When I came back to the house it was chaos. Nicole looked like a tired babysitter scolding Ash who was attempting to give her cute puppy dog eyes. Luckily, Nicole wasn’t as much of a pushover as I was and she got him hanging his head in shame. River was watching from the couch with a smirk on his face. Immediately, I wanted to run away again. It was just so awkward.
I slipped past the living room and into the kitchen. Three open pizza boxes were sitting on one of the counters and Michael was standing up on another holding a fourth pizza box over his head.
“Michael you can’t have it all to yourself!” Griff was attempting to grab at Michael’s legs but he kept hopping around. It looked dangerous but I couldn’t help myself and burst out laughing. Griff turned towards me, surprised by my presence and Michael took that as a chance to run away.
“I’ll be in my room babe. Come when you want pizza!” He shouted so loud it was as if he had never moved from the room. Griff turned towards me with a scowl so I shrugged and grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza.
As I was walking down the hall, Calum dashed past me with a wig on his head.
“Luke, stop making advances on me!” Calum over-dramatized his performance by letting out a fake sob.
“Oh come off it, turd. I just want my phone back.” Luke stopped just in front of me, his arms crossed and his eyebrows furrowed. I giggled at the scene of Calum pretending to be offended and flouncing off in the direction I came.
I never thought I’d describe the way an 18 year old walked as ‘flouncing’ but whatever, this was Calum.
“Why is he wearing a wig?”
“Why did you kiss River?”
We turned towards each other at the same time. My stomach filled with dread.
“How did…?” I trailed off. All I wanted to do was curl myself away in a little ball. I hadn’t wanted to kiss River back. He’s good looking but I’m not attracted to him!
“I just saw. Look, I don’t care what you do Natalie. Just don’t hurt Michael.” Luke didn’t look angry at me and for that I was glad, I didn’t want to piss off Michael’s friends.
“We’re just friends, Luke. Friends. Like you and him or me and Nicole or him and Calum. Just. Friends.” I don’t know why but as I explained that to Luke, my stomach dropped. Why did I care?
“Sure and I’ll pretend I don’t hear you going at it whenever you’re staying over.” Luke walked off chuckling.
“You’re a perv, pretty boy!” I turned on my heel and went to Michael, looking for food.
-&-
“Are you sure this is even considered a dress?” I was holding a black piece of material that Nicole had thrown at me when I entered Luke’s room.
Nicole had practically begged him for his room to be ‘the girl room’ and, after her agreeing to save him at least a dance, he let us.
“It’s hot. Put it on.” Nicole was already dressed in a just as short leather dress. She had a black blazer type coat thing to put over the top and her boots waiting for her to tug on just before we left. Her read hair was blow dried to perfection and she had managed, after 80 attempts, to wing her eyeliner out perfectly.
Me, on the other hand, was sitting in my underwear refusing to even try and cover myself with what Nicole had given me. If it were longer I might have considered it pretty cute. There was lace detailing on the front and by the sides and paired with a good pair of wedges, it would have made a great outfit. The problem was that the dress barely covered my private area.
“Do you want to see the Grizzlies?” I mumbled a yes as Nicole took on her stern ‘mum’ look. “Do you want to make a good impression?”
“Of course, stupid,” Nicole glared at me.
“Then trust me you spastic,” I sighed and pulled on the dress, seeing no way of getting Nicole to let me off the hook. She was impossible.
The idea was for us to leave at 7pm. We were going to be going to a lot of clubs tonight and we needed to make sure that we could get to all of them or else we had no chance of seeing the Grizzlies.
We walked out of Luke’s room with ten minutes to spare to find the boys belting out the lyrics to We The Kings. Griff noticed us first and he wolf whistled, causing the rest of the boys to turn around. Nicole did a twirl and winked at the boys before dropping down inbetween Calum and Luke. I scurried towards Michael, my cheeks heating up telling me that they were probably the shade of beetroot.
“You look gorgeous, babe.” Michael had slung his arm around me as I reached him, turning so we started to walk towards the door.
“You’ve looked better, Clifford.” He had a black tank on that was similar to the one had stolen from him once we met and a red and black flannel shirt tied around his waist. He looked gorgeous too but I wasn’t going to tell him that. His hand clasped at his chest, mocking a look of sadness.
“I thought you loved me, babe.” His eyes were wide and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look so adorable.
“You must have been dreaming.” We were heading towards the van Michael had rented with Ash and Calum behind us. They both laughed at what we were saying as Michael jumped into the driver’s seat.
I was about to hop into the passenger’s seat but Calum grabbed my waist and planted me firmly behind him. Grinning he shouted, “SHOTGUN!”
“Shotgun! I call shotgun!” Luke came running out two seconds too late and stopped short when he saw Calum clambering into the van like an excitable puppy. He pouted and followed the rest of us who had climbed in the back.
I was forced between Luke and River, unfortunately. To call Michael’s expression ‘pissed off’ was an understatement.
“Can’t anyone else drive?” River had pulled me towards him and I desperately turned to Luke for help.
“No one else is legally allowed to,” Calum and Michael continued debating about how stupid it was that no one else could drive when Luke saved the day. For me at least.
“Dude, her hip is bony. Stop doing that.” He shoved River’s arm off the back of my seat and I rearranged myself to be closer to Luke. I would much prefer that than River.
“WHERE ARE YA, WHERE ARE YA, WHERE ARE YA!” Ash and Griff both started chanting, banging their overly sized hands against whatever they could. The tension in the air disappeared as the excitement rifled through everyone.
Michael started the van and drove as fast as he could to our first stop: The Roundhouse.
YOU ARE READING
that damned cigarette ↪ m.c
Fanfiction"This isn't a stupid chick flick movie, Clifford!" "Who said I wanted that?" Once upon a time, there was a boy and girl. She was beautiful and he was handsome. He saved her and she made him realise his wrongs. But what if there wasn't a happy e...
