Melting His Jet Black Heart [cake au] ✔

2.

Chapter 2

For the next few lessons, Calum dotted about, struggling to find the right classrooms. Luke wasn't taking the same subjects as him, so whilst he skipped off to French with his mates, Calum was left to search for the Japanese classroom all by himself. He sighed, having walked down the same corridor three times unintentionally.

"Are you lost?" a guy asked, stopping Calum and looking in his eyes. Seriously, were all students at this school as intrusive as Luke and this guy had been? Just let the poor boy be, for goodness sake. "Where are you supposed to be... ah, Japanese? You're in the wrong block; see, this is maths and humanities; languages is that round building over there, with the roof garden. See it?"

Calum looked outside the window, where it was bright from the gleaming sun, and saw the building the guy was talking about. "Yeah. Thanks."

"I'm Michael by the way. Are you new here?" he asked, messing about with his fluffy blonde hair, which recently had seen the addition of black streaks. He'd told Luke that it looked more 'punk rock', and that it 'fitted with the band's image'. Bullshit, had been Luke's reply.

"Yeah. It's Calum."

"Okay mate, see you around then! If you need me, I'm in 11RSP, that's a Spanish classroom. You'll see it on your way. Gotta go now; bye!"

He whizzed off into the distance, dropping a ripped piece of paper that seemed to be in his school planner on the way. Calum bent down, still wearing his thick hoodie, and picked it up. Band rehearsal at lunch. Be there! – L.H.

L.H.? Luke Hemmings?

He didn't think about it another second, as he was now occupied with making his way over to the languages block. On the way he wondered; why was that Michael guy in such a rush? Was he late too? Come to think of it, Calum had noticed a red lipstick stain on his tie... Whatever. That wasn't important.

After a good ten minutes of further searching, he began to push the door, when he realised the handle needed to be turned; and smashed straight into it. For fuck's sake, he thought, I really don't need this right now! Calum felt no pain as his whole body fell to the ground – in fact, the humiliation probably hurt more. The door opened straight away, and a hoard of students hurried over to see what was going on.

"And who would you be, young man?" the fierce looking teacher asked. His arms were crossed. His eyebrows were furrowed. Calum was not off to a good start with his Japanese teacher.

"Calum Hood. Sorry, I got lost."

"Well, that's no tone for apologising. Get inside, now. You're already half an hour late. I'm giving you a detention."

The class gasped and began whispering; nothing Calum wasn't used to already. At least at Bridgton, everyone was straight with him, and didn't whisper behind his back. "You can sit next to Alexander."

Alexander kept staring at Calum, almost as if he really wanted to talk to him, but was too scared to. He was a weedy kinda guy, with short curly brown locks and glasses. Freckles decorated his cheeks; speckles of light brown dotted about on his pale yet reddish skin.

The rest of the lesson was awful; why did Calum even think that he could do Japanese? They'd already learnt half the course, and all Calum knew was 'sayonara' and the numbers up to three. Ichi, san, ni – wait, was that even right? He gave up and began itching for the cigarettes in his jeans pocket. They were sitting there, lined up against each other, with a lighter in the other pocket, waiting to be used, to be inhaled, to be exhaled. The urge was killing him. His eyes stared at the clock, hoping the second hand would go faster – there were only two minutes left, but boy did they go slowly. The teacher finished up the lesson, handing out homework sheets and logging off of the computer.

The bell finally went, and the whole class rushed out in a surge, obviously ready for lunchtime. Speaking of lunchtime... what was Calum gonna do? Find Luke? Eat alone? Skip?

In the end, he decided to find a quiet spot and smoke for a bit. He knew of his addiction, but there was something about the smoke entering his lungs that comforted him. The way the exhaled smoke formed swirls and shapes in the air before dissipating gave him more happiness than any human would ever be able to, after that incident years ago. He found a hidden area behind one of the blocks, and took out a cigarette rolled up in thin white paper, lighting it carefully in a way that meant the wind couldn't inhibit him. In the smoke went.

That was much better. All his worries and nervousness seeped out from the pores on his skin; he almost felt like he was floating. With his back against the wall and a leg propped up, he was finally at rest. Sod English, sod Japanese, sod school in general. By himself, he could do anything he wanted.

Twenty minutes passed. His stomach grumbled pessimistically at him. He didn't care. He shut his eyes, took out his fourth cigarette, but before he could go on, a hand grabbed his forearm.

"No smoking on school grounds, Calum. Didn't you read the student handbook?"

He knew that voice. He'd only heard it a few times, but he was sure that the voice was of Luke Hemmings. His eyes opened, and he saw that Luke was just inches away from his face. "I needed it."

"I don't care," he replied sassily, taking the cigarette from Calum and even going so far as to dig into his pocket to take out the pack and lighter. "I'll look after these until the end of the day. Now, have you eaten yet?" Calum shook his head, somewhat peeved. "Come on, let's get you something before the canteen closes. Then I want you to come somewhere with me."

Luke was still grabbing onto Calum's forearm, giving Calum a soothing kind of chill that spread down his back and through his limbs. He hadn't felt anything like that, not for a long time. Any form of human contact meant nothing to him after the events that occurred 7 years ago, it was just skin against skin, clothes against clothes. Nothing special.

"You wanna answer my question from earlier? The one about playing an instrument?" Luke asked tentatively. He turned to look at the hooded figure behind him, who was now coughing. His eyebrows had been furrowed since he first laid eyes on him, leaving Luke to wonder whether it was just part of his natural expression to frown or if it was just the fact that he had to go around with Luke all day. He hoped it wasn't the latter. Something about Calum fascinated him.

"I already did. I don't play an instrument."

"No, earlier you said 'not really' and that leaves me really curious."

"Just drop it, would you?"

Those five words pierced Luke and prevented him from saying any more.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just... don't worry," Calum said, attempting to retrieve himself. It never usually worked.

Too late. "It's fine." Even though Luke didn't want to, he let go of Calum's arm and they stopped running, slowing down to a moderately paced amble. Luke was so confused, he had no idea how he was going to figure Calum out. It seemed impossible at this rate, if he couldn't even get an answer from him. "Are you even hungry?" he asked tiredly.

"No."

Pursing his lips, Luke turned away and looked down. "Okay... well whatever. Don't blame me if you get hungry during the day."

With that, he continued to walk down the field, back to the classrooms. Calum wanted to speak up so badly, but he couldn't. Something inside was preventing him, paralysing his muscles to the point where walking became a difficulty. "W-wait..." he whispered, before coughing once more. The aftertaste of cigarettes wasn't something he was fond of.

***

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Kimmy xx