“Where are you guys going?" Stephanie stood in her doorway, catching the boys as they made their way down the stairs, eyes still red with sleep. " Calum is missing" Michael shouted, running out the door with the others. "Mady get up!!" Stephanie shook Madys shoulders obnoxiously. " Calum. He's gone. The boys left to go look for him." The words flew from Stephanie’s mouth ninety miles a minute, her face full of confusion. Mady sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. " I'll call him, maybe he will answer" she grabbed her phone from the small table next to her bed, unplugged it from the charger and told Siri to " call calpal". Stephanie paced anxiously around the room, wondering what had gone on while they had been asleep, where could Calum have gone?
"This is all my fault, you guys should go.. I'll find him. " Luke climbed into the driver seat, his mind only focused on finding Calum. " What even happened?" A very confused Ashton asked from the back seat. " Calum is just jealous of Michael. " Luke sighed from the driver seat. " I wish he would just talk about his thoughts instead of running from them. "
Michael set his hand over Luke’s on the center console, Luke quickly jerking away from his touch. Michael closed in on himself, silent in the passenger as Luke drove down the road, eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of Calum. Ashton continued calling Calum’s cell phone, his mumbled and frantic voice messages in the back seat as they rode down the street. Michael considered reaching out to Luke again, but decided against it, rolling down the windows and shouting for Calum out of them, doing anything he could to help. The hours passed with no sign of Calum, forcing the boys to return home after 1am had come around. The door creaked open, and Stephanie’s head shot up, as she ran to embrace Michael. He stood limp, not reacting to her grip around him as he carried her to the couch and sat down, eyes locked on the nothingness in front of him. Luke threw his keys against the wall, retreating quickly to his room with Ashton bickering behind him, attempting to counsel him, only to have the door shut in his face. He turned and walked to the couch with a look of disappointment, taking a seat next to Mady who automatically took her spot on his lap, trying to calm him down as she stroked his hair from his face. The four sat silent in the living room, only tiny mumbles coming from the girls, desperate for their boys to speak up, or even move. But no one did, not an inch. Luke lay in his bedroom the same way, anchored to his bed by the smell of Calum staining the sheets. He turned on his side, curling into a ball as he tried to claw away the chest pain, the sheer wretched aching that only Calum could help. Tears streamed constantly down his face, and he let them, too numb to wipe them away any longer. The morning came, Luke still stay locked in his bedroom, crying silent screams of agony into the dawn, but no one heard. The four others lay asleep on the couch, drained from the search only hours before. But Luke never shut his eyes. He was always awake, feeling every bit of pain from Calum’s absence, eating him from the inside out.
