Monster Among Men ➵ Michael Clifford a.u.

Chapter 2

Michael's POV

The cool, crisp, morning air nipped at my skin as I entered the tall, dark green, iron gates leading into school. I adjusted the straps of my black jansport backpack and tugged at the sleeves of my hoodie to try and distract myself from the anxious feeling in my stomach. It seemed to be working, at least temporarily as I found my way to the front office to pick up my list of classes for the day. I reached the office, and entered slowly, causing all eyes to be on me. I did my best to ignore the burning sensation in my chest as I approached one of the office workers.

"Good morning, how may I help you?" she asks. I take a deep breath in before speaking,

"I'm here for my schedule" I look around briefly, waiting for a reply as the lady begins to type something into her computer.

"Your name?" she asks, not taking her gaze away from the monitor.

"Michael." I say quickly, afraid of her reaction.

She glances at me, then back at the screen. "Last name." she says, unamused.

"Clifford." I hold my breath, but her expression remains the same.

She types for a few more moments, before spinning her chair around and grabbing a piece of paper that had been ejected from the printer just moments before. She then scans the paper quickly, spins back around, and hands it to me. "Here you go, kid." She gives me a forced smile as I grab the warm paper from her hand and glance over it.

"Thanks." I mumble as I turn around to exit the office. As I opened the door and quickly walked towards my first class of the day, I bumped into to someone, not paying enough attention to my surroundings. "Sorry, man I-" I began to apologize for my clumsiness but I was cut off by the boy I had crashed into.

"It's all good, I was-" the boy turned to face me, and cut himself off when we locked eyes with one another. "Michael?" The boy asked in a low tone, his mood changing instantly.

"Calum." I whispered to myself. I could already feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

His dark brown eyes, flooded with confusion and hurt. Calum stood still, and quiet, not willing to speak to me any longer. Although I don't blame him for doing so, it still hurt. Quickly appearing at his side, was his girlfriend, Aubrie. She glanced at Calum, then at me before speaking, "Michael Clifford." she says in awe, an evil smile playing on her ruby red lips.

"Aubrie Jones." I scoff, not in the mood for any of this emotional stress.

"What a surprise, seeing you here. I mean, after what happened and all." she fakes a frown as she moves her curled, strawberry-blonde hair, out of her face. I rolled my eyes, already annoyed by her presence.

"Yeah, surprise." I say, sarcastically.

"So." she sighs as she wraps an arm around Calum, swiftly pulling him closer to her.

"So?" I say blankly. I wasn't even annoyed anymore, just bored with the situation.

She eyed the piece of paper that I had slyly hid behind my back, then let out a small laugh. "What's this?" She asks, releasing Calum from her grasp and reaching forward and taking it from me. I didn't bother arguing with her over it, I was too focused on getting out of this situation.

"Hmm.." Aubrie scanned over it quickly, before handing it back to me. "Looks like you have homeroom with Cal and I" she glances at Calum quickly, as if for approval. "You can walk to class with us, since, you know.." her voice trails off.

"What?" I ask, obviously not understanding what she was trying to say. "Since, you have no friends, silly!" she giggles and playfully hits my shoulder, her mood changing dramatically.

"I will never understand you, Jones." I laugh in annoyance, a newfound confidence flowing through me. Instead of replying, Aubrie stays silent, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Do you remember when we used to be friends? Huh?" I raised my voice, catching her off guard. "Or how many nights I was there for you when nobody else was?" Calum looks at me, a surprised expression on his face. "Do you not remember how I was your rock, for so damn long!" I yelled, catching the attention of a few students passing by. Aubrie's eyes widened.

"Well, That was then. And this is now." she says plainly.

"Don't give me that crap Aubrie! I was there for you when nobody ..not even your own Mother.. was." I stepped closer to her. I was so caught up in the moment, I didn't realize the swarm of students surrounding the two of us, or that Calum had vanished. I looked around at the large group of shocked faces, a girl with a concerned and curious face appeared, staring directly at me, but I chose to ignore it as I balled up my fists and the slow, burning, sensation, found its way to my chest once again. "UGH!!" I groaned as I attempted to storm off, but before I could, Aubrie grabbed my forearm.

"Michael, wait!" She shouted.

I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes due to my social anxiety kicking in.

"How dare you!" she chokes back a sob, causing me to turn and face her. I didn't realize she had started to cry. "You left me! Do you remember that?" She cried. "You abandoned me, without leaving me any clue as to what the hell was going on." she continued, tears freely falling down her face. "I needed you, Michael." she sniffled.

I shook my head in disapproval, as i felt the tears begin to fall.

"You were my best friend." she sighed, wiping the tears that had begun staining her pale cheeks. "But you left. And then you came back and acted as if we were going to go back to being the way we used to be." she let out a dry laugh. "Not to mention whatever the hell happened to Benny." She added as she let a few more tears fall at the mention of Benjamin's name. "So piss off, Mike." She shook her head. "I never want to see you again." she said before running off, probably to find Calum.

Instead of running after her, I stood still, in shock. If I had even the slightest clue that this was going to happen today, I wouldn't have come to school at all. Despite all of the eyes that were currently burning holes into every inch of my body, I couldn't help but feel a sense of comfort in what had just happened. Aubrie had said that she never wanted to see me again, which was the best outcome for both of us. She'll never have to know the real reason I had left, and most importantly, she'll be safe.
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Author's Note;
This chapter is around 1200 words, I'm trying to have every chapter at least 1k words. Anyways, I really hope that this story is somewhat enjoyable x