5SOS BOYXBOY ONE SHOTS

Malum ~ Goodbye (pt. 2)

I finally decided to do a second part because I feel bad for leaving it off at a cliff hanger like that. Anyways, here's part 2.

Calum stared into Michael's room from the doorway, where he'd been standing for the last five minutes. He gulped and shakily walked in, first going to Michael's favourite part of his small room; his music corner. Calum knew that Michael had spent most of his time in that corner, either scribbling down lyrics and chords while playing them or just putting in headphones and staring at his band posters. Calum carefully pulled the four posters off of the wall, rolling them up neatly like Michael would've. He then picked up the acoustic guitar, playing each string to hear it perfectly tuned. Michael was always so meticulous about his guitars, he tuned all three every single day to make sure they were absolutely perfect.

Calum set it down on the floor and picked up the electric, hearing it in tune just like the acoustic. He set that one down next to the acoustic and picked up the bass guitar. Just like the first two, it was perfectly tuned and sounding good. Calum wound up the earbuds that were connected to the phone that was sitting on the beanbag chair, wrapping them in the figure eight style that Michael liked his earbuds in. Calum saw Michael's notifications were all from himself; seven missed calls and twenty three unanswered texts. He put Michael's phone in his pocket to look through later and the earbuds next to it before putting the guitars in their proper cases to take home later.

He moved onto the cardboard box that was sitting next to Michael's desk, opening it and gasping in surprise. The box was about 20 centimetres tall and 30 centimetres wide, and the whole thing was filled with stacked papers. There were two stacks. The one on the left was a mix of blank lined paper and blank sheet music, and the one on the right was a mix of written in sheet music and filled lined paper of lyrics and chords. Calum took the top sheet of lined paper, reading through the lyrics with tears in his eyes. This was the only song that Michael would play and sing for him, it was called Fly Away. The lyrics were about him wanting to leave his parents' house and going somewhere much better with Calum.

As Calum read through about 6 other songs, he stopped himself and put them all back so he could finish at home and maybe learn to play and sing them. He knew Michael would be embarrassed that Calum had found his music, but also happy that he wanted to know them. Calum closed the box and moved it to the middle of the room by the packed up guitars and rolled up posters, moving on to Michael's desk. He smiled sadly at the the two cups of every colour and style of sharpie anyone could imagine. One cup had all of the blacks, browns, greys, and pinks. Michael told him once that he put the pink ones in the 'dark cup' because it reminded him of Calum; the good inside of the bad. The rest of the colours were in the second cup, sitting right next to the first.

Calum thought back to the memory of Michael telling him that his life was the dark half of the yin yang. Calum was the good inside of the bad, or the white inside of the black. Michael told him that he just hadn't gotten to the bad inside of the good yet, or the black inside of the white. Michael had just said that the better point in his life was ahead of him and the bad part was just his current situation.

"How are you doing?" Joy asked, walking into the room and sitting on Michael's bed. Calum shrugged.

"It's hard," he mumbled, blinking back tears. "Half of that box over there is songs he's written, now I'm onto his art and writing."

"I'll leave you alone, then," Joy responded, wiping her own tears. She absolutely loved Michael, he was so sweet shy, and that was hard to find in someone in the area they lived in. Joy stood up and went back downstairs, helping David and a few police officers go through the stuff in the house to sell; Michael's parents were sent to prison for the rest of their lives, so their house needed to be sold.