Michael
"Mum? Dad? You guys home?" I called Dave from outside Ness' apartment to pick me up and bring me home. As much as I hate to admit my stupidity, I really need them right now.
"In here, Mike," my dad calls out from the living room. As much of a mumma's boy as I am, I think it might be better to talk to Dad about this.
"Hey Dad, can I talk to you a minute?" I ask as I walk in the living room.
"Of course, Mike, what's up?"
I take a deep breath. "I fucked up Dad. Real bad." He looks at me with concern as I continue. "I met this lady on the plane here, and we've been hanging out the past week and a half. It's hard to explain but it was supposed to just be physical, nothing more. She's heading back to the States in three days."
"Supposed to be?" Dad asks.
"Uh, yeah. She's, um, well..." Deep breath. Spit it out Mike! "She's a fan, but, uh, she's like 40 and married. Her daughter's like 16, 17, and a fan too. And I uh, Dad... I think I'm falling in love with her."
"Oh shit." Thanks for the encouragement Dad!
"Yeah. What do I do, Dad?"
"I'm just confused about the married with kids part. And 40, Mike? She's just a few years younger than your mum and I."
"I know Dad. Neither of us ever meant for any of this to happen. It just kinda did." I explain to him about Sarah and Rob's 'list' and about everything. I spill it all. About what she told us about Grace, about herself... Everything.
"What does she have to say about all this?" Dad asks.
"Um, I kinda left while she was sleeping. I haven't talked to her."
"Maybe you should talk to her? I don't know what to tell you, Mike. If she's going home with her husband and to her kids, then you're just going to have to find a way to work through this on your own, I'm afraid."
"How?"
"You'll find a way. But for now, I think you need to talk to her. From everything you've said, I'm sure she didn't mean for it to get this far either and I'm sure that she cares for you deeply."
"You're right. Thanks Dad."
Sarah
"You need to call him Sarah. By not responding to him, you're telling him you don't care, and you obviously do." Calum tells me. I know he's right. I need to apologize. I should've never let this happen. I just got too caught up in the fantasy. I need to do this now, rather than later. I grab my phone and go out on the balcony and dial his number.
Michael
"Uh, hi" I answer quietly. "I need to explain why I left."
"I'm so sorry Mikey. I never thought things would go this far. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you. I feel horrible right now." What? How does she know? I'm really confused. Unless...
"I wasn't dreaming, was I?" I ask her.
"You were talking in your sleep Mikey. Rob had called and you started mumbling in your sleep. I only could understand three words." Fuck. Well, I guess I needed to tell her anyways, right?
"I think we need to talk. I'll have Dave get you so we can go somewhere and figure this out. I never meant for this to happen either, Sarah."
"I know. I'll see you soon?"
"Yeah." As soon as we hang up, I call Dave and he says he'll be here in 20 minutes to take me over there. I go take a quick shower and change my clothes and as soon as I'm ready, Dave is honking the horn for me. I tell my dad where I'm going and he wishes me luck. Luck? Luck doesn't have anything to do with emotions. Here goes nothing.
Sarah
"Sarah, you're going to wear a hole in the floor with your pacing. Relax!" Relax Calum? Really? How?
"I can't relax Calum! I am hurting him! I hate hurting anyone, especially Mikey!" I'm ranting as Calum's playing on his phone, only half of his attention on me, but I keep ranting anyways. It is seriously the only thing from keeping me from breaking down into tears right now.
"He's as nervous as you right now, trust me. God you two are meant for each other!" I freeze in my tracks and glare at Calum.
"Not helping!"
"Sorry, but you are. Are you sure he's not your son?" If looks could kill, Calum Hood would be incinerated on the spot.
"Not even remotely funny Calum!"
He holds his arms up in defense. "Okay okay! Got you to quit pacing though, didn't I?" he smirks.
"God, you're such a pain in the ass!" This makes him laugh and I actually start to chuckle a little bit. Until my phone buzzes with a text message from Michael that he's downstairs.
"Shit fuck shit fuck," I start until Calum grabs me by the shoulders and forces me to look into his big brown eyes.
"Deep breath Sarah. You two will work this out, okay?" I nod and he grabs my phone from my hand, typing quickly. "I'm going to regret this later," he mumbles under his breath, handing it back to me, "I put two of my three numbers in there. The third is work only, so these are my US and overseas numbers. 'Pain in the ass 1' is the one I'm using now. 'Pain in the ass 2' is US. Text me if u need anything, ok? I'll see you when you get back." I'm tearing up now and laughing at the same time.
"Thank you Calum!" I say through my tears as I hug him as tightly as possible.
"Anytime Sarah, now go!" I unwrap my arms from his waist and head out the door to the awaiting SUV. I climb inside, say hello to Dave and sit down next to Michael.
"You alright, Sarah?" Dave asks before pulling away from the curb.
"Yeah, thanks Dave. Calum was just really sweet."
"That sounds like Cal," he says then focuses on the traffic.
Michael takes my hand, intertwining our fingers together and looks at me sheepishly. It pulls at my heart and as much as I want to, I can't smile. I feel too horrible for what I've done to him.
"It's okay, Sarah. We'll figure something out," he says, sensing my unease.
Figure something out? What is there to figure out? I am hurting him and there's nothing we can do about it. But I nod anyway. We don't need to talk about this in front of Dave.
Its an uncomfortable silence in the car until we arrive at an elementary school playground. Okay, I guess this is actually a pretty good place to go for privacy. Fans aren't going to think of an elementary school to try to find one of the guys. We climb out of the SUV and before Mikey closes the door, Dave calls out to me. I pop my head in the door and look at him. "Yeah?"
"He may be young, but he's tougher than you think," he says with a wink. That's the reassurance I needed to hear.
I give him a smile. "Thanks Dave!" I shut the door and Michael instantly locks our fingers together and leads us to the swing set. We each sit in a swing, hands still intertwined as we slowly swing together in sync with each other.
Neither of us speaks for awhile so I take it upon myself to speak up first.
"I'm sorry Mikey. I wish I could give you some hope for the future for us, but I can't. I leave in three days. All I can give you is those three days. After that, you go back to promoting and touring and I go back to homework and doctors appointments."
"Sarah, I don't know what this is I'm feeling right now, but I've known from day 1 what the risks were. I liked the idea of no strings attached, of once the two weeks ended that's it. I knew that you had a family to go back to. But I also knew from the first day that I was taking a risk with my emotions. Ash warned me, too, but I chose not to listen. That was my choice, not yours. Don't feel guilty, please. I'll figure my own shit out. I just want to make the most of these next few days while you're here, ya know? We both know I don't have time for that shit anyways, right?" He's got a point there.
"Makes for good lyrics." I say it in a joking manner, but we both know it's true. "And I've always loved your songs best." He stands up in front of me, pulls me up and kisses me passionately, with every ounce of emotion he has.
