Chapter 25

I woke up the next morning, feeling someone holding me in their arms and playing with my hair. The events from the previous day came flooding back and I felt instantly guilty. I knew I had to tell Ashton to stop with all of this, it wasn’t fair to Michael. 

“Ash, can I talk to you?” I mumbled, still not opening my eyes.

“Ash? As in Ashton? What the heck Rebecca! Why would Ashton be here? Why would you even think that he’d be the one holding you?”

I jumped at the sound of Michael’s voice. He must have been released before I woke up and came to check on me.

“It’s just.. He was.. Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, Rebecca. It does matter.” Michael said as he released me and sat up.

I replicated his actions, turning to face him so that our knees were touching. There was a hurt look in his eyes, and I knew that he obviously didn’t have a clue as to what was going on.

“Michael, will you please hear me out?” I begged, holding onto his hands. He made no attempt at eye contact, but nodded his head slightly.

“Okay well first off, yes, Ashton was in my room last night, but-“ I was cut off as Michael scoffed. 

“Oh, so Ashton was in your room last night? Let me guess, you two slept together and-“ This time it was my turn to cut Michael off.

“Michael, for heaven’s sake, please listen to me! Nothing happened between Ashton and I, and nothing ever will. We are just friends, I promise.”

“Well he doesn’t seem to think that. Calum and Luke were telling me about the way he talks about you. He obviously thinks of you as more than a friend.” Michael sighed.

“Michael, you don’t understand. He’s like me-“

“Yes, I get it. He’s like you. He’s upset, he’s depressed, I get it!”

“You obviously don’t get it. Michael, he cuts himself. As much as I do. Have you ever wondered why he wears all those bracelets? Yeah, well that’s why.”

Michael looked shocked at the news he has just heard. “I… I… I didn’t know…” He mumbled.

“I didn’t expect you to. He’s pretty good at hiding it, I didn’t know until recently either. Now, the only reason he was here was because he was helping me.. uh… clean up.” I said as my voice trailed off. I had told Michael that I wouldn’t hurt myself anymore, and little did he know I was doing so more than ever.

“Rebecca, look at me.” He said, causing me to stare more intently at my hands.

“Rebecca, show me your wrists. Now.” He said, with a large amount of force.

I slowly held my arms out to him as he pushed up my sleeves. Tears filled Michael’s eyes as I watched him lightly trace over the new and old scars that were present.

We sat there quietly for a long time, before Michael suddenly reached over and pulled me to him, resulting in me sitting in his lap as he hugged me. I buried my face into his chest has his chin rested on the top of my head. He began drawing patterns on my back, knowing that doing so helped me calm down.

“I’m so, so sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have overreacted when you were with Ashton. I shouldn’t have left you. I should have been the one to stop you all those times, not Ashton. It should have been me. I’m sorry for accusing you of cheating on me last night. I’m just so, so, so sorry.”

“It’s okay, Michael. It’s not your fault.” I mumbled into his t-shirt.

“Yes it is, and I’m going to make it up to you, I promise.

I didn’t know how to respond, so I remained silent. The hug lasted several minutes, before I finally decided to pull away.

Michael gave me a confused look, and had opened his mouth to say something when I quickly spoke the words I hadn’t known I’d been wanting to say.

“I love you.” I quietly whispered, surprising myself.

“You what?” Michael asked, jaw dropped.

“Don’t act so surprised,” I said, covering my face to keep him from seeing the red that had stained my cheeks.

“Did you just say you love me?” He pondered.

“I did…” I stated, waiting for his reaction.

“Well guess what? I love you too!” He said, kissing my forehead. “I love you,” he said as he kissed my nose, “I love you so much,” Michael once again said, continuing to kiss everywhere on my face, excluding my lips.

“I get it! You love me!” I said with a giggle. “And guess what? I love you!” I said, as he finally attached our lips.

I was overwhelmed my the familiar sensation that alleyways accompanied Michael’s kisses. Even though this was nothing new, it somehow felt different after those three simple words had been exchanged.

Things started to get a bit more heated than they normally do, but Michael suddenly pulled away, leaving me confused.

“Crap! I just remembered that I told Calum we’d meet everyone in his room…” He stopped to look at the clock, “15 minutes ago!” 

I groaned before climbing off the bed and shuffling to the door where Michael was waiting for me.

Before I could protest, he picked me up bridal style and began walking to familiar route to Calum and Luke’s shared room.

I knocked on the door, as Michael’s hands were occupied holding me. Seconds later the door swung open revealing a relieved looking Calum.

“It’s about time! These two won’t stop sucking each other’s faces off!” Calum exclaimed, pointing at Luke and Kirstin who were obviously now a couple.

I giggled as Michael set me down on Calum’s bed and began to kiss me, earning a loud scoff from Calum.

“Geez! I thought you two would rescue me from this awkward situation, not make it worse”! He yelled, visibly frustrated.

“I was just messing with you, mate,” Michael said, before sitting down on the bed next to me.

The next hour was spent catching up with everyone, as neither Michael nor myself had had a proper conversation with anyone in nearly two weeks.

It turned out that Luke and Kirstin were in fact dating, and according to Calum, were not at all hesitant about showing it.

Calum was still single, although he mentioned a girl by the name of Brooke a few times, earning an eyebrow wiggle from Luke.

Michael and Luke were in an intense discussion about who knows what when there was a nock at the door.

Calum hopped up to open it, and we were greeted by a smiling Genevieve.

“I’m glad to see that everyone is doing better now!” She exclaimed in her normal bubbly voice.

“I just came to notify Michael that his room still needs quite a bit of work, so we’ll be pairing you with a new boy for now, until your room is suitable to live in again.” She explained, shifting her focus to Michael.

“Can’t I just stay in Rebecca’s room?” He whined like a little kid.

“I’m afraid not Michael, rules are rules. I know I let this one slide for you two, but I can’t have you in there all the time.”

Michael rolled his eyes, and the others all gave us a questioning look. None of them knew that we had practically spent every night together before our fight.

“Anyways! I’ll show you to your new room now, if that’s okay! I think you and the other boy will get along just fine!” She smiled.

“What’s his name?” Michael asked.

“Let me look,” she said, whilst flipping a few pages on her clipboard. “Ah, it says here that his name is Ashton Irwin.”

A/N Another cliffhanger, I'm sorry! I hope that y'all are enjoying this story! Please comment telling me whether or not you like it, because I rarely get any feedback so I'm not sure if people enjoy reading it!

Thank you so much for 10K reads! I can't believe it! This fanfic is now number 22 when you search Michael Clifford on wattpad, which is mental! Thanks for voting and reading! - Rebecca x