i love to hate you | m.c.

14

Alexa heard the backdoor shut, her parents didn't. They just went on with their conversation. Alexa turned around pretending to wash something in the sink, when in reality she just wanted to hide the huge, goofy smile and her probably very red cheeks. She was so whipped. She was so lost in thoughts, she didn't even hear her mother call her name.

"Alexa, is everything alright?" her mother asked once more, now being slightly worried. Alexa snapped back into reality.

"yeah fine" she dismissed, still having a smile unable to hide on her face.

Her mother raised an eyebrow at her, but Alexa was already delving back into her memories. "earth to Alexa" her mother mocked, waving in front of her face.

"what sorry?" Alexa turned round, blushing. Her mother must have asked something else, something Alexa couldn't recall, because, well, she was in her dreams.

"I asked you if you wanted to go to the mall with me later" her mother stated, being slightly annoyed with Alexa's behaviour.

"nah I'll stay at home, take dad with you" Alexa answered.

"you know how he feels about shopping" her mother said, looking at her husband, who was sitting at the table shaking his head furiously at Alexa. She would have definitely gone to the mall with her mum. Actually she liked that a lot, but there was this other thing planned for today. And Alexa didn't want to admit that to her parents, especially not to her mum.

"I'm not feeling like it" Alexa tried faking an excuse. Her mother was not believing any word.

"you've got something else going on, have you?" her mother taunted.

"I just don't wanna go today" she said in an absent way, whilst pulling out a bowl and the carton of cereal.

"fine I'll drag your dad to the mall" her mother gave up to which her dad just groaned. The both of them left the kitchen and Alexa chewed down her breakfast.

Her mom and dad were gone by lunchtime, which left Alexa alone in their house. Alexa and her nerves, to be precise. She didn't know why, but she was feeling slightly nervous to be going over to Michael's some time later. They had decided, over text of course, that he would text her when they would practice, because they never had a fixed time whatsoever.

Alexa was pacing up and down the living room, not really sure what to do with the time she had spare. She couldn't probably concentrate on a book at this time, so pacing seemed quite appropriate. When her phone finally buzzed, she took a deep breath. Why the hell was she so nervous? It seemed to be getting even worse minute by minute. She didn't know what was happening.

When she opened the backdoor she already heard the boys chattering away. "Alexa's gonna come over for practice" Michael said dismissively, but caught the attention of the others.

"ooooooo" luke sang "why is that?"

"just wanted to show her what we're doing" Michael said as plainly as possible.

"yeah sure" Calum patted him on the back "that's why you're acting so weird today"

"I swear to god guys I'm gonna kill you if-" Michael began, but he saw Alexa walking up. Shooting a glare into the boys' direction he walked over to Alexa, hugging her tightly. The boys pulled in innocent look and decided to bite down any remarks, because they would in fact be dead soon if they did so.

"hi" Alexa said against his chest.

"hi" he said, breaking the hug and leading her to the house. She followed quite absently, taking in all the things in his house. She had never been in his house before, to be honest she never thought she'd ever do so. But there was something about houses you've never been to, Alexa thought, something interesting. Soon she was torn out of her daze by Michael, tugging on her hand to go downstairs.

Once in the basement, she slumped down on a rather old but very comfortable looking beanbag in the corner of the room. The boys proceeded setting up things and tuning their instruments. At least that was what it looked like to Alexa. She however went back into her daydream, or memories rather.

When they started playing Alexa was torn out of her trance, seemingly for the millionth time today. They were actually really good. Like from outside it sounded like noise but when you were actually listening to them without a few walls in between it sounded nice. Her eyes were bright and there was a huge smile on her face. Music was such a great thing.

After a few songs they decided to have a break. Michael and Luke went upstairs to get something to drink. Ashton walked over to Alexa.

"you guys are so good!" she beamed.

"thank you" he said. "that's not what you were thinking a few days ago though"

"yeah well hearing it in person is definitely a lot better than hearing it through a few brick walls" she explained.

"yeah I'm sure it was that" Ashton teased, laughing slightly.

"hey" Alexa protested "don't laugh at me" But Ashton just threw his hands up in defeat. Alexa's cheeks turned pink, which was all he needed to know. He got up and walked over to his drums, where the other boys now were as well.

The boys were discussing what to play next, when Alexa felt something warm on the top of her lip. She traced her finger over it and looked at it. Great. She was having a nosebleed again. Luckily she carried around a tissue in her bag, with which she wiped the blood off. It didn't seem so bad this time. Nobody noticed and it stopped quite quickly.

The music was filling up the room again and Alexa's feet were bouncing up and down. Her eyes were fixated on Michael though. How he concentrated hard, to not mess up and make a fool of himself in front of Alexa. When he looked up at one point, he couldn't help but blush. He was so happy that Alexa was looking at him, he messed up and forgot when it was his part to sing. Alexa giggled in response and his mates just shook their heads.

Even though Alexa barely knew any of the songs, she had an amazing time. She was bouncing to the beat, living the moment. Time passed quickly and before she knew it was two hours later and they were done with practice. The boys would usually stay for a bit and play some video games, but they all sensed the tension in the room and left the two lovebirds to their own.

"so what do you think?" Michael asked, carrying two cups and a bottle of coke into the room. He went over to the cupboard, placing the things down, whilst Alexa got up and walked over to him.

"well I think you were fantastic" she beamed, looking directly into his eyes.

"well thank you" he said, turning his head down, to hide yet another smile.

"your voice sounds so good" she whispered, taking a step closer to him. "but you rarely sing" she pouted.

"nah" he dismissed "I just sing the harmonies, I don't really like my voice that much" he trailed off.

"I think it's amazing" she said. "can you sing something for me?" she beamed.

Michael blushed at her request contemplating his choices. He could sing for her and be really embarrassed about it, because he thought his voice was actually not so good. Or he could say no to her, which would obviously let her down. Not wanting to do that he gave in.

"but as I said, it's not gonna sound that great" he said, walking over to grab his guitar. He sat himself back down next to Alexa with his guitar in his hands. His hands were shaking slightly, but he tried to cover it. Alexa didn't notice.

When he started strumming his guitar, Alexa's face lit up. As soon as the first word left Michael's mouth, goose bumps rose on Alexa's arms. His voice was so soothing and soft. The way he closed his eyes when an emotional part came in the song and the way his voice was ever so slightly raspy was making the butterflies in Alexa's stomach go wild. When he was finished Alexa was at loss of words.

"wow" she breathed out "that was really good" she whispered, not trusting her voice entirely. He smiled goofily and turned his face away from Alexa.

"thank you" he said equally silently, now facing Alexa again. The way they were looking into each other's eyes was driving them both quite insane. There was this incredible tension between them, none of the two daring to break it. They were so close, if one of them had the guts they could have leaned in.

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a/n: oooo so close so close they're both little scaredy-pants not daring to make a move but what will happen next? oooooo