Always Second Best// m.c

Always Second Best

Chapter 1 (a/n: I'm starting to edit this book! Super exciting yay. This book is so incredibly cliche don't yell at me alright)

It was summer break, and I had finally finished another year of school. I just had one more year of torture, I smiled to myself while gathering my things from my locker. I was going to make sure that this summer would be the best one yet.

This summer I promised myself I wouldn't just be known as, "Ashton Irwin's little sister, Kelsey". I'd be my own person. As much as I loved my brother, being compared to him all the time was quite annoying. His band was getting successful, and I was just here for the ride. 5 Seconds of Summer was finally starting to take off in Australia. I was happy for the boys and Ash, but the more attention they got the more I was just looked at as Ashton's little sister.

"Kels!" Ashton hollered, walking towards my locker.

"Band practice today?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

It was routine, every day after school he would come to my locker and we would drive to Luke's house. I didn't mind, I loved the boys. Calum and Luke were like my best friends. Michael Clifford was a completely different story, though. He treated me like a child, which frustrated me to no extent. I was only a year younger than Ashton, so it made absolutely no sense. To add to that, I was probably more mature than all four of them combined. But as much as I hated to admit it I was drawn in by Michael's stand offish attitude.

When Ashton joined the band, the second he came home he ran into my room. He gave me a talk which consisted of four key rules that he had demanded me to follow.

1. No dating my friends.

2. No dating band mates.

3. No dating.

4. No hooking up with my band mates.

Ash, was almost too serious about his "laws", as he called them. The first time I met all of the boys, they would barely look at me. Which was totally unfair because they were all incredibly cute. Now they all look at me like their sister and it bothers me a bit.

"Uh no, we're having a party at Luke's. His mum's out for the week. Will you come help us set up, please?" Ashton begged.

"Am I invited to the party or are you going to make me leave or hide in a closet so no one will touch me?" I scoffed, Ashton had a thing about wanting to watch out for me and protect me at all costs. Even if it meant taking away any type of fun that I could have.

"No you get to stay, but you can't drink," he said, and flashed a toothy grin at me.

"Ashton for Christ's sake, you can't boss me around like this," I sighed.

"Kels please, I'm just looking out for you."

"Ashton I can look out for myself. Let's just go," I walked away to the parking lot to Ashton's car and angrily got into the passenger seat.

I understand being a big brother means protecting your little sister but this was suffocating. The ride to Luke's was silent and awkward because Ashton hadn't bothered to turn on the radio. As soon as the car stopped I jumped out and walked inside. I didn't want another lecture from Ashton.

"Hey Kels, thank god you're helping us!" Luke beamed, he was somewhere in the living room so I couldn't see him just yet.

"Yeah, you're not the most coordinated group," I laughed. I heard Calum laugh somewhere in the background, signaling he agreed with me. My eyes darted around the house but I couldn't find Michael anywhere. Luke had walked into my line of sight, and waved to Ashton as he entered through the doorway.

"Alright well come here." Luke instructed and lead me over to the kitchen. There were bottles of alcohol everywhere, I was pretty surprised that they had managed to get all of this.

"It's my job to put this somewhere, right?" I mumbled grabbing some vodka bottles and lining them up across the counter.

"Yes please, thanks Kels! You're the best!" Luke said as he jogged to another part of his house. I sighed and grabbed a beer bottle and decided to have a drink.

"Starting the party early are we?" I heard Michael ask from behind me.

I hadn't heard him walk in, so of course he freaked me out. In the process the liquid in my mouth definitely went down the wrong way, and I choked a little. Michael sat back and laughed at me, as usual.

"What, can you not handle alcohol?" He teased. He was so arrogant, I couldn't stand it.

"No, you just scared me you dick," I sneered, turning back around to organize the bottles.

"Someones in a bad mood, did Ashton tell you that you couldn't attend our party because you're too little?" He went on.

I rolled my eyes at him. He was only trying to get me mad.

"No actually, I'm staying."

"Kelsey have you ever even been to a party?" Michael asked in a condescending tone.

"Obviously. Now can you go away Michael, I'm trying to get this shit sorted out," I groaned.

"I was told to help you out,' he laughed.

"Oh."

I finished situating the bottles of alcohol but Michael was still putting away the beer so I hopped up and sat on the counter.

"You're so slow," I commented.

"You could help me," he snapped.

"Nope, I think I'm good," I grinned. If he wanted to annoy me, I could annoy him just as much.

"Hand me another one," I demanded, reaching my hand out to him.

"Nope, I think I'm good," Michael said, trying to mock me in a voice that was way too high to even be considered to sound like me.

"You're such an asshole Michael," I muttered, hopping off the counter and grabbing myself another beer. He laughed and looked at me disapprovingly.

"I'm not taking care of you when you're piss drunk tonight," he spat.

"I didn't ask you to," I hissed.

"But you would want me to," he smirked.

I felt my cheeks heat up into a blush, he was wrong. I didn't even want to be near him.

"Tell Ashton I took the car to go home," I mumbled, walking out of the kitchen and grabbing Ashton's keys he left near the door.

I would not let Michael Clifford get the best of me.