Don't Go [Muke Clemmings]

Chapter Twenty One

A/N: OMG my book is so old now it can drink in the US!
Sorry ik you all hate me
Michael

"I love you, Mikey."

What? Luke loved me? This was perf--bad. This was bad. I needed to stop being so selfish. If he loved me, it would hurt him even more when I died.

"I love you too, Luke," I was about to say, but two seconds later, I was glad I didn't.

"And I know Jamie loves you too."

Damn it... I mean, good. It wouldn't hurt him as much. But God damn it! I screamed in my mind. I loved him, so much. I didn't want him to get hurt.

"That's exactly why I need to leave."

I turned around to walk away. "Oh, what the fûck, Michael!"

"What, Luke?"

"My point wasn't, 'I love you, so I don't want you to hurt me,' My point was that I love you too much to let you die alone!"

I turned back and watched Luke yell, with veins popping out of his neck, and a tear running down his face. How did he know?

"What do you mean, Luke?" I asked with wide eyes.

"If you go through your life shoving people away, someday you're going to be underground with a tombstone that says 'Michael Clifford, beloved stranger.' Don't let any chances slip through your fingers. I'm willing to take the risk, why aren't you?"

The words he said made me feel like he was trying to tell me something. What "chances" was he talking about? Why did he say he was taking a risk? What risk was I supposed to take?

It took a moment to hit me, but as I looked into his eyes, I saw exactly what I had been looking for this entire time. So I did what seemed at the time to be the only option: I kissed him.

The kiss lasted for about ten seconds, then he pulled away. "What was that for?"

"Y-you said to take risks."

"That's not what I meant!"

"Sorry..." I said, head down.

"Hey, it's alright," Luke said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me to his side. "I'm flattered. It's just, I'm straight. I can guarantee you, however, if I were gay, or bi, or pan, or whatever, I would definitely like you back."

"Like me back? I don't like you," I lied. "Not like that."

Well, what do you expect? I completely humiliated myself, do you think I should have just gone along with it? I wasn't totally stupid. This was definitely going to make things awkward.

"Michael, Jamie told me you did," he lied. Either he lied, or she wasn't as great of a friend as I thought.

"She's making it up. Even if I did like you, I wouldn't have told her." That was a lie. I did tell her, but she didn't actually tell him, did she? Why would she? I made her pinky promise not to!

"Okay, fine. She didn't tell me. I just made an educated guess, by the way you always look at me, but I guess I was wrong."

He started to walk away, but I grabbed his wrist to stop him. "Luke, how can you tell that I'm looking at you if you're not looking at me?"

He shrugged. "Peripheral vision."

"Well, whatever. You're 'educated guess' was wrong."

I finally left, and after two seconds wondered why I hadn't just told him the truth. Oh, right. Because he was straight and would never like me.