living or existing | mgc

fifteen

Calum's POV.

We pulled into the driveway of the restaurant of Michael's surprise dinner, Pizza Hut, and parked the car as we piled out of it. I sighed as I shut my side door. Ashton fell on his ass on the pavement, causing even more laughter to erupt from the gang of us.

Calming down, I watched as Darby and Michael walked in front of me and I grimaced, looking swiftly at the pavement as Ashton held the door open for us and we entered the restaurant.

I do like Michael, I really do, but to say I'm jealous of his relationship with the girl I love is an understatement, really.

The waiter at the front of the brasserie asked us how much seats we would like on our table, and soon enough we got seated in a little booth to fit all the six of us. I sat on one side next to Tilda and Ashton, and Michael, Darby and Luke sat on the other.

Another waitress with a short blonde bob that bounced as she walked came to our table and handed us some menus, and we all flipped through the selections of pizza and pasta that was available for us to order.

Except me. I couldn't keep my eyes off Darby, she looked so good tonight. Her hair was slicked back into a braid that fell against her shoulder, and she wore a blue blouse that fitted her body perfectly. Hell, she was perfect.

"Oh fuck, not now," Luke groaned from across the table, breaking my thoughts off suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him.

"Hey, don't fucking swear!" Ash slapped him with the menu playfully, which led to everyone laughing again.

As the laughter died down I looked over as Luke whispered something into Darby's ear, and her eyes widened and she slowly raised from her seat. I watched her as she scanned the restaurant, and she sighed as she seated again, fiddling with her hands anxiously.

"Who is it?" I heard Tilda whisper, leaning over the table to talk to Darby.

"James," Darby replied, quietly but loud enough for me to just hear her. "Make sure Mikey doesn't see him," she whispered back.

I glanced at Mike, who was looking through the menus, obviously deep in thought about the pizza and completely oblivious to what was going on. That's a good thing.

"Shit, he's coming," Ash said and I stood up from the table, watching him as he strode over to our booth with a smirk on his face.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in, huh? How nice of you guys to take the little faggot out. How much did you get paid for this one, baby?" James smartly asked Darby as he stood in front of us, a group of his friends behind him, all with large smirks plastered on their faces.

My eyes flickered to Michael, who had noticed their presence and was staring at them with wide eyes, petrified.

I felt bad for the guy. But, as I watched Darby struggle to find words and backfire at him, I saw this as my chance.

Standing up, I glared at him.

"First of all," I spoke sternly, "Darby isn't your baby. Second of all, leave him alone, James," I practically growled.

"Oh, why? Is the little nerd getting upset again? Maybe he should go kill himself," he kept going, a gleam in his eye.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Darby reach to grab Michael's hand reassuringly as he put his head on the table.

Ashton stood up too, his jaw clenching. Tilda tried to get him to sit back down and not make a scene in the middle of the restaurant, but he just pushed her hand away and looked back up at James, angrily.

"We said fuck off, James. Do you need us to spell it out for you?" Ashton spat, and James snickered.

"If you even know how to spell," he replied, a smug look on his face.

I looked back at the group. Luke was patting Mike's back reassuringly, Darby was holding his hand and Tilda was leaning across the table to whisper something in his ear as his face was face down on the table, evidently crying.

I growled, walking around the booth so I was about a metre a way from James.

"Leave now, James, or I'll do something that I'll make sure you regret all that you've ever done to Michael," I shouted, pushing his chest.

"Oh yeah? Like what, you little pussy?" He spat back, and I swung at him, hitting him dead in the nose with my fist.

I couldn't hear anything, it was like my ears were blocked, because I knew that the others would be screaming at me to stop. But, I also knew, in that moment, nothing else mattered to me other than Michael being safe, and impressing the person I loved the most.

The rush of adrenaline I got was insane, I felt like I was spinning as he stumbled back, and tried to stabilise himself. The red blood of the fucked up kid Darby used to call her boyfriend fell from his nose and he clutched his hand over it, gasping loudly as he glared at me.

"Now fuck off, before you get a split lip," I spat at him, gritting my teeth.

I felt Ash's hands on my arm, pulling me backwards, and I fought him off for a second before realising there was no point. Dragging me out to the car, I could hear Michael sniffling and Tilda, Luke and Darby trying to calm him down as they followed us.

"You took it a bit far, Cal," Ashton said to me as we climbed into the car. He sat into the front seat and I jumped into the back as we waited.

"Fucking loser in there needs to know when to stop," I spoke angrily, clearly I hadn't calmed down yet.

Darby was holding Michael's hand when they exited the restaurant, she was saying something to him and he was nodding in agreement, a tear rolling down his face. My heart stung a little bit as they entered the car, I don't think my plan worked.

"Let's go eat somewhere else," Luke said as he squeezed in next to Darby on the other side.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting a cheeseburger from Maccas," Ash giggled, which made us all chuckle and nod, with the exception of Tilda asking him if he could buy her a 20 piece chicken nugget box jokingly, earning more laughs from the rest of us.

I could feel the bad mood that we were all in slowly fade. Ashton always made everything better.

We pulled up at the fast food place that wasn't exactly considered our healthiest option, but hey. We're only teenagers, right? We'll never be as young as we are now, might as well just be stupidly reckless.

---

hey guys it's meeee
um so basically if you don't understand this chapter then here is your translation!!

so calum is in love with darby and wants to impress her
he does like michael a lot but is obviously jealous, cos i mean like, anyone would be if it was somebody you loved.

and they see james at pizza hut
and calum sees this as his chance
but it doesn't really work aha aw poor calum )-;
so they go out to mcdonalds yay !!

omg btw i thought the last line to this wAS IMPORTANT COS HE JUST HIT JAMES YOU KNOW ??

AYEEE HAHA

anyways ily all !!!!!!
bye babies💖 xoxoxo