When September Ends || a.i

Chapter 20

-April 10th 2014-

It's been a month since the road trip. A month since Soph and Mikeys mum died. The funeral was possibly the most soul destroying day of my life. I've never had anyone close to me pass away before and it felt like I was burying my own mother rather than Sophie's.

Ever since we came back I've noticed a major deterioration in Sophie's health, she hasn't eaten in almost a month, she hardly leaves her room, she's shutting herself out from the world.

She isn't the only one suffering though, as sad as it is a lot of people were affected by the death of Karen Clifford.

As I'm playing a few chords to a new song I was working on, my text tone goes and I look to see who it is

from cal pal⋆ - hey C, uh this is gonna sound really weird but can you come over to mine I really need someone to talk to and no one is even bothering to talk to me, I need you C

Aw shit, the poor boy. Ever since the funeral Sophie hasn't only been pushing her brother, her best friend and her brothers best friend away, she's been pushing Calum away too. All the poor kid wanted to do was comfort her and fix the pieces that had shattered when her mum died. But Sophie just stopped replying to his texts, she hasn't even properly spoke to him since the road trip. A month is a long time to be completely ignored by the person you love. This kid was hurting and bad.

to cal pal⋆- yeah cal, I'll be over in about 10 minutes, see you soon brother x

I grabbed my jacket and headed to the jeep. Luke was at work anyway so I didn't have to worry about telling him.

I pulled into Calum's huge driveway and parked the car. The place was silent. It was kinda creepy. It was different from the blasting punk rock music coming from Calum's bedroom that you could hear 3 miles down the road.

I knocked the door once and opened it. I was best friends with Calum for years I'm pretty sure no one would mind if I just walked in. The house was silent. Not a sound. I dumped my bag at the foot of the staircase and called out "Calum? Cal where you at? Hello?" I made my way up the stairs to his room where the quietest sobs could be heard from behind the door. "Cal are you okay? I'm coming in okay?"

The place was a wreck. There were several holes in the wall around the size of a fist, the posters were torn off the wall and lay on the floor in shreds, there was a whole collection of records scattered all over the floor, some broken some just out of their sleeve, his desk was flipped over and his guitar lay at the foot of his bed with every string snapped. That poor fucking kid, he sad hugging his knees in the very corner of his room where his blue jeans were covered in blood. I ran over to him, being careful not to stand on anything that could be potentially salvaged. I sat down beside him and pulled him into a hug. I felt my heart snap in two for him. I pulled away from him and took his quivering hand, his knuckles all busted open and bleeding. It was then I seen the blood seep through his blue hoodie. I pulled the sleeves carefully up his arms to see lots of cuts lining his arms, some deep and some more like scratches. I just gasped. I've self harmed before but Calum would be the last person I would think of that would even take a blade to his skin. "Oh Cal, why didn't you tell me, I've been in your position, to an extent, I could have helped you." He pulled his sleeves back down and wiped his eyes with his bloody hands, getting blood on his face. I wiped his face as he whispered "you had your own problems to deal with, I didn't want to bother you" he just started crying again. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed the top of his head "Calum of course I have my own problems but that doesn't mean I would just abandon you, you're my best friend, I'm always here for you, always." He wrapped his arms around me and whispered "thankyou C, I love you you know that right" he said into my shoulder. "I know Cal, I love you too" he pulled away and reality must have hit him as he seen his bloody arms and trashed room. "Oh shit what have I done, I've fucking mutilated myself!" He started breathing heavily, having a panic attack. "Calum listen it's okay we'll worry about that later, let's go fix your arms and then go to mine and we'll get everyone round for a movie night, even sophie. How's that? Take deep breaths Cal, in through the nose out through the mouth." He done as I said and he finally calmed down enough to stand up, take my hand and take me to his first aid kit. I bandaged up his knuckles and his arms before putting a bigger bandage over all the smaller ones just incase. We texted everyone to be at my place in 15 minutes and to our surprise everyone showed up, even Sophie and Michael. Luke had already finished work so had set everything up. Calum and I drove in silence down the road to my house and walked in to greet my brother. Ashton, Michael and Luke were already lying on the couch. As Sophie emerged through the door, you could hear the breath hitch in Calum's throat. He stared at her and she stared at him. "Hey Soph." "Hi" "how are y-" "don't, I came to watch films not catch up and recap on my shitty life." Calum's face dropped. She had pissed me off, Fair enough she was in a bad place but the kid loved her and he hated seeing her suffer, but she was only making him do the same. We started to watch 10 Things I Hate About You and Calum had made a joke about how much he loved Heath Ledger and that Patrick Verona was his spirit animal. We all cracked up. Everyone except from Sophie. He had tried to make several jokes toward her and even tried to hold her hand, all ending up in rejection. She jumped up abruptly and said "fuck this shit, I don't need this, I'm going to the bathroom." Calum obviously followed her and the remaining 4 of us sat still, stunned at the outburst. I heard screaming and shouting from upstairs. Michael put his face in his hands and didn't even move. Ashton sat in a stunned silence not moving a muscle.

Calum's POV-

All I wanted to do was show her how much I loved her, I wanted to make all of her pain go away and she wouldn't let me. I followed her up to the bathroom where she locked the door behind her. "Sophie let me in! How am I meant to help you if you keep shutting me out, now open the door God damnit and let me in!" The door swung open and before I could even say anything Sophie's fist collided with my face. I looked at her, hurt and holding my jaw. "What was that for?" I winced.
"Well I needed to punch something and I didn't want to put a hole in the bathroom wall." She stated flatly. "You didn't have to punch me in the fucking face! All I've done for the past month is try to help you, I've reached out to you over 10 times a day for a month, that's almost 310 times Sophie! I fucking love you and I hate to see you hurt and all you do is push me away. I want to help you and I can't do that when you're ignoring every text or shrug me off every time I try to comfort you!" I screamed at her, my voice cracking somewhere in there. "Well maybe I don't want your fucking help, I'm a big girl I don't need you there every two fucking minutes wanting to do everything but wipe my ass! I don't need your help so just give the fuck up already!" She screamed back. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight as she struggled. I felt multiple punches landing in my side but I didn't even flinch. I felt her going weaker as she collapsed into tears in my arms. We ended up sitting on the floor as sophie broke down. "I love you sophie please know that, no matter how hard you try to push me away I'll always be there, I really do love you and I'll do everything I can to make you feel okay again." It was the truth I would do anything for this girl. Hell the scars on my arm speak for themselves.

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-authors note

what's up brothers long time no see, sorry for the lack in updates but I've got a shitload of exams coming up and it's so hard to write multiple essays and assignments and keep up to date with my homework as well as trying to stay on top of this, I understand most authors are stopping their stories due to exams and that's really upsetting due to how good their stories are but I won't be stopping the story I'll just be updating a little less frequently.

but this chapter is hella long and very emotional but there are probably so many mistakes because it's like 1am here and I cba editing but yah

Thankyou so much for keeping up to date with this and I love you guys so frickin much

Stay weird brethrens
- t x