Dare || m.c.

➵ 4.4 - michael

Jade refused to go to prom with Michael. He understood why she said no, but it still hurt to know that she didn't trust him like he trusted her. Honestly, though, he couldn't blame her. If he hadn't been stupid enough to go along with the dare, then this wouldn't have happened. Maybe she still would've rejected him, maybe she wouldn't have, but it sure as hell wouldn't have been because he was an asshole.

"Did you get your tux?" Luke asked during lunch, his face stuffed with tasteless cafeteria food, a piece of carrot in his hand.

"I'm not going," Michael mumbled, sucking on the straw of his juice box.

"Why not?" Calum and Luke asked at the same time. Both of sounded extremely confused, like it was so weird that Michael wasn't going to prom.

"Jade said no," Michael grumbled. He didn't want to talk about this. Didn't want his stupid friends to make fun of him for not being able to convince his girlfriend to go to prom with him.

"Why would she say no?" Luke raised his eyebrows. It was disgusting how he was eating when he had food in his mouth, but Michael was past the point of caring.

"She has her reasons." Michael didn't want to say anything about Zach or her past. It wasn't his place to tell people about it. Jade trusted her with that information and he wasn't about to go and flaunt it to the world.

"She's your girlfriend, dude, she's not supposed to say no," Calum said.

Bryn hit the back of his head. "She can say no if she wants to," she said condescendingly. "Being his girlfriend doesn't oblige her to go to prom with him."

"So you wouldn't have a problem with saying no to me?" Luke asked.

"If I didn't want to go, I'd say no," Bryn said. Michael was surprised at that. They'd been going out for three years basically. It was strange that Bryn could so easily still turn him down if she wanted to. "But I do want to go, so you're fine." She patted Luke on the back.

"I still say you talk to her," Calum spoke up again. "Ask her again."

Michael mulled his words overs. He could again again- ask a fourth time, that is. After asking twice, he thought the third time might be the charm. It wasn't. She still said no. Maybe this time he could change her mind and convince her to go with him.

"Where is she now?" Calum asked.

"Chemistry," Michael mumbled.

"Don't push her, Michael," Bryn warned. "It's up to you, but if she said no, then you should respect that. If I were in her place, I wouldn't want to be asked the same thing ten times."

Now Michael was conflicted. He knew Calum only wanted what was best for him, but so did Bryn. Calum usually gave good advice, and most of the time it worked, but right now Michael didn't know who to listen to. It made sense to talk to Jade, but what Bryn had just said also made sense. And, really, Jade wasn't the kind of girl anyone should want to piss off.

"I'll see what happens," Michael sighed.

It was a long day. Michael kept thinking about whether or not he should ask Jade one more time. He kept imagining everything that could possibly go wrong, like Jade breaking up with him or hating him forever. When school ended, Michael and the rest of the boys were supposed to record another video to put on YouTube. They had another show to play the day after prom and things were honestly looking like they were heading in a positive direction- well, aside from the fact that only twelve people showed up at their first gig.

They recorded the video at Luke's house; he was the one with all their amazing camera equipment. It was a little strange for Ashton to be with them without Jade, but also kind of nice. He was a good guy, despite Michael's impression of him being someone aggressive. Michael remembered when Ashton first came to school, with his blond hair and weird accent. He kept to himself, even though they were pretty young at the time and didn't have to deal with the cliches and norms that formed in middle school. He never tried to talk anyone and eventually people stopped trying to talk to him.