Melting His Jet Black Heart [cake au] ✔

21.

*DOUBLE UPDATE YES

Made a lil collage of the three school characters who appear in this story :)

Chapter 21

"Promise you'll come to school on Monday?"

Calum nodded, waving goodbye to the blonde haired boy in the distance. The winter sun was spilling past the bare trees in the park, puffs of steam rising from their mouths due to the freezing cold weather. Reassured, Luke ran back home with the goofiest smile on his face, you'd have thought he had just won the lottery.

When he arrived, his mum greeted him with a cup of water, asking how it went.

"Really well. Calum's lawyer really gave that prosecutor a good kicking – she's ridiculous anyway. I wonder why the case began in the first place?"

"This world has some people who just aren't right in the head. Don't you have homework to be doing? Hurry up and go upstairs – I'm busy," she said, lightly shoving Luke in the direction of the stairs. With a chuckle, he leapt up the stairs in twos and shut the door behind him, jumping on the bed and getting his phone out.

Calum had texted: thanks for today, Luke. I appreciate you coming out.

How his smile could get any bigger, no one knew – but as he replied, he felt like he was the happiest person alive, and that nothing could take that away from him.

~

Luke had been anticipating Monday.

Calum would finally be back at school – and besides, he wanted to get the band together for a practice since he'd written a new song over the weekend and wanted the others to learn it. It was called 'Disconnected' and featured lyrics that he hoped to sing with Calum at some point. They weren't directly for Calum, but the general theme was something he believed in. Switching off electricity, living life as a human. Perhaps they could be adapted to tell Calum to drop the cigarettes, bin the knives, and keep that bloody beautiful smile on his face.

He sat down in his seat, exchanging morning greetings with the girls around him and even glancing at Calum's seat every few seconds to see whether he'd arrived yet or not. Eventually, he came in with a girl from their class – Jessie. What were they doing together? Although he was pretty sure they weren't that close, he couldn't help the pang of jealousy that dug into his heart, ripping apart the muscle, restraining him from breathing.

"Well, you can come and find me anytime. Hey, how about lunch?"

No, no don't say yes... Luke prayed with his eyes shut that Calum would say no... but he didn't. "Sure. Let's meet in the classroom after Japanese."

Goddammit. He was happy for Calum but seriously had no idea why he'd have lunch with Jessie. She was a lovely girl, there was no doubt, but there was also something about her that creeped Luke out. Something about those red and purple streaks in her dyed black hair, the piercing blue of her eyes and the bright red lipstick she'd have smeared on her lips every day. He'd hardly spoken to her before, and felt rather like a dad to Calum, watching her every move.

Registration happened and they were off to English after assembly. Great – pair work. Luke would finally be able to speak to Calum.

"Hey," Luke greeted, holding up a hand for him to hi-five.

"Morning."

"How was the rest of your weekend?"

"Fine. I stayed at home."

This wasn't going well. Luke took the plunge and asked, "We're having a band practice at lunch, do you wanna come and listen?"

Calum hesitated, remembering his previous arrangement with Jessie to talk about catching up in biology since he hadn't been in lessons for the past few weeks. "Er... I'm busy for the first half but I can come at 12:30." He looked at Luke with hopeful eyes, hoping that would be okay, and Luke forced a stiff smile.

"Sure. We'll have lunch first then."

The teacher came in and announced their activity and they got started, spending the rest of the hour laughing at each other's mistakes, light-heartedly slapping the other's arm, and doodling on one another's sheet. Luke felt at ease; as did Calum; something he hadn't felt since they played cards the other week – and it was then that they both realised how much they loved each other's company.

When the bell rang, Luke reluctantly packed away his things and headed off to French with a group of guys. Jessie snaked her way towards Calum and smiled welcomingly, saying, "You've got Japanese now, right? Me too. Since you haven't been at school much I don't know which lessons I have with you anymore! Let's go."

Fortunately for Calum, Alexander (the curly brown haired guy that looked slightly weedy) was already sat in his seat expecting Calum, lifting a shy hand to gesture for him to sit down. Jessie sighed and sat next to who appeared to be an enemy of hers – Brittany Parsons. Brittany was now eyeing Calum, like a bird of prey.

"Hey, I'm Brittany. You joined a few weeks right?"

Calum was surprised at his sudden popularity and nodded. "Yeah that's right."

She chuckled, perching her tight butt in front of him on his desk. "I haven't seen you around much, but you should keep your hood down. You've got a cute face." She winked and returned to her seat, just as the teacher entered. Calum brushed it off, evidently uninterested, whilst Alexander asked him all sorts of questions in awe at the fact that Brittany had just spoken to and winked at him.

The lesson went by uninterestingly and once the bell rang, Calum left to go straight to the music rooms.

Although he wasn't able to admit to it, he sort of missed Luke. Like really badly.

And he also wanted to kiss him.

He knew Luke liked him, enough to initiate a kiss, but he also knew that he himself was too harsh and cold to be in a relationship. Hell, it was more that he didn't dare to. He didn't deserve to. Either way, he knew that staying still wouldn't help anyone, so he decided to talk to Luke more, and perhaps even do something that would affect their lives forever.

***

Things may or may not get smutty in the next chapter...

Look forward to it!

Kimmy xx