CARMEN ; m.c.

tu ne peux plus vivre sans moi

004

Six times. Throughout all of Carmen's escapades, she's only actually snuck out six times. And Carmen changes the scoreboard in her head, flipping over the six card and revealing a shiny number seven, as she quietly pushes up her bedroom window.

It's nearing ten o'clock and her parents are in their room, doing what parents do, she supposes, so she isn't really afraid of them catching her now, so much as she's not looking forward to their reaction when she comes home. The last time she took it upon herself to attend a party she was sent to her grandmother's house to help take care of her for a week.

Carmen slides out of the window, pausing on the window sill with one foot on her roof and the other hanging a few inches off of her floor. 

She startles when she turns to head down the slope of her roof and nearly bumps heads with someone. Carmen reels back, keeping her feet under herself by holding onto the ledge on the window with a hand on her forehead.

Looking up, she realizes it's Michael and scrunches up her brows. "Michael, what are you doing?"

The boy mirrors her, rubbing his fingers over his head for a moment, before he lifts up a hand full of DVDs. "I was coming to hang out." He answers, dropping his forearm.

"Sorry, Michael," Carmen starts, giggling a little as she carefully steps past him. "I'd love to—"

"Carmen, don't talk to me like that." Michael reaches out and takes hold of Carmen's arm, turning her to him. Carmen is genuinely confused as to what Michael's talking about and more importantly wants to know where he gets off grabbing her.

"Talk to you like what?"

Michael lets go of her, frustratedly pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes. "With the voice, Car, you know what I mean." 

Ah, yes. The tone that Michael at first compared to a siren's song; the voice that flows like water and has the power to soothe crying infants and fill a room with smiles and cure cancer, it seemed, what with the way people fell over themselves just to hear it.

The voice made of simple syrup that Carmen turned on to charm her fans. The voice she never used on Michael.

"Sorry." She apologizes, shaking her head at herself. Carmen's sure it slipped out because the party was on her mind. After staring down at the shingles underneath her shoes for a second, Carmen goes back to making her way off of the house.

Again, Michael's fingers wrap around her wrist, stopping her from going any further. "Wait, Car, where are you going?" He asks.

This time Carmen takes her arm back. "Calum's having a party and he's one of my best friends, so I can't miss it." She explains, looking out over her lawn instead of at Michael. The air is uncomfortably damp and sticky, and as much as Carmen would like to stay and talk to Michael, she'd like to get off of the roof and get to Calum's house before she starts regretting the whole thing.

"Carmen, if anyone's your best friend it's not Calum, or any of the other people that kiss the ground you walk on." Michael scoffs, eyebrows attempting to touch in the middle of his forehead. 

Carmen knows that that's true, but she's always used that excuse to validate her going the extra mile for these people that have come to love her. Thinking of how she's already told Calum that she was coming, and how if she cancels on him then it'll be the second person she's cancelled on in one month, Carmen folds her arms and tries to sit down. She doesn't know if she's doing it with some hidden rebellious agenda, or if it'll help her make a decision, but it doesn't matter either way.

Michael, of course, doesn't let her bum hit the roof, quickly hooking his fingers under her arms and keeping her up. "No, Car, come on," He sighs, tugging her towards her window. "Your parents would be pissed at me if they found out that I let you go out."

Carmen takes one last look at the grass a few feet below as she lets Michael guide her back inside her room. He closes the window behind them while Carmen loosens the straps on her heels with a slight frown.

"So, you're only making me stay so my mom and dad won't hate you?" Carmen is half joking as she glances at Michael and sets her shoes near her closet. 

Michael stares at her, green on brown, then shakes his head. "No, I'm making you stay so you don't hate yourself." He gently tosses his small stack of DVDs onto her bed, following the way it just barely bounces with his eyes.

Carmen knows what he means. She would end up hating herself in the morning for going against her parents and probably for giving herself a hangover and wearing uncomfortable footwear. He's the only person that she'd ever mildly complained about it to, even if it was just once or twice.

Carmen looks to the DVDs and turns around to grab her laptop from her desk. She makes a mental note to write a long apology text to Calum, but also reminds herself that it can wait until tomorrow morning. 

Sitting on top of her comforter, Carmen beckons Michael with a wave of her hand and pats the empty spot on the bed next to her. "Well, come on, then." She says, giving him a small smile.

He returns one, stepping out of his sneakers and crawling to the spot beside her. They decide to watch Anaconda—which Michael for some reason accidentally brought both copies that he owns, once again, for some reason—and Carmen places the disc in it's holder.

As the movie's gearing up in the laptop, Carmen gazes up at Michael, who's propped up higher than she is on his elbow. "Michael." She quietly calls, briefly looking down when the opening logos start up and Michael tilts the screen back.

"Yeah." He responds, mostly to the laptop, but shifts his eyes to her to show that he's listening.

Carmen leans closer to him, putting her arm around his neck in a halfway hug. Michael's a bit caught off guard, chuckling and bringing his free hand up to her arm to steady himself. "Thank you. For getting me to come back in."

Laying down on her pillows, Michael lets Carmen rest her head on his shoulder. "You're welcome." He says, giving her shoulder a short rub as he trains his attention on the movie again.

The big, neck breaking snake and Jennifer Lopez are very entertaining, and Carmen was watching the movie, but she also couldn't help but watch the boy that she's been missing out on for over a year.

A/N: word count: 1130

hiiiiii omg this is almost over i'm lowkey screaming.

i hope you liked this chapter—if you didn't, then that's cool, but if you did like it—then please vote and comment and all that stuff  okay? okay. love you byeeeee xoxo