School Bus [m. clifford]

86

The rest of the drive home for Michael was hard. The further away he got from Laura the more it hurt. All he could think about was once he got home, the next day he'd have to say goodbye to the rest of them. It would just be him left at home. He would have nobody after that.  It was a really long night.

He was arriving at Chloe's now, Jada and Luke were going to be there soon as well. They were all heading to New York together.

"Michael!" Chloe exclaims the second he enters the house. She's already crying, throwing herself into Michael's arms.

"Chloe has been in hysterics all day." Pam tells Michael, quietly laughing as Michael looks stunned, still shocked by Chloe's wailing as she hangs off him.

"I'm leaving, mom!" Chloe exclaims, pulling away from Michael as she looks over to her mother.

"Oh, honey, I know. You'll be okay."

"I've seen this dumbass almost everyday of my life for over half of my life! I'm sad that's not true anymore!"

"Dumbass?" Michael mutters to himself, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Is Chloe losing her mind?" Jada asks, entering the house with Luke.

"Yeah." Michael and Pam both reply, Luke and Jada both laughing in response.

"Oh, come here." Jada chuckles, holding her arms out for Chloe.

"Thank you! You're the only one that gets it." Chloe laughs, though she's still crying.

"Chloe, we're all upset. You're just over emotional at the moment." Jada giggles, holding Chloe in her arms.

"I'm sorry!" She sniffles, holding tightly onto Jada.

"Chloe, sweetheart, I know this is hard, but we should finish getting your stuff to the car." Pam says, looking to her daughter holding onto Jada.

Chloe eventually calms down a bit, so that she can go help her mom.

"How've you been? You okay?" Luke asks Michael, and Michael gives him a questioning look.

"I'm good..." Michael says slowly, confused why Luke is being so serious, checking in on him.

"Are you sure?" He questions Michael again.

"Uh, yeah?"

Michael knew he was trying to ask about Laura. But he didn't want to bring it up. Michael knew he just needed to act as if he was fine, even though he cried himself to sleep last night.

"We're just worried about you, now that Laura's gone." Jada tells Michael, as she wraps her arms around Luke.

Michael sighs, "I was keeping my mind off it, thanks for reminding me, though."

Jada frowns, "I'm sorry! Look, we get it-"

"No! You really don't! You're going to New York! Together! Fuck, she's ten hours away! She's- she's so far-"

"Michael, I'm sorry!" Jada exclaims, trying to interrupt him as she was now panicking that she caused this. 

"I mean, I've been texting her but I also feel like I'm holding her back. I miss her, fuck. She's so far. You guys get to be in the same city! I fucking wish I could stay with Laura! I just-" Michael continues to rant, until he ends up crying.

"Michael? Honey? What's wrong?" Pam exclaims, rushing down the stairs seeing Michael crying to Luke and Jada.

"I'm okay!" He sniffles, backing away from everybody, "I'm fine!"