Begin Again - A.I

thirteen.

"Took you long enough to get here," I mumble as finally, after what felt like waiting twenty years, Michael shows up at the library and takes a seat across the table from me. We had planned to meet at 7:30 in the morning, because Ashton needed to 'go do something' during this time, so I had to come into school early anyway. It was now 8:00 and we only had half an hour until school started, instead of a full hour. I had a feeling not much work would get done on our project.

"The bus was late," he mutters, not bothering to pull out his headphones from his ears. He pulls out his folder and pens from his bag and sets them neatly out on the table, before just going back to his phone.

"There's a bus here?"

He rolls his eyes. "School bus."

"Why don't you catch a ride with your friends?"

"Luke doesn't leave his house until 8:30," he answers bluntly.

"Isn't that when school starts?"

"Exactly."

"Well, what about Ashton? We got here at quarter past seven, he could have picked you up."

Michael just groans. "Can you just shut up?" He snaps. "I'm here now."

I screw up my face in disgust. "Jesus, calm down. Are you always such a huge ball of fury?"

"I dyed my hair red for a reason."

"Hilarious."

"Can we just get to work?"

"I've been doing work for the last half hour," I explain gruffly. "How about you get off your phone and actually do something useful for once?"

He just grunts.

I didn't know what it was about this Michael kid that made it so impossible for me to tolerate him. I tolerated Luke and Calum, yet I could not tolerate Michael. At first I thought that it wasn't important if I didn't get along with all of Ashton's friends, but now I'm starting to realise that it actually is. Because they're all such a tight knit group, and if I have to be forced to hang with them all, I have to actually hang with them all.

And it annoyed me that all the other boys liked me, but Michael didn't. What was so wrong with me? What exactly didn't he like? I personally don't care what the hell he thinks of me. Well, at least, I thought I didn't...

I knew that if I was going to be forced to spend months with this guy and work on a project with him, I'd have to learn to tolerate him. And that meant getting to know him. That meant being friendly.

I take a deep breath. "How are you?" I ask through gritted teeth as I force a pleasurable smile to my face.

Michael slowly glances up at me, raising a confused eyebrow as he sees my expression. "I'm fine ... Why?"