finifugal ➵ michael clifford (on hold)

Chapter 8

I was roughly pushed even more back onto the door of the walk in cupboard. Michael ground his hips against mine, growling deeply in the back of his throat. It was as if he was hungry for more, as he wasn't satisfied with just doing it a few times. Even though I didn't mind it, and I know Michael definitely liked it, I pressed my palms to his chest and gently pushed him off. It wasn't really what I'd like to spend seven minutes doing.

"Can you sit down with your back against the wall?" I asked. His face fell as he did so, and I knew he just wanted to be rough with me because of the alcohol. I put my legs on either side of his, lowered myself to sit in his lap, and put my head in the crook of his neck. My hands travelled across his muscular thighs and over his hips, my fingers lifting up his shirt a little as I snaked my arms around and pressed them against his lower back.

"Mmmmmm," I mumbled. "This is nice."

"It is," he agreed and began to trace circles on my thigh, travelling higher and higher up my dress. I swatted his hand away when he went to touch my inner thigh.

"No, Clifford," I scolded him.

"But whyyyyyy," he whined.

"It was nice until you ruined it. Here's an idea, you take all your clothes off and I'll let you take my dress of," I joked, but he grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it off in one swift and fast motion.

"Michael I was kidding."

"Oh," he said as I admired his upper half. My hands roamed his chest, fingers running along his collar bones. My lips following my fingers, dotting kisses along his collarbones and neck.

"You're so gentle with me, nobody's ever been as gentle with me as you are."

I rested my head back into the crook of his neck, placing kisses against his jaw.

"The thought of you with another girl kills me. Like, it literally feels like my thoughts have thrown a grenade all the way down to my heart, and my heart blows up whenever I think about it. It hurts that much. Michael I'm sober enough to say my feelings so I'm just going to come out and s-"

"Two minutes!" I hear Elijah call out to us.

"Fuck, okay so I'm just going to skip the whole introductory paragraph to what few words I'm about to say, but I'll say this. I know we haven't known each other for long so we don't go way back, but I feel like I've known you forever. You're so easy to talk to and I actually like talking to you which is weird because I don't like talking to most guys. I just try to avoid them." I put my hands on his cheeks and kissed him lightly on the nose. "Michael I li-"

"Times up!" Elijah interrupted as he kicked the door open. My face fell as I couldn't finish what I wanted to tell Michael. Elijah ruined such a perfect moment. I could've killed him right then and there. Michael noticed, as he placed a finger on my chin and gently turned my head back to face him. Michael kissed me on the nose like I did to him before, and diverted his gaze to the boy standing in the door frame.

"Can you please get out," Michael politely ordered. Elijah chuckled and closed the door, leaving us be.

"Wait, you know how you said your friends would make fun of you if they ever saw you with me?" I asked Michael.

"Yeah?"

"Why are we here? All of your friends are here," I stated, now that I've actually taken his words into consideration, I find it weird how Michael agreed on coming in the first place. He laughed at what I said.

"Lyra, they're too off their faces to even care who I'm with. I could be with Jennifer Lawrence right now and they wouldn't even give a shit. Have you seen Elijah? He can't even walk straight and he was slurring his words. Nobody will remember this."

That made me question whether or not he even wanted to be seen with me, even if we end up dating. He placed his hands on my hips and gently pulled me off of his lap and told me he was going to the bathroom downstairs before pulling his shirt back on that had been discarded on the floor earlier. The fact that he knew where the other bathroom was meant that he'd been here before, and the thought of that made me wonder what he's like fully partying. With Michael gone, I decided to join the group again to play more of the mixed party games.

After around an hour, or what felt like an hour, Michael was nowhere to be seen. The party games had continued without him for half the time he was gone, then got boring and the group ditched the idea and came up with a new one. We were now trying to play charades, with things getting a bit too out of hand. I decided to sneak off with the excuse to go to the bathroom and Elijah gave me a concerned look. I told him I wouldn't get drunk by myself, but once I got downstairs I poured myself some vodka into a red party cup. I guess I did it to stop myself from overthinking. Once the alcohol slid down my throat and settled into my stomach, I felt at ease. Just one, I thought, make it last.

After my attempt to find Michael felt unsuccessful, I just decided to go down to that private beach by myself and I could just find him later in the night. Or at this rate, during the early hours of the morning. Once I got outside, I slipped my heels off and stepped onto the grass. The air was cool, but I was warm due to being in a crowded house and being under the influence of alcohol. I made my way down the grassy bank to where the sand began, my dress fluttering around my thighs because of the wind. Nearing the dock, I took in how pretty the view was. The reflection of the moon was dancing on the waves. The white fairy lights that spiralled around the top part of the fence on either side of the dock sparkled, making the whole place look ethereal. At the end of the dock, I could see a silhouette of a small gazebo, which I thought would be a good place to stay for an hour or so to wait for the party to die down a little. Getting closer to the gazebo, I could also see a silhouette of two people, obviously needing the gazebo to be away from the eyes of the many partygoers. From a distance I thought it looked like Michael, so I decided to go closer and pretend I didn't see them, just to put my nervous stomach at rest. It was no use, as the boys crazy hair was undoubtedly Michael's. And he was with another girl. I calmly turned around to walk away, tears forming in the brims of my eyes and threatening to spill over like a waterfall. As soon as I heard the voice I knew was Michael's calling my name, I began to sprint faster than I had ever before knowing that he couldn't possibly catch me. He was running but also stumbling due to how much I assumed he'd drank in the time he was gone. Once I was half way to the end of the dock, I slowed and turned my head over my shoulder to see if he was still chasing me. I didn't know what I expected to see, but Michael was lying on the floor, a girl sitting on his lap as I previously was before he left, except their faces were attached to each other in an aggressive manner. I turned and pulled my phone out to call the cab drivers number that I got when he dropped us off here. I didn't want to tell my friends I'd left because Michael would know exactly where I'd gone. The cab driver picked up on the fifth ring and answered with a rude tone. He told me it had just gone midnight and at that point I didn't realise we'd been out so long. I was only planning on staying until 10:30 because that's when the cab company stopped operating for the night and to keep Michael out of trouble, which evidently failed.

"I know your shift ended one and a half hours ago but I really need a ride," my voice cracked and I cringed at sounding like a baby to some stranger. "I don't have anyone to take me home." The cab driver sighed and agreed to pick me up if I paid a bit extra. He hung up before I could respond. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a tyre swing by the start of the driveway and made my way over to it to wait for my cab.

A/N: I just realised I said that Lyra put her phone in a safer place than her pocket and she's wearing a dress. I meant that her cardigan had a pocket and I didn't explain it very well and usually cardigan pockets are tiny. I'll update that soon because it sounds really stupid omg. I'm sorry this was a really shitty filler chapter but the party was just dragging on and they had to leave or else I would probably lose my sanity with mentally staying at a party for like 4 chapters. If you've noticed, this used to be called Please Don't Go, but I changed it to finifugal - which basically means prolonging endings - because I thought the previous name was too mainstream and I can make the new title work. Also, my new Twitter username is @5SOSidklmao (used to be @PDGMikey).