The Strays (pt. 2)
{part 1}
“Y/N?” A weak smile came across his face. “Hey.”
She smiled back, and she ran up to hug him. She jumped into his arms, one arm holding her waist and his other hand holding her head.
“I didn’t know you were in town,” he said quietly.
“I came back for break a couple weeks ago, yeah…” she replied. “I didn’t think you would be here, or at least I didn’t think I’d run into you. What are you even doing here?”
“As in here, like this town, or in here, this alleyway?” he joked.
She rolled her eyes – she had missed his witty sarcasm. “Both, I guess.”
“I’m in this city because I have nowhere else to go, and this alleyway is where I come to smoke. Wanna join?” he asked, pointing his arm farther down the alley.
“Uh…” she hesitated. She didn’t smoke, but she did want to speak to him. “Sure.”
The two walked down the alley together, and fortunate for y/n, there was no one else there today. Michael joked about the quietness, how even though there was always tons of people there, it was always quiet.
Y/N hesitantly took the cigarette, the two sat up against a graffiti wall while Michael lit his and then hers, and started to speak about what they had been up to. Michael said every other day he worked at the coffee shop, and some days he even covered a few songs with his guitar there, too (he got free coffee as his payment). He had a place to himself a couple blocks down (but it was really shitty). Y/N talked to him about university, how even though she was taking the classes she wanted, she still hated school and couldn’t wait to stop. She explained that her parents wanted her to finish, and hopefully find a guy along the way and get married as soon as possible. Michael could tell she was sick of being their kid, how she felt like they gave birth to her but never really raised her. The two were so comfortable talking with each other, even after years, and y/n still couldn’t help but think why they ever stopped talking.
“Michael, I’ve missed you,” she told him softly. She leaned her head onto his shoulder. “I still can’t believe I lost touch with you. I need to go give my ten-year-old self a punch in the face.”
He laughed. “I bet I missed you more. I was pretty much a friendless asshole thanks to you.”
“I’m sorry, Michael, I really am,” she apologized. “I know you’re being sarcastic but I really am sorry.”
He shook his head and put out his cigarette on the ground, about to pull out another. “And as much as I know you’re apology is sincere, I don’t care. It really isn’t your fault we never talked. I hate to tell you this, but your parents fucking hated me.”
“Well, I knew that,” y/n snapped. “But why did that stop you from talking to me? You, Michael Clifford, are scared of my parents?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed, and lit another cigarette, bringing it to his mouth and puffing out a smoke. “I was never afraid of your parents, y/n. I was afraid for you. I was afraid that if you kept hanging out with me, bad things would happen to you, and they were, too. They told me to quit talking to you when you moved.”
“Michael that might as well be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” she sat up taking the cigarette away from her lips, digging it into the ground, and turned her head to him. “If I had hung out with you, I think I would’ve ended up the same girl, just with the coolest guy for her best friend next to her. I hate to tell you this, but nobody, not even you or my parents chooses what I become.”
“Y/N, I know that, but I still thought I was shit compared to you. I’m just a stray, y/n, and I guess I’d rather be that than nothing, and it’s a role I have to accept, ya know? Play the role that you’ve made and deal with it. I could never live with myself if I was nothing, so here I am, being a stray kid with no breaking point.”
“Michael,” she moved from the wall to sit face to face with him. “You are not a stray, and you definitely are not nothing. I know we haven’t seen each other in years, but I sure as hell know that you are never going to be nothing. It’s not your role, it won’t ever be. I know you’re better than that, we’re both better than that.”
“I’ve just gone my whole life being told I’m nothing…” he said quietly.
She took his hands, and looked him in the eyes. “You are not nothing. You will always be something.”
A little smile crept onto his face, and he held his cigarette to his mouth. “I’m glad to know that.”
Before y/n could protest, he took a smoke, and blew it right into her face – laughing while she coughed the second hand smoke out of her lungs.
“Michael!” she laughed loudly, smacking him lightly on the arm. The two might’ve been almost adults, but they still acted like little kids around each other. He pushed her with his free arm, and finally she full on tackled him when she was so done with his shit. She was lying right on top of him, giggling and claiming triumph after pushing him down.
The two didn’t move for a while. They studied each other’s faces and features, not wanting to take their eyes off one another and break the moment. Slowly, the two leaned closer to each other, their foreheads touching and their lips barely brushing against each other’s. Their kiss was gentle and soft, unlike anything they had ever done to each other between the pushing and shoving and bear hugs. Michael dropped the cigarette from his hand, sitting up and snaking his arm around her waist. Their lips never parted, until their sweet kisses turned into a long, passionate one. At first their kiss felt wrong, like they were doing something forbidden, like something you could be sent to hell for, but in the moment, hell felt like heaven to y/n. The two pulled away from each other, their lips pink and swollen from their kiss.
“Michael,” y/n took a breath before speaking. “I-“
“Go on a date with me tonight, y/n,” he interrupted.
“Really? A date?” she giggled. “Have you ever asked a girl out before on a date?”
“I have,” he told her. “But I think you’ll be the only one that matters. If you will agree.”
She smiled. “Of course I will. Pick me up at 7?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”