Melting His Jet Black Heart [cake au] ✔

19.

Chapter 19

The day before Calum's trial, Luke headed over to their house to wish him good luck. Apparently Mali wouldn't be able to make it since she had a shift at the office, but Calum still didn't want Luke to go. He didn't want Luke to see him any differently to usual – he'd missed the criminal part of Calum's life and he didn't want that to change.

"You'll be fine, okay? Don't let them confuse you into thinking you actually did it because there's no way on earth that you did. Believe in yourself. And smile a little, will you?" he said, taking Calum's shoulders and shaking them. He found himself gazing at Calum's lips, and the urge to kiss him came back so quickly that he had to turn around to stop himself. Time to go, he thought briskly, slipping into his sneakers and waving goodbye.

Calum had also felt the urge. He'd been thinking about the kiss nearly every day since it happened, and he regretted sending Luke away and generally being so cold towards him, but he couldn't let anyone in too close, not even Luke. Maybe one day, but he wasn't ready yet. He hadn't completely sussed out Luke and that slightly irked him.

Once Luke was home, he dived onto the sofa and sighed deeply, squeezing his eyes shut tight so that he wouldn't vision the kiss again. His mum came downstairs with an empty mug.

"You're back late," she remarked, placing the mug in the sink. "Were you at Calum's again?"

"Kinda."

"Oh Luke," she said, approaching him with a smile. "Is his trial tomorrow? Are you going to go?"

He sat up and pouted. "He doesn't want me to... but I dunno. I feel like I should be there for him, you know?"

"Of course. But if he doesn't want you to be there, maybe there's a reason?"

"Like what?"

"Who knows – perhaps he hasn't told you about something really important that he isn't ready to tell you yet. Teenagers these days are like that. I see it happen with you all the time. Listen... I know you're curious and want to be there for him, but if I were you I'd respect his wishes and stay at home. Besides, don't you have a lot of homework to catch up on? You're also supposed to be handing out CVs and job applications tomorrow."

Oh yeah. Them. His mum had suggested he get a part-time job to earn some cash for college, to which she was really intent on him going. Luke himself wasn't too keen on the idea. He wanted to play music for the rest of his life, not be forced into studying again. School was fine but it wasn't exactly his favourite thing to do. He found learning could be a bit frustrating, especially since Calum had entered his life. Now all he could do was think of Calum rather than schoolwork. If anything, he should've hated Calum rather than loved. But hey. That was life for you.

~

"Michael, can you come over?" Luke whispered down the phone.

On the other side, Michael yawned audibly. "Uhhh when?"

"Erm, now?"

"What the fuck Luke... it's 8am."

"Yeah, and his hearing is in one hour so please get your butt over here and do my make-up. I'm going disguised remember?!" Michael had to think very hard to remember the conversation they'd had the previous day at lunch.

"You're serious about that? Oh for God's sake... okay fine. Give me ten minutes."

"Yes! Hurry up though. And come through the back because mum's not awake yet."

"Yeah yeah whatever. Bye."

"Bye!"

He quickly hung up and began picking clothes. He didn't want anything too fancy or too casual, or anything that stood out too much. That pretty much ruled out everything he owned in that case – most of his tops had inappropriate band logos on them, and his shirts were all crumpled since he never wore them. He eventually decided on a blank white t-shirt that had a small pocket on the left chest, and a pair of black jeans, finishing the look with a thick zip hoodie since it was cold, and some brown fur-lined boots.

Michael arrived looking relatively dishevelled, bed hair still present and even the slightest bit of dried saliva on his chin. Luke sighed and shoved him into the bathroom, washing his face for him with a little bit of face wash. Once they'd finished, they headed silently to Luke's room where Michael got out from his bag some make-up fake hair bits. He smeared a darkish orangey shade to Luke's skin as Luke squirmed in his seat, then got out a black eye pencil, drawing on his eyebrows. Then he shoved the curly brown wig on his head and stuck a fake moustache between his mouth and nose, even going so far as to draw stubbly bits on his chin.

"There! Now pop on this hat and these sunglasses, and you're good to go. Need anything else?"

"Nope. Thank you so much Michael – I'll see you on Monday okay?"

Michael nodded, pursing his lips. "Hope it goes well. You have my luck as well as Ashton and Bryana's; we all really want him to come out innocent. He needs to be there to make you sing properly, after all!" To this, Luke blushed a little, looking at the carpeted floor.

"Thanks."

"Okay," he said, patting Luke's shoulder. "I'll be going now. Have a good time!"

Just as he opened the door, Liz appeared, now with a disapproving sassy expression plastered to her face.

"And what exactly is going on here?" she asked, gesturing with her hands towards Michael and his plastic bag of weird things. "Michael...? Care to explain?"

"Erm... sorry Mrs Hemmings... er...."

"Mum, I'm going to his hearing."

"Seriously?!" she exclaimed. "Not looking like that you're not." She took a moment to absorb everything on Luke's face. The orange foundation, the moustache, tackily drawn eyebrows and stubble... Sighing, she took Michael's bag and looked through it. "Come into my room Luke – I'll do your face properly."

By the end, Luke actually looked like a completely different person; this time not fake. His skin wasn't so orange as Liz had mixed Michael's foundation with her own, and his eyebrows weren't black – more of a dark brown. She adjusted the wig under his hat before dusting off his shirt.

"There we go. Much better. Wouldn't you agree, Michael?"

Michael smiled awkwardly and nodded. "Y-yeah. It looks great. Wait... Mrs Hemmings, you're not mad that Luke's sneaking out to this hearing?"

"Not really. I know that Luke won't cause a havoc, nor will he judge Calum based on what happens today... so it's fine. Okay – we've got twenty minutes left. I'll drive you, Luke. Michael, need dropping off?"

He shook his head, glancing at Luke once again, still slightly scared of how real he looked. "My bike's round the back. Thanks for offering though."

"Anytime. Now, shall we go?"

***

Apologies for the filler chapter! 

Next chapter will be exciting, I promise :)

Kimmy xx