Runaways > > Mikey Clifford

\\Chapter 7\\

Ashton walked in awkwardly, Luke holding the door open. After he was inside, Luke pushed the door closed and walked in front of him, heading for the garage door.
"Right this way," he said.
Ashton followed, still having not said a word since he got here. We all followed Luke into the garage, and they all went to their instruments as I found a metal fold-up chair and unfolded it to sit down.
Luke pointed at the drum set.
"Show us what you got."
Ashton strode to the drum set and sat on the stool behind it.
He tapped his drumsticks together four times, and started playing.
At first he just did the bass drum, then added the snares, then high hats, keeping a steady beat. Then he went all out. He was going crazy, hitting drums seemingly faster than the speed of light.
At the end, he started slowing down, slower, slower, and ended with a hard whack on the cymbal.
Calum clapped really slow, then progressively got faster until everyone joined in in a round of applause, which almost resembled how Ashton had played the drums.
He stood up, took a bow, and sat back down.
"You're hired," Luke said.
A huge, dimpley smile crossed his face.
Luke walked up to shake his hand, and stopped in his tracks when he got a good look at Ashton's face.
"Hey.... I know you."
"Hold on... Hemmings?" Ashton asked, looking closer.
"Yeah," Luke said, a cute, awkward smile appearing. "By the way, I, uh, I never got to say thanks for that."
"Ah, don't mention it, mate," Ashton replied. "It was nothing."
"Wait, this is Irwin?" Calum asked.
"Yeah," Luke said. He turned to me.
"Irwin helped me out one time. Two douchebags were trying to jump me and he, uh, helped me out."
"Oh," I said. I honestly didn't know how reply to that. I looked to Ashton, whom they kept calling Irwin. I figured that was his last name, since he also called Luke "Hemmings".
"I'll order the celebration pizza," Calum said. "You like pepperoni, don't you?"
Ashton nodded.
We all walked inside, Michael and I being the last to do so.
"We celebrate everything with pizza," Michael said. "Everything."
"Are you complaining?"
"Nope, not at all," he said.
"... alright, thanks, man, bye," Calum said as we all took our seats in the living room. "45 minutes."
"We should play a game," Michael said. He started looking around, and spotted an empty glass Coca Cola bottle laying on the floor. He picked it up and held it out for everyone to see, as if saying,
"Spin the bottle?"
All the guys looked at each other, then to me, then back to each other before saying,
"No."
Michael laughed before replacing the bottle back to where it was before. "Well... Fuck. I was really wanting to kiss Cal."
"But what if Cal isn't wanting to kiss you?" Calum replied, a smile appearing. His smile is so cute. It reminds me of a toddler being tickled.
"Well, then, fuck again," Michael said in a whiney tone, popping his lip out in a mock pout.
"Cry me a river," Calum said, returning the pout.
We sat in silence for about thirty seconds before my phone vibrated. I checked it; It was my friend, who lives in the U.K., Grace.
She texted me,
"Holy fuck. Guess who asked who to the Christmas dance?"
She has this really awkward relationship with this guy named Chris. Like, they've liked each other forever, and they're aware of their feelings, but both of them are epic derps so they never made a move.
"Shit, no way! Say yes say yes say yes," I texted back.
She replied immediately; "I said 'if I must'".
Typical Grace.
"Lmao well I have to go, sorry I haven't texted you in a while, I'll explain later."
She texted back: "Alrighty, byye".
I put my phone away, joining the awaiting eyes that were all staring at me, since I was the only motion in the room, but they quickly looked away after I became motionless once more.
Ashton was the most awkward, tensed up and hands together, fiddling with his thumbs.
Michael reached for his phone and started tapping the screen, but I couldn't see what he was doing.
Then I heard one of my most favorite bands ever come on; Sleeping With Sirens. As the music started playing, Ashton seemed to loosen up a little, tapping his foot to the beat of "Gold". We sat and listened to the song, and the awkward atmosphere that had fell upon the room after Michael and Calum's little flirting session seemed to have been lifted.
By that time, though, the pizza still had about 40 minutes left.
"How about truth or dare?" Luke spoke up, an unsure look on his face as he look from person to person for an answer.
We all nodded yes, and Michael said,
"That's a better idea than crying rivers."
He gave Calum a glare, and Calum again repeated the pout.
"Okay," Luke said. "I'll start."
He looked around at everyone, trying to decide who to pick, and his eyes rested on Calum.
"Cal. Truth or dare?"
Calum looked so conflicted, but ended up saying truth.
"Is it true that you're a virgin?" Luke asked, and Calum's face turned red as he blushed.
"I said dare."
"No, you said tru--"
"I. SAID. DARE."
