breathe me // michael clifford

Chapter 4

*Michael's POV*

I walked throughout drunken people trying to find the curly headed fuck that was one of my best mates. Some drunk girl practically threw herself on me. 

"Heyyyy Michaellll!" She said. She was completely wasted, I could smell the beer on her breath. She got closer to my face and messed with the waistband of my jeans. I nudged her off of me, pinning her arms to her side. She fell to her ass and just layed there on the ground, laughing to herself. I rolled my eyes and continued looking for Ashton. After practically walking in a circle I heard some girl screaming. I looked to find Zack Williams on top of the girl I had just met. I think her name was Rion or something. She seemed like she was struggling, as he tried to tear her clothes off of her petite body. I knew that Luke's girl would be upset if anything happened to her, and plus I hated Zack myself after what he did to Amber two years ago as well. I figured now I had an excuse to really teach him a lesson. I jogged towards them and threw him off of her. I climbed on top of him and threw punch after punch to his jaw, feeling the pain in my hand grow stronger as my knuckles became filled with blood. I wasn't exactly sure who's blood it was quite yet, but that wasn't stopping me. I grabbed his neck with my other hand. I took my rage out on Zack with each and every punch. I heard her yell as I continued to beat on him.

"Michael! Stop please! Michael!" I felt her arms try to pull me off of him. I threw a few more punches to the side of his face. I came to my senses and stood up, stepping away from Zack, who layed on the ground, motionless. I felt a sharp pain in my right hand. I looked at the people around me, seeing that some of them were starting to notice what had just happened. I looked at Rion who stood next to me in shock. Her gaze flickered between me and Zack. I knew what I had just done would get me in the worst amount of trouble, seeing this definitely wasn't my first fight. I had to get out of here, but I couldn't leave her here. It was out of her sake and mine, we had to get out of here. I grabbed her hand.

"We have to go."

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*Rylie's POV*

I'm not exactly sure why, but I went with Michael. We ran to his car, and we both got in, in a matter of seconds. I sat in the passenger seat as he started up the car and pulled away from the beach. 

"Hello? Michael! What the fuck?" I practically yelled at him. "Thank you so much for pulling him off of me but where are we going. Please I just met you and I have to get back to Daniella, she'll wonder where I am." He said nothing. He just drove. "Michael! Please!" He stood silent, and I don't know why. I didn't know where we were going, but I was scared. We pulled up to a house that looked like mine and Daniella's. He got out of the car and opened the door for me. 

"C'mon." He said to me. I got out of the car and followed him up the front steps and through the front door. He threw his keys on the table and sat down on the couch burying his face in his hands. He pushed his hands up to his hair, running his fingers through it. This wasn't okay. I shouldn't fucking be here, I just met him. I was getting angrier by the minute, but I kept myself calm. I awkwardly sat down on the couch next to him, patting his back lightly.

"Are uh, are you alright?" I asked quietly. No doubt that, after watching what he did to that guy on the beach tonight, I was scared of him. He chuckled to himself.

"I should be asking you that. Fuck. Listen I'm sorry Rion. I should've said something to you or brought you home first or something. I'm sorry, listen I had history with that guy, and I guess I," He sighed, "I guess I couldn't control myself. I get into a lot of fights, and it would've been really bad for me if I stayed, but uh, yeah. I'm sorry." He stood up. "I'll take you home now if you want. I don't live too far from Daniella's." I stood up as well, him towering over me. He was just about as tall as Luke and Ashton. 

"It's alright, I get it. I just wanted to say thank you as well. I don't know how far that would've gone if you hadn't had stepped in. Thank you so fucking much." I looked down at his hands. "Maybe we should get you cleaned up first?" I said, gently grabbing his right forearm and lifting it so I could inspect his hand. His knuckles were a deep purple and they were swollen as hell. He had a small tattoo on his knuckle, it was an 'X'. "What's this for?" I asked him, pointing to the letter. 

"Oh that, uh it's for my dad. It means 10 in Roman Numerals, and well 10 was his lucky number. Yeah." He looked uncomforatble, as he said it. Like he didn't really want to talk about it.

"Oh okay. Well where's your bathroom? We can try and bandage this up." I said looking around. 

"Oh, uh, here, I'll show you." He walked upstairs and I followed him as he entered the first door. It was his bedroom, which had it's own bathroom. It was suprisingly neat for a teenage boy. There were band posters on the walls. The Ramones, Blink-182, Fountains Of Wayne, My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, basically all the great rock bands I liked as well. He opened the door to the bathroom and I followed him in, as he sat down on the edge of the bathtub. I walked to a medicine cabinet and found some bandages and other stuff to clean up his hand. I walked over to him, setting the stuff down on the toilet lid and kneeling down near him. I grabbed his hand and started to lightly clean it with a rag I'd soaked in alcohol. He hissed as it stung.

"Sorry." I muttered. 

"You didn't have to do this, ya know." He said, not directly looking at me.

"I felt bad, this is because of me." I replied, cleaning his hand a bit more. 

"This is different." Michael said after a few minutes. 

"What do you mean?" I said, finishing up the bandages. 

"Well, like, I don't know. It doesn't really seem like we just met for some reason. I feel like I've known you for a while, I don't know." He said running his hand through his hair, fixing it. I grabbed the stuff and put it back in the medicine cabinet before closing it. I leaned against the sink, turning towards him.

"I see what you mean." I said while looking at the floor.

"You're easy to talk to, I guess." He shrugged.

"I would hope so." I smiled at him. 

"Thanks for, uh this." He said lifting his bandaged hand up. I'm guessing you'd like me to take you home now, right?" I got up from the sink, pulling my phone out of my pocket and checking the time. It was almost 12:00. Shit.

"Yes, please. Oh and no problem."  I followed Michael as he walked out of the room and downstairs. He grabbed his keys and headed out the door, me trailing behind. He opened the passenger door up for me and got in. He got in and started the car, pulling away from his house. We got to my house in a matter of minutes. He pulled in the front. I wondered if Daniella was home or not, and I got worried, thinking she was still probably wasted at the beach. I felt bad leaving her, but at that moment I didn't really have a choice. 

"Do you think the others are alright?" I asked him.

"They should be fine, these parties go on until the sun goes up, so they're all probably still getting wasted." He laughed. "In a little I'll go back to the beach and see if I can go and find them, because I'll probably have to take them home anyways. Thanks again Rion." 

"Oh alright, that's good. Well thank you too Michael." I opened the door to the car stepping out. "By the way," I said before closing the door. I giggled at Michael.

"Yeah?" He said looking at me.

"My name's Rylie." 

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HIII I really enjoyed writing this chapter. It was a quick one, just a little introduction to Michael as well. Don't worry I didn't forget about Calum lmao. But yeah. Follow my twitter @happymalum :)