Punchbag - Calum Hood (5sos) Alternate Universe [ON HOLD]

25: calum

25: the morning after - room 94

©alum

I woke up with Cassidy's arms wrapped around my torso at around 9am. I shook her a little, and she grumbled, swatting me away groggily.

"It's time to get up," I whispered, shaking her a little. Her eyes shot open and, with a large bout of new found energy, she sprung out of bed and began stuffing her feet into her trainers.

"I slept here?" she asked frantically, desperately trying to knot her laces at a fairly quick pace.

I nodded and threw her phone over on the bed next to her. She scrabbled for it and began jabbing the keys forcefully. The expression on her face became more drastic and she groaned outwardly. "Ten missed calls, Cal, ten!" She put her phone to her ear and it only took a few seconds for someone to answer. "Yes? I'm fine, no, I stayed with Calum. No! No, fucking hell, no, I promise. I'll be home in twenty, tops. Will he really be that mad? Ugh, shit. Ok. Ok. Yes! You're a lifesaver, Rach. Thanks, I owe you, bye." She ended the call, groaned, and threw herself backwards onto the bed.

"What?"

"Rachel's going to say I was with her at a friends house, she's got me covered," Cassidy replied, sounding relieved. "I've got to go. If I'm back early I might not be grounded. See you, Cal," she placed a sweet kiss on my cheek then thundered down the stairs, and was out of the door in a flash.

I lay back down on my bed again for a while, contemplating what to do with myself today. Mum and Rick most likely wouldn't be home until dinnertime, so that gave me enough time to tidy the house and, if I was lucky, go out for a while. I desperately needed to speak to Luke, (alone, as if that was even remotely possible these days, what with him being figuratively joined to michael 24/7) so I grabbed my phone and dialed his home number, seeing as he never answers his mobile. Liz answered, her loud, happy voice seeping out of the receiver and filling my not-quite-awake head.

"Hello, Hemmings household, Liz spea- Oh, sorry Calum, I keep forgetting we have caller I.D," Liz babbled down the line to me. "Do you want Luke?"

I nodded, before realizing she couldn't actually see what I was doing. I cleared my throat awkwardly and replied with a meek yes . There was some muffled voices for a few moments, then Luke's tones began to drone down the line.

"Calum?" he sounded cautious.

"What's up?"

"I don't know, you rang me?" he said, and although it was supposed to be a statement it came out as an uncertain question. "What is it? Are. You okay?"

"Meet me at the ice cream parlor in an hour," I said, forcefully.

"Oh, um," Luke sounded flustered, as though he was trying to figure out an excuse not to see me. However, Liz must've been hanging onto my every word somehow, because I heard a faint 'say okay!' and a low sigh from Luke before an 'okay, see you there,' again, from Luke, and the familiar dead tone signaling that he'd put the phone down.

I spent the next half hour tidying up after myself, waiting a few cartoons and listening to music. I threw on an old football shirt and some jeans, skidding out of the door with five minutes to spare until the bus I was planning to catch was due to pull up at the stop. I hopped on it, showed my pass, and took a seat at the back of the bus. I popped my headphones in and switched on my music. A few stops down, a familiar head of colored hair sat down in front of me and I took out a bud and tapped the boy it belonged to.

"Michael!"

He jumped in surprise, turned round and met my gaze with a worried glance. His face relaxed when he saw it was me, and he slumped out of his seat and threw himself down in a slightly hunched heap beside me.

"Calum."

We sat in an uncomfortable silence for a minute or so, before I decided to make some polite conversation. "You hate the bus!" I exclaimed.

"Can't afford to be picky when you've got no car, no money," he replied, in monotone. "So, where're you off to?"

"I'm going to meet Luke, what about you?"

At the mention of Luke's name the tips of Michael's ears turned a little pinker and he turned away from me to look out of the window. He cleared his throat shakily. "Going to pick up some stuff from Ashton's."

"Oh," I said, scratching my head. "So, you're not living there anymore?"

"No," he said quickly. "I'm living in the old school's caretaker's basement, at this precise moment in time," he lip curled a little and there was a hint of dryness, or maybe humor, in his voice. "He doesn't charge much rent, as I'm sure you can imagine."

"Why don't you go and live with Luke or something? Liz would definitely help you out if she knew you didn't have anywhere to go," I felt it was best if I didn't try and claw out the details as to why he moved out of Ashton's. I could always ask Luke. "She's a giver, Liz is."

Michael turned to face me, a puzzled expression masking his face. He studied me for a few seconds, and then a realization seemed to hit him. "Oh, you don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" I was genuinely confused.

"Me and Luke. We broke up."

"Oh," I said awkwardly.

"Yeah," he replied, with no particular emotion in his voice.

The bus stopped outside Ashton's flat and Michael got off the bus, which I was immensely thankful for. The last time I saw Michael wasn't even that long ago, but it felt like years. Finally, the bus pulled up outside Main Street, where the ice cream parlor was, and I trudged off the bus and into the ice cream parlor. Luke was sitting in a booth near the window, staring into space.

I went over to him and sat down opposite. "Sorry I'm late."

"You're not late," was his reply. We sat in silence, an do could already tell this meeting was going to be awkward. After a while, a waitress came over to us and took our orders. She went away and I realized it was up to me, yet again, to start the conversation off.

"I saw Michael on the bus," I began casually, pretending to eye the menus but secretly staying Luke's body language from the corner of my eye.

"Let's not talk about Michael," Luke replied quietly "I've had it up to here with Michael."

"Sure," I said, tugging on my shirt. "The thing is, though, I'm worried about him. He's living in a caretaker's basement? I know he's lived in basements before, but don't you think your mum could-"

"I said leave it, Calum," he snapped.

So I left it.

-

Soooo I'm tired af BC I've had a maths exam today and have another one on Monday and a science on Tuesday and English and French and Spanish so that's why I haven't been updating so soRRY

But imma try

Ly xox