LUKE POV
"Oi, wake up lazy butt!"
I glared up at Michael who stood over me disapprovingly and I sat up, rubbing my hands through my hair.
"I see that you're feeling much better," I muttered sarcastically.
"Yeah yeah yeah, just get up or Nicki's going to explode from impatience."
"Yes sir," I mumbled as I rubbed my aching back and stood up.
We all pitched in, cleaning up what we had which wasn't really much. Nicki had his little bag but other than that, we didn't have much. Then we set out on the road once again, the three of us (Nicki, Rachel, and I) talking amiably while Michael trudged ahead through the small sheets of snow. Today wasn't as cold as yesterday and Michael seemingly wasn't bothered much by it. Nicki though still insisted for him to wear his coat which Michael finally caved in to since Nicki was being quite annoying.
Speaking of which...
"Nicki, do you have the hots for Michael?" I whispered to him
He spluttered, face going pink and I was sure it wasn't from the cold.
"Wh-What? Of course not!" He hissed back.
"Awww, but you two are so perfect for each other!" I teased quietly.
"But... just... no."
"The depressed, yet devastatingly beautiful emo (A/N: NO I'M NOT TRYING TO MAKE FUN OF EMOS OKAY IT'S JUST THAT MICHAEL KIND OF IS ONE AND SO AM I SO DON'T YOU GUYS BE ACCUSING ME OF THAT) with the ever so cheerful and slightly irritating nerd," Rachel said dramatically, getting into the game with me.
"You know I can still hear you guys back there," Michael said from over his shoulder.
"Counting on it," I retorted.
He rolled his eyes but continued to ignore us. Nicki glared at me.
"I'm not attracted in any way, shape, or form to Michael! That-That would mean... I'm gay!" He said with a frown.
"Maybe you are and you just are now realizing it," Rachel chimed in. "There's nothing wrong to being gay or anything like that."
I noticed how Michael sort of slowed down, as if he was interested in what we were talking about. 'Dude, if you're interested, just join the conversation. It's not that hard,' I thought.
"Hey, I have nothing against homosexuals or the LGBTQ+ community! I have a brother who's gay, okay?"
"Yo, so do I!" I said with a grin. "Leo came out a couple years ago! Which one of your brothers?"
"Caleb," Nicki answered.
"Isn't Leo in Caleb's grade?" I asked.
Nicki nodded, a smile forming on his lips.
"And aren't they like best friends?"
"Ooh, I see a romance here!" Rachel joked.
"Whoa we're getting way off topic. What I'm trying to say is that being LGBTQ+ isn't a problem. Like, again, I have no beef with them," Nicki said defensively.
"We never said that. But why are you so adamant in thinking that you're not gay?" Rachel asked, curious.
"Because... Because I like girls! I always have, and for a while!"
"You're so lying," Rachel said.
"How do you know that?" Nicki asked.
Rachel's brow furrowed.
"I... don't know. Something just tells me you are. That you've liked a boy."
"I swear, if it's because of the rainbow clothing-"
"No! Something just says that you're lying!" Rachel protested.
"Yeah well, I've never liked a boy," Nicki muttered.
"You could be bisexual or pansexual, or even poly," I offered.
"What does being pansexual even mean?" Nicki grumbled.
"It means that someone is attracted to males, females, and transgender/gender fluid/gender flux people."
We all just stared at Michael who'd suddenly just jumped in with that comment. When he noticed us staring at him, he shrugged it off.
"What? You're all looking at me like I've grown a tail."
"No it's just... that was sort of unexpected," I said slowly, cautiously.
"Yeah well, whatever."
Michael slipped back into his normal withdrawn self once again.
"Right," Rachel said. "Anyways, you could be that! That, or bisexual which means-"
"Okay, I know what that means," Nicki snapped.
"But yeah, you could still like Michael. That's what we were trying to say," I said firmly.
"No, just no. Michael kind of hates me," Nicki said.
"But he hates everyone," I grumbled.
Michael's shoulders tensed and I lowered my voice again.
"Well, he hates a lot of people. You never know, he's probably hiding his true love for you," I joked.
"Haha, sure he is," Nicki said with a laugh. "I just don't like him."
"You think," Rachel added on helpfully.
"No, I know."
"No, you don't."
"Yes I do."
"No, you don't."
"Yes I do- this is stupid," Nicki said suddenly.
"Hey, heads up you guys."
Michael pointed at a clump of buildings in the middle of a bustling highway.
"That's our destination. Your brother should be in there, if whoever took him even took him in the first place."
Nicki made a choking noise.
"I-I thought you knew if they took him!"
"No, I just said that I knew where he could be located," Michael snapped. "Get yourself a new pair of ears since your current ones seem to be failing."
Nicki traded looks with me that was like "See he hates me". Michael threw Rachel something.
"That's a taser. We're going to have to split up and I don't want to leave you unarmed."
"Hey, what about me?" I whined.
He raised an eyebrow at me, looking at me with disdain.
"You're a big ole strong boy, hm? You can surely handle a few nasties if you're so tough."
'Ouch, touché though.' He rolled his eyes.
"Besides, I'm sure there's not a lot of people here. There's four entrances, one unguarded and the rest guarded. You two," He said, pointing to Rachel and I. "You two take the unguarded one since little Lukie is afraid of getting bloodshed on his hands."
"Hey, I don't want to kill anyone!" I said angrily.
His eyes surveyed me with a cold fury dancing with his heterochromatic orbs.
"Would you kill to protect yourself? Or would you surrender everything to hold on to another minute or another second of the life that's so short and minuscule? Would you kill to protect her?"
He pointed to Rachel. Guilt flooded my stomach as well as anger.
"There's other ways to subdue someone than kill them!" I snapped.
"What happens if that's what it comes down to? What would you do?"
"Hey Michael, that's enough of the threatening stuff. We all get that you're big and scary," I said harshly.
"No, I'm just trying to prepare you for something you can never be fully prepared for. C'mon Nicki."
He stormed off with a sort of distressed Nicki. I clenched my fists.
"Hey! What's so terrible that you're trying to prepare us for, wise guy?"
Michael whirled around, his glare full of ice coldness and ferocious rage.
"Nothing big. Just death."
With that extremely relaxing thought, he grabbed Nicki by his arm and pulled him along with him towards the buildings.
"Meet us on the roof."