Melting His Jet Black Heart [cake au] ✔

9.

Chapter 9

"Hi Luke! Oh, who's this?"

Luke smiled at his mother's happy expression, the same one every time he brought home a new friend. He looked at Calum, hinting at him to introduce himself. "I-I'm Calum. It's, er, nice to meet you..."

Luke's mum pulled him in for a hug, a weird yet familiar feeling for Calum. "It's lovely to meet you too! Come on in, it's freezing today! Did you boys get home okay?" Luke rolled his eyes light-heartedly.

"Yes mum, we got home just fine. Did you get any snacks today?" he asked whilst taking off his shoes, kicking them to the side but immediately lining them up neatly when his mum glared at him.

"Of course, help yourself. I'm cooking dinner though, so don't eat too much!" she called, but the other two were already halfway up the stairs. Luke led Calum to his square-sized bedroom, complete with a bed, desk, wardrobe, bookcase and guitars.

"So this is my room!" he declared, pouncing on his large bed and sighing.

"It's lovely." At the apartment, Calum slept on a mattress and occasionally the sofa, leaving the bed to Mali like a good brother. His eyes traced each posted he'd neatly stuck up; each had a seemingly equal distance of wall space between them, and were placed so that there was some kind of pattern. "Did you put these up yourself?"

Luke nodded. "Yup. But mum made suggestions. Here, come sit down." Tentatively, Calum dropped his bag and sat at the foot of the bed. "How are you finding school at the moment?" He thought a nice, jolly question might lighten the mood and ease him into the deep end. Today he hoped to penetrate Calum properly, and find the cause of his cold personality. Whether he'd achieve that or not, he still had no clue, but he was determined to give it his best shot.

"Not bad. T-thank you for helping me... all those times. Especially that-"

"Don't mention it!" Luke interjected. "I'm truly glad that you're safe. I hate to see people suffering, so I try to alleviate it. Tell me it worked?" Calum smiled stiffly. "You haven't done anything stupid since, right?"

"Depends what you mean by stupid, I guess."

"Cutting."

Calum nibbled at his lip. "I thought you were going to say smoking."

"Well that too! In my opinion they're equally as harmful."

"I haven't cut. I don't usually, anyway. It weakens my muscles."

Luke raised his eyebrows ever so slightly at the fact Calum cared about his muscles. Why would he need to? "But you smoked?"

"Yeah... I guess. Not a lot though."

Luke nodded slowly; on the bright side, at least he hadn't self-mutilated. He knew from the very first time he let a blade touch his skin that it was the wrong thing to do; it solved none of his problems but instead caused more. He continued with questions, getting closer to having enough clues to make an educated guess about his issue the more he asked. Finally, he asked this one, with no idea with the result it would cause: "So, tell me about your family!"

Calum felt an imaginative spear pierce his heart. He obviously wasn't ready to talk about it, but Luke was so unknowing and innocent and he didn't want to taint that, as he'd foolishly done with others in the past.

~flashback~

"Oi, Calum! It's your hot sister!" Derrick hollers. I try my best to block out the sound, failing. "Guess your parents couldn't pick you up; too busy, eh? Oh wait, they're dead! How could I forget? I'm so sorry," he adds sarcastically. I lash out in a rage and punch his stupid, ugly face with one hard fist, sending him to the concrete ground immediately.

"Don't talk about my sister, or my parents, like that when you're with me. Those words don't deserve to enter my ears." I can see Mali rushing over and sigh. I can't go full out here, even though I've been preparing for so long. Now, several teachers are also hurrying over with unimpressed frowns painted pointlessly on their faces. I don't care about them, and I never will. Teachers are cruel creatures, judgemental and unhelpful, with a load of bullshit in their mouths that they like to spit at you from time to time.

"Calum! What are you doing?!" Mali shouts, now having caught up with me. "Come on... apologise and then let's go home."

I glare at her pitiful face. "Don't."

"Please, Cal-"

"I said don't!"

"Mr Hood that is no tone to use with your sister!" Mr Brooke shrieks. He's the imprudent, injudicious headmaster of this ridiculously rich school that's full of nobs and ruthless idiots. He bends down to help Derrick up, who is now bleeding from the mouth. He smirks at me.

"For fuck's sake Derrick you're such a jerk! Stay away from me!" I shout, landing another two punches on his face before pushing him back onto the ground and sitting on his stomach, punching him from each side repeatedly, my eyes blurred as memories of mum and dad come flooding back and as people try to pry me off him, to no avail. With one final punch I let out a hard sob, reality hitting me as tears drip onto his bruised face. "I'm so sorry... I..."

"That's enough! Mr Hood I am afraid I have no other choice but to suspend you until further notice! Miss Hood, I will contact you with further details." He lets out one final sigh. "You had a lot of potential Calum. I know your parent's death was difficult-"

"You don't understand anything!!" I spit back, still sat on Derrick's limp body.

"Calum please, stop and let's go home. Mr Brooke I'm so sorry about him."

She drags me off and apologises again and again, even helping Derrick up. Great. Now I'm suspended. What more? My sister dies too? I wouldn't be surprised. Who'd want to stay at the side of a psycho madman like myself? She'd probably be doing herself a favour by leaving.

~flashback~

"Calum? Earth to Calum? You there?"

***

oooo :)

Hope you enjoyed!

Kimmy xx