Catfish - Michael Clifford

Chapter Eight

A/N: sorry, had a little break there. I got caught up reading After seen as how there was a load of hype about it! I am back to regular updating now! :) please vote and comment!

"Why would you do that to me?!" Ivy said, swatting him in the arm.

"I'm sorry I was nervous and I was trying to be funny." He laughed.

It was a good job he was cute.

"You got a lot of 'splainin to do Mr." Nova piped up.

"I know, I know. I swear I'll explain it all. I'll just tell the guys and we can go somewhere quieter, okay?" He replied.

Ivy nodded as he wondered to the other side of the room.

"Well, that was not what I expected at all." Nova whispered.

"Yeah, you could say that." Ivy whispered back.

Michael made his way back to them, and beckoned them his way. They got up and followed him out of the door. He led them into another room similar to the one they had just been in.

"So, when I said prove it, I never expected this." Ivy joked.

"Well I like to do things properly." He chuckled.

"So why all the secrecy?"

"Okay, basically, the media are always first to pick up on any interactions. Well the fans are and then the media pick up on that. Also, we all get about 10 emails a day saying people have tried to access our accounts. I basically didn't want you getting caught in the cross fire if anything was to happen. I have a secret account so that I can use twitter normally, plus if I linked my gamer tag to my actual twitter, I would have a million requests a day, and I'm not okay with that interfering with my gameplay." He laughed. "So basically, I wanted to talk to you without it being some massive event for fans to scrutinise, and give you grief and if my account did get hacked I didn't want it affecting you. Does this all make sense?"

"Yeah I guess it sorta does. But why not just tell me before?"

"Well to start with, don't take this the wrong way, I had to be sure that you wouldn't tell people about the account. I figured that out pretty quickly, but then I was just too afraid. I was terrified that you would stop talking to me, and I couldn't deal with that. I was scared you'd be dissapointed that I wasnt the guy in the picture."

"Disappointed? Are you serious? You're Michael freaking Clifford."

He grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"I'm glad you aren't him anyway, he wasn't really my type." She continued.

"Oh so am I your type?" Michael winked.

Ivy went bright red.

"Take that as a yes then." He finished.

"Exactly her type." Nova laughed.

Ivy shot daggers at Nova.

Michael started to look serious again.

"So, can you forgive me? I'm so sorry, I should never have lied to you but I didn't know what else to do. I wanted to keep you out of drama and-"

He was cut off by her wrapping her arms around him. He wrapped his arms round her to, and smiled. "So yes, or is this just a goodbye hug?"

"Shut up, Ash." She joked.

Michael poked his tongue out at her as she pulled away from the hug.

"So what made you start talking to Ivy of all people?" Nova asked.

"She intrigued me, from when I first met her at HMV that day. I knew I wanted to talk more, and I already had the secret twitter, so I figured why not? I didn't plan on it going like this though."

"Ooh, so I'm gonna leave you two alone now. I have other band members to talk to." Nova joked.

"Okay, well the other guys know what's going on. I'm sure they'll let you chill with them."

"Okay, this is good, bye." Nova rushed out of the door.

There was a comfortable silence after she left, and Ivy and Michael just looked at each other.

"I can't believe its actually you." Ivy said quietly.

She wasn't as confident without Nova by her side.

"I'm sorry I had to lie to you okay? Everything other than who I am is true. And my job obviously. Its pretty clear that I don't work in a shop near my house."

Ivy nervously laughed.

"It all kind of makes sense now, when I think about it. Like why you werent replying at certain times and stuff, I guess you were in the studio, or playing a show."

Michael confirmed it with a quick nod.

"Wow, I can't believe this. I thought maybe some pervy old man was going to be waiting for us." Ivy joked.

"Well I suppose one day I'll be an old man, and I'm already pervy, so you're pretty much right."

Ivy laughed a lot louder than she anticipated, and was quick to stop. Red flushed her face as she remembered some of the texts they'd be sending each other a few nights before everything came out.

She'd been doing that with Michael Clifford of all people. Her heart started racing again and she quickly tried to stop the thought from totally invading her mind. They hadn't actually done anything, but the topic definitely started.

She put her face into her hands as if trying to wipe the memory away.

"So did you wanna go do something?" Michael asked. "Oh god, I don't mean that, it came out wrong." He added, after noticing the frown that crept across her face.

"Yeah what did you have in mind?" She smiled.

"I don't know, what is there to do here?" Michael responded.

After thinking about it for a little while, she could only think of the arcades. They would be the only thing open this late anyway.

"Okay. Should we go and get Nova and the guys?" Michael questioned.

"Yes please, if that's okay?" She said quietly.

He turned away quickly, but Ivy didn't miss the semi disappointed look on his face. She thought about changing her mind, but she knew she'd feel better if Nova was with her.

They walked in silence whilst making their way back to the other room. It wasn't awkward as such, but they did keep glancing at eachother. They were close to the door when they glanced at eachother at the same time. Ivy let out an involuntary giggle before following Michael through the door.

Michael asked the guys if they all wanted to go out, whilst Ivy explained to Nova what the plan was. Before long, the boys were all in hoodies and sunglasses to disguise their appearance and they were all exiting out of the back door trying to avoid any lingering fans. Luckily, the place looked pretty empty.

"Well, I definitely didn't expect this." Ivy whispered to Nova.

She looked around to see the boys all walking close together. This was actually happening. They were hanging out with 5 Seconds Of Summer.