Call Me Crazy || Michael Clifford

3 || Party Planner

We drove off until Calum pulled up at what kind of looked like an off-brand Walgreen's. The large car purred as we just sat there for a moment as he and Luke were on their phones texting. It didn't take long for them both to turn back to face me, Michael, and Ashton.

"So where are we headed first?" Calum asked twisting his spine more to face us. He was asking the other two more than me, but he gave me a couple glances. I guess he kind of saw my confusion. "We have been planning to skip the first day to plan a back-to-school party for the weekend. This would be our only day that the four of us would all have time together to plan."

My brows furrowed a bit. "Are you guys busy all week or something?"

They all looked around at each other, like they were thinking of telling me something. Luke spoke up pulling out the calendar app on his phone. "I've got a lot to do this week. Mum's making me clean the house since we're having guests on Friday. That's where we're having it Saturday."

"And I've got some things I need to write with Ash before then," Michael added.

"Both of those take up the week?"

"Not entirely," Luke went on, "but the times we need to do them conflict with each other."

I nodded my head. I still didn't understand why they couldn't just rearrange so they could've done this outside of school, but I'm not in the position to pry. At least not anymore. We just met an hour ago.

Ashton leaned closer to the front seats. "How about we hit up the dollar store down the road? Maybe there's some things there we could get?"

"Yeah, and it's not a huge investment if anything gets broken," Calum agreed. The boys sat back in there seats as he drove a few miles away from where we originally were. I feel like I should try to use meters now that I'm not in America, but it's just such a habit.

We all go into this quaint store that reminded me of the Dollar Tree back home. Everything in the store looked cheap, but there were always a few treasures to be found there. Calum and Ashton split away from us to start at the other end of the store. It isn't a big store, but i guess they want to get things done quick. So that left me with Michael and Luke at the front of the establishment.

"So when did you move in?" I heard Luke ask beside me. He offered a kind grin. Already we headed for some of the decorative-looking objects as he tried to make conversation.

I bit the corner of my lips. "A week ago. There's still a few boxes I need to go through before I'm completely settled in because I'm lazy, but . . . " I shrug it off following Michael along the isle.

"Do you have any family here?"

"No, just whoever dragged me here." I let out a small laugh to try and lighten the mood. "I mean—sorry that makes this place sound bad."

Luke laughed. "Yeah, not every place is perfect."

Michael turned towards us. It looked like he was about to say something, but he quickly shut his mouth and continued down the isle. It kind of looked like he wanted to join in the conversation. Now I feel bad. Damn.

"What is it, Mikey?" Luke asked putting a hand on his shoulder.

His friend turned around. We all stopped just before we got out of the isle. Michael looked over at me. "I was gonna ask where you moved into. I thought maybe I saw a huge operation close to Luke's house."

Luke glanced over at him then turned to me crossing his arms with a smile. "I saw that, too. Are you in Farland on the corner?"

"Yeah," I laughed. "Oh my god, how many houses away are you?"