Hold On To Me ☾cake au

18

A month went by and Luke hadn't spoken to Calum once. Every time they tried, Luke would spot someone his dad knew and have to walk away again. For about a week, the two resulted in climbing in each other's windows at three am but Luke's dad found out about that too when Luke and Calum made the mistake of falling asleep in Luke's bedroom one night and being found in the morning.

Calum walked through the hallway of the school, dragging his feet. He lost control last night and took three of every pill he could find in his bedroom from the last time he wasn't speaking to Luke. His brain was still dizzy and he felt hungover but in an agonizingly more intense way. Every part of his body from his limbs to the tips of his fingers felt overworked, but at the same time, they felt like they were being used for the first time after being bedridden for ten years.

Calum plopped down in the seat of his still empty physics class and let out a groan as he removed his notebook from his bag and began copying the notes on the board. The class started to fill up now and Calum glanced up to see Luke in his usual seat with the hood of his jacket pulled over his head and his head down, resting on his folded arms on the desk.

The bell rang and Mr. Jacobs leaned on the edge of his desk, addressing the class. "Good morning everyone. I'll give you fifteen minutes to review the notes on the board and then I'll pass out your tests."

The class harmonically groaned and sighed but did as told. Calum was always up to date on his school work and was prepared for the test, unlike at least half of the class. Luke had pretty much been putting no care into anything he did anymore. He only did what he needed to do, school wise, to not fail but if it were up to him, he would give up completely and drop out.

After the fifteen minutes were up, Coach Jacobs passed out an answer sheet and a relatively short test of only twelve multiple choice questions. Luke sighed in frustration when he saw the test. He hated short tests because the more questions there were on a test, the better the chance he had of getting a decent grade.

Luke dropped the hood from over his head and scribbled his name down on the sheet of paper. Coach Jacobs took one last look around the class until his eyes fell on Luke. "Luke, are you feeling alright? You look like you haven't slept in months," the man asked curiously.

"I'm fine. But you're right, I'm just a little tired."

"A little?" Coach Jacobs questioned rhetorically, "Why don't you go to the nurse and rest for the remainder of class? You can take the test tomorrow."

Luke internally sighed of relief and thanked Coach Jacobs as he exited the classroom and made his way down to the nurse's office. The nurse, who's name Luke didn't catch, game him a short form to fill out and allowed him to have a small room with a pullout seat to himself.

Luke laid on his back in the quiet room. He was exhausted out of his mind. He wanted so desperately to fall asleep but every time he closed his eyes, he would see either his father or Calum screaming at him to do different things and it was driving him crazy.

Luke reached in his pocket and took out his phone and headphones and pressed shuffle on his long playlist of music. The music echoing from the headphones in his ears to his brain was sometimes the only thing that could distract him long enough to doze off. Soon enough, he did.

•••

The day came to an end rather quickly and the second to last class of the day was already practically over. The class being gym, the other of the only two classes Luke and Calum had together. If there was anything Luke hated as much as the obvious core classes, it was showering in the locker room. He knew probably no one could care less about seeing Luke naked but there would always be that one creep who stared everyone down or the jock who was feeling especially annoying that day and would repeatedly slap someone's bare ass with a towel.

Calum didn't care much about being naked or showering in front of people since he'd done it a million times after football games and practices. Luke and Calum had gym together freshman year too and it was usually Calum's job to hold a towel up while Luke changed. Luke was missing that at the moment as he stood as close to the shower wall as possible, rinsing the shampoo out of his hair at an awkward angle. There was hardly anyone in the locker room since Luke would always wait until the majority of the class was finished and gone before taking a shower himself.

Shutting off the water, Luke wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped from out of the wet tile area to a wall of mirrors just beside it. He used a smaller towel to dry his hair but got distracted when he saw Calum in clear view behind him from across the room in the foggy reflection of the mirror, dressed and stuffing things into a locker.

Luke watched Calum through the reflection as Calum stood up straight, slinging his book bag over his shoulder. Calum suddenly stopped when he made eye contact with Luke in the reflection of the mirror but neither of the two boys looked away. Luke's eyes bored into Calum's even through the reflection and the younger boy didn't know where the rush of confidence came from that made him slowly loosen his grip on the towel around his waist until it dropped to the floor, leaving his entire naked backside clearly exposed to Calum.

Luke saw as Calum's vision trailed all up and down his body and the tan boy visibly gulped as he eventually looked back up at Luke's eyes. Calum dropped his head slightly and blinked a few times before leaving the locker room. Luke sighed and picked up the towel from the floor, throwing it in a pile of other dirty towels, and proceeded to get dressed in his normal clothes. 

Both boys hated the ride home, because, even though the miserable day was ending, it meant another one would be beginning soon.