hey jealousy // michael clifford

epilogue

TWO YEARS LATER

"Ash?" Avery called out, dropping her keys onto the little plate sitting on the table just inside the door. "Ashton? I swear to god if you're hiding to try and scare me again I will rip off your dick in your sleep."

"Babe, that's just mean." Michael chuckled, walking out from the kitchen – a 'kiss the cook' apron fastened around his waist and what looked like flour smudged across his face and matted in his hair. "He ducked out to get some more stuff for tonight, said he'd be back in about half an hour."

He walked over and gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead, trying his best not to get flour on her before indicating that she should follow him back into the kitchen.

"I thought you were supposed to be at work?" Avery mentioned, slipping off her shoes and moving to stand in the doorway to the kitchen.

Michael just shrugged and went back to mixing what she could only assume was cookie mixture seeing as it was the only thing Michael could cook without burning down the kitchen and potentially their whole apartment.

"Seeing as I'm the owner now I can kind of get around those sorts of things."

After their massive heart to heart in Avery's apartment two years ago quite a few things had changed for the two of them – for everyone, really.

They'd agreed to give their relationship another shot, and even though the first few months hadn't exactly been pleasant they were still together and neither of them could see that changing anytime soon. They'd started small; coffee dates and going out to see movies together, both of them just trying to get reacquainted with the idea of them being a couple again. Then it had progressed to dinner and Michael coming over to her apartment.

Despite everything, Michael had still gone and stayed at that motel until Calum and Luke had gotten home and agreed to let him crash with them until he got his shit together. Even though he'd lived at her apartment for almost a week Avery wasn't ready to have him there yet while they were trying to do the whole relationship thing again. Eventually things settled back down though and it was almost like they'd never broken up to begin with.

That didn't mean they didn't fight though, and Avery was always more than willing to throw the reason they'd broken up back in Michael's face. She'd let up a bit though and they hardly ever argued anymore unless it was about Michael leaving the toilet seat up or Avery covering almost every surface in the apartment with her work stuff.

Michael had gotten a call about two weeks after he'd been fired from his boss asking him to come back to the music store. He'd declined at first, still a little bitter because he'd been fired in the first place, but eventually agreed and used the fact that his boss obviously needed him to negotiate a raise and better hours. Two months later he was the manger, and almost six months after he'd started again his boss asked him to take over ownership of the store so he could move with his family.

That had been stressful for a little while with both Avery and Michael being pushed with work but they'd managed to strike a balance and things had been fine since.

Avery was almost done with university and her professor had started letting her take on some of the smaller cases at the practice, offering her a place as a full time staff member once she finished her degree.

Ashton had started working with a local primary school as a sort of free lance music teacher – he went in two or three times a week and did some hour long music classes with the kids and Avery could tell that he absolutely loved it even before he told her that he was going back to college to get a degree in primary education with a focus on the arts.

After their little bar tour around the state, Calum and Luke had been picked up by a small independent label and had released an EP and were in the midst of recording an album. It didn't look they were going to break onto the charts anytime soon, but they had a solid internet following and they'd done a few interstate tours playing at small clubs.

"I can't believe we've finally moved in together." Michael laughed, spooning out small portions of his mixture onto a tray, a small smile refusing to leave his face as he thought about how lucky he'd gotten.

"I know, right?" Avery laughed too, only the slightest bit of disbelief snaking its way into her words. "I knew it would happen eventually, I just figured it would happen a whole lot sooner."

Michael looked up at her but didn't say anything, both of them just taking a moment to think about all that had to happen in order for them to arrive at this point in time.

"We kind of took the long way around." He scratched his nose and Avery tried to contain her laughter when she noticed the cookie mixture the action left in its wake. "Kind of can't imagine it being any other way though, y'know?"

Avery was about to respond when there was a frantic knock on the door followed by Ashton shouting from the other side. "If one of you doesn't open the door in the next two seconds I'm going to drop all this shit and you're apartment warming party will be ruined."

Michael let out a loud laugh while Avery just rolled her eyes and went to let her best friend in.

Later that night after everyone had arrived and were all sitting in the living area reminiscing about old times, Ashton pulled Michael into the kitchen under the guise of getting some more drinks.

When they were out of sight Ashton took one more quick look over his should before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small velvet box and handing it to Michael.

"Have you had that in your pocket this whole time?" The younger boy asked in disbelief.

"Avery hasn't been more than a foot away from me since I got back, what else was I supposed to do?" He waved his hands frantically and looked over his shoulder again.

"Thanks for picking it up man," Michael mumbled flipping up the lid to look at the diamond ring inside and smiling to himself. "I never would have gotten there in time or without her noticing."

"Not a problem." Ashton sent him a fond smile and clapped him on the shoulder. "For what it's worth mate, I really hope she says yes."

With that said Ashton grabbed the drinks they'd been asked to bring back. Michael watched his retreating figure, looking down at the ring again before shutting the box and taking a deep breath.

"Me too."