Chapter Two

Clayton Cabot
I am stuck in the world of reality. The reality of having Dolly as my girlfriend is really something that I never actually wanted to do. The reality of not having ‘The One’ as my girlfriend is something that I should accept. Living in my own world is definitely something that I never really wanted to do. My reality is definitely not decided by myself. I hate to face the fact that I’m never gonna be happy living in my own reality world. But I’m sure that I’m gonna be happy living in my fairytale world. There, this Michaelrella could meet his princess.

Chapter 2

I still remember when my mother, sister and I were celebrating my 16th birthday on the 22nd February at a Chinese restaurant and technically, Clay, Burton, Max and The Fakers were there too, sitting next to us. It was a nightmare for me and the worst birthday ever for having them there too. They were, surprisingly for me, celebrating Dolly’s birthday too. Dolly was wearing this, weird-glowing dress and I accidentally stepped on her dress and caused it ruined. The next day, she told everyone that I did it on purpose. It was a bitchy thing for her to do.
I knocked the door and there Clay was standing behind me bringing a couple of sodas. “I love your house.” I told him. He winked his left eye and said, “You haven’t seen the garage.”
His garage was like no other garage. It was not like a garage at all. It was like a studio. He has 9 guitars, 2 keyboards, and a drum set. It was amazing. Burton hits the drum and asked me, “You wrote the song already, Sheepy?” I looked at Clay and asked, “What song?” Clay rubbed his hair and said, “Oh! I forgot to tell you. We knew that you won the poetry writing competition and we thought you might write songs too, you know.” I nodded my head and said, “Okay, I’ll try. Have a lot of stuff to write too anyway.”
Max told me that the name of their band is Alter. In my opinion, Alter is not the best name to name a band. Alter. Alter? Seriously? But who am I to say anything, right?
I sat beside Burton and heard the conversation between him and Max.
“About the battle of the band. We cannot tell Dolly about it.” said Burton.
“Why not?” asked Max.
“We kicked Dolly out of this band because she changed our music from rock to pop. And Clay told her that we have to kick her out because of having Dolly, a girl, as the singer.”
I giggled and they looked at me and smiled.
Burton went on, “And now, Ally is the singer. Dolly will do whatever it takes to take back the spot that Ally just own. And if she knows about the battle of the band, we’re dead, man.” I laughed so hard when they told about the battle band they joined last year. The crowd threw cans of diet cokes at Dolly. “Never heard of that story before. But anyway, where’s Clay? I haven’t seen him in like, gazillion years. Where is he?” Max laughed and said, “Clay is the kind of guy that keeps himself away from the people when he wanna write his songs. Emo, you know what mean.”
That was why I went to the backyard and there Clay was sitting with his guitar on his lap. I sat in front of him and that was when I saw his eyes. He has these hazel eyes that can make your heart beats so fast. Amazing eyes. Like when he looks straight into your eyes, he sends shivers down your spine. I couldn’t deny that I was drawn into him at the moment. He is definitely the most extremely charming guy I’ve ever seen. He has the kind of arm that says “Hey! I’ll keep you save and warm.” Anyone will give up anything to be in that arm. “Tell me. What’s your dream?” Clay asked and that woke me up from my Clay-dream. I told him that my dream is to sing one of my own songs and having the crowd staring at me with their eyes wide open. He smiled and told me about the battle of the band. He kept on mumbling about Dolly, about how overreacted she would react. “I mean, she cannot know about this. I mean, about you. It would be like suicide, u know.” He said. “Then why picked me when you know that it’s gonna be suicide for you?” I asked him while pushing my dark-brown hair off of my shoulder. He lowered his head and looked directly to my eyes. “It’s….. It’s your voice. I would rather suicide myself than not be able to listen to your voice again” he said. Imagine the look on my face. Clay is being so sweet, I thought. I had never talked to Clay before and I never really get to know him.
“Why do you hate me?” he suddenly asked.
I looked at him and raised a pair of wide, mad eyes to him and said, “What?! I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about you.”
“Seriously, do you really wanna talk about this? Because I don’t!” I went on, “Listen, Clay. I don’t hate you, okay?”
Clay chuckled a little and said, “I’ve been hearing rumours saying how much you hated me. And I….. don’t get why. I mean, did I ever do anything to you? Did I ever spread a rumour about you? Did I…..”
“You still wanna go on with this?” I interrupted.
He didn’t wanna look at me. And when I saw the smirked on his face, I got up.
“You know what? Now I’m admitting it. I am hating you now, right here, this moment! Because of this stupid conversation. Before I spoke to you, I thought… “God, this guy is an asshole.” And a minute ago, I thought “Hey! He’s actually okay.” And do you wanna know what I’m thinking right now?” I looked directly to his miserable brown coloured shit eyes that can make you wanna kick his ass. Like when he stares at you… ugh… gross..
“Listen…..” Clay tried to say something.
“Oh! Clayton Cabot! The real asshole? Yeah, he’s a jerk.” I said and walked away. When I reached home, then I realized that I did admitted to him that I hated him before when I said that I thought he was an asshole before I spoke to him.

I jumped on my bed and rested my head on my pillow. Thinking about Clayton Cabot pissed me off. Right. Why was I talking to him again? Ugh, okay. Trying to be kind to him so he won’t kick me out of the band. Okay, Clayton was right. I do hate him, I admitted to myself. He was in my I-hate-you list because he laughed at me when Dolly deliberately spilled ketchup on me when were sixteen. I saw the looked on his face. And I saw the devil in him too. Got up from the bed and checked my email. My inbox was empty. Stace didn’t reply me. Is she still mad at me? I asked myself. While I was sitting in front of the screen typing an apologize email, to Stace, I could feel that somebody was watching me. “Hey!” somebody said. I was surprised to see Ben sitting in the room of the house next door. I ran to the window and yelled, “Ben! What are you doing in Mackenzie’s house?” Then Ben told me that they’re moving in that house because the Mackenzie’s were moving out too. I was glad that I could have somebody, a neighbour to hang out with.
I brought Ben to the beach and we had the most laugh-out-loud conversation ever. We hadn’t hanged out in years. We had a lot to talk about. “So, what’s with my boy this past 9 years?” asked Ben. Ben and I used to pretend that we were brothers. He called me his boy and I called him my girl. “Boys will always be boys. I’m…. still me, Ben. I never change into someone else.” He pinched my nose and smiled. I’ve always missed him. But I could see that Ben changed. He started to treat me like his little girl and not boy. And I liked it. He made me special. “Well, of course I’ve been acting a little bit more girlie these days.” We laughed. I went on, “I mean, you should meet my best friend, Stace. She was the culprit that pushed me into this girlie business.” I looked at Ben, “I had a fight with her, Ben. It was my fault. Well, actually, both of our fault. I was planning on not talking to her but…. Somehow, I just can’t stop thinking about it. I felt guilty about it.” Ben released a huge sighed and said, “You’re always like that Al. You always feel guilty about anything. Even with the stuff that shouldn’t be sorry for.” He took my hand and placed it on his lap. “Where’s my Al that I’ve known before? Where’s the crazy Al?” Ben asked. I didn’t get of what he was trying to say. I am still the Al that he had known before. I am still her! Ben went on, “You know, I’ve been watching you this whole day. Well, I was not being a stalker or anything, you didn’t recognize me. You……. didn’t smile…. at all. It was like; you were trying to fake a smile but….. I saw it, Al. It was not your smile. I still remember your smile. You can never lie to me.” Then I realised it too. I had not smile in these past few years. Since my father left me. Since he left my mom. Since he left my family. Since he left home. Daddy? Where have you been?