"Okay, fine," Luke said, thinking. "I dare you to call Misty and ask her out on a date."
Misty Pluggs.
The school bitch.
"You have her number?" I asked, dumbfounded that he'd be in contact with such a bitch.
"Yeah, things happened, blah blah," Calum said, picking up his phone that was sitting on the coffee table and dialing a number, putting it on speaker.
It rang a few times, before I heard Misty's voice say, as though she was really annoyed and pissed off,
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's Calum."
Her tone automatically changed from angry to excited.
"Oh, hey, Calum!"
"Hi."
"So, what do you need?"
"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie sometime, like tomorrow at 6?"
He said this very smoothly, and I was wondering what was going through his little kiwi ass mind.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" she asked.
"It does sound that way, doesn't it?"
"Well, yes, I would like to."
"Well, I wouldn't. GOT EEM."
He quickly hung up the phone.
"Impressive," Luke said. "Judges rule it counts. Your turn."
He looked all around, before resting his eyes on Michael.
"Michael," he said. "Truth or dare?"
Michael answered right away.
"Truth."
Calum must be a pretty hardcore darer, by the speed "truth" fell out of Michael's mouth.
"Are you a virgin?"
Michael's cheeks blushed bright red from their normal ghostly pale appearance, and I had to bite my lip to contain laughter as he said,
"Yes."
"Dude, really?" Calum seemed very surprised at this.
I wasn't really surprised, but it seemed like news to Luke and Calum. They looked at him with confusion in their eyes, especially Calum.
"Not even Elizab--"
"Nope."
"Or Meliss--"
"Nada."
"Come on, what about Christ--"
"Negatory."
"Damn, boy. Damn. Well, your turn, innocence."
His cheeks formed a deeper blush at this name as he looked around, eyes stopping on Ashton.
"Irwin, truth or dare?"
Ashton thought for a few seconds before deciding on truth.
"Is your middle name Chlamidia?" Michael asked, and he covered his mouth with his hand as he mouthed the words "say yes" to Ashton.
"Definitely," Ashton answered, the dimples reappearing on his cheeks as he smiled and looked around.
His eyes stopped on me.
"You, sorry what's your name?"
Ugh, I hate this question.
"Mars."
He noticed my embarrassed look and smiled even bigger.
"That's a nice name. Truth or dare?"
I thought, and decided we needed some fun up in here.
"Dare."
He looked surprised, as though he was planning a truth to ask me in his head.
He thought, staring at the coffee table as he said,
"I dare you to spin the bottle and kiss whoever it lands on."
Luke and Calum didn't seem affected by this at all, as if they're fine with kissing me, but didn't really care. Ashton didn't exclude himself, so I feel as though he's hoping the bottle will land on him. But a jealous look appeared on Michael's face instantly, looking around at the others.
"Dammit," I said. "That's what I get for hanging with a bunch of dudes."
I picked up the coke bottle Michael had picked up earlier and sat it on it's side on the coffee table. I looked around at my audience, everyone watching me like a hawk.
I spun the bottle with a quick wrist flick.
It spun.
And it spun.
It spun for longer than I thought it would, and started slowing down.
When it stopped, I traced my eyes to who it was pointing at.
Michael.
Joy flooded through my blood, because I'd rather keep my lips away from a complete stranger and onto...
What is Michael? Like, technically speaking, we aren't a "couple". But we don't have, like, zero chemistry, obviously, considering we've kissed before. But what was the meaning of that kiss?
It was to calm me down when I was having a mental crisis. Does it count? Did it have real, emotional meaning? Or was it just a comforting moment?
Well, either way, I'm kissing Michael.
I looked over at him once the bottle had stopped, and saw a grin cross his face that he tried to conceal by looking at the ground. Is it just me, or is it so fucking cute when guys blush?
I kind of just looked at him for a minute, before hearing Calum's voice say,
"Hey! You two should kiss!"
I smiled before leaning towards Michael, him looking up at me before he got impatient and went all in.
He wrapped his arms around my back but automatically pulled them back and pulled away from the kiss, remembering we had an audience.
He slumped back to where he was sitting.
"Your turn."
I looked around. Luke and Calum still looked unaffected by the kiss, and Ashton looked a bit disappointed, but otherwise he seemed fine.
The music was still playing, now being About a Girl by Nirvana.
I decided to pick Luke, since he hasn't been truth-or-dared yet.
"Luke, truth or dare?"
He thought, then chose dare.
"I dare you to spin the bottle."
His jaw dropped, surveying the people surrounding him, and picked up the bottle.
It spun.
And it spun.
And it stopped.
It was pointing at Calum.
"Shit," Calum said, yet he smiled slightly.
