Melting His Jet Black Heart [cake au] ✔

5.

This chapter gets a bit graphic in the middle - you've been warned.

Chapter 5

Luke pressed his hand down on the door handle and pushed, startling Calum. "Hey... I heard you singing," Luke said with a hint of nervousness in his tone. "You're really good."

Calum didn't reply and instead put down the guitar. "Sorry, I didn't realise this was your practice room, I'll go-"

"No, wait," Luke replied in a hurry. "My band isn't coming down to practice this lunchtime. We could... try a duet, if you wanted?"

Is he mad? Calum thought. Why on earth would he want to do a duet with the guy who'd nastily pushed him away the night before? Surely he wasn't mocking Calum? He wouldn't stoop that low would he?

"So...? You wanna?"

There was verity in his voice that put Calum at ease. "Sure."

A smile found its way to Luke's face and he picked up the other guitar, Michael's. "You were playing Piledriver Waltz just now, weren't you? I'm a fan of the Arctic Monkeys. Know any other songs?"

"Not really," Calum mumbled in response. "I kinda know Cornerstone."

"Ahhh I don't know that one... hey do you listen to All Time Low?"

"Kinda."

"I'm really obsessed with this song called 'Time-Bomb' right now. You know it?"

"...Yeah."

"That's awesome! Okay, okay, do you know the chords Bm, G, A, C and B? I can play the extra bits and you can do the main chords," Luke exclaimed excitedly, finally getting somewhere with the dark haired seemingly soul-less boy.

"I don't know Bm."

"Oh well it's just like B, but you put your finger here-" he dictated whilst using his own hands to guide Calum's. When Calum didn't understand, he put his fingers on his and Calum felt a surge of sparkles inside. "See? It's pretty simple right? You've got big hands too, so that's great. Okay, can you play the intro chords?"

Calum did as he was told and played them. Luke couldn't stop himself from grinning and blushing as he'd finally began the mission to thaw Calum. The next mission was to make him smile, but whether that would happen in the near future or in ten years' time, he didn't know just yet. Calum opened his mouth to sing but suddenly felt embarrassed and stopped playing.

"This is stupid. Sorry, I can't."

Luke's smile immediately fell and he stopped playing his part. "What's wrong?"

He didn't reply and instead stood up, putting the guitar back down. "I need to smoke."

"I thought I told you, you can't smoke on school grounds?"

"Fine. Then I'm going to the toilet."

"I don't believe you."

"Come with me then."

Luke reluctantly agreed and put down his guitar too, following Calum out of the room and into the noisy corridor where all sorts of different instruments could be heard. The music block toilets weren't far and Luke began to question why he'd decided to go with Calum to the toilet. The boy wasn't four, surely he could urinate independently?

Then Calum began to fiddle with something in his pocket, his hand doing rotating motions in the front right pocket of his dark jeans. "What are you doing?" Luke asked hopelessly, because as soon as they entered the boy's toilets, Calum ran into a cubicle and locked himself in it, leaving Luke completely clueless. "Wait what?"

Inside the cubicle, Calum took out the blade he'd unscrewed from his pencil sharpener, then carved into his upper left arm with a strong, decisive right hand. The pain was bearable. He could endure this, no problem at all... he could still go deeper; leaving light scratches on his stupid skin wouldn't do anything. The blade suddenly hit a blood vessel and copious amounts of blood flew out in big splurges, splattering his face with perfect aim. That one really hurt and Calum wanted to stop as blood was hitting the cubicle walls and shrieks were pushing against his lips to come out.

Finally, he let one out – it was quiet but audible. Luke began to bang on the cubicle door but it was useless; unless Calum unlocked the door from inside there was no chance he'd be able to get in.

"Calum open the door! Please Calum!"

"Get away from me, I'm not safe!" Calum cried back. Luke winced at the pain in his voice. He wanted to help him so badly.

"I'm not leaving Calum, please just open the door!"

Calum was now sobbing heavily, his breathing uneven. The pencil sharpener blade fell to the floor, just outside the cubicle and Luke picked it up with a shaking hand. It was covered in blood; he had to get the door open so he could help Calum.

Suddenly, he had a lightbulb moment and went into the next cubicle along, standing on the toilet and climbing over to Calum's cubicle. Yes, it worked. He jumped down and landed on the floor next to Calum, who was now practically sitting in blood. His legs weakened at the sight of the blood on his adorable face.

"Holy fuck... c'mon Calum. Let's get you up," Luke said softly whilst holding onto Calum's bloody arm with care. "What have you done? Let me wrap it up for you." He pulled on the toilet roll and began to wrap Calum's arm in tissue, even though the blood stained the tissue within seconds. At least the bleed wasn't as heavy now. "Should we go out now?" he asked.

Calum's eyes were half-closed. The blood loss was unbearable, he could scarcely feel his fingers in the bleeding arm. "N-no..."

"Come on, please," he urged. He held Calum's hands in his, thumbing the bruises and scars on his knuckles, thinking about how he'd gotten them.

"I c-can't."

Luke looked at the white ceiling, completely defeated. With no other options, he hugged the limp boy tightly, not letting go however much he tried to wriggle out of it. "Cal... it's going to be fine. You're going to be fine. I know nothing about your situation and I don't think you're going to tell me, but that's okay; I understand it's obviously a hard thing to talk about. But you need to understand that your skin isn't paper; it shouldn't be cut." At this point, Calum opened his eyes and stared blankly in to the opposite's clear blue ones. He was more confused than Luke; why was he still there helping him? He'd been absolutely awful towards him with no sense of comradery at all. Luke let out a small sigh and gave Calum an empathetic smile. "Now, should we go out? I think we need to clean up this cubicle as well as your face and arms. I might have a spare pair of jeans and a top in my locker, so you can change in to those. Deal?"

Almost inaudibly, Calum replied, "Deal."

***

Sooooo,  how was it?? Hope you guys enjoyed! Don't forget to vote/comment and I'll send ya some love~

Kimmy xx