The trip home was surprisingly smooth and safe for Luke, Mikey and Ash.
"There's a surprise waiting for you..." Elijah said as we stepped out of the cab. Everyone was helping me by carrying my bags, so I didn't had to drag all my stuff inside. When Elijah opened the door, I saw a huge banner, hanging from the kitchen to the sofa with "welcome home, Tomboy" written on it. Underneath were standing Cole, Dylan, Katherine and mum with a big smile on their face.
"Tadaa!" Michael screamed with his hands in the air. It was so sweet of them to all be here. I sat in a chair with balloons attached to it while mum made ice coffee for everyone, which was a bit embarrassing because while she was pouring it in glasses, she kept on telling this story about when I first fell on my butt while skating.
"And my little girl was crying but Elijah then helped her get up but fell right down next to her! How cute you were when you were like, 8 years old. Would anyone like some more coffee? Or anything else? Lemonade? Some tea? Or maybe-"
"It's okay mum, we're okay" I stopped her, when Ashton and Michael were trying their best not to die of laughter. When mum went to the kitchen, they were still grinning and coughing while Michael and Luke made an almost perfect imitation of Elijah and I falling on our butts. I punched them, while we were all laughing.
"Hey where's Calum?" I whispered to Michael, since he was Cal's best friend.
"I thought he would be here by now. But honestly, I really don't know why he isn't. Maybe he's at Elijah's, still ill or something? You want me to take a look?" He answered me quietly.
"No thanks, I think I'm gonna go see how he's doing."
"You want me to come?"
"Uhm... I'd rather go alone. But thanks, Michael" I gave him a friendly smile. "Can you tell my mum I'll be back in a sec? It won't take long."
"Okay, no problem" he said with a smile. I stood up, silently headed to the front door and closed it. It felt almost like something wasn't right. Maybe Calum was angry with me? Or maybe it had something to do with the hostages? Or he just wasn't feeling well, and was still sleeping. But still... As fast as I could (which wasn't fast considering half of my ribs were practically broken) I walked to Elijah's house. I opened the backdoor with my key.
"Calum, you here?"
Nobody.
"Cal? Calum are you upstairs? I suddenly heard a guitar playing from a room upstairs. Maybe he didn't hear me. I went up the stairs and recognized the chords of Blink 182's I Miss You, coming out of the room next to Elijah's.
"Calum?" I almost whispered. Why was he here, playing on his guitar while everyone was at the homecoming party? I just stood there at his door, listening at him singing with his voice almost cracking of sadness.
"Hello there,
The angel from my nightmare,
The shadow in the background of the morgue.
The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley.
We can live like Jack and Sally
If we want.
Where you can always find me
And we'll have Halloween on Christmas.
And in the night we'll wish this never ends,
We'll wish this never ends."
He suddenly stopped singing and I heard him scream and that was the moment I came in. He'd just thrown his guitar at the wall, and it was lying there with the neck broken. And there he sat in the corner of the room crying with his hands in his hair and face. He was freaking out and I didn't know why.
"Calum!" I whispered and I walked towards him. I kneeled and saw the bracelets on his left arm drained in blood. He was crying his eyes out and sounded like his longs were turning smaller and smaller until there would be no space for air anymore. Two meters away from him lay this razor blade on the ground.
"God, Calum, breathe, just breathe." I grabbed a shirt that was lying on the floor and pushed it against the cuts on his wrist, while I was trying to get the bracelets of. The tears were still streaming down his cheeks and his eyes were red.
"It's okay, you're going to be okay." He put his forehead on my shoulder and cried quietly. After a while the bleeding stopped and quickly I went to the bathroom to get a wet robe and some bandages. When I was back in his room, he still sat there in his corner with his head against the wall. But at least he stopped panicking. I sat beside him and began to nurse his wrist. These weren't his first cuts. There were other scars on his arm, besides where the blood was streaming. I felt so stupid I hadn't noticed this before. But nobody ever did, I think. Calum suddenly started talking with his hoarse voice.
"It's all this madness."
"It's okay you don't have to tell me." But he still kept talking.
"It's the hostages and I don't know- I don't- Mali-Koa-" He tried to talk, but all I could understand were these random words, and not one sentence. And he went back to crying just when I was ready putting the bandages around his wounds. He was completely lost. We just sat there for minutes and it felt like hours, Calum in my arms, trying to breathe, and I, not knowing what was going on. When he had returned quiet, he started explaining what was wrong.
"Elijah told us there were two people held hostage because of... this situation. He said it was all over the papers. I haven't seen my sister in a year. And there are these people, putting in a newspaper that- that- that she's one of the hostages and that it's my fault she might be dead in a couple of days but I don't know why they would pick her, or what she was even doing there. I don't know a thing about what happened so why do all these people DO know it and I just-"
"She won't be dead. Let those people write what they want, it's not even sure it IS your sister."
"It's all my fault. I shouldn't even be this far from my family. I'm not needed here! I just- she can't"
"She won't Calum"
~~
It was beginning to turn dark and Calum and I went downstairs. I let hot water run from the tap in de kitchen and washed the blood of Calum's bracelets, while he was sitting on the sofa with a blanket and a glas of water. At that time I already warned Michael I was staying at Elijah's for a while and that they didn't had to wait for dinner. But maybe it was a good idea to also warn him about what Calum did.
"You want me to call someone?" I asked him
"I don't know. You're here, right, isn't that enough?"
"I turned around to face him and smiled: "I mean, do you want Ashton or someone to come too? Do you want to tell anyone but me about what happened?"
"I don't think I can-" But Calum stopped talking when we heard someone coming in.
"Calum? Aria! You here?" It was Michael. Calum nodded and I yelled at Michael that we were in the living room.
"Hey, Calpal, what's wrong?" Michael said with a confused look when he saw Calum sitting there. Michael turned to me, and I looked from him to Calum, continued by a long silence. What did I had to say?
"I... Calum just...-"
"I didn't feel very well, and I asked Aria to stay. I threw up again, you know." Calum said, when he hid the bandages under the blankets.
"Ugh, Calum, buddy. But you're feeling better now, right? Michael asked him. Calum nodded and he smiled at me.
"Aria is here to take care of me. She gave me some medicines."
"What would we do without her, huh Aria?" Michael smiled at me. He didn't suspect a thing.
Okay, DUBBLE UPDATE!! sorry I was waiting to write this chapter for too long, so here it is. Hope you still like it and things will fall into place real soon.
