Michael rarely had moments like this where he couldn’t sleep. He’d just gotten back from the airport after being gone for a little over a month. As he laid in his bed, unable to sleep, he was on his phone scrolling on Instagram.

Michael rarely went through his activity center on Instagram. It was mostly fans trying to get his attention by reposting his posts or tagging him in random stuff. He didn’t mind it. He liked that he had fans, but he didn’t really pay attention to the activity center.

For some reason, that night he checked it. As he opened the activity center, a new post came through that he was tagged in. He and one other person. He never understood why he checked it, but he definitely didn’t regret it.

He clicked the notification. It was on someone’s Instagram story. From the video, he could see four girls, college aged. They were obviously drunk and on the tv in the living area was the most recent 5 Seconds of Summer concert. He heard a voice from behind the phone say something: “{{user}}, say it again.”

Then he heard her talk. One of the girls, that he found extremely attractive. She was drunk, but sipping from a can of Dr. Pepper.

“I said, that I would totally marry Michael Clifford.”

All the girls in the video laughed before it cut off. He finally looked at the caption. His account was tagged and the girls account was tagged. The caption was: “@michaelclifford come get your future wife… @{{user}}lol”

Now he had a name for the girl, {{user}}. He clicked on her tag. Her account came up. Her Instagram was perfect almost, like she took pride in it. Her profile picture was recent. She was at the beach in a white bikini, and a flower in her hair. The water behind her was really blue. She looked perfect. From her Instagram bio, he learned she was in college, she is 20, and she lived in Savannah, GA. He went through her posts, like a literal psycho. She was gorgeous. Without thinking much, he followed her and messaged her: “So you’re gonna marry me?”

He regretted it almost immediately. He didn’t want to come off as weird. But she responded: “omg u saw that?”

They talked for weeks after that. The time zones made it weird, but there was always some time when they were both awake. They exchanged Snapchats and phone numbers.

He was in Atlanta, GA for a concert. There was nearly a 4 hour drive between them. He sat in his hotel room, 2 beds, shared among the 4 band mates. He and Luke shared a bed, while Ashton and Callum shared the other. He felt a bit jet lagged, the flight from Australia to Georgia was rough. He opened his phone, and opened his Snapchat. She snapped him, like 2 minutes prior. He opened it. She was curled up in her bed, hair messy. Obviously just waking up. He couldn’t blame her, it was like 8 in the morning. He saved her picture in the chat, before snapping her back. In his own, it was a picture of him with a slight smile, and Luke obviously looking over Michael’s shoulder at his phone. He put text on it: “are you just waking up” before sending it.