Beating scars, Relapse hearts [Malum af]

Chapter 9: I like lots of people, Cal

Greetings and salutations. In this chapter we get to hear more about the famous dickhead from chapter 1!
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Michael found himself blindly stumbling towards Calum's house a week later, half empty bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand. "Cally!" Michael shouted and then cringed at the tone of his own voice. "Cally!" He shouted again, causing a few of the nearby dogs to start barking and for him to almost fall over at the shock of it.
"Shut the fuck up, Michael," He heard Calum whisper down at him. He titled his head upwards and could make out the dark silhouette of a head popping out of Calum's window. It slammed shut and Michael frowned. He sat on the floor with his back propped against the brick wall and took a large swig from his bottle, only to have it ripped out of his grasp.
"Hey!" He shouted, grabbing the ankle of the culprit and shaking it.
"Michael, please speak quietly," Calum huffed, sitting on the uncomfortable ground next to him.
"Calum," Michael smiled, picking up Calum's arm and draping it around himself so that he could snuggle into Calum's torso.
"What's the problem?" Calum huffed, wiping the sleep that had formed in his eyes from the little time he'd had to actually be asleep.

When Michael didn't answer Calum thought he had fell asleep, so he nudged their legs together in order to get some sort of response "I did something bad," Michael whispered. His voice was so small now and so scared.
Calum wrapped his other arm around Michael and whispered "Do you want to tell me about it?"
Michael shook his head but spoke up anyway "You have to promise not to get mad."
"I never get mad."
"Promise?"
"I promise." Calum said, taking one of his hands and moving it up to Michael's hair so that he could gently pull on a few strands.
"Do you like Luke?" Michael whispered. It was so cold outside that when he spoke he could see his words in the air after he'd said them.
"Of course I like Luke," Calum shrugged.
"You know what I mean."

Calum thought hard for a minute before shaking his head and saying "Not like that, no."
"Good," Michael said, sighing in relief.
"Do you like Luke?" Calum asked, pushing the bottle of whisky away from Michael's reach once he'd noticed he was reaching out for it. Michael shook his head. "Do you like anyone?" Calum knew he was pushing the boundaries, but he'd decided to take advantage of Michael's drunken state.
"I like lots of people, Cal," Michael mumbled into Calum's shirt.
"That's not an answer."
Michael shrugged "I don't wanna answer it," He said, and sat up straight. He pulled his way out of Calum's grasp and picked up his bottle before Calum could object and drank as much as he could before Calum grabbed it again. Some of it dribbled out of Michael's mouth, down his chin and onto his shirt, but he didn't seem to care. He just wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and smiled up at Calum.

"It's almost 4am, Mike," Calum said, trying to put his arm around Michael's shoulders but having it shoved away in response.
"I had a dream," Michael said, looking down at his hands.
"A bad one?"
"A really bad one."
"What happened?" Michael put his hand on the top of Calum's knees and pushed them so he'd get the hint and lie them flat on the ground, which allowed Michael to put his head on Calum's lap.
"I saw him and he had a boy with him and he was hugging him and-"
"Michael," Calum said, dragging his knuckles over Michael's scalp "You're going to have to slow down. Who's he?"
"Mr Richards," Michael mumbled.
"Who's Mr Richards?"
"He was my teacher," Calum could hear Michael gulp at the name and he wondered why his voice started shaking. "He-he said I was his favourite. I was his boy, I was his Mikey," Calum's heart stopped "But he was with this other boy and he didn't even look at me."
"Michael," Calum said, gripping onto the top of Michael's bicep "What are you trying to tell me?"
"I miss him, Cal," Michael said, his voice cracked as he kept speaking "I just want to go back to when I was little, to when he loved me."

Calum bought his knees up to his chest so that Michael was forced to sit up. He took both the boys cheeks in his hands so that they were staring into each others eyes "Michael," Calum said, his tone was harsh but Michael could see tears gathering in Calum's eyes, "This is really important, okay?" He asked and Michael nodded his head, "What did Mr Richards do to you?"
"I'm not allowed to tell," Michael said, gripping onto Calum's hands and trying to prise them off of his head.
"I'm your best friend, Michael. You can tell me." Michael stopped squirming and looked forward at Calum. His hands were just above the boys elbows now, Calum's grip on his face was too tight.
"I was his Mikey," Michael said, "I did whatever he wanted." He watched a couple of stray tears fall from Calum's eye sockets, but he was confused. Why was Calum upset? Did he do something wrong?
"You told me you were six," Calum whispered. Michael nodded his head.
"I was his favourite."
"He raped you?" Calum asked and Michael frowned.
"No he didn't."
"Then what did he do?"
"He wanted me to taste it," Calum couldn't take it anymore. He let go of Michael's face and turned to the side as he spilled his guts. "Cal?" Michael's tone of voice screamed concern as he ran his hand up and down Calum's back. "Are you okay?"

As soon as Calum had finished retching he pulled Michael into his lap and refused to let go "Cal?" Michael whispered, but Calum only hugged him tighter.
"You're okay," was all that Michael could hear Calum repeating. His nose was poking at the side of Michael's neck and he could feel Calum's lips forming the words as he spoke them. He kept saying it over and over until it no longer sounded like words and instead was a jumble of letters making an unrecognisable sound.

"I'm sorry," Michael said, wrapping his arms around Calum's neck.
"Don't say that, Mike. Please don't say that."
"I shouldn't have said."
"You haven't told anyone before, have you?" Calum asked, moving his head so that he could watch Michael shake his. "I'm sorry this happened to you."

Michael smiled at Calum as he placed his hands on the boys cheeks. He looked confused, Michael probably looked confused too. "Why are you so nice to me?" Michael muttered, but before he let Calum have a chance to respond, he felt himself leaning forward and gently pressing their lips together. Calum didn't move his hands from Michael's waist and when Michael started moving his lips against Calum's he didn't reciprocate. Michael didn't expect him to. He knew that in the morning he could blame his actions on the alcohol, so he moved his head back to it's original place and swiped his thumb against Calum's cheek.

He wrapped his arms back around Calum's neck when he felt the boy take a hand off his waist. He didn't want to let go of him. What he didn't expect was for Calum to trace Michael's plump lips with two of his fingers. Michael parted his lips when he thought Calum was going to pull away, but instead he pressed his fingers into Michael's mouth so that he could suck on them. Calum was looking at Michael's mouth and Michael was looking at Calum's eyes. "You're my best friend," Calum said, taking his fingers out of Michael's mouth and looking up at him "How could I not be nice to you?"

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So here we have some Malum and some sadness. It's a little too early on for full on Malum snog fests at the mo - but Ashton will be in the next chappie!! You're going to love it when he's introduced.