the boxer // lrh au

forty ; sunflowers

"get up! hurry!" i hear michael shout one foot away from my face. 

"what the hell do you want?" i question, covering my face with michael's pillow. i don't know what time it is, but it is certainly too early to be woken up. today was my last day of sleeping in considering school started back up tomorrow from our break and i was planning on spending at least another two hours in bed. 

"well, a certain blue eyed, blonde haired boy is standing in my living room at this very moment and i don't think he'd want to see you sleeping in my bed!"

"niall horan's in your living room?" i ask, just to piss michael off. i slowly begin to get up off from the bed anyway, knowing who he was actually talking about. if luke hemming's was in michael's apartment, i was completely fine with it. i wasn't necessarily scared of luke himself, more of not having any experience at all and making a total fool out of myself. 

if luke thought i slept with michael clifford, well then that would just up my reputation.

maybe not the best way to think, but this is new and improved bella speaking. one that has luke hemmings falling for her. 

"wipe that smirk off your face, i know exactly what you're thinking bella. get off your high horse. luke won't think you're that cute after seeing you in my old pac-man shirt i wore in middle school." michael snickers and i frown and look at the shirt i was wearing. 

okay, maybe he's right. it wasn't the most appealing t-shirt. it has a massive bleach stain on it that has never gone away, not even in the years that i have worn it after michael stopped, and it was many years old. it was also a perfect fit. i wasn't one for tight clothing unless i was going out and was dressing to impress, but michael's old middle school t-shirt was the tightest shirt i've ever worn. 

"what should i do?" i whisper, suddenly realizing the severity of the situation. i looked like an absolute mess and luke hemmings would scream his head off if he saw me looking like this. 

"well, the bathroom isn't exactly in my bedroom, and i told luke i needed to clean up in here before he could come in." michael searches the room as if he was going to find an answer in his closet. 

"the closet!" he shouts, turning to me. 

"that's your forte michael, not mine." 

"you bitch," michael mutters, holding his hand over his heart. instead of having time to reply, michael begins to push me into his closet. 

"it smells weird," i whisper to myself. i begin looking around in the dark room and check out my surroundings. 

oh my god, he still has the matching socks we got. they had little dogs on it and we had bought them on our way to see one direction. 

that was a day to remember. 

"so today?" i hear luke's voice from outside the closet. my head immediately looks up, the voice affecting me as it always does. 

"we have school tomorrow. not that she cares, but tyler might think something's up. wait no, i don't want to talk to tyler." i hear michael say. 

"bro, you have to do this for me. i need to talk to her. we didn't end on the best note." i hear feet moving around and a sudden thud. 

"fine. you owe me one." michael huffs.

 "i know man, i owe you more than one." 

"actually you don't. just don't hurt bella. or me. like physically. not that you'd physically hurt bella. or me. just don't hurt anyone. physically or emotionally." michael rambles. i could tell he was nervous. i hadn't made a noise so far and i thought i was doing a pretty good job considering i was in an odd-smelling closet and couldn't move all that much. 

"calm down, i won't be hurting anyone. i'm just confused. i've never officially taken a girl out on a date. what do i do? should i bring her flowers? what's her favorite flower? should i get her roses?" 

i smile at luke's words and although roses were not my favorite flower, i was just happy he was thinking of me. i could tell he truly didn't know what he was doing considering how fast he was asking questions. 

"roses? what is wrong with you? roses are so cliche!" i hear michael shout. i roll my eyes in response though. 

michael knows me. although he knows my favorite flowers are sunflowers, he should also know that the hopeless romantic side of me didn't mind roses. i don't think any girl minds roses. 

"well sorry, michael clifford, but i haven't exactly given flowers to a girl before. unless you count my mom, but i gave her tulips. she's allergic apparently." i can hear the frown in luke's voice and i accidentally let out a giggle at luke's confession. 

thankfully, i hear michael have a very fake coughing fit outside and begin to laugh even more, except this time more to myself. i really do owe michael clifford big.

 "let's test you. what do you think bella's favorite flower would be?" i hear more shuffling of feet and a presence outside the closet door. oh, i really hope that's not luke. i would hate to have to explain to luke what i was doing inside of michael's closet. 

oh my god, i would be coming out of the closet.

michael clifford is really rubbing off on me. 

"i couldn't even name five flowers off the top of my head clifford, you expect me to guess bella's favorite flower out of the thousands of-" suddenly luke's rant gets cut off short. 

"wait, does she like sunflowers?" i hear luke say. 

oh you have got to be kidding me.

"wow, how did you know that? i didn't expect you to actually know her favorite flower, that's kind of creepy," michael mutters the end of his sentence but i can hear it due to his close proximity to me. 

"is it really? i don't know, she kind of reminds me of sunflowers." i hear luke mumble. 

this boy has never been in a relationship? the one who talks about me as if i hung the stars in the sky?

in all my time living, i had never met someone quite like luke. maybe tyler keeping those boys away from me was a good thing in the end. luke hemmings is a good guy, and frankly, i liked him, and i know no matter who tries to keep him away from me, we will always somehow find our way back to each other. 

i mean, look at me now. i'm in my best friend's closet while the first boy who has genuinely tried to show interest in me past tyler's taunts (regardless of the fact that he was a boxer and could easily beat up tyler with a single swing at him) is feet away from me. 

maybe life was just arranging itself for this very moment. 

a/n

for syd, feel better sweet girl