Trouble - 5SOS (L.H.)

-2-

After the flight and a good 10 minutes of waiting for our luggage, Michael and I walk outside the airport.

I see my dad pull up and walk out of his car, opening the door for the woman who I assume to be Valerie, Michael's mom.

"I see you've already met," Valerie says to the both of us, but then turns to me, "But we haven't yet. Hi, Lia, I'm Valerie, but you can call me Val." She says, giving me the fakest smile I've ever seen. She talks to me as if I'm a 2 year old.

I return the fake smile, "Nice to meet you," I say, mocking her tone, but she doesn't notice. She went on to greet Michael, as my dad came up to me.

"Lia," Dad smiled, pulling me into a hug.

I hug him back, "Missed you, Dad."

"You too, darling." He says, releasing the hug.

Michael and I pack into the backseat of my dad's expensive-looking car, and I see my dad hold Valerie's hand, saying how much they love each other.

"I bet you it won't last the summer." Michael whispers to me.

"I bet it won't last the rest of the month." I whisper back.

Michael laughs and pulls out his phone.

This whole time I forgot I even had a phone.

When I click my phone on, I see that my mom has texted me, asking me if I landed and if I'm okay, and a few other texts from my friends back home.

I glanced at Michael's phone, and he was texting someone called Luke.

We're almost at the house. Luke's message read.

Ok. See you then. Michael texts back.

Are Michael's friends coming, too? More step-brothers maybe?

**

My dad stops the car at a house I've never seen before. It's gigantic, and it's gorgeous. It's right near the beach, the view of the water behind it is amazing. My dad has a lot of houses, but this one is by far the best I've seen.

Michael and I walk in together, and it looks amazing. Very clean; to the left is a living room, to the right a hallway and a kitchen, and straight ahead is a staircase that I assume leads to the bedrooms.

I head upstairs before Michael, planning to snatch the better room before he does. I look in all the rooms, but can't find one bigger than the rest- they are all the size of my mom's living room back in California.

I settle with the last room on the left because it is farthest away from the stairs and has a cool view of the beach. Michael comes upstairs minutes later, and chooses his room, directly across the hall from mine.

He walks into my room as I'm unpacking, "We both got the rooms with the good views."

It sounds like he means someone else is going to be using the other rooms..

I shake it off and just say, "Definitely."

Michael is about to say something back, but the doorbell rings.

"They're here." He tells me, and grabs my wrist, "C'mon!"

Someone else is going to be using the rooms.

He runs downstairs, and I try to keep up with his large leaps, as he's still gripping my wrist. He suddenly lets go. He opens the door and I see 3 boys standing there.

"Hey guys!" Michael says as he hugs them all individually.

"This is Lia, she's Mark's daughter. She's gonna be living here, too," He says, "And these are my friends Ashton, Calum, and Luke."

They all smile and greet me, as you would to any stranger who you would be spending months with in the same house.

Michael leads them upstairs so they can pick their rooms, and I follow, hoping to get back to my room and unpack.

I hear them choosing their rooms. Calum somehow convinced Ashton that the room next to Michael's is bigger, so Calum took that one. Ashton took the one next to Calum to be close to him. Luke was stuck with the last room, which was the room directly to the right of mine.

I close the door to my room and watch YouTube for a few hours, then listen to The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, The Neighbourhood, and Vampire Weekend for a bit.

My phone's almost dead. Where did I put my charger? Oh! It's in my other bag. Where is it?

I walk across to Michael's room, which was about a crack open.

"Hey, Mikey," I say, and something catches my eye downstairs, "Did you see where I left my other bag-"

When I look into his room, there's a girl sitting close on the bed with him, and she stops her annoying giggling when she sees me.

Michael was about to answer when she interrupts him, "Who the fuck are you and why are you here?" She says. Mikey looks uncomfortable.

I'm taken by surprise for a moment, "Who am I? Why am I here?" I say with a lot of emphasis on the I, "I live here, honey."

"Well my boyfriend lives here," he says putting her hand on Michael's chest, which startles him. "Can you be any more rude?" She snaps at me.

"Sure, I can be more rude. One: you're wearing so much makeup it look like a bird shit on your face. Two: your clothes have got to be at least 5 sizes too small, as you've got a ginormous muffin top, and Three: your boobs are so small they look like infected mosquito bites." I say, and she says nothing, just looks stunned. I turn around and start leaving.

"Lia, wait." Michael says, getting up off the bed, reaching toward me, and I turn around, "Your bag is at the bottom of the stairs." He says, stopping in his tracks.

"Thanks." I say, closing the door to his room, and make my way downstairs.