Learning To Fall

twelve

"Hey dad," I try to nonchalantly greet, attempting to convince him this was normal.

He doesn't buy any of it, and the look in his eyes says that I better start explaining. So, I sit up.

"This is Michael, one of Calum and I's friends," I explain, and he instantly calms down. Even if he didn't say it, I knew he had a soft spot for Calum. I didn't blame him.

"Calum was over last night and Michael tagged along," I say, which wasn't exactly a lie. Once again, my dad knew of Calum's habit of staying the night here. He seems to relax as he turns to Michael.

"Don't try anything with her." Is all he says before leaving the room. I wait until I hear him go downstairs to start laughing. Michael's face turns red as he sighs of relief. He sits down opposite of me and his green eyes slowly find mine.

"Why did you show up yesterday?" I blurt out of nowhere. So much for being smooth.

"I was actually going to see if you wanted to do something," He explains. I raise an eyebrow.

"Like what?"

"Well, you said you didn't know anything about me. And all I know about you is that you hate Lucifer Hemmings and that you're incredibly stubborn," Michael laughs, and I was glad that he left out the bad stuff. Like how I had frequent anxiety attacks, or how I let people control my moods.

"What would we even do?" I ask, and it dawns on him. After a while, he shrugs. I laugh. "We could wake up Cal and get to know each other over breakfast," I offer, but Michael shakes his head.

"I was thinking that we could do this one without Calum," He softly says, as if not to hurt my feelings. I furrow my brows. Calum and I have been a package deal since we started talking again. "I mean, only if you want," Michael adds.

I nod, to tell him I was thinking about it. In all honesty, I didn't know if I wanted to or not. Everytime I was alone with Michael it was under weird circumstances, what if it was weird this time too?

"Sleep on it, I'll text you later?" Michael asks, handing me his phone so I could put in my number. After doing so, Michael says his goodbyes and I end up drifting off again.

I wake up in another two hours, and finally decide to get up. After taking a short shower and changing in Elliot's room, I walk into my room to see a still sleeping Calum. Sighing, I walk over and smack him with a pillow. The dark boy groans in reply.

"Get up, it's almost two," I tell him, earning another groan. "Calum Thomas Hood, get up or I'm leaving without you." That gets him to move, and within a minute he's sitting on the edge of my bed.

"You're rude," He grumbles. I smile a huge smile in reply.

"You know it."

>>

"Wait, so what happened?" Calum asks, and I take a drink of my strawberry cheesecake milkshake before answering.

"We were pressed against each other in the coat closet." I answer.

"And.. he got a boner?" Calum finishes, I simply nod. My cheeks were already red. "Now he wants to go on a date with you?"

"It's not a date," I remind him, but he scoffs.

"He explicitly told you he doesn't want me coming with you. It's a date." The brunette says, focusing on the road.

"He wants to get to know me," I trail on, playing with my hands as Calum drives.

"He wants to get in your pants." Is his reply, and I draw back.

"Michael isn't like that Calum." I snap. The boy stops at a stop sign and looks at me.

"You don't know that. Keep in mind you just met him in August. You've only known him for three months, for all you know he could be just like Luke." Calum bites back, and I flinch away. He just voiced exactly what I've been afraid of.

"I have to try." I mumble back, and I hear Calum take in a breath before responding.

"Just be careful, okay?"

All I do is nod in reply.

>>

After another hour, I'm home and dressed in a plain black shirt with a red flannel over light skinny jeans. Calum puts a black beanie over my hair before I can object.

"I'll be here, text me if you change your mind and wanna be picked up early," Calum jokes, winking at me as a knock is heard from the door behind us.

"Go get him, tiger."

>>

We're not even two minutes into our "date" before there's an awkward silence as Michael drives. I go through his CDs to find that he has a similar taste to music as me.

"I didn't know you listened to All Time Low," I start. He huffs from his place behind the wheel.

"You don't know a lot about me, Ands," He sighs, stopping at a stop light. I look over at him in wonder, taking in his fading bleach blonde hair. Time to find out.

"You dye your hair a lot, don't you?" I infer, and watch as a small smirk makes its way onto his face.

"What makes you think that?" Is his reply. I fold my arms and look out the window, the blond laughs in reply to my silence. "Yes, I die my hair frequently."

"Why haven't you since we started school?" I ask another question. It takes him a while to answer this one.

"I just wanted to attract as little attention as possible on the first day." Oh.

"Where were you before View Point? Like, why move all the way from Australia?"

"My mom decided that we needed a change of scenery," He says.

"What about your dad?" I ask, and immediately I realize I went too far. Michael's expression morphs into something unreadable. He fixes his ice cold gaze to a point on the road, and we don't talk for a while. Nice going, Andy.

"Where are we going?" I finally question. Michael smiles, and uses his turn signal before moving into a gas station.

"I figured we should do something fun and go bungee jumping," He answers, and my breakfast threatens to come up.

"Hell no." Michael laughs at me as I answer.

"And why not? Is someone chicken?" He teases, I poke out my tongue at him before answering.

"My parents brought me into this world with a broken rubber, there's no way I'm letting it take me out." If possible, the tattooed boy laughs even harder at my statement.

"True enough." He agrees, and I find myself sighing of relief. "Big baby."

"Shut up and drive, Clifford."

It takes us about twenty minutes to get to the mystery place. I realize where we're going as soon as Michael makes a left turn down Calum's street.

"Why are we going to your house?"

"Because I have video games and pizza. Plus, you ruined the plans we had."

"Wow, nice planning skills Mikey," I joke as he pulls into the driveway. The boy cuts the engine and we leave our seats for a much more comfortable couch. Soon enough he unlocks the door and we're engaged in a serious Mario Kart session.