Cliché- m.c.

Chapter 2

~Lily~

It has been a week today since I first met Michael. His black 'Nirvana' t-shirt hung over the lonely table chair in the kitchen, waiting for its rightful owner to retrieve it from this lonely apartment. The shirt looked at me everyday when I would eat breakfast or when I would sit at the table and write. Since then, we've talked everyday, whether it was texting or calling, we always found a way to communicate with each other. I liked our relationship and where it stood. We did not have feelings for each other, we were just friends. The strange thing was that, I was okay with that. I think.

I sat on the park bench drawing my view of a pond and two ducks. The ducks sat on the water and every so often, one of them would dip their heads into the water and have the water roll down their backs. My phone then rang, startling me from my focused state. "Hello?" I answered, my voice sounding raspy due to the fact that I have yet to talk to anyone this morning.

"Hi," it was Michael, "okay, I don't mean to sound weird or anything but, by chance, are you sitting on a park bench right now?"

What he said made me nervous. I'm unclear of why it did but, is he stalking me? How does he know of my where-abouts? "I actually am. Why might you ask?"

"Great." Michael then hung up, leaving me confused. I then tried to focus on finishing my drawing when I noticed a tall, dark, figure hovering over me. I looked up to see a sweaty Michael, who looks like he has been running maybe. His music still played as the ear buds came out from the collar of his shirt. 

"What are you drawing? Is that a duck? Wait it's two ducks, right?" He questioned me as he continued to look down at my art book.

"Yes they are ducks. But, more importantly, why are you running in the park?" Michael never came off as the athletic type. He seemed more engrossed in his music than anything.

"Running helps me clear my head sometimes. What about you? Why are you sitting in the park drawing ducks? If I didn't know any better, you're turning into one of those crazy ladies! Gah, and to think I am friends with a psychopathic, duck drawing, artist!" He pretended to be upset and I laughed.

"Drawing helps me clear my head also Michael. But yes, I do fancy the art of ducks." I said in my most posh voice earning a laugh from him. We talked for a while afterwards and I showed him a few of my drawings. He claimed I was an artist and people would kill to see my work, but I refused to believe him. A cloud of thunder roared above our heads making me jump while Michael looked up towards the sky. Soon the rain began to fall one drop by one drop then all at once, covering our bodies in a blanket of water. I collected my art book and pencils and put them back into my bag.

"This is so cliché...again." I said over the loud rain hitting the pavement.

"Explain to me why this is cliché, Lily." I liked when he said my name, it made me feel protected, like the blanket of rain water pouring down on us; but instead, it was a much nicer and warmer blanket.

"Well," I began with my theory, "Usually in the movies the female protagonist will look so "flawless" in the rain, like she was put on this Earth to look good in the rain. Then, the male protagonist finds her beauty so irresistible and just has to kiss her. Then, they fall in love. It happens in almost every story." I stated what I felt. A minute went by and Michael never said anything. I was beginning to think that what I have said didn't make any sense and I may have just confused the poor boy.

"So like this." Michael grabbed my left hand and pulled me in close. His face was only an inch away from mine. This happened so unexpectedly, I never had time to react. He then let go of my hand and took a small step back. Michael never did kiss me though. He flashed me his award winning grin and I smiled back at him.

"Y-Yeah like that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We came back to the apartment not too long after that. "You're probably going to need clothes, right?" I asked him.

"Yeah sure."

"Okay, follow me." I led him back to a little dresser in the back of the room and gave him a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. "The bathroom is to your right, this is kind of a small apartment so you can't miss it." 

"Thanks."

I quickly undressed and put on warm and dry clothes. Michael quickly returned from the bathroom. "These pants are huge, I could fit a whole other me in here!" He laughed, fumbling with the draw string. I knew what was coming. I could almost feel the flood of questions coming from Michael. He has a tendency of asking a lot of questions all at once.

"These clothes were my brothers." I blurted out, mentally face palming myself. I really like Michael but, I was scared of opening up to him, hell, I was scared of opening up to anyone.

"I didn't know you had a brother. Where is he now?" Michael asked. I truly am hating myself for bringing that up. 

"Um, well, he died in an accident three years ago. My parents wanted to sell his clothes, to sort of forget about him, but I couldn't let them so I took them to University with me." I smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

"Oh I-I'm so sorry, Lily." I could see the guilt wash over his face.

"No it's fine really." We stood there in silence for a few seconds, but felt like eternity. "Hey, let's order a pizza and watch a movie." I tried lightening the mood, once again.

"Yeah sure sounds great." Michael replied. I could still tell he was bothered by the new information he just learned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't think I'll ever be able to eat another meal ever again." I huffed. We ate a whole pizza in under an hour. That may have been the most pizza I've ever eaten in under an hour.

"Me neither." Michael replied, positioning himself so his head rested on my shoulder. We sat on the couch for a while; it didn't take long for the both of us to fall asleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of the television played subliminally in the back setting of the room. You were able to hear the faint snores of the two every once in a while. Just then, Michael sits up checking the digital clock on the side table that read 8:15 a.m. He looked down at Lily, who was curled into a ball with a blanket thrown across her. Michael took the journal, that sat on the side table, and slid it into the waist band of his pants, knowing that Lily would awake any moment. He had to know what this journal said. The journal had the words "Recovery" and "Therapy" etched onto the faux leather with a black marker. He had been eyeing it all night. Michael would have taken the art book filled with Lily's pieces, if he knew where it was. He stood up from his place on the couch and wrote Lily a note, on a piece of paper, in the kitchen. Then Michael and the journal were both gone from the apartment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hmmm... I wonder what Michael is up to *wiggling eyebrows*

Anyways that chapter wasn't good but it wasn't bad...idk if I like it...

We found out about Lily's dead brother though :-( not cool.

the art book and the journal are 2 different things btw.

There's just one thing:

okay so like nobody really votes on the chapters or whatever and I know that on my iPhone, the voting doesn't work bc it always says "failed internet connection" (even when i have all bars) so some of you guys may not be able to vote BUUUT if you can vote that'd be great!

okay well i hope you guys enjoyed it, ill try to update as much as i can!

thanks :-)