy to play and I wasn't sure I remembered all the correct chords and riffs that I was supposed to.

I nodded anyway. "Yeah, okay."

The song was a blur, my concentration out the window. I mean, I felt good. But so uncertain about everything that involved that blue and black haired girl.

"You all good, man?" Calum asked as we put our guitars back on the stands after a run through of the set.

I nodded, not sure whether telling Cal about Mali was such a good idea. I guess it couldn't be any worse than keeping it all to myself. "Yeah, just confused about Mals."

He looked at me and shrugged. "What about her?"

We walked together around the back of the stage towards the corridor that led out to the cars. It was food time and we were all headed back to the hotel where management had prepared some kind of celebratory first-day-of-tour meal thing.

"God, it's fucking embarrassing," I started. "But I'm into her."

Calum looked at me and grinned. "I thought so."

I rolled my eyes. "Wouldn't you be though, if you weren't with Queen Veronica?"

Shit, even though he was dating V he probably still noticed how attractive Mali was; not only physically but mentally. Everything about her made you want to have or know more.

"I think she's great, man," Calum told me. "But you should probably know that Luke's got his eye on her as well."

Wait, shit, what?

I had no idea why I felt so surprised – I mean, I'd just spent the whole day thinking about her and yet there I was shocked that someone else had found her just as brilliant as I did.