Ray ||l.h.||

1.4

(A/N: before i start, i'm writing this at my nan's and using her wifi so shout out to nan)

(A/N: sike i'm back home now lol 5/18/16)

It'd been four days since Ray found out that her appointment is in a week, meaning it's three days away, meaning Ray doesn't know what to do with herself.

If you ask, she definitely did not flip her dusty braille calendar to this month, just so she could mark the date. Ray hadn't touched the thing since her school guidance counselor gave it to her, but she couldn't resist. She couldn't miss out on actually using one, considering she won't need it when—if, she has to remind herself, if—she gets her sight back.

"Michael, will you stop it?" Calum laughs as he waves his controller at the TV screen. They're playing their second round of FIFA and Ray giggles as she hears Michael guffaw and playfully push Calum's shoulder, by the sound of it.

"I'm playing the game, Calum," Michael says, smiling wide and bright as he briefly swipes the underside of his nose with his wrist. "You don't like it, give Ray a turn." 

Ray laughs louder at that, squeezing her eyes shut as she falls over on Michael's bed. They'd been popping up at Ray's house every day since they were told the news, and today, they decided they would get her out of the house.

Luke had been a bit M.I.A. since then, too, but Ray didn't question it. Mostly because she's developed a one-track mind and is focusing on her surgery and other things that make it their business to come to her.

The girl hears them pause the game and sits up. "What's up?" 

"You've said, like, three things all day today." Calum says. He puts the controller on the ground, next to him, then stands and lays on the bed. 

Ray shrugs, feeling for his body and laying across it when she figures out where his stomach is. "What do you want me to say?" She doesn't want to tell them that when they got her that morning, she had been wondering about Ashton. 

Which, she found strange herself, seeing as she only thought about things that were in her face over the past couple of days. She couldn't help it though; sitting by yourself practically invites unexpected thoughts.

"What's on your mind." Calum throws an arm over her back, letting his wrist dangle off the edge of her shoulder blade.

Michael stands and announces that he's going downstairs to get a snack and Calum hums in response. A small smile grows on Ray's lips when the sound vibrates against her head. "Nothing. I don't know."

She knows that Calum doesn't believe that, but she's hesitant to tell him. Ray's put in a lot of effort in ignoring Ashton and she'd hate to look weak and reveal that she misses the guy. Then again, Calum probably assumes that she misses him anyway, but it's a whole other thing to admit yourself. 

"You don't know?" He teasingly pokes at her rib, causing her to jerk and grab his hand. 

"Calum."

"You don't know?"

Ray slides off of him and goes on hands and knees to a safer place up by Michael's headboard. She likes his headboard better than her own, because his is made of steel and hers is just wood that doesn't get as cold to the touch.

"I can tell you what's on my mind first, if you want?" Calum offers.

"I miss Ash." Ray comes out with it, stretching the hole in Michael's bedspread. She shrugs again, leaving the sheet alone and putting her hands together in her lap.

Calum shifts, sitting up and keeping one leg flat on the bed. "Yeah?" He brings his bent knee closer to his face and props his chin on it. "What made you start missing him?" 

If Ray was going to be completely honest, she would say when she made herself a bowl of Crunchy Nut, the second night that she was at her parents' house, but she likes to think that that barely counts because she had just gotten away from him and the cereal was a trigger. 

"I just always imagined that he'd be with me through this whole surgery thing," Ray tucks a wiry strand of her hair behind her ear. She feels it fall back down and back just a little too on her cheek, but she lets it be. "And now that it's actually, you know, happening, and he's not here—"

"It's bumming you out?" Michael pipes from the doorway, off-brand soda and a bag of Doritos in hand. 

Ray nods, folding her legs up, just in case Michael comes to sit with them. "I just know he's too stubborn to come to me, and I don't want to be the one that goes crawling back." She rolls her eyes at herself when she realizes how childish that sounds out loud. 

Michael opens his chips and sits in front of Ray, tilting the bag towards Calum. "He'll come around." He glances at Calum's hand as it disappears in the red bag and reappears with five triangles.

"Does he know that your surgery's coming up?" The tan boy asks, popping a Dorito into his mouth. 

Her black-haired friend nudges her finger with the opening of the chip bag, and she takes one as well. "I'm sure my mom has told him," She eats the Dorito, briefly debating whether she should lick the cheese dust off of the pad of her thumb. "Or he's heard from someone by now." 

Ashton's mom and dad treat Ashton like the son they never had, so she's willing to bet money that her mother has already jogged across the lawn to Ashton's and gushed about it. 

"Then he'll definitely stop being a prick and come see you." Michael says, shamelessly sucking his fingertips clean after sprinkling some of the cheesy residue back into the bag. Ray smiles at her friends' optimism, then cautiously leans up and feels for the controller on the comforter. 

Calum's eyes follow her hand and he pushes what she wants closer to her. She unpauses the game, crossing her legs and messing with the buttons. "Who feels like getting whooped in FIFA?" Both Calum and Michael laugh, but Calum nods at Michael to hand him the other controller.

"Yeah, right," Calum wipes his hands on his jeans and settles next to her in a similar position. "I may not be able to beat Mikey, but I'm sure I can beat you." 

Michael lets out an abrupt laugh, pointing a corner of a Dorito at the tv screen. "She's already about to score!" 

Ray shrieks, grinning as she continues to mash random buttons. Calum groans, chuckling halfway though the noise. She's sure she's scored a goal when Michael screams and stands from the bed and Calum falls back in laughter next to her.

While Ray played the rest of the afternoon away, she hoped in the back of her mind that Ashton would show up at Michael's door, and apologize and join the fun, but when they drove her back down the road to her parents' house, she'd been told that Ashton had waved at the car while he was climbing into his, and she knew he'll come around.

A/N: alright first off *resists urge to rap hit em up* THANK YOU FOR 3K YALL ARE THE BEST I LOVE YALL 

Anyway this is a bit of a fluffy filler but also a timestamp if you will but i hope you enjoyed it :) Like literally this is mainly mike, ray, and calum goofing off, but obv there's some info in there under all the cuteness. 

anyway (again) if you guys did enjoy it i'm sure you know the drill by now and if you don't this is the part where i ask you to vote and comment because it makes me happy etc (it really does, i promise, i love all of you that take time out to do so)

xoxo grateful girl