redefine | calum hood

fourteen

Fourteen

Calum

Maddie and I ended up sleeping for seven hours, and I knew we weren;t going to sleep tonight. Luckily Ashton had brought home stuff for me and Maddie to take to fall asleep. It was a quick shot, and then we would be able to sleep for the night. I didn't tell her that though, she was going to freak out. Instead we ate dinner, not mentioning the shot she would need later.

"We should pick a house this weekend," Ashton spoke.

"Then we need to pack," Crystal added.

"Well we've narrowed it down to three houses, it shouldn;t hard to pick between the three," Michael shrugged as he ate some pasta. We continued to discuss which house we were all leaning towards, and I glanced over at Maddie who actually was eating. Unlike beforehand, she didn't participate in the conversation. She wasn't the extroverted, charismatic, funny kid we knew beforehand. She was quiet, timid, and shy, not wanting to say anything. It broke my heart to see how little she seemed to care anymore. If we gave her an opportunity, I knew she would run away and hide forever.

When we finished dinner, Maddie had gone upstairs to shower and most likely watch TV.
"She looked so helpless," I mumbled as Luke and I washed dishes.

"She went through a lot, that doesn't mean she's stuck there forever though," Luke reminded me. "Once she feels safe and comfortable she'll start to feel better," I nodded quietly. "Don't beat yourself up about this, that's what Ashton told me. We can't blame ourselves, if we do we won't get anywhere. We have to face the problem along with her and find ways to help her cope,"

"I know," I sighed, "I just hate seeing her so defeated,"

"I do too," Luke nodded. "She'll get better. Just because she's hurting doesn;t mean she can't get better," He had a great point. She was hurting, but she wasn't gone. She could get better, and we were promising that she would be better. I didn;t care what any of us had to go, we were going to help however she needed us to.

Once Luke and I finished cleaning the kitchen, I went up and took a quick shower, then it was around eight thirty. If Maddie and I were going to get a shot we needed to get it now in order to get back on a sleep schedule. Ashton must have been reading my mind because he knocked on my door with everything we needed. "You might get kicked,"

"I definitely will get kicked," Ashton already knew. We went over to Maddie's room and she was laying on her bed mindlessly flipping through Youtube videos.

"Tired?" I questioned, but she shook her head. I sat down on the edge of her bed and rubbed her knee, "You know how we slept in pretty late today?" I questioned and she nodded. "We need to get a shot so we can sleep tonight. It will help us relax and get back on a sleep schedule," I explained, which made her look over.

"No," she firmly told me.

"Mad, your body needs to sleep, and this will help. It's nothing back like before, you got it in the hospital as well. It's completely safe,"

"No," she shook her head as she brought the blanket up to her chin, "please,"

"How about I go first?" I offered. She didn't care, but I still went first to try to lighten the blow. As Ashton gave me the shot, tears poured down her cheeks, breaking my heart. She was terrified. I hated her brothers. "See, all good," I smiled after I got the shot. "And in ten minutes I'll start to feel tired and go to bed," I explained.

"What are you worried about?" Ashton questioned, trying to ease her mind.

"I wanna remember,"

"You will," he quickly promised her.

"I don't want anything else,"

"This will help you sleep, and we'll all be here," Ashton added. "It's a quick pinch, then we're done. I know you don't want it, but it will help you. I'm your doctor and I wouldn't give you something you shouldn't take,"

We went back and forth for a long time, us trying to calm her down and her freaking out. Ashton went into the bathroom to prepare the shot while I distracted her, but that didn't end well on our part. I was hugging her tightly as she sobbed into my shirt, but sitting up. When Ashton entered the room again, Maddie flipped out, running out of the room. "Shit," I mumbled as we rushed after her. We rushed after her and saw her hiding in between Crystal and Sierra, sobbing as she clutched onto Sierra. Somehow Maddie had basically hid herself behind Sierra, though Sierra was leaning back on the couch.

"Not going well I see," Michael mumbled.

"Some help would be awesome," I rolled my eyes.

"Maddie, it's alright doll," Sierra hushed her as she managed to pull Maddie out and hug her tightly.

"Ashton knows what he's doing, and I know it's scary but it will help," Crystal added. I sat down next to Michael, feeling my body start to get tired. All I wanted was to sleep, but I refused to leave her right now.

"But Calum's eyes are like how mine were," she sobbed, referring to my eyes that were bloodshot from how exhausted I felt.

"Because he isn't sleeping," Luke explained. "After the shot you need to go to bed, and Calum isn't doing that because he wants to make sure you're ok," Maddie glanced over at me, terrified but looking for reassurance.

"It's alright, I promise," I lightly smiled. After five minutes of her calming down, she was calm enough and allowed Ashton to give her the shot, which he did as quickly as possible. Though she was still crying, she did let him do it. It broke all of our hearts to see how terrified she was, she could barely trust Ashton to do his job. "Let's go up to bed," I softly told her and she nodded. Everyone said goodnight to her and she went up to her room, collapsing onto the bed and crying into her pillow.

"Please stay," she sobbed, "I don't want to get hurt,"

"You won't," I promised as I laid down next to her, rubbing her back, "I'm right here," she moved her head onto my chest as she continued to sob, but those soon died down into soft snores and I wasn't far behind to fall asleep.