jet black heart // punk Michael Clifford

Chapter Four

My phone buzzed from my bed, waking me up. I reached over and checked the time first. 11:45am. Shit. I have work in less than 45 minutes. I was upset until I checked my two new messages, one from Luke, the other from Ashton.

Lukey: "heyyy, I just had a bit of a falling out with Mum, I'd rather just work on my own for the rest of the week, plus you need a break.."

Me: "Okay Lukey. Come by after work and we can talk about it."

Then I read the message from my best friend Ashton, sent at 11:30am.

Ashy boy: "Luke let me off work early, see you in 15 minutes." I sighed to myself, knowing what was coming next. Ashton never suprised me anymore.

"Well Luke let me off and I was wondering if you wanted to catch lunch and go swimming?" Ashton said, climbing under the covers next to me, nuzzling his face into my neck.

"Ash, I wanna have a shower and get dressed." I moaned.

"Okay." He said, getting his wannabe koala ass off of me and whipping out his phone, connecting to my wifi. I rolled my eyes and began pulling clothes out of my dresser that I was going to wear after my shower.

"So I met this guy and his friend yesterday and I we watched movies last night, they seem pretty cool." I broke it to him. Ashton looked up from his phone and over to were I stood.

"Ooo, what are their names? Are you and this guy gonna get married soon?" He asked me like a three year old. I rolled my eyes.

"Michael Clifford and Calum Hood," Ashton's eyes widened but I ignored him. "And no. We are not getting married."

"You're joking."

"No..?"

"I swear to God Briana, if you're joking, speak up now." He stood up, making his way over to me.

"Ash, I'm not joking, sit your ass down." He hesitated but sat down. "Okay, how do you know Michael?"

"I- why does it matter?"

"Ashton.."

"Briana.."

"Tell me." I sat next to him on the bed.

"Fine. I was in a band two years ago with him, Luke and Calum." He spilled. My eyes widened.

"Can you tell me about this band?"

"Can you get dressed and I'll explain over lunch?"

"Fine." I said and grabbed my strippy shirt and high waisted shorts and headed to my ensuit.

"You know how I went to Richmond High School, right?" Ashton asked as we sat at one of the tables in the mall with our Chinese plates.

"Yeah, that's west ways isn't it?"

"Right. And they went to Norwest. Anyway, Michael, Luke and Calum were are small band and they needed a drummer to drive them to places, literally and figuritevly, they didn't have licences. We toured Australia as an opener for Hot Chelle Rae and-"

"Seriously!? Hot Chelle Rae!? Why the fuck didn't you tell me Ashton?"

"Shut the hell up and let me continue. Jeez. Anyway, we fell apart when we saw how Michael would take advantage of the small fame we did have, he'd use girls for sex and he started smoking ciggerettes and.." He leaned in closer. "He started doing drugs. P and Meth. He also became an alcholic, like, really bad." My mouth must have been wide open as Ashton leaned back into his seat. "We couldn't find another guitarist in the area so we went our seperate ways. I have no clue if he is clean or not, frankly I don't care. That's why I don't want you getting too close to him Bri. He'll use you and take advantage."

"You have got to be joking."

"Nope." He took a mouthful of his food but I didn't even want to touch mine. "Not. Even. Kidding."

"Is now a good time to say that he so happened to have moved in next to me yesterday then?" Ashton nearly spat his food out.

"I-I don't know what to say?"

"I- Ashton? I watched movies with him and Calum last night. Do you think maybe he's changed? I mean, Calum got wasted, Michael didn't even touch his beer."

"Maybe he has. I haven't spoken to him in four years, I wouldn't know. Honestly, I hope he has changed. He was such a good kid." Ashton sighed. "I'm not saying "stay away from him" I'm just warning you."

"I know Ash. I love you." I leaned over and hugged him.

"I love you too Bri." He mumbled into my hair.

"So how was it being in a band with those three anyway?"

"It was really cool actually. Luke started it. He began posting covers on YouTube when he was 14, and then Michael saw and thought it was cool so he joined. Calum slithered his way in and then they started to get more popular so they needed a drummer. Michael Facebooked me one day and asked if I wanted to drum for them and that they had a gig coming up. There was apparently gonna be 200 people there but in the end there was only 12. It was still a blast and I believe I had met my best friends. We were all so weird, we still are." He giggled.

"Why don't you all have a reunioun?"

"I don't want to see Michael or Calum." He said sternly, his face turning solid again.

"Why not Calum?"

"He took Michael's side as if he deserved it. I'm suprised Calum has actually stuck with him over the years though. I thought he would have left within the first year or so. Did you know that One Direction had actually offered to take us on tour as their opener and sign us to Modest! meaning that we'd have to move to London? There was no way I was moving to England with that druggo piece of shit." He spat, his face turning red.

"Ash.. babe, calm down."

"Sorry." He muttered. He looked up and his eyes began to widen as he looked behind me. "Holy. Shit."