Retrograde ➼ cth [au]

seis

"Right, that's it! Today is your day off!" Michael picked me up in the middle of the school hallway, much to my protest. I didn't know how he did it, I mean; Luke was soon to overtake him in muscle mass which would leave Michael being the scrawny one. Luckily my football and gym days have ruled me out from being labelled as that.

"What the fuck, dude, put me down!" People were turning to stare but, unlike me who was feeling self-conscious, Michael didn't care. He had literally picked me up around my waist and carried me down the hallway, in the direction of the parking lot. It was coming to the end of lunch period and I still had English to get to.

I saw no point in trying to fight him – it would only result in him dropping me flat on my face or something – so I let myself get carried like a baby. He marched outside, me still protesting about how I had a class to get to, and carried me all the way to his truck. When my feet were firmly planted on the floor I shoved Michael away.

I huffed. "Dude, I've got a class to get to-"

"I know. "

"-And so have you-"

"I know that too."

"I need to do my English pro-"

"No you don't."

"Uh, yes I do, Kat is wait-"

"Enough about Kat already!" Michael groaned, cutting me off completely. He rolled his eyes and I scowled at him. "We haven't seen you in almost two weeks, man."

"We?" I questioned.

"Yo, Cal-Pal," Luke hopped out of the passenger seat of Michael's truck. "Long time no see, buddy."

"Luke, you saw me this morning," I continued scowling at my friends, crossing my arms over my chest defensively. There was now about two minutes until the final lunch bell rang.

"Yeah, but when was the last time we hung out?" He pestered. Now that I came to think about it, I hadn't actually hung out with these guys for almost two weeks now.

"Before I had a massive English project to work on," I replied sarcastically.

"Correction," Michael butted in, holding up a finger. "English project to work on, yes; but we all know you're just infatuated with Katrina."

"Seriously?" Was this really what this was about? My friends were getting jealous that I was finally hanging out with someone other than them? "She's my partner; I kinda have to work with her."

"Not 24/7! I'm surprised you haven't finished the project yet with how much time you've been with her!" Michael threw his arms up in the air dramatically. Off in the distance behind us I heard the final bell ring and I pursed my lips.

"Well, congrats guys, we're last for last period," I huffed.

"All the more reason to leave, then," Luke said nonchalantly, hopping back in the passenger seat.

"Get in the back, Hood," Michael said as he rounded the car to the driver's door. "There's no point in going back in now."

I stood, rooted for a minute, contemplating going back to English and apologising profusely to the teacher and blaming Michael for making me late, or just texting Katrina in a bit saying I went home ill or something. Before I could think about it anymore, I heard voices near the school building, and caught sight of the janitor collecting students for the principal's office – getting caught out of lessons by him was worse than leaving without signing out – and so I quickly threw myself into Michael's car, buckling my seatbelt and let my friends drive me away from school.

-

"Luke, I swear to god right now, if you beat me you're dead," Michael gritted his teeth at the TV screen, swerving in and out of the cars. It was Mario Kart, and somehow Luke was actually winning for once.

"Awh, poor Mikey doesn't like losing," Luke smirked, right before crossing the finish line of the final lap. He threw his controller onto the couch and his arms up in the air victoriously. Michael ended up a close second place and I sadly lagged behind in fourth.

"Neither does your dad but he did when I was with your mom last night," Michael replied with ease, watching as Luke's face fell completely. He sat there for a few seconds, blinking at Michael, as I cracked up with laughter.

"Don't fucking say that dude, it's weird," Luke mumbled, picking up his controller again and going to the game's homepage.

Michael's and my laughter was cut off by the ringing of a phone – my phone to be exact. I fumbled around my pocket to retrieve it and widened by eyes at the contact name.

"Guys, Katrina is calling me, what time is it?" I looked at the clock, and school was let out about ten minutes ago. My phone was still ringing so I slid my thumb across the screen and brought it to my ear.

"Hello?" I questioned.

"Hey, Cal, where were you in English? Sir was kinda flipping 'cause you were absent without a reason, but I kinda jumped in and said you weren't feeling well, so probably went home."

I let out a small sigh of relief – thank goodness for people like Katrina for saving me. "Oh, uh, thanks Kat, you didn't have to do that-"

"Well I wasn't going to see my friend get caught in two week's detention now, was I?" She giggled and my heart literally melted at the sweet sound.

"Thanks, a lot, I mean, I wasn't actually ill," I looked up to see both Michael and Luke staring at me intently, so I flipped them off – this, however, just made Luke scoot closer to my side with the phone, trying to listen to our conversation. As I tried to push him away Michael decided to join in on the other side. I stopped fighting them and huffed just as Katrina began speaking again.

"Thought that much," it was almost as if I could see her rolling her eyes at me. "But, I mean, Calum Hood doesn't bunk off, does he?"

Before I could even respond my phone was being whipped out my hand by Luke, who threw it to Michael, who connected it with his own ear. I tried to reach for it but Luke decided it would be a good time to sit on top of me – damn this boy and all his height could be heavy if he wanted to be.

"Why, hello Kat, Michael Clifford here. We apologise profusely for taking Calum away from you, but you see, we've missed him since he's been too busy caught up with the English project so thought we'd enjoy some lads time playing FIFA and shit. Not to worry, though, he'll be returned to you all fresh and ready to start projecting by tomorrow afternoon."

Luke rolled back in a fit of laughter as I flew for Michael, snatching the phone out of his hand and tumbling to the floor.

"Kat, hi, hey, okay, ignore everything that was just said – I was literally kidnapped, okay?" I breathed out, still scowling at the two boys who were rolling around and cackling.

"Cal, don't worry," Katrina let out a laugh on the other end of the phone. "A night off from the project sounds fine; you have fun with your 'lads' night, okay?"

"Yeah okay," I smiled a little. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

She hung up the phone and as soon as it was tucked away, I tackled the boys again.

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ok filler chapter af i just wanted some lads time ok

mikey is my spirit animal

ash will come in more later btw js

i've got this story all laid out it's gonna be lit

ok gnite

~ shay xo