A Work of Art ＊ Muke AU

Chapter Thirteen

Michael was in the middle of working on his painting when all of a sudden, he spilled paint on the floor.

"I'm so sorry, Luke!" he exclaimed.

"It's fine, Michael," Luke said, "There's no need to worry about that, I'll fix it. By fix it, I mean wait for my mom to come into my room and clean it up for me because I'm not going to bother doing it."

Michael laughed, showing that smile of his that could light up a room.

Michael felt his phone vibrate, showing that he had gotten a text.

From: J

Hey, what's going on?

To: J

Nothing, I'm just with a friend. I'll see you at school tomorrow.

Michael didn't get another response after that. That was typical of his so-called "friends." They were nice to him and all, but they seemed a bit more secretive than they should around a friend. Because of that, Michael wasn't exactly sure if he could trust them, yet at the same time, he felt like he could tell them anything and not be judged by them or anyone else in his life.

They seemed like the type of the friends who would be the leaders of a clique where Michael was the new kid who tried his hardest to fit in but didn't feel one hundred percent comfortable around everybody in the group of people. They all had different personalities and something they wanted to do with their lives that they felt like they couldn't do without getting judged or losing a friend, leaving them all alone. 

Michael stuck with Calum a lot of the time, but hung out with this specific group of friends and talked to them whenever Calum wasn't around. Michael was afraid. He was afraid that soon enough, Calum would possibly leave him alone and this group of people would be the only friends he had. Or, if he did something that he had been hiding because he didn't want to be judged by this group of friends, they would leave him alone and Calum would be all he had.

There was nothing wrong with Calum, of course. Calum was always nice to Michael and there was rarely a moment where he would ignore him. However, there were some dull moments between the two of them and Michael would just feel lonely even with someone by his side. It was a bittersweet friendship, to sum it up.

"Michael?" Luke asked with a look of worry and concern in his eyes.

"What? What happened?" Michael asked back.

"You were spacing out. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay," Luke told him.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Luke," Michael said, faking a smile.

"No problem," Luke replied, genuinely smiling back.

Michael checked his phone.

"It's already seven 'o' clock. I should probably go back home now," he told Luke.

"Don't you have a curfew?" Luke asked, wondering why Michael was leaving so suddenly.

"Yeah. My curfew is actually ten 'o' clock, but I want to get home early so I can get my other homework done and so my parents won't get suspicious," Michael explained, hoping that Luke would be gullible enough to believe him.

Luke became the suspicious one for a moment, thinking that Michael was hiding something.

"Are you sure that you're okay? Is there something that you're not telling me?" Luke asked.

"Luke, I'm fine!" Michael yelled.

Luke's eyes widened just from the pure shock of it all. He never saw Michael this mad - ever.

"I have to go, but I'll see you at school tomorrow," Michael said, sighing.

Luke nodded and watched Michael walk downstairs and out the door, and that was it. He just left.

Author's Note: Hi! I finally updated this story after dealing with writer's block on what to do for this chapter. I wanted to plan out this chapter and the next few chapters carefully because there's still more drama to come. 

What are your thoughts on Michael and Calum's friendship?

Michael getting that mysterious text?

The group of "friends" that Michael has?

Who do you think J is?

This story will most likely end at Chapter 20, but I might also add an epilogue. I hope you enjoyed reading this update and more updates will come soon!

-Megan :-)