This Year's Love // Michael Clifford

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Brittany Dawson

Michael and I have officially known one another for two weeks. Within those two weeks, we've spent every single day together. Even on days when I had to work, he'd pick me up from work and we'd go do something or just chill at my house.

To say I was growing attached to him would be an understatement. Like, literally, I don't think I could go a day without his presence.

Today, though, would be the first day in which I wouldn't be with Michael. Unfortunate as it is, he had to fly to LA late last night (he literally left my house at one in the morning to catch a flight at one-twenty). But, then again, he'd be on the first flight back here as soon as the award show he was performing at ended.

Instead of spending the day with Michael I would be spending the day with Becca for the first time in the past two weeks. As it goes, I spent all my free time with Michael and she spent all her free time with this mystery guy who, much to my dismay, remained unnamed.

"I'm thinking a Teen Wolf marathon, but I'm really up for anything," Becca says as she sat beside me on the couch with a large bowl of popcorn for us to share.

"Okay, but Michael comes on at seven," I remind her, "so we have to watch him."

"Oh, don't worry," she says, "I haven't forgotten."

I roll my eyes, clicking on Netflix using the Wii remote. We were too poor to afford a smart TV that came with Netflix, thus resulting to buying a Wii. Sometimes when we were bored we had random dance battles (Just Dance) and competitions of who scored the most points bowling (Wii Sports).

And that's just what we did. We watched a few episodes of Teen Wolf (re-runs, but we could really care less; you can never have too much Dylan O'Brien). Around noon (We started our marathon at six a.m. Judge us.) we had a fancy meal of chicken flavored ramen noodles and grape soda. We then proceeded to watch another two episodes of Teen Wolf.

Finally, we decided we had enough of this boredom. That's when we decided to pop in Just Dance 4 and get the party started. We invited all our friends. And by all our friends, I mean Gabby. She's literally our only other friend. It's extremely sad.

"You bitches ready to go down?" I ask, wrapping my hair up into a (very) messy bun.

"More like you're gonna go down," Gabby bites back.

"More like Michael's gonna go down," Becca inputs, "on Brittany."

I groan, throwing the bird her way and grabbing my vibrating phone from the table. I smile when Michael's name appears on the screen, causing Becca and Gabby to tease me endlessly as I leave the room to answer the phone call.

"Hey you," I answer, falling onto my bed on my stomach.

"Hi," Michael replies, and I could only imagine that stupid, giddy smile on his face.

"How was the plane ride?" I ask, swinging my legs behind me like a love sick, teenage girl.

"There was a shit ton of turbulence," he replies.

"I wouldn't know. I've never been on a plane," I inform.

"You've never traveled out of state on an airplane?" Michael asks, bewildered by this news.

"Not even in a car," I answer. "Been here all my life."

"We need to get you somewhere," he says.

"Like?" I ask.

"Australia," Michael replies. "I can take you."

"Oh, I don't know," I trail off. "I don't really have the money for that."

"I'd pay for it all, obviously," he offers.

"I can't ask you to do that," I groan.

"Yeah, but you didn't ask," Michael replies, "I offered."

That part of the conversation ends there. We talk for another thirty minutes until Michael tells me he has to go get ready for the award shows. I bid him goodbye, then head back to the living room to join my friends.

"'Bout time you joined us," Gabby teases. "Were you guys having phone sex or something?"

"Gross, Gabby," I chastise. "Grow up."

"Okay, now that that's over," Becca says, standing up and clapping her hands together. "Are we going to have a dance off or not?"

/////

"Shh, they're on," I hush Gabby, shoving my hand onto her mouth.

She tries to speak, but it only comes out muffled because of my hand over her large mouth. I take it off soon after, watching intently as 5 Seconds of Summer were taking the stage.

"Let's hear it, LA!" Luke yelled into the mic; Calum, Luke, and Michael doing their signature jump as they played their respective instruments.

I watched in awe at the four boys with so much talent beyond their years. My eyes were mainly on Michael, though. He wore a black snapback, a ripped (go figure), muscle Green Day tee, and black skinnies. He wore his eyebrow piercing, much to my pleasure (I secretly found it extremely hot).

After the boys performed, there was an hour left of the award show. Soon, they were up for an award (which I honestly voted for) and all three of us crossed our fingers.

"...and the winner is," said an irrelevant celebrity I failed to catch the name of, "5 Seconds of Summer!"

I nearly jumped with glee, so happy for four of the most hard working guys I knew (although I'd only ever really met Ashton; Calum and Luke were never around when I was at their rental place). I watched as they all made their way to the stage and, not surprisingly at all, Ashton began the speech.

"We were just four blokes from Australia who didn't really think we'd make it as far as we have. Honestly, we owe it all to our fans for helping shape us into the band we've become," Ashton spoke.

"No matter if you became a fan two years ago, last year, or even today, you helped us," Michael spoke up (which surprised me because I knew he didn't really like talking in front of large crowds). "So, let's give it up for the fans." He then looked directly at the camera. "Yeah?"

A smile formed onto my face. "Yeah," I whispered.