Decode // Michael Clifford

Chapter 5

A/N: just a reminder to pay attention to the dates (usually) at the beginning of each chapter! since this story spans out over 6 years i’m going to skip time a lot and it’ll always be mentioned in the story but the dates are important!!!

12 . 18 . 2008

“I’m so fucking happy you’re off of school for the next two weeks!” Michael cheered as I clambered into his beat up old car.

I made at a face at him and then threw my backpack none too gently in the back. “I still can’t believe I have to go to school while you sit around on your ass and don’t do anything all day. By the way, you really need to stop texting me in class. It’s distracting.”

He leaned over and kissed my cheek, pulling back with a sheepish grin. “Sorry,” he said, although I knew he wasn’t sorry at all.

In the past two months, a lot had changed. Michael and I had gone on a countless amount of dates, each time becoming a little closer than before. It was always something unusual—never anything like the movies or dinner at a fancy restaurant. We both hated fancy restaurants anyway. I became more and more comfortable around him, each time we saw each other I tried something new. Hugging him, holding his hand, even simply talking to him more. I learned to open my mouth and force the words to come out until it became easier, until I wasn’t so afraid anymore. It was difficult, but I was getting there.

“Do you want me to drop you off at home or do you want to go hang out at Ashton’s?” Michael asked as he flicked on his blinker and turned out onto the highway.

I pondered for a moment. Over the past two months I had also grown quite fond of Ashton. He was a couple years older than us and had his own place. It was sorta shitty—always messy and tiny because of his record shop clerk wages, but it was still his own place. He was always so damn cheerful, I couldn’t help but feel happy around him. Calum dropped by his place a lot too, usually with his petite girlfriend clinging to his arm, and even though he’d apologized for trying to get me to smoke at Michael’s party, he still made me feel slightly uncomfortable. He seemed nice enough, however, and I knew that with time I would grow more fond of him.

“Let’s hang out at Ashton’s,” I said finally with a smile.

Michael nodded happily, and I knew it was because he had been waiting all day for me to get out of school for winter break and didn’t want the day to end before it had even started for him.

When we got to Ashton’s house, he was in the middle of cooking. Or at least, trying to cook. He opened the door with frazzled curls and a frazzled expression, immediately breaking out into a grin as he saw us. “Hey, guys!” he chirped, rushing back down the hall and into the tiny kitchen. We walked in and I coughed, waving my hand in front of my face to clear away the smell of smoke.

“Jesus Ash, I know your apartment is shitty, but do you really want to burn down the whole complex?” Michael asked, eyes watering slightly.

We followed him into the kitchen and watched as he lamely flapped oven mitts around, trying to clear the air.

Ashton pouted, shaking his head. “I was trying to make spaghetti for lunch because I knew you guys were coming over,” he explained, shrugging.

“Dude, you know we would have been happy with take out!” Michael said, clapping Ash on the back cheerfully.

I walked over to the stove and took an oven mitt off the metal rack hanging from the wall. I lifted the lid of the pan on the stove and coughed as steam and smoke mingled into the air. I poked at the goop inside with a metal serving spoon and shook my head. “There’s no use trying to salvage this, it’s a goner.”