Try Hard

Chapter Kiss Me Kiss Me (Michael's P.O.V.)

The day after Ashton went on a date with Ally, I called her up, and asked her to go out with me. She said yes, and we scheduled it for the next day.

I met Ally in the park. It was a bit awkward, but I tried to ignore it. We talked about ourselves for a while, then I asked her, "Where do you go to school?" She brushed her hair out of her face and told me, "It doesn't matter."
I had no idea what to say to this. "I'm dropping out," she added. "Um, why?" I asked her. "I don't need the grades," she replied simply.

I don't think Ally was very interested in me. I kept asking weird questions. I was just distracted by how beautiful she was.
"When did you dye your hair?" I asked. "A few months ago," she answered. "I like it," I said. "I dyed my hair blue before." "Cool," she said, sounding a bit uninterested. "Yours is still really bright though," I continued, surprised. "It's not fading at all." Ally just nodded.

And the conversation went downhill from there. Eventually, I just pretended that I needed to help Luke with something at that time, and I went home.

Calum cornered me practically the second I stepped inside the house. "You were out with Ally, right?!" he demanded. I nodded. I sat down on the couch. "How did it go?" he asks. "I don't think she was interested in me," I tell him honestly. "It was a waste of time." "So you weren't doing anything worthwhile?" Calum says, almost innocently. "No," I say, shaking my head. "Why?"
Calum wanders around the room. "It's just that when you were gone, Luke upset his best friend of fourteen years and now she hates him. Now Luke is crying upstairs and Lauren is probably crying at her house, and I have no idea what to do because all Luke wants is Lauren but I talked to her and she absolutely hates him."
"No way!" I exclaim, jumping up. "What did he do?" "Well, you know how Lauren is really insecure about stuff?" Calum says. I nod.
Lauren, who is - was - Luke's best friend for fourteen years, is one of my best friends too. She's really hot, but she's also so sweet and considerate. But she's very shy and insecure about herself too, even though she has no reason to be.
"Luke and I were talking about Lauren and Ally while Lauren was in the bathroom. I said that Luke shouldn't be chasing after Ally because he could probably have Lauren, but then he said that Lauren isn't as pretty as Ally - and Lauren heard him."

I am shocked. I would never expect Luke to say something like that. He's always said that Lauren is the prettiest girl he's ever seen - and I believed him. To be honest, I was hoping that he would start dating Lauren so that I could have a better chance with Ally.

"And you said that Luke is crying upstairs?" "Yeah," Calum sighs. "You should try talking to him. My grandmother is here too. She's baking, so I'm going to bring some of the cake up to Luke when she's done, and some over to Lauren."

Calum's grandmother is awesome. She's so kind, and even better, she always bakes us cakes. I could have all the money in the world, and I'd never find better cakes than Jen makes.

I knock on the door of the room that Calum and Luke share. There's no answer, so I just walk in. You can see that I was trying to be nice. Usually I just barge right in without knocking or any kind of warning.

Luke is lying on the floor, crying silently. He looks awful - even worse than usual. "Hi," I say, sitting on Calum's bed. He won't mind.
Luke doesn't even look at me, he just sobs, "I really hate myself. I can't believe I said that to her. She doesn't deserve that kind of insult, especially from me. She trusted me and I -" Luke takes a deep breath, his body shuddering. "She's never going to talk to me again. She hates me. I hate me. I always told her that she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen, that she was amazing, that I loved her - all those things are true, but she won't believe me!" He bursts into tears again. I don't know what to say. I've never seen Luke like this.
"Um, do you want to play FIFA?" I suggest. "Get out, Michael," Luke tells me. "All I want is Lauren."
I get up and glance at him one last time before leaving. It looks like Lauren is taking over our lives as well.