MAZES | cake ✓ | warning:shitty!

f o u r

ok i promise i'll throw in some cake at some point but i don't wanna rush this story hhng
anyway enjoy this all-over-the-place chapter
~gia :)

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"He what?"

That was Michael. A few days after Luke's outburst with Calum, they hardly even spoke, even if they shared the same abode. It hurt Calum more than it should've and he didn't like this vulnerable feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"He just flipped his shit on me. Acted like a different person one day and the next."

Michael did not seem surprised and this concerned Calum, making him lean back against the tree trunk he stood in front of. Michael was hacking away at an old tree stump with a hatchet along with another boy Calum didn't know, named Vincent.

"M'not surprised." The red-haired boy chuckled throatily. "He never opens up to anyone. Ever. The fact that he told you about ol' Harry is more than he's told anyone else. 'Cept me, of course."

"Why did he get so pissy?" Calum sighed dejectedly, mumbling a bit afterwards. Michael straightened up and rested his hatchet over his shoulder, wiping sweat from his forehead with his wrist.

"He gets insecure about opening up to people. I guess he regretted telling you so he's going to shut you out. Sorry man, nice try, better luck next time." He laughed lightheartedly and went back to hacking at the tree stump roots. Vincent glanced upwards and sighed.

Vinny was a tall and broad-shouldered brunette boy with lighter almond streaks in the front. He had bright green eyes and was only a bit shorter than Michael, with rarer freckles on hi cheeks. Nothing like Luke though.

"I don't know Luke too well, but I do know this. He never trusted anybody after Harry. Nobody knows for sure what went on between them because it's as good as ancient history, there's actually a lot of guesses." The boy paused to set his hatchet down in the soil and flipping his sweaty hair off his forehead, furrowing his eyebrows as he went on.

"People think they were long-long brothers, some think that they were just platonic friends. Others... They think they had an intimate and unbreakable love for each other. But then again, I've only been here three months. He's been here three years." Vinny glanced at Michael, who nodded.

"I believe they were just good friends." Vinny shrugged and Michael looked up, nodding still. Calum straightened up and was about to intervene when Michael spoke.

"Luke," He cleared his throat. "Luke's really, really bipolar. One day he'll treat you like royalty and the next you'll be just another glader to him, under his orders. Believe me, we've all felt that." In his last sentence, he gestured a circle with his right arm with the hatchet dangling from his hand, licking his lips and looking at Calum.

So Calum wasn't crazy. Luke did act insanely bipolar. But why? All Calum wanted to do was help him, to be there for him, but Luke shoved him away the minute he realized that he was even the slightest bit vulnerable. Calum wasn't the type to take that power -power over someone's emotions- for granted, as he would never abuse the ability either. But what kept coming back to his thoughts, was Harry. Calum was curious, too curious for his own good; he knew that the other gladers who knew Harry at the time were too fiercely loyal to Luke to reveal his past.
So he'd just get it out of Luke himself.

"Go make yourself useful and go to The a Infirmary." Vinny suddenly spoke up, scratching the back of his neck as he looked at Calum with bright green eyes. Michael worked away at the stump until in that moment, it finally uprooted. The boy dropped his hatchet in the soil and whooped and howled in success, kicking brutally at the stump to finish it off.