Falling / Michael Gray x Reader

VIII - Confessing

VIII - Confessing

A/N: Spoilers concerning Wuthering Heights (E. Brontë), stars (*) and italics (italics) will tell you where it starts and where it ends. Otherwise: fluff.

Pete and I did not spend the night together, after all. Pete had seen right through me, no matter how disappointed for some reason I was in Michael, I could never involve myself heart and soul to that kind of relationship. I could try to be as flirtatious as I would like, this would come to no conclusion at the end. I was even lucky Pete was not the threatening kind of man.

As I started giggling to prevent myself from breaking into tears, the man who had been a stranger only an hour ago – but who became my guardian angel due to the circumstances – held me in his arms, not as a lover but as a brother. "It's fine Y/N, you're fine, it's all clear with me. You're in love with that man, let me take you to bed and then you'll never see me again"

"I would like that... To see you again", I said to shun admitting that I was indeed falling for Michael. Besides, Pete had been an adorable confidant throughout the short hours of the rising night. If I could not be his girl, the least I could do was to be his friend "We could go out at some point, as friends, if that's okay"

"I would be honored", he jumped at the chance as he was helping me joining my blue sheets that were waiting for me. Even if I had been drunk, I could not have been craving that much for help. I could not be more thankful that such a luck had struck me, on that night. I could barely stand on my feet and it felt like all the tears that I was holding back were putting pressure on my already weak body. I had no idea what time it was, but at that moment I did not care one second, I needed to be rocked by the night. Would I be able to walk properly the next day? Could I avoid Michael for the rest of my life? I fell asleep on those questions ; in the background all I could hear was Pete bidding me a good night and his feet hitting the floor.

I woke up slightly later than usual, hollow and more tired than when I get into bed. Or must I say when Pete helped me getting into bed. I had always been on time at anything, it was out of question that I would arrive late. And yet, I crossed the threshold of the Shelby Limited with ten minutes of delay. Subconciously, I was postponing the completion date in order not to meet Michael. I believed that arriving later would be enough not to see him. As a matter of fact, I had nothing to blame the man for, I just never pictured myself falling for a stray cat and I tried to forgive myself for doing so by charging an innocent man.

"You're late", Finn cut short when I arrived at his level, apparently as moody as I was. Of all the people, Finn was the one I cared to disappoint the least. Now that he got attached to this ritual, I was arriving late. So much had happened within a week and while Finn could just go along with his brothers, doing God knows what, he patiently waited for me to teach him how to read Wuthering Heights. I did my best not to give in in a bad temper, to keep at least this relationship easy.

"I'm so sorry Finn, 'won't happen again", I muttered, almost too unsure to be seen as the one teaching the other. In any other teacher-student relationship, the teacher would not have begged for apologies, but then again, the Shelby family was not like any other. Finn replied with a discreet hum.

We were on our way to get introduced by Emily Brontë to Heathcliff when, out of the blue, Finn dared to ask "So how went the night?". I had no clue as to what extent Michael or Isaiah had told him about the night prior. No element could even tell me if Michael had returned or not. Thus, I simply replied "Fine, it went fine", I did not wish to confide about the embarrassing incident "now get back to the book!", I commanded Finn, half-humorously, half-serious for Finn to stop his interrogation. He hummed once again, which I found both revolting and necessary as regards to the conversation held between us.