"Shit," Luke said, also mocking the same smile.
They both looked at me, then Calum pursed his lips as Luke pecked his lips, then wiped his own furiously with his hand.
I thought Michael was gonna pass out from laughing so hard, and Ashton's grin grew to an all time size.
"Your turn, Lukey-Poo," Calum said with a wink, making Luke smile and shift uncomfortably as he chose Ashton, who again picked dare.
"You haven't got any action," Luke said.
He simply rolled the bottle toward Ashton and he got the idea.
The bottle spun.
And spun.
And stopped.
On me.
My face turned bright red as I stood up and walked toward him, sitting between him and Calum.
His face was red as well as he leaned and kissed me, more than a peck, but less than what Michael and I had shared at my house. It didn't have much chemistry, but he was definitely not a bad kisser, not that I really had a list to compare him to, seeing as Michael was my first kiss.
I was the one who pulled away, him seeming reluctant in doing so.
I walked back and plopped down next to Michael, who looked very upset and was staring at the floor.
A slight silence, excluding the music, had fell upon the room.
Luke spoke up.
"Your turn, Ash."
Ashton looked around and chose Calum.
"Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Have you ever had sexual relations with a guy?"
"Besides mine and Lukey's kiss just now, no, I... No."
This, this was a filthy lie. It was not believable at all. But I didn't say anything. I didn't want to pry.
Calum turned to Michael, who still looked troubled.
"Michael, truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Do you want to quit playing?"
"Yeah, I'm bored."
"Same."
We all agreed, but still, truth or dare only wasted about ten minutes, leaving still 25 minutes for the pizza.
"Xbox?" Luke asked.
"Xbox," we all answered, nearly in unison.
We went upstairs and I sat out and watched them play, since there were only four controllers. They played Call of Duty, which wasn't really my thing anyway. I went back to texting Grace, and explained to her about my family leaving, about being left all that money in the lunchbox, about Michael.
I talked most about Michael.
By the time the doorbell rang, the pizza was right on time.
Luke went downstairs and came back up with two large pizzas, plopping them onto his bed and grabbing out a slice, followed by everyone else.
We were all super hungry and scarfed down the pizza, talking about basically nothing too amazing, about Ashton and where he lives and Luke and Cal making plans to hang out with him tomorrow.
After we ate, Michael and I decided to head home. It was about half past five and we decided we were gonna clean up my room and get cleaned up, considering we haven't showered and a few days.
We said bye to everyone, Michael and I giving Ashton our numbers, and headed home.
We walked the whole way there in silence, and I had to pee really bad. I hate peeing at other people's houses, so I ran inside and to the bathroom as quick as I could. I got a text right wen I shut the door and checked it.
It was Ashton.
"What up Mars Bar?"
Well, that's unoriginal. I can't count how many times I've been called that.
"Have to pee. Hold on," I texted back. After I was done and washed my hands, I texted him back.
"Okay, peed. Nm, hbu," I texted back. "Bored. I went home too," he texted. "soo, are you and Michael, ya know, in likes of each other?"
"Complicated, tbh. Why?"
"Just wondering..."
"Why were you wondering?"
"No reason."
"Ashton."
"No. Reason."
"Okay, whatever, well I have to go."
"Whyyyy?"
"You won't tell me why so I don't have to give you a reason."
"Okay, fine."
"Fine what?"
"Fine, bye."
"Bye."
I was in the bathroom for almost ten minutes before I opened the door quietly, planning on scaring Michael.
But when I got to the door I heard something.
A sniffle.
I peered in the door to see Michael, with teary eyes and wet paths down his cheeks.
I walked in, trying to make my presence known so he'd have time to cover up his tears before I plopped down on the bed.
"How... How much did you see?" he asked.
"Just a bit."
"Mars...?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you kiss him?"
"The bottle spoke," I said simply, which only caused more tears to fall down his face.
"Mars...?"
"Yes?"
"What's wrong with me?"
"I think you just got hit with the jealous stick."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"It's just... Seeing you kiss him, I thought I'd be okay with it, because we aren't technically dating, and it was just a game. But seeing your lips on his, I just wanted to be him. It hurt. I know it's not my job to be protective because I don't know if you feel the way I do and I just--"
I pressed my lips onto his. He was taken aback at first, but didn't object to it. I slipped my tongue past his lower lip for permission to enter, which he granted. We kissed for as long as we could hold our breathes, and we let go.
"Mars...?"
"Yes?"
"I love you."
"I love you, too."
And we leaned in again for another kiss.
•
A/N
OML I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN FOREVER IM SO SO SORRY CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER ILL TRY NOT TO PROCRASTINATE ANYMORE ILY BYE