#we're supposedly two sides of the same coin or whatever

[cold--carnage]

hrngh,,

[abunchofbadchoices]

Michael's Song

HSS Michael x MC (Jordan) in Midnight Sun AU

*Disclaimer: Most of the lines and scenes I got from the movie the Midnight Sun and all rights belongs to the creators and writers, as well as the characters from PB. This is merely a converted fan fiction*

Part One | Part Two

Part Three

He found himself walking to the direction of the station, his neck craning in curiosity as the girl's voice starts getting louder for him. His feet seems to have their own mind and before he knew it, he is weaving through the crowd of passengers till they cleared.

There he goes, standing a few feet away from the girl, who has been singing her heart out with her eyes closed, voice soft yet deep emotions resounding from every words that comes out of her lips. Even the gentle glint of the flourescents from her blonde hair seems to add something to the song.

"I know if I reach too far,

I may not ever recover.

But I know the stars,

Ain't all I'm meant to discover

So I'll keep rea--"

The girl's eyes open and sees him standing there, the lyrics cut off suddenly and her bright green eyes now wide and utterly surprised.

"Hey." Michael let out a sheepish smile.

Panic spreads all over her beautiful features, her mouth gapes, and her breathing seemed to have getting problems. "Uh..." The girl looks like she suddenly had the urge to throw up. Then she stands, scrambling to pick up her guitar case and fumbled to put the instrument inside.

The case fell from her grasp and the coins spilled on the pavement, along with a pack of... M&M's?

"Whoaa!" He rushed to her side, confused. He wasn't even drunk, does he look messed up? They face each other nervously. "I didn't mean to freak you out." He holds out the pack of M&M's to the girl. "Here."

She grabs it in haste then holds it to her chest protectively. The girl lets out a breath and made a face. "Me? I'm not freaked out. Don't worry about it."

With that, she crouches to frantically try and fix her stuffs again.

Michael reached to give her a hand. "Here, I'll help you--"

"I'm not a freak."

"Why are you packing up?" He asks. "Where are you going?"

"Um, home." She answered briefly. "I gotta go home."

"Home?" Michael knits his eyebrows. "Wait, you live here? And wait, you didn't go to Oliver Berry High." He would have recognized her... Maybe Hearst?

"No." She shakes her head firmly. "It's a very different school. And, um-- you know-- I graduated today and my dad's a super big worrier-- So, I really gotta..." Finally, the girl managed to fix the case and stands, almost dropping it again if Michael hadn't seen it coming and catches it, their hands touched. "OhmyGod!"

Michael couldn't help but chuckle, their close proximity made him stop though. "Um..."

"I have to go." She pulled away quickly, as if the touch electricuted her.

"Wait! Wait! What-- I'm sorry!" He goes after her. "Why are you... What's the rush? What..."

"Um, I have to get home to my hamster." She says, face red.

"Your hamster?" Michael smirks.

"Yeah...it died."

He narrows his eyes at her, not buying any of it. Michael knows what bull crap is when he hears it, but he decided to at least play along. "So, you're not in a rush then, right?"

"No, no, I am!" The girl shakes her head quickly. "I have to plan the... funeral. For my, um, dead hamster that died. Yeah, it's super dead."

Michael nods slowly. He had been fighting the urge to burst out laughing but managed to maintain a straight face.

The weird girl took that as her cue and she darts to the opposite direction, clutching her guitar for dear life then disappeared.

"Wait! Wait--WAIT!" He yelled. "I didn't even get your name!"

Michael huffs in annoyance, not to her, but more to himself. He used to be so smooth at this kind of thing. Sometimes, he doesn't even need to speak to get a girl's number. Now he found a cute weird one and she dashed off as if she couldn't wait to get the hell away from him.

He turns around, finding the station quiet without the sound of her voice. On a bench where he found her sitting minutes ago was a thin hardbound notebook. Michael picks it up, studying it closely. The corner of his lips lifted once more, somehow, he has this reason to find her again.

▪️▪️▪️

At Cedar Cove Medical Center.

"You haven't noticed any changes in her? Motor functions still seem strong?" Dr. Maddox questions one after the other.

"Yeah." Scott responds instantly, his index finger tapping agitatedly on his pants as he sits on the leather couch. He nods his head quickly as well. "Yeah! No loss of intellectual function, no difficulty swallowing or talking." He breathes out a laugh. "Believe me on that... And, uh, no corneal ulcerations-- really, there's nothing to suggest any neurodegeneration."

The woman smiles, then nods her head once. "Any exposure to sunlight?"

"No, of course not."

Sitting there in the private office, Scott couldn't help but feel very nervous as if he was the one being diagnosed. It was Jordan's regular medical update that day, not only for her maintenance but also to help gather more data to help the funded research at Northbridge University regarding the possible treatments of XP.

Supposedly, Jordan will be asked a series of questions regarding her medical status or changes that she noticed to herself every week but today, it was only Scott since he let Jordan stay home and out of the sunlight.

Dr. Maddox stands from her armchair across his then headed to her deak. "I'm gonna refill her prescription for you this time but she really should be coming to these appointments with you."

"Yeah, well..." Scott thinks of an alibi, following the doctor as he fixes his coat. "You know teenagers. They get embarrassed by their dads."

"She has XP, Scott." His friend reminded him as if he forgotten about that. Maddox had been his friends since Jordan was diagnosed with XP and the woman doesn't hold back on reminding him how grave the disease can be.

Scott musters a tight-lipped smile. "I know exactly what she has."

