Alone

4~Michael Clifford~4

I was lost in memories of my childhood, when a honk jerked me from my thoughts.

"Ashton's here," Calum mumbled. I jogged up to the passenger window of the Impala and stuck my head in.

"Cal is gonna come with us, is that okay?"

"Yeah sure," Ashton said unlocking the doors. I hopped in the front and Calum climbed into the back seat. I turned to Ashton.

"So what's first?" I asked him, but Calum spoke before he could.

"Mum said that he should probably show you the school first, but you don't have to," I nodded at him in agreement.

"Yeah, it would be nice to know where I'm going to be going for 175 days out of the year," I giggled, causing Ashton to laugh. I looked in the mirror and saw Calum frowning.

"Cal, I wasn't trying to be mean," I turned to look at him.

"Alright," he forced a smile, and turned to the window.

Minority by Greenday came on the radio, finally tuning out the awkward. Ashton was drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, and Calum began singing along.

"Cal, you're really good!" I gawked from the front seat. I heard him chuckled and watched him shake his head. "And you Ashton, do you drum? Because you are hitting every beat perfect!" I gushed.

"I've taken a few lessons," he smirked.

"Awe hell, are you kidding me?" Calum said in surprise, "you played the drums for the talent show before you graduated," he said putting his head in between the two front seats.

"Okay, maybe I took a lot of lessons, but that doesn't mean I'm good," I laughed in disbelief, but before I could say anything, we stopped in front of a huge two story school.

"This is where we will be going to school," said Calum frowning at the building. It looked like he absolutely despised the place.

While I was distracted my Calum's disgusted face, Ashton turned to me and asked me something,

"What? I'm sorry," I blushed for spacing out.

"There's a party at the Clifford household, how about we hit it up?" He asked. I looked at Calum, and he nodded excitedly.

"Sure, we can do that," I smiled.

Ashton and Calum nodded towards each other, and the car started back up, pulling towards the direction of a big house at the end of the road.

There were a countless number of teens on the yard with plastic red cups. They matched the scene of the thumping house, perfectly. I had to admit, I was excited and nervous all at the same time.

Ashton stopped at the house and we all piled out of the car. A boy with crazy black and white hair came out the door, and greeted us across the yard.

"Hey Ash," the boy said coming in for a bro-hug, "Calum," he said doing the same thing. Then he looked at me.

"Michael, this is Winny Brooks. Calum's cousin. She just moved here," Ashton gestured towards me.

Michael looked at me, and stuck his hand out for my to shake.

"Nice to meet you beautiful, I'm Michael Clifford," I blushed at his statement. If it wasn't one thing after another, he winked at me.

"You wanna go grab a drink?" He asked taking my hand, and guiding me into the house.

"Yeah sure," I smiled at him.

"Maybe we can sit down and have a nice conversation," he smirked.

"Works for me," I giggled.

I made sure that I had only one drink, as did Michael, but we were having a great time. We both laughed at each other's joke's. He learned about why I moved here, and in return I got his whole life story an how his parents pretty much hate him.

"Well baby, it's getting late and I want you to get home safely. So let's exchange numbers, and I'll call you tomorrow," so that's exactly what happened.

I went off to find Calum and Ashton, but I learned that I didn't have to. He found me with a panic stricken look on his face. He hadn't been drinking, because I didn't smell any alcohol on his breath.

"What's wrong Cal?" I asked grabbing his shoulders to calm hi down.

"Ashton is completely smashed, how are we supposed to get home?" He asked frantically. I had to think quickly.

"Well one of us can drive Ashton to his house, the. We can walk back home together. We can tell Joy that we wanted to walk the rest of the way because it was so nice out," it was my best and only idea, but it was enough to calm Calum down.

So it was decided that Calum would drive us to Ash's house.

Calum pulled up to a tiny brick house and we helped Ashton in. On our way out, Calum grabbed two pieces of gum so my breath wouldn't smell like alcohol when we got back.

"So Cal, I was thinking," I said grabbing a piece of gum.

"About what?" He asked unfolding his own piece.

"Our childhood, and I remember some of it, just not the parts with my mother. Like when we were little and we stayed at your house watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we always fell asleep on the couch even though we weren't supposed to," we both laughed a the memory.

"Yeah I remember that too," he added a chuckle on the end of his laugh.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked raising my eyes from the sidewalk to his face.

"Go ahead," he smiled.

"Why did you look sick when we passed the school?" His eyes grew wide, and I heard him gulp.

"You saw that?" He asked. I nodded, so he frowned. "I get bullied pretty bad. I only have a few friends and two of them are Ashton and Michael." He sighed.

For the rest of the walk it was silent. It was just nice to be together again, and I knew this sounds crazy, but I missed my cousin.

Thinking about it now, he was a big part in growing up, until after my mother died. Then he just seemed to disappear along with the rest of my happiness and memories.

Calum and I finally shuffled up to the house about 11:30, and when we walked through the door, there was a very upset looking Joy.

"Mum, we got to far to the end of the city. We decided to walk and it took longer than we anticipated," frowned Calum giving out an exasperated sigh.

"Oh Cal, you could have called for a ride," she smiled a relieved smile.

"We didn't want to bother you," I chimed in. She gave me one look and smile brightly again.

"Alright, well you two should head to bed then" she chuckled. Both of is nodding, we eased up the stairs and to our rooms.

I changed out of my tight skinny jeans and t-shirt, and changed into a plain white t-shirt and a pair of bed shorts. I tied my hair up, wiped off my make up and brushed my teeth.

Before I went to bed, I checked my phone and saw a text from Michael.

"Starbucks, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Don't miss it ;)"

I smiled, plugging my phone in. I didn't realize how tired I was until my head hit the pillow. Then I was out like a light.