BROKEN HOME :: OT4

Tu es jolie pour moi

Chapter Two; Tu es jolie pour moi

Calum picks the boy up from the doorstep and takes him in; no words are exchanged when the brunette takes the black haired boy's shirt  and jeans off. He puts them in the black plastic bag and leads him to the bathroom.

He runs a warm water and scrubs the boy; he knows that it is not the right time for questions and so he doesn't ask. He simply pours the warm water on his body and runs his fingers through his soft hair; god did he misses that.

When they finish, he wraps him with a towel and takes him out of the tub like a child; he dresses him in the Simple Plan t-shirt he recently bought and gives him a new pair of underwear. If you could look at the pale boy at that moment, you would think he is an empty disk and Calum is downloading all the important information on him.

Nevertheless, the brunette takes him in to his bed and puts the covers above them; all this time none of them say a thing. Calum pulls his companion close and shuts his eyes; if it was anybody else in the world who knocked at his door at that time, helping them bathe would have been the last thing on his mind. Hell, they would be lucky if he didn't hit them with the baseball bat he previously held.

But this is not anybody else; this is Michael. He is the Michael he grew up with: he is the Michael he would tell that he was pretty to him when his father screams at the pale boy: he is the Michael who grew up watching his mother cough out blood after her husband threw her across the room; he is his Michael.

Calum goes to sleep quickly but Michael is still wide awake, listening to the boy's breathing and staring at his face. He can still make out the outline of the face he always wished to have in the darkness; he wonders how he got this lucky, to have a friend like this, and he spends the whole night tracing circles on his friends' shoulder blade till he falls asleep.

When the pale boy wakes up, the space next to him is cold, indicating his companion had left long ago and he panics. He quickly gets off the bed and looks down at his shirt, a small smile grows on his face but then the thought of Calum going to the police takes over.

He is quick to run downstairs and he checks the living room- nothing: the kitchen- nothing. His heartbeat starts picking up once again and he feels like he is going to get bad like yesterday; as if God was listening to his prayers, he listen to a toilet flush and he has never been so happy to remember a restroom exists in the house this much in his life.

"Hey sleepy head, I was gonna make you some food but then I remembered I am shit at cooking. There is some cereal in the left hand cupboard and some semi-skimmed milk in the fridge." he explains, sitting down on the sofa and opening up the TV. He regrets his action right when it goes directly to BBC News and the reporter lady is standing outside Michael's house.

"Last night, an anonymous call to 911 was made regarding the danger a 52 year old man was facing around half past nine. Mr Daryl Clifford was found dead due to three gun shots from the back by Officer Hemmings from the Hackney police department."

Michael swallows hard as Calum calmly changes the channel to 4Music and The Offspring start filling the room. Once again, neither one of the boys talk about the night before as Michael passes his companion a bowl of Wetabix. They eat silently, their eyes focused on anything besides each other; the tension is eating Michael alive and he can't help but slip some words out.

"About last ni-" Calum quickly interrupts him with a raised eyebrow. "You don't have to explain anything." The brunette is confident when he speaks, as if he doesn't believe that the boy next to him might have possibly murdered his father.

"I believe you." he finishes and goes straight to the kitchen. Michael is confused at his words and follows him in to the ample room, standing besides the boy who was washing the bowl he just ate with.

"If you want me to le-" Calum interrupts again. He doesn't understand which part of I want to be your friend again and help you like one the green eyed boy doesn't get. Before he gets a chance to respond with an assurance of how much he wants him to be there, there is a knock on his door.

After wiping his hands by some kitchen towel, he heads straight for the door and opens it without hesitation; Michael is standing a little more distant, hiding behind a wall that separated the entrance of the house and the dinning room with his head poking out to see who it is.

"Calum Hood?" asks the man who is in a police uniform, showing Calum his ID and the brunette quickly remembers him as Officer Hemmings from the news he previously watched. He simply nods as an answer but the blonde's eyes have already drifted off to the boy behind him.

"Clifford! What a coincidence to find you here; you just made my life so much easier." he smiles before walking in without any consent, forcing the brunette to land a hand on his chest, banning him from approaching the green eyed boy any further.

"I didn't do it." blurts Michael out and the blue pair of eyes study him from head to his toe. Calum's hands have not moved yet and it makes Michael more nervous than he is- if that is even possible. Hemmings slowly raises his hands and removes Calum's from his chest before approaching the short boy.

"If you are as innocent as you say, you wouldn't mind me taking you back to the station now would you?"