Tomorrow Never Dies

Chapter 19 - "I'm just Flora"

*Michael's POV*
"It's Flora," Ashton sighed. "I told her I wouldn't tell you, but she's really bad at the moment."

"What happened?" My voice was low, level and steady, like the calm before a storm.

"She hurt herself really badly, I had to take her to the hospital to get stitches."

"Intentionally?" He nodded. "Fuck! Why didn't you tell me as soon as you found out something was wrong?"

"My first priority was making sure she was safe, then she told me not to tell you."

"Why wouldn't she want me to know?" I punched the wall.

"I don't think she wants you to worry about her," he said. "Michael I made sure she was safe, I promised to go back in a bit."

"You left her alone?!" My voice rose. I was furious. He'd left my vulnerable girlfriend on her own, opting to come to band for two whole songs instead. "Fucking hell." I stormed out of the room going straight to Flora's dorm. I knocked on the door, praying she was going to let me in.

*Flora's POV*
I opened the door to see Michael hovering anxiously. As soon as he saw me, he took my arm and looked at the bandage.

"Oh, baby," he said. "I thought you were alright." I shook my head mutely. "Was it something I did?"

"No." I was determined to keep my answers short.

"Then what was it?" I shrugged. I tugged my arm out of his grasp and went back to bed. "Flora, talk to me for God's sake!" I pulled the covers up over my head. I heard him sigh, exasperated, and felt the mattress sink where he sat down next to me. He hummed a simple, sad melody, and I felt the tears ready to come. I cried silently, trying not to show that I was weak.

"Stop." The crack in my voice scared me, as I was certain it would alert him to my tears.

"Flora, please tell me what's wrong."

"You want to know what's fucking wrong?" I knew I shouldn't be taking out my feelings on him, but I needed to get it out of my system. "I am under so much pressure to be something great. One of my brothers was on the Australian national team, the other is working with some of the best biologists in the world, and then there's me. I won't be the one who goes down in history for winning the rugby league for the Waratahs, I won't be the one who saves a species on the brink of extinction. I'm just Flora, and I'm constantly being compared to them when I will never be able to achieve anything great." I paused for breath, stopping Michael when he looked like he wanted to interrupt. "I wake up on so many days wishing I could be dead, I could take the pressure off myself." I faced the wall, curling myself into a tiny ball.

"Baby you're amazing," he said. "You're one of the best dancers the uni has to offer, you've just been accepted into the New South Wales Ballet!"

"One of the best. There's people better than me, I'll never be remembered."

"I'll remember you, the band, Grace, Kiri, Lorna-"

"Not on the scale you'll be remembered, or Matty or Toby."

"Oh, shut up Flora," he said. "You're an incredible person, you don't need to be globally remembered to make an impact." I sat up, moving into his arms.

"Why am I not like them?"

"You will be," he said. "You'll be the Darcey Bussell of our generation."

"You know ballerinas?"

"I know one," he laughed gently. I had stopped crying quite so much, but his shirt was still soaked. He rocked me gently backwards and forwards, whispering quiet words in my ear.

"Can I take you back to my house?" I asked him softly. He nodded.

"Why?"

"I miss Joey and Scratch."

"Who are they?" he asked. I'm sure he was asking about my home life to distract me from my break down, but it was working.

"Joey is my dog and Scratch is my cat, I love them both to pieces."

"Let's go," he said, and we walked out to his car. I directed him to my small-ish house in the middle of a surburban neighbourhood, and told him to pull up a few houses down. My mother's car wasn't in the driveway, and since Matty lived in a fairly big house on the outskirts of Sydney, I knew the house would be empty. We walked up to the door, and I pulled the spare key out from behind the water pipe next to the door frame. I unlocked the door and walked in, only to be almost knocked over by my husky.

"Hi baby," I said, delighted, and rubbed his tummy as he rolled over. He was wagging his tail so hard that his whole body shook, his tongue falling out of his mouth. "Oh, I missed you." He stood up, licking me on the cheek, and ran off again. I took Michael's hand and led him up to my bedroom, the room I had stayed in almost every night from when my mum decided I didn't need to sleep in her room until the day I left for uni.

It had seen many redecorations in its time, from a bright pink colour scheme, to a tamer light blue, and now it was a sophisticated black and white, and incredibly tidy. In the corner was Joey's bed, and across the room from that was a scratching post for the cat, and there curled up on top of the post was my black and white Scratch. She raised her head to look at me, then went back to sleep. I approached her and stroked her back softly, smiling as she purred.

"It's so cute seeing you with your animals," Michael said, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

*****
its my first GCSE in like 4 hours but i'm home alone so guess what im doing
writing
sorry biology

song of the chapter: night changes by one direction (+zayn :((((( )