Castaways || Michael Clifford [Completed]

Chapter Eighteen

"What're you doing? Knock it off!" I yell at Ashton and Luke who were throwing whip cream at each other. "Someone's gonna slip and crack their head not to mention you guys are a freaking mess."

"If Ashton wouldn't have put an ice cube down my pants I would have dumped whip cream over his fluffy hair," Luke says, glaring at Ashton.

"In what ways does that even compare to whip cream?" I ask, covering my face with my hand. Luke goes to talk but I say, "Shut up green bean. I don't want to hear it."

Michael makes a choking noise and a bunch of coughs arise from him. After his last cough, he starts laughing. I turn around to look at him.

"You alright? Sounded like you were about to die," I say, raising an eyebrow. Michael continues laughing but he shakes his head. He closes his eyes for a second and takes a deep breath.

"I'm alright. You just had to say that while I was taking a drink," Michael says, fanning his red face. Juniper rolls her eyes, her feet propped up on a table.

"Boys," she mutters as she stirs her straw around her cup. "They think every little insult or comment deserves a choke or whatever. You guys so wouldn't-"

"Now that's enough of that," I say and Calum has wide eyes. Ashton smirks slightly. I wonder what that is about.

"I thought we were on some type of quest? We've been here for two hours," Calum says. "Not that I'm complaining."

"We still are but now these two walking sundaes need to rinse off," I say, motioning to Luke and Ashton. Ashton has already started rinsing out his hair.

"I'm gonna go wash up in the back," Luke says, walking through a door labeled employees only.

"Now that that's taken care of, we should try to figure out where this trap door is with what we know," I state. Juniper nods and takes her feet off the table.

"Anyone got a huge map like they do in those movies?" Juniper asks.

"I was thinking maybe we should interrogate one of those guys if we can find them," Calum says. "They should know some stuff."

"Yeah I don't think that's a good idea," Michael says, moving his chair so that he's leaning against the back of it. "If they know we're looking for that trap door too, who knows what could happen. They could be some nut jobs."

"Especially with the way that guy yelled at me to come back," I say.

Calum shrugs. "Maybe they were just shocked to see other humans. I mean, after all those were the first humans we've seen besides each other."

"Calum has a point," Ashton says, drying himself off with a towel he found. "What if he just wanted to talk to us?"

"I say we just play yet safe and avoid everyone," I say. Michael and Juniper nod in agreement while Ash and Cal just shrug.

"What'd I miss?" Luke asks as he comes back. His hair is still wet and sticking to his forehead.

"You should leave your hair flat more often," I comment.

"No kidding. I told him that before while we were swimming and he just kind of blushed like he's doing now," June says while Luke turns pink. He scratches the back of his neck and looks down.

"He's as pink as Junipers shirt," Michael comments with a little snicker. Luke shoots him a glare.

"Back to the task on hand, I think we should do Juniper's idea or whatever you want to call that," I say. "Anyone have a giant map?"

"Do I look like I carry an atlas with me everywhere I go?" Ashton asks in a sassy tone, depositing his towel on the counter before walking over to the rest of us.

"I don't know Peter Pan, you tell me," Juniper says.

"Why am I Peter Pan?" Ashton asks, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Shh drummer boy, we're talking business," June avoids his question. Poor Ashton even though that's kind of funny. Ashton pouts and sits down beside Calum.

"I'm pretty sure there's like some rest area around here. They have maps and stuff," Luke says.

"That's true. Just outside of the city!" Michael says in an accusing voice while looking at Luke like he's crazy.

"C'mon Mikey, it's not that far of a walk," I reason with him. "We could be there in an hour tops."

"Who the hell wants to walk for an hour?" Michael asks. "Definitely not this guy."

"You think this fluffy girl over here wants to walk for an hour?" Calum questions then adds, "Don't answer that because it's most definitely yes. This dog needs to burn off some energy."

"Yeah especially when that dog rips a McDonald's drive thru menu out of the freaking ground like it's a chew toy," Juniper says.

"No kidding. You think she could pick up a car?" Luke says. I shrug my shoulders because there's no cars left to even test that theory.

"You guys, when we flip that switch, that means the end of Medusa," Michael speaks up from his spot with wide and sad eyes.

"What? There's not lie some way to keep her here with us?" Calum asks in disbelief. I look at Medusa who's taken to eating all pastry's on the ground. Slowly, I shake my head.

"From the sounds of it? No. That switch will get rid of all these monsters," I reply.

"But she's not even a monster. She's a dog," Calum says but his voice says that he knows it's no use. Nothing can change the fact that she came out of that lab which was holding monsters.

We all sit in silence, just staring at the floor with blank expressions. Besides Calum, who is the closest to Medusa, who's tearing up but trying to hide it by putting his head down on the table with his arms covering his head. Ashton rubs his back and mutters things to him that I can't hear.

After ten minutes of silence, I finally speak up and recommend that we get out of here.

"Might as well start the trek to the dumb place," Calum mutters.

Michael pulls me aside while everyone gathers whatever they want. "He's going to be in a horrible mood for a while unless we can figure out a way to keep Medusa here."

I glance back at Calum then look at Michael. "I know. The only thing I can think of is if we don't see her as a monster, which none of us do. I don't know what to do at this point. I don't want Medusa to go anywhere either."

"Me too. Hopefully, what you say works," Michael says as the group announces that they're ready to leave. We both join the group and exit Starbucks. I still can't believe they picked Starbucks to hide out in. Burger King was right next door.

"Let's just get to that rest stop as fast as we can. I don't like being out in the open," Michael says.

"Tell me about it. I'm afraid something is going to swoop out of the air and carry me off so it can eat me," Ashton says then shivers at the thought.

"Nothing is eating me," Juniper says, squinting up at the sky like something's going to fly over us.

"Of course not. They would die from too much salt intake 'cause girl, you are salty," Michael says in a sassy girl voice. Juniper turns around and glares at him, a hand on her hip. Michael doesn't even bat an eye. "Yes salty?"

"You did not just call me salty," June states like she's testing him.

"You're like an overly salted french fries. You contain so much salt you are way past unhealthy," Michael says.

Ashton holds a hand over his mouth. "Oh girl, he did not."

"Oh he did," Calum says, looking at the scene with a bit of amusement on his face. It looks like to keep Calum out of the dumps is to keep him distracted.

"Girls, we have a quest we are on. Please, keep your comments to yourself," Luke says, taking June's arm and gets her walking again. Michael smirks slightly, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

"That girl just got owned," he says softly so only I could hear it.

"Yeah and this boy was mistaken for the sassy girl off of those cliché movies,"  I say. Michael just shrugs and we keep walking. For forty five minutes. Just for a map.