Wingless {Clifford A.U}

Chapter Fourteen

"I can't keep a secret, not from my best friend. We tell each other everything. She'll hate me if I don't tell her." she said putting her face in her hands, again.

"She'll understand." he said and she shook her head.

"I don't think so. She's not as forgiving as you might think." she said and he sighed.

"Then how is she your best friend?" he asked.

"She's the only one who hasn't left me yet, but now it's going to happen whether I want it to or not. I can't keep this secret, I'm as good as dead." she said tugging on her hair in frustration. She stood up and started pacing the floor before letting out a groan of frustration. "Why does all of this always happen to me?! I'm always the one who's abandoned, who's the school's freak show, the one who has death threats from their best friends boyfriend, the one who's left behind by her friends! Why is it always me? What have I done to deserve this hell?" she said raising her voice.

"Astrid, calm down." Michael said and she threw her hands in the air.

"How am I supposed to calm down when all of these terrible things keep happening to me?" she said.

"Bad things," he said walking over to her and resting his hands on her shoulders, stopping her pacing. "happen to good people, as messed up as it sounds, good things will happen, you just have to wait." he said.

"I doubt that. I'm going to die. I'm going to slip up and I'm going to end up dead." she said.

"I'm not going to let that happen." he said, she bit her lip.

"I'm not worth all of this trouble you know."

"What the hell are you talking about? You're worth any trouble I have to go through, and really it's not trouble." He said and she groaned.

"Don't give me that BS Michael. I'm just a goddamn responsibility to you. That's all I am." She said, and turned her back to him for a moment, running her fingers through her hair, tugging at her roots.

"Is that what you really think? That you're just some goddamn responsibility to me? Look at me," he said, and she turned to face him. "Ashton already took my life away, I'm not letting him take the only person I care about away from me too." she stared at him, she was at a loss for words.

"W-what are you saying?" She said completely oblivious.

"I'm saying," he started, cupping her face and gently running his finger over her cheek, "that I care about you, a lot and I'm not going to let him, or anyone else hurt you." He said.

She didn't know what to say, she never thought anyone would care about her, let alone someone she also cared about... Wait, did she care about him too? She looked down, and back up at him, there was something in his eyes, the way he was looking at her that gave her this feeling, she didn't know how to explain it, but it was a good feeling.

"I-I don't know what to say..." she said trailing off.

"Then don't say anything at all." He said. Her heart was racing, and she wasn't sure what was supposed to happen next, but when Michael pressed his lips against hers, everything seemed to fall into place.

She closed her eyes, and followed his lead, because she had no clue what she was doing. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he moved one of his hands down her back pushing her closer to him, as he gently nipped at her lower lip. The kiss was slow and gentle, and she pulled away from him first, a slight smile on her face. She lightly grazed over her lips with her finger tips.

"What?" He asked and she looked up at him.

"That was my first kiss." She said and he smiled at her.

"And, was it okay?" He asked. She stood a little taller and pressed a small kiss to his lips, more confident than she was before.

"It was perfect."

***
Luke had come to check on Astrid again, knocking on the door hoping she'd answer this time, though he was surprised when she opened the door to greet him.

"Hey Luke." She said, a faint smile on her face.

"Are you okay?" He asked and she nodded and he signed in relief. "Thank God, I was worried you wouldn't come out of your room ever again." He said and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm not that stubborn. I was just upset, that's all." she lied, but he seemed convinced.

"Oh, alright then. I came up here to see if you were hungry?" He said and she nodded.

"Yeah, food sounds great right now." She said and followed him to the dining room, with Michael following silently behind.

They sat at the dinner table and talked about random things, Naomi was out once again, and Astrid assumed she had found herself a new boy toy. The thought made her want to be sick but as long as she wasn't bothering her everything was good.

Astrid wasn't very hungry honestly, and she just kind of pushed her food around her plate with her fork in boredom before Luke spoke up.

"So, I was thinking, maybe you should go see that therapist again, Dr. Marx I think that was his name." he said. Astrid put her fork down and cleared her throat. She hadn't thought about when she would go again, she wasn't sure if she was until she remembered the deal her and Dr, Marx made. He only wanted to help.

"When?" She asked and Luke thought about it for a moment.

"Tomorrow. After school, unless you want to skip for that." He said.

"Yeah, that sounds good, and I'll go ahead and skip. It's not like if be missing much anyway." She said, but her real reason for wanting to skip was the longer she was away from Ashton the better.

"Alright, sounds good. I'll let Naomi know when she gets home so she can call in the morning and drop you off." He said and she nodded. Looks like another day of therapy.

A/N: So I'm sorry if this sucked, but I had a little trouble starting it, but hey at least I got it done. Thank you so much for 300 reads, that makes me so happy, and I greatly appreciate those who vote and comment. I hope you enjoyed the chapter nonetheless. Thanks lovelies.
-Xx E.J