hey jealousy // michael clifford

one

If there was one thing Michael was good at, it was well and truly fucking everything up.

This was a fact of life that he'd accepted quite a long time ago, and he had been absolutely certain for at least the last year of his life. It was almost like a chain reaction, last year he'd messed up his life majorly and since then he just hadn't been able to get anything to go his way.

At the moment it seemed like the universe was just trying to fuck him over and Michael was almost at the point where he wanted to give up. Two days ago he'd been fired from his job because of a mistake that someone else had made, which actually sucked because he'd really liked his job, and seeing as he had no uni qualifications getting a new one was going to be pretty difficult. Then just to top things off his roommate, an all-around miserable bastard, decided that his new found unemployment was going to make it hard for him to pay his half of the rent so he'd kicked him out.

Michael had kind of been shocked at first, convinced that he was dreaming the whole thing because there was no way his life could suck that much; but no, it was all completely real and he was utterly screwed.

He'd been living in his car for a day and a half and he was already sick of it, but it was kind of hard to find a new place to live on such short notice especially when he had no way of paying rent at this current point in time. With all his crap packed into his car there was barely enough room to breathe let alone sleep or eat or do anything that would qualify him as a normal functioning human being.

For about two seconds he'd considered calling Luke and Calum and asking if he could crash at their place, but then he thought better of it. Mostly because their lives were going really well and he kind of resented them for it. Aside from that, the two of them weren't even at their place at the moment; they were doing a small tour around some local pubs and bars trying to get their music out there so, even if Michael had interrupted them while they were chasing their dreams they probably wouldn't have let him stay at their apartment anyway.

Besides Luke and Calum, Michael didn't really have anyone else.

He'd never been the best at making friends and he hated having to ask the few he did have for favours. Essentially, Michael was a stubborn prick and right now that was not working out well for him.

If all this had gone down a year earlier he knew exactly who he'd call, where he'd go, but this was now and that would be the dumbest thing he could possibly do. There was no way he could impose himself on her life like that, not after everything he'd done; it just wouldn't be right.

Not too long after that Michael had to go into McDonalds just so he could pee, and while that was happening he decided that nothing could be worse than having to use fast food restaurants as a bathroom. So he sucked it up, called Calum and asked for the address, and then he headed over to Avery's apartment.

***

Slowly, but surely, Avery Johnson was getting her shit together.

If anyone had asked her a year ago where she thought she'd be right now she never would have guessed it would have been anything like it actually was. Currently she was still at uni studying psychology, but she had somehow managed to snag a position as an assistant working for her professor (it wasn't exactly ideal but it paid well and helped with her studies). Because of that, and because her parents were willing to support her while she was still at university, she'd been able to afford to rent out a one bedroom apartment near her uni and she was living there by herself.

A year ago she would have thought she'd be sharing an apartment with Michael but then everything went to hell and that idea was thrown right out the window.

It wasn't so bad, living by herself. Ashton came over a lot and even when he wasn't there she actually quite enjoyed the peace and quiet that she never seemed to be able to get in her everyday life. Occasionally she did wish she had someone to talk to but usually she just called Ashton or someone from uni.

Sometimes she found herself dialling Michael's number just out of habit, and she'd kind of marvel at the fact that even after all this time she still remembered it off by heart; but in the end she'd just end up erasing it and usually those were the nights she preferred to be alone. It had been a year, and Avery often worried that she should most definitely have moved on by now; there was still a part of her that realised that she probably wouldn't ever be able to get over it completely.

What she had with Michael wasn't something that was easy to forget and a lot of the time she really wished that it was.

After uni had finished for the day she'd invited a couple of her friends over so that they could all study for an exam together. That study session had eventually turned into drinks and some pizza but she really didn't mind. Sometimes uni and work made it hard to maintain a regular social life so whenever she could work out some way to combine the two or three it was always fun.

At around one in the morning she decided it was probably in everyone's best interests to call it a night so she helped everyone pack up their books and helped them to their cars or to taxis. After that she flopped down on the couch and started flicking through the channels on the TV, none of the programs able to hold her attention for more than a few seconds at a time.

Avery had to admit that she was a little surprised when she heard the soft knock on her door. She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to figure out exactly who'd be showing up at her apartment this late in the night.

With a shrug she went to answer it anyway, assuming that someone from earlier had probably just left something there and they were coming back to get it. Avery was pretty much expecting to see anyone besides the person who was actually looking back at her when she opened the door.

He was a little taller and his hair was now a dark brown colour that suited him way more than she wanted to admit, but it was definitely him. She was sure if she'd been holding something she would have dropped it even though that would have been utterly ridiculous. His eyes were still as soft as they'd always been and he had the most adorable look of anxiety on his face.

For a few seconds Avery actually wondered if perhaps she'd had too much to drink earlier on, because the last person she expected to be standing on the other side of that door was Michael Clifford.

-

okay so this is really short and really shitty but i promise it gets longer and better. i just read that and oh god it sounds so dirty but i'm not changing it because it's funny.

i can't believe i just put a cliff hanger at the end of the first chapter, i can't believe i'm that kind of person.

anyway things will be explained later on in the story i promise.