Wicked games. - clifford

f i v e

September 12th 2013

The vibration of my Iphone waked me up. It was buzzing on the bedside table. I was planning on ignoring it, but the quarter of a second that my eyes were open, they instantly spotted the caller id. I snuck out an arm from under the blanket and grabed my phone. Luckily, it was still vibrating when I finally accepted the call.

"Heyyyyy. How are you?"

I said with a sleepy voice. I knew something was up when I didn’t hear the usual “RAEEEE!” on the other end of the line. It was dead silent.

"Michael, what’s going on?"

I was worried, because I wasn’t used to unhappy Michael. He had such a bright personality and it was always that side of him that he showed me.  I had a feeling it took him a lot to be sad. A sniffling sound broke the silence, but it made my heart sunk.

"Mikey, whatever is going on, you can tell me."

I reassured him. In that moment, I wished I could hug him, but it was impossible. He was miles away, back home to Australia for a couple of weeks. Comforting people was always a hard thing to do with distance, but I had to do my best. He sniffled again.

"I know it’s part of my job to deal with critique, but it’s just so hard sometimes you know…"

He wasn’t crying, but I could hear the sadness and all the emotions in his voice.

"Some people are so mean to us, to me… it’s not even about our music, they hate us, they hate me, as a person..."

I didn’t know how he was feeling. I could try and imagine, but I knew I just couldn’t be in his shoes. He was right though; some people are mean, especially on internet.

"Michael, I won’t lie to you. The world contains people of the worst kind. Some take pleasure in the pain they inflict to others and will do all ever it takes to bring others down and they’ll never stop. The only thing that’s in our power is to ignore them. By doing that, we are taking all of the power they have on us away."

I knew it was easier said than done though. Building a shell to protect ourselves from others’ opinions was a long process. For some, it could take years, but being in the public eye, Michael had no choice but to start building it.

"Rae, it fucking hurts to read that I should kill myself instead of imposing the world the pain of living in a world where I breathe. That I look like shit, that I am dumb, that I have no talent."

He was sobbing now, I could practically see the tears on his face.

"I know it does honey, but imagine how awful the lives of those people must be if they have to invent lies about you to make themselves feel better? Because I’m telling you Michael, they ARE lies."

"Why would they be lies?"

He asked, sounding very insecure. He was so confident usually, it was almost strange to see him doubt himself that much. The worst was, he had to reasons to.

"Because you are the king of League of Legends, you play guitar solos like no one else I know, you have one of the cutest smile on Earth, you remember to many little details that I tell you, you know so many things about gaming and music and actually a lot of stuff and whenever you talk about that, your eyes light up and it almost feels magical to see you like that, so happy. I am honoured to be sharing the air with you and to live in a world where you live."

I explained, destroying every hate comment he previously stated to me.

"You really think all of those things?"

A smile crept onto my face when he spoke, the sound of hope piercing through his voice. I knew at that particular moment that I made it. I succeeded in my task of comforting and reassuring him.

"Of course I do. I fucking like you Michael, else I wouldn’t invest that much time in our friendship knowing we’ll barely ever see each other. To be honest, you’re pretty supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."

That was the perfect word to describe Michael. Mary Poppins might not have existed, neither known Michael, but if she did, I’m sure it’s the exact same word she would have used to describe him.

"Thank you for being so nice to me, and for listening to me and stuff. It means a lot."

He said, before he spoke again.

"I must admit, you’re pretty supercalifragilisticexpialidocious too Rae."

*

  

We talked a little more and I went back to sleep after that. It was the first time that he opened up to me this way. Even I hadn’t done it with him yet. From then on, our relationship had changed, in a good way. It grew us even closer as friends and I am forever thankful for that.  

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AN: I AM BACK! I'm done with my exams so I will try to update as much as I can from now on! :) 

dedicated to floriations because I just discovered her and all of her fictions are awesome. you should check them out!