Learning To Fall

twenty one

Michael and I end up falling asleep. At the moment, he was currently on my bed while I packed for my weekend.

"How many hoodies do you even have?" He asks, watching as I stand at my closet seemingly full of various hoodies and jackets. Without turning to him I shrug in reply. "Seriously, just pick one."

"I can't have just one, what if it gets wet?"

"It'll dry." When he says that, I turn to face him.

"Shut up. So you're telling me you'd only pack one hoodie for a weekend?" I ask, and it's his turn to shrug.

"It depends on what kind of weekend it is," Michael sasses, and I throw a flannel at him, mumbling a "Shut up," as I do so.

"You're such a smart ass." I tell him. He nods.

"I know, but you love me," His statement causes me to lose my grip on a hanger and send the hoodie to the ground. Michael laughs, "See, told you." I didn't love Michael, I was sure of it. But I knew that I was falling for him, if anything.

"No, I tolerate you." With that statement, I hear my bed creak as Michael gets up. "Why are you-" I'm interrupted by Michael picking me up by my waist, an involuntary squeal coming from my mouth. "Let go!" I manage over both of our laughter.

"You want me to let go?" He asks, and I nod vigorously.

"Yes!"

"Okay," Michael simply says, throwing me down on my mattress. Seconds later, he comes down to flatten me.

"Get off of me," I whine, causing the green haired boy above me to laugh.

"Admit it!"

"Admit what?" I almost shriek.

"Admit you like me," Michael smugly replies, moving away a little so his face was hovering over mine. Instead of answering, I lean up and kiss him. It's rushed, but still causes a whole ecosystem to form in my stomach, and seemingly sends electricity through my body.

"Is that a good enough answer?" I ask when I pull away. He pretends to consider it, and then furrows his eyebrows.

"I think I'm gonna need to test it again," Michael says, and we both lean in.

>>

"You guys need to sort out what you're doing," Rachel declares on the trolley car. I raise an eyebrow, having just finished talking about spending time with Michael. "I'm serious, Andy. You're not just some other girl he can mess with." I scrunch my eyebrows.

"I know that. And Michael's not Luke," I remind her, but she shakes her head.

"If he hurts you, I swear to God." Is all she says before turning to look out the trolley window. I place a hand on her knee when I answer her.

"I won't let him. Let's just enjoy this weekend, okay?" I ask, and the twenty two year old turns to me and smiles.

"You read my mind."

An hour later, Rachel lays on her bed of our shared room and stares at the ceiling. It didn't take her long to open up the first of the two cases of Smirnoff that she managed to sneak into the lodge (don't ask me how.) The brunette's eyes were already glazed over, only on her third bottle. We were debating and talking about random things, and I had to admit, it was interesting.

"Okay, okay, if you were Achilles, where would your weak spot be?" She slurs, and I actually think about this one.

"Probably my armpit, I mean not many people aim for armpits," I answer, and she starts giggling.

"Mine would be on my butt," She laughs loudly. "Can you imagine?" We both start laughing. She takes another swig of Smirnoff before relishing and moving on. "What do you wanna do when you graduate?"

That question catches me off guard. Even though I was only a junior, I hadn't given it a second thought about what I wanted to do. Did I even want to go to college? Where would I move? Would I even move? And what about Elliot, where was he going? It would be easy to leave this town and never look back, or would it? If I left, I'd be leaving my dad, Elliot (possibly,) Rachel, Calum, Michael, and my newly acquired group. But if I stayed, what would be left for me here? The diner? Instead of answering, I look out the window. I'm greeted by several constellations, and smile to myself.

"Hey, look at the stars," I say, and drunk Rachel automatically forgets what we're talking about and dives onto my bed by the window to look at the night sky.

"They're so pretty," She slurs, leaning against the window and glancing up at the twinkling sources of gas. Getting out my phone, I text Michael.

Me : are you looking at the stars?

Clifford : it's 2 am

Me : look at them, there's a meteor shower going on

Clifford : I never said I wasn't looking

Clifford : maybe this can be our thing

Me : what, me forcing you to look at the stars?

Clifford : no, looking at the stars. so no matter how far we go, it still feels like we're next to each other

I smile at the starry night as I look away from my phone before replying.

Me : I'd like that.

>>

The next morning, despite Rachel's whining, we go to the all you can eat breakfast. Soon enough I'm sitting across from a hungover Rachel, with an omelette and orange juice in front of me.

"Why do you even like orange juice so much?" She grumbles, and I laugh. I never really understood why, I just knew that orange juice was something I wanted to have at every breakfast. Rachel was moving her waffles around her plate, trying to soak up as much syrup as possible.

"Dunno, I just do," I answer, taking a bite of the slightly spiced omelette. The woman across from me continues to move her food around her plate until I interrupt. "Are you okay, Rach?"

This catches her off guard, because she looks up from her plate and then back down. A couple minutes of silence pass before she looks up again. Before she replies, she takes a big drink of the water she was given.

"I just," She sighs. "I really thought Riley and I had something. It's just disappointing," Rachel admits, and guilt strikes me. I was confiding in her this whole time about Calum and Michael, but never cared to ask how she was doing. To be frank, I had been a terrible friend. So, I place a hand on her shoulder.

"It'll be okay, Rae. Riley was obviously a douche anyways, I mean who gets their date drunk on the first date? And then leaves them for another woman?" I comfort. She nods, and doesn't speak for a while. One of the best things about us is that we understood each other. When the other was upset, we knew when to stop pushing. Sometimes people just needed space.

Come to think of it, I couldn't think back to when I wasn't friends with Rachel.

"Hey, question," I state after a minute. She looks up and raises a dark eyebrow. "How did we meet?"

"You fell down on the playground. I'd always wanted a little sister, so I went over and helped you. We've been friends since." She answers, a little too rushed. Instead of giving it thought, I nod.

"Let's go do something."