The Real World |5sos fanfic|

Part 18- Another Slice

Ashton slammed on the breaks.

It was the most erratically I had even seen him drive. His eyes were fixated on Michael and he had almost ran a red light.

I was thrown forward in my seat and then jolted backwards, hitting my head against the headrest.

'What?' Ashton said. We all knew he had heard Michael perfectly well. His eyes narrowed as he watched his friend fumble for an excuse in the rear view mirror.

'Why can't Jess go home?' Calum gave a nervous laugh, trying to ease the tension.

We were at the end of my street now. Michael had ten seconds to come up with something good to say.

'I have to show her something,' he said, trying to act normal but he couldn't pull it off. He played with the sleeves of his jumper, pulling them down over his hands. 'I have to show you all something.'

'What?' Ashton asked, calmly but there were sharp undertones in his voice.

'I... I wrote a song.' he said quietly, looking down at his covered hands. 'I want Jess to hear it too.'

Everyone looked at Michael.

'Ok,' Ashton said, driving straight by my building. 'Let's do this!' The mood in the car was instantly uplifted.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief and I'm certain Michael did too.

*

Michael's song turned out to be a chant about him requesting more pizza. That is correct; pizza.

'Michael wants another slice, Michael wants another slice, Michael wants another slice... PIZZA PIZZA.'

Ashton, Luke, Calum and I sat with our jaws hitting the ground, watching Michael passionately strum his guitar while almost screaming the same thing over and over.

'This... this is what you wanted to show us?' Luke asked, dipping his head in disbelief. 

Michael stopped playing with a unimpressed look running over his face, 'You don't like it?'

'It was horrific,' Calum said, shaking his head from side to side, 'Mikey, we want people to think of us as a real band. We need to sing... real songs.'

Michael look displeased. 'Fuck you guys, I'm going for a smoke.' He stood up and stormed out of the room. 

Ashton stroked his chin and thought hard about what he had to say.

'Jess, I'm sorry I couldn't drop you home,' he said, sighing, 'I... I don't even know what that was!' he cried.

'Ash, it's fine,' I said, reaching out to pat his arm. 'I'm glad I could... hear that.' I laughed. 

He looked down at me, his hazel eyes glistening as they stared into mine. His lips curled upwards into a smile and he let out a heart melting giggle. 'It was pretty funny!'

'Yes it was!' I nodded in agreement. 

'I want pizza now!' Luke said, placing a hand on his tummy. 

'Jess you can go get us pizza while we practice!' Calum said excitedly, clapping his hands.

I smiled, agreeing it was a great idea. The boys handed me money and gave me their orders. Ashton gave me a kiss on the lips and tucked a piece of hair that had fallen off my face behind my ear. Everything he did made me crave more.

I walked out of the garage and saw Michael sitting with his back against the wall, a cigarette dangling in one hand. His other and was running through his hair, messing it up more than usual.

I didn't know if I should say something about last night so instead I found myself asking him, 'what pizza topping do you want?'

He looked up at me, the blackening bruise on his face made my stomach tighten. 'I don't want fucking pizza Jess.'

'Really?' I raised my eyebrow, a nervous laugh escaping, 'I thought you wanted another-'

'Jess fucking leave it yeh?' he spat at me taking a huge drag, blowing rings of smoke between us.

'Michael,' I said lowering my self to his level. I crouched in front of him so I could keep my voice down as I spoke. 'I'm so sorry about everything last night.' 

'No, I'm sorry,' he said, shaking his head, stubbing out his cigarette. It caught me off guard.

'What?' I let my head fall to one side. Michael covered his face with his two free hands. He rubbed under his eyes, careful not to touch the bruised area. He moved his hands up his face and through his hair before he settled them on his knees. His green eyes were locked on his fingers.

'I should have done something. I should have told him to stop. I should have fucking hit him as soon as he opened mouth.' Michael said, making sweater-paws again. 'I can't believe I just, I just, stood there. I just watched. Jess, I just fucking watched him do that to you.'

My heart ached for him. 'Oh Michael!' it came out in a whisper, 'You couldn't do anything!' I reached out and put my hand on top of his. He let it linger for a while before ripping his hand from underneath mine. He buried them into his pocket fishing out another cigarette. 

'Yes I could have, I could have,' he repeated quietly to himself.

'No you cou-, Michael look at me stop looking down, you couldn't have!' I kept my hand on his knee. I waned him to know that he shouldn't feel guilty or upset about this.

'I was walking you home because I didn't want you to get hurt, and then, and then,' I could hear he was welling up, 'that happened, that fucking happened.' He sucked hard on the cigarette.

'It's ok,' I said reassuringly, 'please don't feel like this is your fault.'

Michael just looked at me, not trusting himself to speak. He nodded his head and put out his cigarette. 

I stood up and held out a hand, offering to help him up. He took my hand and pushed himself up. He pulled me in close, holding me tightly by the waist. He rested his head on my shoulder. I was startled. I patted his back, unsure of what he expected me to do.

'Jess,' he whispered into my ear, 'I won't let this happen again. I promise, I...'

He was interrupted by Ashton coming out looking for him, 'Hey Mike we're ready to...' I stopped in his tracks when he saw us. 'Oh, what's, what's going on?'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone said they were surprised Michael didn't stand up to Jimmy when he attacked Jess.. I didn't even think about it at the time! I just didn't think it would be in Mikey's nature to do that... idk. 

But now he feels guilty and yeh. 

AND HE WAS EMBARRASSED THAT HE WAS HIT BY A GIRL LOL. 

And Ash is suspicious hmmmm....