Naive || Michael Clifford

eighteen

"Is everything okay?" Rea questioned when Michael came out of her room. It was minutes later and Rea was sat on the sofa again as Oliver had his eyes glued to his phone. She kind of expected Michael to look either angry or at least slightly flustered when he returned to the room but by the time he opened her bedroom door, he had a big smile on his face, which was completely in contrast with the way he spoke to Ashton a few minutes prior. It was evident from the tone of his voice that he was really pissed at him at the time but now he seemed completely okay. Michael was acting kind of strange again, and Rea didn't exactly know what to think of it.

"Yea, everything's fine," he replied as he plopped down on the sofa next to her, crossing his legs and taking his glass that was still halfway filled with orange juice into his hands and took a sip. "Why do you ask?"

She shrugged, "You kind of sounded angry on the phone," she explained, "Is Ashton okay?" As soon as she asked the question, she saw his mood change completely and she knew she shouldn't have asked. He pursed his lips as he settled the glass back on the table, his eyes closing for a second, "Ashton is fine." His voice was flat and irritated and Rea furrowed her eyebrows together. Was he angry at her? This day was an emotional rollercoaster and Rea had no idea how to feel about it, any of this, meeting Michael included. Confused was something she felt around him a lot, whether they talked through text or face to face, he somehow always managed to leave her brain in a disarranged puddle of questions. And it didn't necessarily make her feel good about herself.

"Michael, are you sure everything is-­"

"For fuck's sake, Rea, everything is okay!" he exploded, directing an annoyed look at her and she leaned back slightly, eyes widening in shock. Oliver turned around, confused, as

Michael's sudden outburst made him jump, his eyes automatically landing on Rea to see if she was okay. "God, can you stop asking so many questions, it's annoying the hell out of me."

Taken aback by his tone of voice, Rea looked down at her lap, fingers nervously playing with each other. How did he always manage to make her feel bad when they were together? Seriously, not once did their face to face talks end good and she was seriously struggling to keep her tears in. She always felt like she was the weakest person on the whole damn planet around him. This wasn't okay, was it? She heard him shuffling around as he scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in.

"Fuck, I'm so sorry," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as she squeezed her eyes shut, "I didn't mean to yell, I'm just... Ashton and I aren't really good right now and it's stressing me out, I'm sorry, kitten," he pressed another kiss to the top of her head, his lips lingering for a few moments and her stomach erupted with butterflies. He called her 'kitten' for the first time since they met officially, and she, no matter how hard she tried, couldn't deny the fact that she missed the stupid nickname that made her feel like she was the most special person in the universe. It was her weak spot, she kind of felt like Michael as a whole was her weak spot because as soon as she heard the small word escape his lips, she forgot about the incident and looked up at him, directing a small smile towards him. I mean, he did apologize, that's good, right?

"It's fine," she reassured him because it was fine, she just over reacted a lot. He grinned and squeezed her shoulders and her cheeks flushed slightly before he pulled away and looked between Oliver and her, "Do you guys want to play Mario Kart?"

**