strike a pose ||| michael clifford

chapter 10

I was shocked.

"Ella. What are you doing?" Michael asked again. He looked shattered. His eyes had welled up with tears.

My body was on display infront of him. He could see the scars and the stretch marks lining up my hips. He could see my tear stained cheeks and my weight on the scale I was currently standing on. Everything.

"I-" I couldn't talk. Instead, a choked sob escaped my lips.

Michael walked over to me and pulled me into his strong embrace.

"Don't do that." He quietly whispered into my ear.

"I'm sorry." I manged to say. I was truly sorry he had to see me like this, I was also incredibly embarrassed. "I'll get dressed and be down in a few."

I pulled away from him and nodded my head towards the door, trying to cover my stomach area with my arms.

"You don't wanna talk about it? I could help you." Michael said clearly confused.

I'm not sure if he noticed my weight loss and wanted to help with that, or if he saw my cuts and wanted to help with that. Or maybe he didn't notice those things and just wanted to help boost my confidence, I wasn't sure.

"No I don't wanna talk about it and I most definitely do not need your help." I snapped.

Michael looked taken aback for a second, but soon regained his posture and whispered, "Okay, just know that I'll always be here if you need me."

He silently left the room and I quickly tried to wipe off the mascara from my face and make it look like I hadn't been crying. I fixed my hair into a messy bun and slide into my pajamas as fast I could then went downstairs.

I was hoping that michael hadn't told everyone about what he had seen minutes before, but I kind of knew that he wouldn't do that. As worried as he seemed for my health, he wouldn't want to put that pressure on me.

I went into the living room and sat as far away from Michael as I could, which was next to Anna.

Anna must've noticed the red in my eyes ad asked if I was okay. I lied and told we that I had just gotten makeup remover in my eye.

The movie was playing loudly but I could still hear the crunching of popcorn. I tried to put my complete focus into the intence Spider-man movie, but just couldn't. So instead, I snuggled into the couch and tried to fall asleep. Action movies weren't really my thing, everyone knew that. The anxiety of the whole concept of action movies stressed me out and I normally tried to avoid having to watch one, but when I was hanging out with my friends, that's usually all they wanted to watch.

When Michael and I were little, we would sit in the tree house my dad made for me and watch cartoon action movies on the small television I had gotten for one of my birthdays. it required a lot of extension cords, but we managed. I hated watching them, but Michael would always be sure to watch whatever I wanted afterwards.

I missed when things weren't so complicated, and the one thing we strived for to have fun, not to be good enough.

hella short chapter but whatever