A Little Death ; 5sos

four

Thank God it was finally Friday; Calum hadn't stopped picking on Elaine all week. It wasn't the cute "I have a crush on you, so let me call you a stupid name to get your attention" kind of picking on; it was bad, probably the worst she's ever gotten it.

To be honest, it was probably more annoying than hurtful.

But there was always that question; why her? Why is she considered weird to them? She doesn't even talk during school, so how would they know that she's different? They haven't even given her a chance. These questions have always been on her mind, but have also always been unanswered.

Elaine was walking out of her last class when she noticed Calum in the hallway, standing across from her. She ducked low and tried to get away before he noticed her.

However, that didn't end up working because her doe-like eyes made eye contact with his stone glare.

"Hey, whore!" Calum called out.

She ignored him and started to pick up her pace. When Elaine finally thought she escaped his wrath, he grabbed her arm tightly.

That's surely got to leave a bruise.

Everyone had already left the halls, ready for their weekend of partying, which meant no one was there to see what was happening. He could get away with murder.

"Don't ignore me when I talk to you. Who do you think you are?" The bully snickered, finding her helplessness entertaining.

Calum was really getting on her nerves. She has had enough of him, and after taking a noticeably large gulp, she talked back to him.

"Sorry, I didn't understand you..." Elaine said innocently.

A look of confusion flashed across Calum's face when he asked, "What? Are you stupid?"

"No... I just don't speak Chinese." Elaine sent the bully a condescending smile.

She found herself pretty hilarious.

Calum's face turned red and his hand held her arm tighter, which was starting to scare her. That joke clearly struck a nerve. No one has made fun of him for looking Asian since fifth grade.

Slowly, he raised his free arm in the air.

It took Elaine less than a second to realize that he was about to either slap or hit her, so she kicked him where it would hurt the most and hustled out of the school, leaving behind Calum, who was groaning and grabbing his junk.

Sweat was dripping down her face by the time she rounded onto her street. As she got closer to her house, she realized a certain blonde boy was sitting on her front doorstep.

He had on his typical black shirt and ripped up jeans.

Elaine glanced behind her to make sure that her bully wasn't following her. By the time she was facing fowards again, Luke had stood up with a look of concern etched upon his face.

"Elaine, what's happening?" he asked, genuinely worried about her.

"I though it would be nice to get some exerci-" She started to lie, but Luke interrupted her.

He noticed something on her arm when she pulled up her sleeves to cool down.

"What happened to your arm?"

Elaine looked down and, sure enough, there was a bruise forming in the shape of a large hand on her wrist.

She kept her head hung low as she answered, "Calum."

Luke knew all about Calum and his bullying, for, Calum also bullied Luke. He was one of the main people who drove him to his edge.

Luke found out the story of why Calum was so mean, and that was because he indirectly killed his own girlfriend about a year ago.

Calum's bitterness started the night that he got into a car crash with Alyssa.

Yes, Alyssa. The one Luke had a crush on for years.

By now, Luke was infuriated. If anything, Luke should be the bitter one after Alyssa's death. Calum didn't even love the girl for goodness sake's.

After she died, Luke stayed far away from Calum, school,-everything.

He had just started pacing the yard when Elaine's sweet voice filled his ears.

"Luke, it's ok, calm down." She said, trying to ease the boy.

He was more upset than Elaine was about this whole ordeal.

Of course, she didn't understand why he was so wound up.

Finally, after a couple minutes of soothing words, Luke was fully calmed down. He turned his face to look Elaine and just stood there staring at her.

She doesn't realize how pretty she is.

Elaine started to grow a little uncomfortable under Luke's over-analyzing stare.

"C'mon," she hummed, while lightly tugging on him arm, breaking him from his tortuous thoughts, "let's go up to my room and hang out. We can have a movie night and talk about stuff."

And before Luke could even respond, Elaine was already leading him up to her room and closing the door.

a/n so many things going on