Strike (Cake) [Completed] (#Wattys2017)

16: Therapy

                 

Luke awoke at 5:20 the next morning to find Calum gone from the bed next to him. He had a fleeting moment of insecurity, thinking Calum had decided everything was a mistake and had left in the middle of the night. But all of Calum's stuff was still over in the corner. And he could hear Calum moving around in the kitchen. He sighed in relief and sank back into the bed.

            He faintly remembered having woken up at eleven or midnight to the feel of Calum's hand coming to rest lightly on his back. He'd turned his head and pushed up off his stomach a little and whispered Calum's name. Calum hadn't woken up, but he'd shifted again, and the sheets had drawn down away from his face and he had turned his head just so that the moonlight from the window had fallen soft across his cheek, lighting half his face and sharpening has jawline even further. Luke remembered staring at him until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

            He wondered if Calum had woken up while he was still sleeping. Well, he obviously had, since he wasn't here now.

            Luke rubbed his eyes and sat up and leaned against the headboard, tapping his fingers together. Calum's phone buzzed on the pillow next to him. Luke was immediately curious. But he knew he shouldn't look. It could be Calum's mom or his football coach for all he knew. But...at 5:22 in the morning? Probably not. Someone really close to Calum then. Maybe that one friend from—

            Nope. It didn't matter because he wasn't going to look.

            His eyes had started to drift over when Calum came to the doorway holding two mugs, saying, "Good. You're awake."

            Luke flicked his eyes over to him. "Oh. Uh...yes."

            Calum shook his head, smiling at Luke's nearly ever-present awkwardness that seemed to restart every day. "I'm impressed you slept that long. It's been over twelve hours."

            "I woke up once."

            "Yeah? What did you do?"

            I watched you sleep. He cleared his throat. "I just...laid here."

            "All right. Well, I've been up for a bit. I made coffee." He held up the mugs.

            "Thank goodness. And thank you."

            "Sure." Calum handed Luke his mug. "I drink mine black but I found vanilla creamer in the fridge so I figured that's what you liked. I hope I didn't put too much."

            Luke looked down into his mug. It looked exactly like what he made almost every morning. "Oh. No this is...thanks."

            "Mhm." Calum climbed up onto the bed and sat Indian style facing Luke and sipped his coffee.

            "I think you got a text," Luke told him.

            "Oh." He picked up his phone and swiped open the text from Peter: How's the weekend going? with one of those suggestive half-smiling side-eyeing emojis. Calum laughed softly and answered Go back to sleep.

            "Sorry," he said. "That was just my friend."

            Luke felt some dumb surge of accomplishment at guessing correctly and told himself to stop. "Oh. It's early."

            "Yeah, well." He shrugged and said nonchalantly, "He was wondering how things are going."

            Luke flushed. "Oh...well..."