Found // AU Michael Clifford

Chapter 10

Once Michael and I arrived at the record store I felt like I stepped in time. Racks of vinyl records lined the walls, the floor was done in black and white checkers, and it smelled like dust and smoke. "Pretty cool huh?" Michael said, taking the shop in with all of its glory.

"It's so cool." I said half-heartedly seeing as I was too busy flipping through old vinyls.

"Check this out." Michael handed me a copy of Abbey Road.

"Are you serious?" I questioned. If he thought that I was typical and loved  The Beatles because everyone else did, he had another thing coming. "This is better." I exchanged The Beatles for Pink Floyd.

"You're a great person Gabriella Erickson." Michael chuckled under his breath. I gave him a smile in response and made my way over to the CD's. "Here." He handed me a copy of Blink 182's self intitled album.

"If you think Blink 182 is something new for me." I laughed and shook my head. I didn't have to look at Michael to know that he was staring at me. "I hope that long stare comes with a compliment, Clifford." Michael grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close to him. His face inches away from mine, he whispered in my ear. "You have a great taste in music." His accent rang in my ear, causing my knees to go weak. He was teasing me and I couldn't stand it. 

"I guess you could say I have a lot of free time. Being locked in the castle and everything." I laughed nervously and returned to the CD's.

"Didn't think music was allowed in a kingdom far far away."

"I like to sneak it in." I said mischievously.

"I won't tell the gaurds." He bumped my shoulder. "Are you hungry?" I had been hungry ever since I woke up this morning. Whenever my parents were gone I never make it a habit of making myself breakfast. I nodded anxiously, knowing I could eat anything. "Me too. In N Out sound good?" "Anything sounds great considering I could eat a horse right now."

Michael's POV

Gabriella had some how gotten even more attractive in the last two hours. She fixed her hair into a side braid that made her look even more gorgeous. In my car on our way to In N Out, she sang along to almost every song that came on the radio. Her voice came out smooth and cute when she sang. I hated the fact that I told her it was okay to be just friends.

"It seems that every time I'm with you we end up eating." She giggled, slurping her milkshake.

"At least you can eat in front of guys. My last girlfriend refused to eat in front of me." I exhaled deeply, remembering the time when I took her to a really fancy restaurant. She had ordered one of the most expensive items on the menu and ate hardly any of it.

"What was she like?" Gabriella looked down, twirling a fry in the ketchup. "Your last girlfriend."

"Her name was Charlotte and she was a bitch." I said bluntly. "She never really wanted to spend time together. I guess that's because she was too busy with James." Gabriella covered her mouth with her hand, clearly shocked. James liked to make it a habit of going after girls I like. "What about you? Have any boyfriends?" I asked.

"Um," She stuttered, "My last boyfriend, Kyle, broke up with me because I moved here." Well if wanting something I can't have wasn't bad enough, she probably still had feelings for Kyle. "I guess it's not a big deal anymore. Now that I look back on it our relationship was kinda one sided. I was the love and he was the like." Oh so she even loved him. For all I knew she could still love him. "We never really communicated and that's why we couldn't make long distance work." She pressed her pink lips together and smoothed out the napkin in front of her.

I didn't know what to say so I muttered a typical "I'm sorry." The corners of her mouth formed a small smile. "It's fine. When I got here I realized that I didn't really love him. I was just in love with the idea of love." Her brown eyes gleamed when she mentioned love. 

"Well I understand." She cocked her head in confusion. "I understand that if you spend enough time with someone you can think that you're in love. Even if you're not."

"You didn't love Charlotte?" She questioned, taking a spoon to her milkshake. "I mean you couldn't have thought she was a bitch the entire time, right?"

I shook my head. "No I don't think I ever loved her before that. I liked her a lot, but never enough to love her. I'm pretty sure she felt the same way. She was never really into the whole 'relationship' thing. Sure we were dating for a while and did the typical stuff, but she liked the physical aspect of it, more than the emotional. Which was fine for a while. I liked that she wanted to show her affection in that way. But after a while it just got old."

"That sucks." Gabriella said, her voice trailing off. "I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be used. I don't understand why people want to do that. Just be honest with yourself." 

Gabriella really had a lot to say. She told her opinion without fear of it being rejected or told she was wrong. I liked that about her. I also liked that she was willing to listen to what I had to say. 

"You ready to go?" I asked and she nodded. We both got up from our seats and headed back to my car. 

"Thanks for tonight Michael." She smiled as we stood at her front door. "It was nice to talk to you." 

"No problem." I returned a smile. "It was nice to talk to someone other than Luke for once." I joked, making her laugh. 

"Goodnight Michael." She said finally, turning and unlocking her front door. She gave me one last smile and stepped inside, shutting the door behind her.

"Goodnight Gabriella."