neck deep ✰ malum

0.2 ✰ citizens of earth

Calum nearly squealed with excitement when he entered Sydney's Metro Theatre clad in pair of black skinny jeans, his favorite neck deep tee, and a blue flannel. Mali just reluctantly walked beside her overjoyed brother, mindlessly texting on her phone and wishing that she wasn't in this situation at the moment.

"Mali I swear to god this setlist is so lit. They're gonna play all the good songs from "Life's Not Out to Get You" and I'm probably gonna cry okay. Oh my god and Ben Barlow! I can't believe I'm gonna him in person again. I hope he stays after the show so I can finally meet him. Holy shit I'm so pumped!"

"You know maybe I'd care just a little bit more if I was actually emo," Mali shrugged her shoulders as she followed Calum into the right side of the venue's pit.

"For the last time, I'm not emo!"

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"Hey Sweets? Hold our spots in the pit yeah? Me and Luke are gonna head over and get another beer."

The said "Sweets" discreetly rolled his eyes as his two friends stumbled off to the bar for probably the fourth time since they entered the venue an hour ago. His name was Michael Gordon Clifford; bisexual and the actual epitome of "pop punk" with his blue-green colored hair, plethora of tie-dyed shirts, and addiction to pizza and "peace tea". It wasn't like Michael didn't like his two best friends, Luke and Ashton, but considering Michael was also straightedge, he obviously wasn't going to join them on their drunk escapades.

The eighteen year old had made the decision to indulge in the straightedge life around three years ago, when other teenagers around him started becoming interested in smoking, drinking, and sex. Straight-edge, in terminology, is quite simple— self-respecting your body by not drinking, doing drugs, being two-faced, or having sex with another person without having an emotional bond with them— but for Michael, the term held much more of a deeper meaning to him. Michael had an older brother, Sam, who died of a drug and alcohol related cause. And, of course, Michael loved his brother dearly, but goddamn he was so stupid. At twenty-two years old, Michael's brother was obsessed with partying and drinking, and his stupid decision to drive home drunk one night cost him his life. Michael, fifteen years old at the time, was obviously distraught at the loss of his brother and vowed to take care of his body and himself  by becoming straightedge and not partaking in the activities that hurt Sam. Although being straightedge made him feel like he was taking good care of his body he absolutely hated having to be the designated driver all the time.

"Fucking assholes," Michael muttered under his breath as he placed his feet far apart from each other to where Ashton and Luke once stood in a desperate attempt to block the other concertgoers from taking his friend's spots. It always seemed as if Michael was always left alone in these type of his situations. Luke and Ashton have been in a relationship with each other for the past two years, and although Michael thought the couple were quite adorable when they were being all cute and mushy with each other, he couldn't help but feel like a third wheel. He knew his friends didn't intentionally try to exclude him, but, still, Michael felt a bit lonely. Sometimes Michael wished that he could have someone to cuddle and kiss and share music with, like his friends, but for some reason, not that many people wanted to date the colored-haired guy that would much rather listen to bands then go to parties and drink.

"We're back Sweet-cheeks," Luke slurred in a sing-song voice, drawing out the "e" while he used the one hand that wasn't groping Ashton's butt to ruffle his friends hair. Yep, they were drunk.

"Don't 'Sweet-cheeks' me! Neck Deep hasn't even come on yet and you two are practically piss drunk !" Michael scoffed in distaste, crossing his arms over his chest and forming a slight pout on his face.

"Lighten up Sweets," Ashton teased as he stumbled slightly. "We're here to have a good time!"

Michael just simply sighed and looked towards the stage, eagerly waiting for Neck Deep to take the stage. A small smile graced Michael's face when he remembered his favorite song, "Growing Pains", was on the setlist until he heard Luke's familiar voice ring throughout their section in the pit of the venue.

"When I say deez, you say nuts! Deez!"

"Nuts!" The crowd, half of them probably being drunk as well, screamed back.

"Deez!"

"Nuts!"

It was times like these Michael was embarrassed to call those two idiots his best friends as he strategically separated himself as much as he could from the duo to make it appear as if he wasn't with them.

Suddenly the lights had completely shut off And once Michael heard the opening chords to "Citizens of Earth" he knew all hell was about to break loose.

a/n: hey sorry i haven't updated this in forever, but i'm really busy at the moment, so like i mentioned before, updates might be slow until around may or june. so this was more of introductory chapter again, but i promise, the real action is going to start next chapter. thank you for all of the nice comments on the last chapter. i appreciate the feedback! anyway, please vote and comment your thoughts!