"It's not gonna fall into remission and every year, the risk becomes more serious for her. So, if she's exposed to even the slightest bit of sunlight--"

"She won't be."

The woman eyed him skeptically. "She's reached that age we talked about."

"She won't be." Scott repeated firmly, but he was pretty sure it himself he was trying to convince more. The odds for his only daughter are getting tougher. He won't be taking any more risk. He can't lose another important person in his life, not after his wife left so early. He looked down and pretends to read something on her desk. "Any word on the Northbridge University Study?"

"I've submitted Jordan's name for their Phase Two trials, if it even gets that far." Dr. Maddox sighs. "I wouldn't get your hopes up. Research funding being what it is, we're talking about a disease that affects only one in a million people."

His heart sinks, but he refused to lose hope just yet as he knows to himself that he is going to do whatever it takes for his girl to live the life she deserves. The doctor handed him over the prescription listing a bunch of medicine Jordan has to keep on taking.

He let out a deep breath and look at the doctor with a confident smile. "We're in luck, 'cause she is one in a million."

▪️▪️▪️

"A hamster funeral?" Maria put down the book she was reading on and turns the swivel chair she was sitting on in a cross-legged way like her personal throne to face her, one sharp eyebrow raised.

Jordan groaned, diving face first into her bed and mumbled. "Please don't make me say it out loud."

Maria doesn't know whether to laugh at how ridiculous that was or giggle at how cute her best friend look when embarrassed. After twelve years of being best friends, she already knows every quirks the girl has. Right now, Jordan's usually pale face was tinged in deep pinkish glow from the amount of blushing she was doing.

Tilting her head to the side, Maria smiled fondly at the girl. "No, I mean, I've heard that dead pets can actually be an aphrodisiac--"

"Maria, what should I have said?" Jordan demanded, unburying her red face to sit on top of the bed and look at her.

"Any other combination of words in the English language."

"Like, 'Hey, I'm Jordan Lee. I've watched you outside my window for the past ten years, and I've been in love with you, stalking you every minute of the day!'." The blonde said every word fiercely.

"Okay, don't start with that..." Maria sighs, summoning a bit more patience in dealing with this annoyingly adorable creature that was her beloved friend.

Behind all that, she wished Jordan won't be so careless into throwing away the word love around like it meant so simple and to think it was directed to a guy like Michael...it just doesn't sit well for her.

She went to the same school with Michael Harrison for many years and despite having a decently good-looking face and a standing athletic recognition, Maria just doesn't see why Jordan got so hang up on him. It had taken a lot from her not to tell Jordan how hurt she gets when they see each other after school and all the girl could ask was if she ever saw Michael at school, or how is he, or what the hell he had for lunch.

Okay, to be fair, Maria has every right to be annoyed. For years, she tried showing what she really feels towards her best friend. There was a time when she was a freshman and she brings Jordan her favorite brownies and a single rose everyday as gifts and apparently, the blonde saw it as a gesture of sisterhood. Yay!

And Junior Prom Night... That was the same night Maria thought Jordan might have felt something for her too. She invited her as a date and oh God how beautiful she was on that dress but you see, they found it hard to dance well if one of them is mooning over another person across the room.

She wonders if Jordan got so blinded by her eternal crush for Michael freaking Harrison that she won't see if Maria ever had the words I love you, Jordan Lee tattooed right across her forehead.

Probably not.

That would have ruined her chance on her college applications. That will be a terrible decision.

Her raging thoughts were soon cut off when the book on her lap fell to the carpet in a muffled thud. Maria picked it up and looks at her best friend once more.

"Or how about 'Hey, you may remember me from kindergarten, when everyone called me a vampire'." Jordan continuously rants.

Maria frowned. "No one remembers that."

The girl gets up and stomps her feet like a grumpy little kid, dragging herself across the room and to the window where she plopped back on the soft couch. "What did I do?"

"It's bad, but we'll fix it."

"I feel so stupid and lame."

Maria follows her to the couch with her glass of juice and sits on the other side of it facing her. She grabbed a bowl on the coffee table. "At least you have some M&M's. So..."

Jordan grabbed a few colorful pieces and shoved them into her mouth. Then after chewing them to oblivion, the blonde picked up her guitar and starts playing.

She loves it when Jordan plays. Whether it was some silly tune they picked up on the radio or a song Jordan learned from YouTube. What Maria loves the most is when Jordan sings and plays a song that she had written by herself.

It makes Maria feel special somehow, because only her gets to hear the song (sometimes Uncle Scott too, but that was beside the point). It was something she has that Michael couldn't get.

But of course, she remains the best friend on Earth for Jordy and of course, she still helps her in this pointless dilemma. Ugh, my life suck.

Maria watched her play, thinking. "You've just gotta make up for it next time."

"There's not gonna be a next time." Jordan drawled.

"You don't know that."

"I do!"

The girl was pouting so bad Maria couldn't help but put her hand over Jordan's and stop her from playing. "This is good. This is what Taylor Swift does. She has awkward interactions with boys, and then she just writes amazing songs about it--"

Jordan's green eyes widen, her blonde head turning to face her quickly. "No, no..."

"What?" Maria asked, eyebrows knitted.

"Come on..." Her best friend rushed to the study table and rummages through her stuffs, then does the same to the coffee table littered with magazines.

"What's happening?"

"Did you see my notebook when you came in?"

"Your notebook notebook?" She shakes her head. "Not that I remember."

Jordan fell back to the couch, biting her lip nervously. "I think I left it at the train station."

"My God, Jordan..."

To be continued...