The Real World |5sos fanfic|

Part 20- I Am The Danger

Michael began to walk and I followed him. We said nothing. He didn't even walk beside me. He was four steps ahead, leading the way. It was like the first night we had walked together.

We kept going and I was getting tired. 'Michael where are you taking us?' I tried to catch up with him.

'A place.' The withdrawn Michael was back. His mood had changed so quickly.

'No seriously, where are we going?' I wasn't in the humour to play his stupid games.

He turned to me, we were in the middle of a pedestrian street, 'we can sit here if you'd like,' he snapped at me.

'No I just want to know where-' he cut across me.

'I heard you the first time. Here or walk?'

I spoke through gritted teeth, 'keep going so.'

*

Eventually we reached the entrance of the city's biggest park. The gates were locked but he began to climb over the fence.

'Michael,' I hissed under my breath. 'Michael!'

'Jess come up now, I won't be able to help you from the other side,' he stretched out his hand towards me.

'I am not doing that!' I shook my head, 'can we go somewhere that doesn't involve climbing?'

'Gee great idea, now where will we find a coffee shop to sit down and chat at...' he checked his phone, '1:24am?'

'Michael come on,' I said, begging him to get down.

'Come on,' Michael gestured, patting the fence.

I stood staring up at him while he looked down at me for a long time.

Eventually I sighed and gave in.

He offered a hand again but I rejected it and got up and over the 8 foot fence myself.

'Not bad for a girl,' he muttered, jumping down beside me.

'If you think that is impressive, ' I joked, 'you should see me punch.'

He didn't find it funny.

We strolled around a bit longer until we came across the lake that was in the centre of the green. Michael sat down on one of the flat stretches of grass overlooking the body of water. I sat down beside him, carefully so we weren't too close.

The water was black with streaks of silver in it from the moonlight. The surface rippled as the wind blew gently across it. I could see the stars reflection in it.

I admired its beauty. I didn't notice Michael was looking at me.

*

We sat in silence for a long time. I lay back and looked up at the stars. They danced like fairies above our heads. Shining and playing hide and seek behind wisps of clouds.

Sometimes beautiful things are always there, right in front of you. However it takes time for you to realize how precious they are. Suddenly it hits you.

'Jess,' Michael said after a long time of not saying anything. 'How long have you been doing this?'

I looked over at him, he was lying down now too, captivated by the light show in the sky too. 'How long have I been doing what?'

'Living like this, with him.' He didn't take his eyes off the stars.

'For about 5 years. My mum died when I was thirteen, she was really sick,' I closed my eyes, blinkng hard, trying to stop all the images of my mother's thin, weak body lying in the hospital bed flooding my head. 'I never knew my dad. After she died, Jimmy became my legal guardian. He took her death pretty hard and about a year later he began drinking to deal with... everything.' I could feel myself tense as I spoke.