Set one year after the season 2 finale
After the season 2 finale all the gang split up, even Tony and Michelle. Now Tony, Michelle, Sid, Cassie, Jal, Maxxie and Anwar are all settling into their new lives but some of the gang can't seem to let the past go.
When Tony sees Michelle on TV he is bought back to a time when she still loved him and he wants to go back but he's stuck in a forced relationship with Jack, the boy he rooms with at University. Can Tony win Michelle back for good and will Jack let it happen?
Tony
"You free third period?" Tony asked Jack, the blonde boy he roomed with.
Jack pulled on an odd sock and stood up unsteadily, still getting used to the effects of the drugs he'd smoked earlier that day.
"Nahh Tone, and even if I was d'ya think I'd be right to drive in this state?" He slurred his words a little and Tony realised with frustration that he was right.
"Well how about I just borrow your car for a bit?" He asked trying to sound casual about it.
"For a bit? Bristol's like three hours away mate, I may be spliffy but I'm not stupid" Jack shook his head from side to side and pushed back the dizziness the movement caused.
"Right… Never mind then" Tony stood up and went to the door ready to leave before Jack grabbed his arm and pulled him back to face himself.
"It's her isn't it? That girl in all your pictures, the one your mate Sid always talks to you about" Jack's mood turned dark, the drugs only helping to make him more unstable.
"Yeah Jack, I'm going to see her, I called her and she wants to see me too" Tony lied about the last part, he hadn't called Michelle but the lie somehow made him braver, less scared of her reaction when he showed up at her door.
Jack sat back down on the bed and closed his eyes taking a deep breath to steady his racing heart
"I thought ya know, we had something Tone?" Jack rolled onto his stomach and lay flat against the naked man on Tony's old duvet cover.
"Jack, it's complicated, it's just I… I'm leaving for a bit ok" Tony tried to touch Jack's arm lightly but he pulled away from him.
"You leave Tony, and your room, your stuff, your reputation at this place; it's as good as gone" Jack rolled over to face Tony and glared at him, daring him to leave.
Tony knew that if he left Jack would stay true to his threat. In a university as big as theirs he'd sell all his things before he got back, he'd find a new roomy in a second and would spread around the entire campus about their secret relationship. Everyone knew Jack was gay, it wouldn't hurt him, but the thing was that Tony wasn't gay; he just needed a room after his last roommate had chucked him out after he'd caught Tony flirting with his girlfriend, and Jack had offered the room. Tony had thought he was a nice, normal enough guy and after a night of celebratory drinking after Jack passed one of his classes one thing had led to another and all of a sudden Tony had found himself in a relationship he didn't want nor understand. Now he had two things to consider, if he left, Jack would ruin everything he had spent the last year building, but if he didn't leave, what he'd built would mean nothing to him anyway.
Tony picked up his bag containing less then a third of his belongings and ran a hand through his hair.
"Goodbye Jack, you can have my duvet" Tony gave him one last smile and then walked out into the hall way closing the door behind him.
Michelle
"Miss Richardson you're on in five!" Annie, Michelle's intern knocked furiously on her boss's dressing room door.
She heard someone shuffling about inside before the lock clicked and Michelle stepped out of the room perfectly made up and ready to go live.
"Thank god I thought you were in one of you moods again" Annie muttered more to herself then Michelle but Michelle still heard and she cringed at the malice in the girl's tone but quickly composed herself. She was the reporter wasn't she; this was just a jealous little girl.
"Well, what are you standing around for Annie, get to the sound room" she shoved the girl in the direction opposite to where she was going and set off down the hall to the filming studio.
She knew that Tony would see her; she knew every night that Tony would see her. She hated herself for thinking that way but ever since she'd finally landed the job, even as a part time reporter on Bristol's local station, all she could think of was the fact that Tony would be seeing her and she could never see him. He'd been such a large part of her life that when he'd left to go to university at the start of the year it had been as though he'd taken the most part of her with him.
"Where the fuck is Michelle?" She heard a yell from the studio.
She quickened her pace and cleared her mind of all things Tony, put on her game face and entered the room.
"Thank fuck, where the yell have you been?" Tony's father yelled at her red faced.
"Sorry Jim" she pushed past him and sat down behind her desk.
"Sorry isn't gonna get the message out faster is it? Is it?" He paced angrily
"Someone get him out of here" Clive, the studio curator yelled at security to remove Jim from the room.
The room was instantly silent as the door clicked shut behind the still ranting Jim Stonem.
"You right Michelle?" Clive asked her in a tone that told her he really didn't care either way.
"Yeah I'm fine, let's go" she sat down behind her desk and sorted her notes into a neat pile.
"You're on in five"
"Four"
"Three"
"Two"
"One"
"Good evening I'm Michelle Richardson and tonight on Bristol's Latest we have another lead on the Effy Stonem case. It has been reported by an anonymous source that she was last seen in a car with a fellow class mate, James Cook, driving on the highway leading out of town. The search has been broadened now to the outer forestall areas of Bristol and we ask that volunteers come forward to aid the police in their search of the area. Now over to Sergeant Harry Westwood chief of police for an update of the details of the case"
The camera man signalled that Michelle was off camera and her straight posture immediately stooped as she sighed.
"Can I have a minute please Clive?" she had never needed time after a short report like that but this particular case hit too close to home for her. Surely Tony would be coming home to be with his parents while the search continued for Effy.
"Yeah sure, if I know Harry he'll be ranting for a while, you've got ten" Clive looked back down at the pile of papers he was rifling through.
"Thanks" Michelle stood quickly and walked behind the blue screen they used to simulate a blue skied Bristol behind her. This was as private a moment as she would get while at work so she took her chance and sunk to the ground. She'd reported countless missing kids but never had it been anyone she knew, anyone she'd cared about. She and Effy had become close in the few months her and Tony had had before they'd broken up when he'd left to Uni. She'd stayed in contact with Effy for a little while after that but Effy had started college by that point and she'd found her own group of friends and eventually she stopped answering Michelle's calls and replying to her texts. Michelle had let Effy get on with her new life and friends and boys, she'd never realised it had gotten as bad as it had, if she had, she would've tried to help Effy. But she hadn't, and now she was gone, and now like a sick joke all Michelle could think of wasn't Effy but Tony.
"Michelle, are you ok?" Jim Stonem stood over her, his normally anger tired face now looked concerned.
"Yes, yes offcourse I am, it's me that should be asking you that" she wiped away the tears she hadn't realised she'd cried and tried to stand but Jim pushed her back down and crouched next to her.
"It not her is it Michelle, its Tony who's bought on those" he said softly as he pressed a clean tissue against her wet cheek.
"I'm so sorry Mr Stonem it's just…It's just" What was it just? She didn't know how to finish her own sentence.
"I know Michelle, I know. He hurt you, but you gotta know your not the only one hurting" he put his large arm around her shoulders and she sunk against him "Ya know he only writes once a month, he never calls, never visits, just writes…" another tear escaped Michelle's eye "but you know what he writes about when he does? It's not what he's doing, not how we're going… All he ever talks about, all he asks about, it's you Michelle" Jim squeezed her shoulder gently.
"But he left me, I asked him to stay, I've never wanted something so badly and I needed him, I still need him" she whispered the last part to herself.
"He needs you too" Jim spoke the words quietly and held her tightly as she cried harder into his shoulder.
AN: Hope you enjoyed the first parts of both Tony and Michelle. The next chapter will be parts from Sid and Tony. Review and criticism is welcome