Descending || m.c.

Chapter 13

Michael's POV

The breath is nearly knocked out of me when a tiny body collides with my back, nearly pushing me into a drunken Calum standing just in front of me. My hands extend in time to catch him before he falls into the girls standing behind him. Someone tugs on my sleeve persistently, not letting up until I turn to face them. AJ stands there, her eyes swollen and red from crying and her cheeks dampened from the tears; her breaths come out in big heaves.

"AJ?" I shout over the music. "AJ, what's wrong? Where's Hadley?" She shakes her head repeatedly, opening her mouth and only gasping for air. "Breathe." By now the rest of the boys as well as Emma stand around her and myself, waiting for her to speak. AJ closes her eyes as she forces herself to take several deep breaths; her shoulders shake and the fact she has been crying hard enough for that to even be possible worries me a considerable amount. Hadley was nowhere to be seen and her best friend was standing in the middle of a party having a panic attack. I run a hand through my hair; this was agonizing.

AJ's eyes open and she lets one more breath out. "When Hadley came back from the bathroom, she saw me talking to you. But I wasn't as sober then; I was drunk, I mean I sitll am but I'm coherent. But what she saw looked bad."

"I don't understand what you mean; I just wanna know where the fuck Hadley is, AJ," I snap at her; she noticably flinches.

"I swear everyone is on my damn case tonight," she yells.

"Just tell me what you meant!"

"It looked bad!" she throws her hands in the air as she speaks. "You had your hand on my back, I had one of my hands on your neck, and god knows we weren't ten feet apart from each other! I can see why it would've looked bad--"

"I don't understand why you keep saying it looked bad; you're not making any sense," I sigh in frustration. "Just tell me what's--"

"Hadley likes you, Michael! She likes you for god's sake! That's why it looked bad! It gave her the wrong impression when she saw that, and I know that she likes you and she would kill me if she knew I just blurted that out to all of you like I just did but I don't know what to do when my best friend just took off running in the middle of the night in Los Angeles--" she stops, covering her face with her hands. I can see her visibly taking several more deep breaths, something my lungs are now failing me in doing. My knees almost gave out beneath me; I feel like everyone in this party could have heard my heartbeat had there not been music playing. I take two steps back and nearly fall into Ashton, who reaches out to grab my arm before I hit someone else. I glance at him once and almost laugh at the stupid smile taking up most of his face.

"S-she likes me?" I stammer. I take hold of AJ's shoulders, looking her straight in the eye. "AJ, don't mess with me. Does Hadley really like me?"

"Michael, stop questioning it, she said Hadley did!" Ashton laughs, but I remain where I am.

"She likes every little thing about you, Michael," she almost starts crying again. 

"But--" I start. "Where did she--"

"I told you she ran off, I don't know where she was going but she went back in the direction of the house. Michael, go after her please. Please fix this, please do something. I messed up and I can't fix it by myself," she begs.

"Where do I even look?"

"We could all just pile back into the SUV, go back to the house to see if she's there. She really couldn't have gotten far, Michael," Luke says, lying a hand on my shoulder; I nod. His arm goes around my shoulders and we all file out the doors with myself making a frantic phone call to the driver that we needed him here now rather than later. I felt like I was on cloud nine; the girl I had wanted for so long actually had feelings for me. Yet in the back of my mind there was a worry that she wouldn't be back at the house once we made it there; it wasn't ideal for her to be running through Los Angeles at this hour and I could kill AJ for letting her run off, but Hadley was stubborn, she would have fought it and she would have won. She always does.