cool » l. hemmings

xv.

⇉ luke. ⇇

I have no clue why I had the sudden idea to take Michelle to the edge of the forest. The only other person who knew about it was my brother, but it's not like I've actually taken him. I'm sure my mother would've killed me if I ever did.

Michelle was half asleep by the time we'd made it back to the beat up, old white Jeep we came in and five minutes after I'd started the car, she fell asleep. It was cute, she was so tiny and seeing her knees up against her chest with her body leaning against the side of the door and her pullover covering her hands made her look like a bunny. Yes, a bunny. I never thought I'd use the words cute, or bunny, in the same sentence ever in my life. But I thought I would make an exception for her.

I turned the music down, low enough that it wouldn't bother her but I was still able to hear it play quietly along with the hum of the car.

"I'm turning into a complete softy, fuck," I let out a breathy laugh to myself.

I was only fifteen minutes away from our neighborhood, and I started to panic about whether or not Michelle even told her mom she's be gone this long. Probably not, since I didn't even expect to have her out past eleven. It wasn't my fault, because it was easy for anyone to get distracted by how wonderful and peaceful that place was. And also, we practically talked about almost everything we could think of. At one point she almost pushed me off of the cliff, or tried to, because I had made fun of how uncoordinated she was - I think I've seen her trip over absolutely nothing more than I've seen myself naked.

"Hey, Michelle. We're almost to your house," my voice whispered, reaching over the hand that wasn't holding the wheel to shake her.

When she groaned, I chuckled quietly and watched her rub her eyes and lift her head up, looking around and out the window into the dark. "What time is it?" her head plopped back down on the window and her eyes closed, but I'm sure she was awake.

"Uh," I glanced at the time on my phone. "almost 12:30."

"My mom is going to kill me, thanks," she was tired and had a small voice, laughing sleepily and still closing her eyes. "And I forgot my phone."

"Just call her from mine." Michelle reached for it on top of my untouched pack of cigarettes. I barely ever seemed to smoke when I was around her, I think I've only ever done it about five times where as everywhere else I would pull one out every half hour.

The sound of All Time Low's 'Break Out! Break Out!' stopped when she unplugged it from the speaker and dialed her mum's number. She reached up her fingers to pick at her lips.

"I told you forever ago that doing that isn't good for you."

Confused, she then glanced down. "What? Oh, whatever - mom! Hi, I'm sorry," now she chewed on her fingernails, I spotted a small smile and a glance toward me. "No, I'm not with Michael. I told you I went with Luke to a thing."

"What thing? Just a place. No, I'm not doing drugs, mother." My head turned toward her just as I drove into the first street that began our neighborhood.

"We're almost there, but my place is closer. If she doesn't want you waking up Grady or her, we can stay in my basement," I whispered to her. She nodded and waited for her mom to finish what she was saying.

We were near my house anyway, and it's not like my mother would care. I'm sure a certain person would, but they don't really matter to me at the moment.

"Luke said that if you don't want me being loud I can just stay at his."

"I didn't say-"

"Shut up, Luke - I'm not being mean to him, mom."