From my point of view I can't see Calum's face, but I can hear him softly greet Luke. At this moment I'm very happy that Luke is so broad. That was I can easily stay behind him without Calum seeing that I'm here too. I grip tightly onto Luke's sweater. Apparently I tickle him a little, but he quickly recovers and says, "hey buddy, how are you?" Up to the point I'm convinced that Calum still can't see me.
I've thought that too soon.
"Who's standing behind you?" Calum asks and now I have no other choice than step out from behind Luke.
"What are you doing here?" he asks in surprise and his eyes widen. I feel myself shaking and shrug, since I have no intelligent response ready.
"I... I..." I start to say, but my voice doesn't cooperate. "Do you want me to explain?" Luke offers and I nod, at which he starts to explain.
"So as you asked Michael to tell her the news he did, and I, I mean we, had no idea she was on the same plane as us, until she wanted to check if we were really on that same plane, but then there was kind of an argument with the staff and Ashton heard her voice. He noticed it was Sara and now she's staying with me. Don't get mad at her, please, I think it's really sweet of her that she's willing to come to the other side of the world to be here for you."
Calum frowns and then says, "What makes you think I'm mad at her? Sara, can we talk? If you manage to speak, of course. I myself are lost for words too right now."
I nod, feeling an awkward sense between the two of us. Calum then looks at Luke, who gets the hint and leaves the room. This is the first time I can actually take a look at him, and I'm feeling nauseous once I see how devastated he looks. His hair is messy, his eyes are all puffy and he's looking tired. Very, very tired. No wonder, he just had a very long flight, and probably immediately rushed over here. I don't even know if he slept or even ate.
"Hey." I say, giving him a hug which he returns. "How are you?" Calum asks and I return that question without answering it. I just want to know how he is doing. "Feeling like shit." he says and ruffles his hair. I nod and ask, "So, how are your parents doing?"
"Well, considering they don't move by themselves and have absolutely no response to anything and are in a coma, I don't think they're fine." he responds sarcastically and I nod. "I'm sorry to hear that. Hey, don't cry." I say as I see that tears are trickling down his face.
"How can I not cry?" he says in a loud voice, "I'm tired, I haven't eaten in the past, what, thirty-six hours, my parents may not even wake up ever and now I have to worry about you too! If I knew you'd do this I would never told you!"
"Please don't shout," I say in a low voice, "And you don't have to worry about me. It was my own stupid idea and if you want me to leave I'll do just that. I just wanted to be there for you."
Calum shrugs and looks at me with a look I've never seen before. "I want you to leave." he says, now lowering his voice.
"Are you sure?" I ask, "I mean, I flew all the way to Australia for you. Doesn't that mean something to you?" "Of course it does. But I just want to be alone for now. I don't like you being here. It feels like you feel obligated to be here and I don't like that."
"Calum, listen to me. I flew to the other side of the world to be here for you. Of course I don't feel obligated to be here. I wanted this myself. All I'm saying is that if you want me to leave, I'll do just that. But think about it."
"I've thought about it," Calum says, "But I want you to leave."
Now I'm having trouble holding in my tears and I walk out after giving him a little squeeze on his arm. Luke stands there waiting for me and raises an eyebrow as a sign he wants to know how the conversation went. I take a deep breath and say, "Can we go home? I need to pack my stuff. Do you know when the next plane leaves?"
"You're kidding, right," Luke says and his tone of voice changes, "Did Calum ask you to leave?"
I have to nod at that question and Luke groans. He slams the door of the room Calum's in open and storms in. He doesn't even bother to close the door, he just yanks Calum up on his feet. Calum's eyes widen and he gasps as Luke grabs the collar of his sweater. "Luke, you're choking him." I say and he responds by saying, "I don't care."
At this point I'm almost getting scared of Luke. I'd never seen him this angry and I didn't even know it was possible.
Luke grunts and steps closer to Calum, who's shaking by now. I'm sure he has experienced this before, and maybe it was that time Luke yelled at him for sleeping with someone that wasn't me.
"I don't fucking care if you feel like shit right now, because I know that. But you can't expect a girl who flew to the other fucking side of the world with you to leave because you're feeling like shit. I know you want to be alone right now and I respect that, but you just said two days ago that you wanted a second chance, and I'm not letting you screw that up. Understood? She's staying, and if you don't want to see her again I can guarantee that she'll find somebody else. Do you want that?"
Calum shakes his head and squeakes, "No, I don't want that. I'm sorry!"
"Tell her that." Luke grunts and makes Calum look at me. "I'm sorry. I don't want you to leave." he says and I nod.
"Okay Sara, let's go. See you tomorrow Cal." Luke says and I wave at Calum before walking out of the room with his best friend.
