Redesigned > cake au [complete.]

10

First thing Monday morning, when I was getting my binder out of my locker, Michael tapped me on the shoulder.

"Dude," he grinned, seeming amazed. "Have you seen Calum?"

"Um, no, why?" I asked, not meaning to sound clueless. I hadn't seen him since we had entered school and he had run off to his locker.

"He got his lip pierced, and damn, I never thought of Calum that way, but — okay, don't laugh — I'd totally do him."

I knew Michael had no qualms when it came to these type of things, but the tone of his voice and the whole subject in general made me uncomfortable. "Oh, well, maybe you should go for it."

Michael raised an eyebrow. "You think so?"

I shrugged, acting nonchalant as I closed my locker and leant against it. "Yeah, sure. Take him out or something and see how it goes from there."

"Alright, I'll do it," Michael grinned, clapping me on the shoulder before walking away.

Sighing, I began making my way to my first class of the day, which was History. I had that class with Asthon, and we just sat at the back, generally, joking around.

"Hey man, what's up?" Ashton asked, frowning at me when I sat down beside him. "You look upset. All good?"

"I do?" I asked. "No, I'm just confused."

"About what?" he asked as the teacher walked into the room.

"About... Calum. And Mikey," I sighed. "I'm gonna tell you something, and I don't think it matters now, but don't tell Calum that I'm the one who told you."

Ashton nodded, pushing up his glasses. He pulled out his notebook from my bag and I did the same before he gestured for me to continue.

"Look. The reason Calum has been dressing and acting the way he has been is because he wants Mikey's attention. Yeah, and apparently, it's working, because Mikey came up to me and told me that he wanted to do Calum. It's just- It's fucking weird, man, that's all I can think."

Ashton nodded, pausing before answering to take the notes on the board. "Mikey and Cal? That just sounds wrong. I didn't know Mikey was into Cal like that."

"He's not," I sighed, slipping my glasses onto my nose and copying the notes off Ashton. "I think he just likes what Calum's been looking like lately."

Ashton nodded, humming a little. "That doesn't sound like a good base for a relationship... Let's see how this all plays out."

—- —-

Lunch time came quickly, and once again, I was left next to Ashton. Except this time, we weren't joking around. We were sitting with wide eyes and jaws agape, watching our two friends across the table basically eat each other's faces.

"This is wrong on so many levels," Ashton muttered, and I felt like my mind was reeling. I was definitely going to be sick.

Thankfully, someone came up to our table, distracting me from our two friends and their disgusting display of teenage hormones.

I looked up to see a tall, brunette girl with wide, purple-rimmed glasses and a cheerful smile on her face. "Hey guys! Um-" the girl paused, noticing Michael and Calum, before shaking her head and turning back to us, looking slightly confused. "Um, sorry. As you guys probably know, prom is in a couple months, but we don't really have an- well, we need more people to help decorate the gym and stuff. I know you guys probably aren't interested, but would you two — or four — be willing to lend a hand?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind, as long as I don't have to show up in a suit," Ashton joked, and the girl chuckled a little, obviously trying to be polite. I, on the other hand, made no effort to hide my eye roll.

"Alright, great!" she smiled, writing down his name on the clipboard she had. "Um, wait, I actually need your email address too."

She handed him the pen and the clipboard, and he began to write as she looked over at me. "What about you, Luke?"

"Oh, um..." I thought for a moment, looking over at Calum and Michael. Annoyance overcame me, and I huffed before looking back at the girl. "Sure, sign me up."

"Great!" she grinned. "So when Ashton's done, you can put in your name and email."

I nodded, taking the clipboard and pen from my friend's hand, not understanding the weird feeling I was getting from knowing that Calum and Mikey were still going at it in front of us. All I knew was that I wanted to be as far away from it as possible.

I handed the girl back the clipboard, and she beamed. "Thanks so much guys!" she thanked us, before walking away, a slight skip in her step.

I diverted my gaze from her retreating back to Ashton, and sighed. "You wanna go outside?"

"Dude, we have literally 10 minutes of lunch left," he laughed, but shrugged. "Let's go walk the halls a little."

We picked up our trays and our bags, leaving the cafeteria. Something inside me wanted to look back to see if Calum had noticed, but the better part of me knew that he was way too busy.

Ashton bumped his hip into mine, and I looked over at him with a scowl. "What?"

"Nothing," he shrugged, a faint smile on his face. "So, Mikey and Calum, hunh. Who would've thought?"

"Not me," I scoffed, a little sigh punctuating my statement. "It's just so fucking weird."

"You can say that again," Ashton agreed, before beginning to say something along the lines of, "You know, I always thought..." before shaking his head and changing the subject.

"No," I interrupted him, pulling his arm to stop him. "What were you going to say? You always thought what?"

He frowned at me, a completely serious expression painting his face when he asked, "Don't you see it?"

"See what?" I asked, shaking my head. "Ashton, mate, what?"

"No, if you don't see it, I'm not going to say anything, cause that's gonna fuck it all up," he shook his head, his curls flying everywhere. "Nope, nope. Come on, let's get to class."

"You're not even in my class this period!"