Anonymous || Malum ✓

sixteen

Calum was singing loudly, his voice echoing against the light-blue tiles of his bathroom shower. He was slowly warming up his voice, knowing that his cover would be horrible if he didn't warm up before recording it.

Currently, he was singing his single that he had released a few weeks prior. He was going to post a completely stripped version of it. Acoustic. He had been asked for it multiple times and he finally agreed to do so. Calum knew of hundreds of people that were waiting for him to post. He had promised at a certain time the video would be up and didn't want to disappoint his fans.

Calum finished washing off the soap that was left on his body and stepped out of the shower, quickly changing into his signature long-sleeved white t-shirt and slipped into a pair of skinny jeans.

He brushed his hair out a bit before deciding to go out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. Calum opened the door and stopped when he heard shuffling in his room. The brown boy felt his heart rate start beating rapidly and could hear the thudding in his ears. He didn't really have anything valuable so he wasn't exactly that worried but he didn't want to be killed. His only goal was to live in LA for five years without being mugged and this was the exact opposite.

"Uh, hello?" Calum asked slowly.

He slowly reached out and grabbed the giant thesaurus that he had on his bedside table, his best friend for song writing, and started walking towards the rustling.

Calum felt his heart drop as he heard the sound come from behind his bed and he prayed that there wouldn't be someone trying to kill him. The brown boy peeked his head over the side and let out a small scream when he saw Ashton Irwin, Michael's best friend, looking under his bed.

Out of instinct, Calum thought the giant boom down and managed to hit the intruding boy on his side. He didn't mean to, he was just startled.

"What the fuck, Calum?" Ashton groaned, holding onto his side as he rolled on the floor dramatically.

"No. What the fuck, Ashton? You can't just break into my apartment!" Calum exclaimed, then helping the other boy up. He felt bad.

"Michael asked me to come pick you up on my way home and since you weren't answering the door, he told me where the spare was. I should've just waited if I knew I was going to be attacked with books," Ashton grumbled, sitting down on the floor of Calum's bedroom again and looking under his bed.

"Why are you snooping though?" Calum asked, watching as the other boy rummaged under all the piles of junk that he would shove under his mattress. Calum was awful at keeping things clean and if his room ever felt too messy he would just throw it under the comforter.

"Where is it?" Ashton asked.

He stood up abruptly and started looking through Calum's walk-in-closet and then every corner of his room when he couldn't find what he was looking for. The brown boy clumsily and blindly followed him, unsure of why this boy he barely knew was invading his personal space. He didn't even invite him for fucks sake.

"What?" Calum asked. His eyebrows scrunched up as he gave the other boy in the room a look of pure confusion.

"Your guitar. I fucking know Calum. I heard you singing your song in the shower and it sounded the exact same from when Michael was showing me your videos. How could you have hidden it from him for so long? He loves your music. You've been using Michael this whole fucking time. Is this what you do? Pretend to be a nice, shy boy but really you have a giant scheme where you use other celebrities to gain attention? That's really fucking low, Calum," Ashton hissed, glaring at Calum.

The brown boy felt as if his heart had dropped. Ashton knew that he posted anonymous covers. Ashton knew his secret. Not one person knew his secret. Yet Ashton did. Calum felt tears well up in his eyes as he knew that everything he had worked for was going to crumble.

"It's not like that. I promise it's not like that. I never wanted you to know. I didn't want anyone to know for that matter. I would never use Michael. I care about him so much," Calum stuttered out. His words and sentences were chopped as he tried to get Ashton to somewhat believe him.

He walked out of the room and motioned for Ashton to follow, leading him to the one room no one entered except him.

"It's in here," Calum explained, pulling his guitar out from the spare closet.

Ashton immediately recognized it from the videos, the plus sign in the corner being a giveaway.

"You have to explain," Ashton stated, looking over the guitar in Calum's hands.

Calum, once again, motioned for Ashton to follow him and they made their way into the living room. The brown boy motioned for Ashton to use the recliner and then went to grab a lawn chair and pulled it up, in front of Ashton.

The brown boy looked down at his hands and started twiddling with his fingers, playing with the hem of his shirt as well. He was so nervous but he had to tell Ashton or else Ashton would tell everyone. Calum took a deep breath but then started talking.

"I don't know how to start. Oh god. Well basically I was really shy growing up. Like very horribly shy. It got to a point where I'd only talk to my parents through my sister and I would fake being sick to skip going to day care. My parents took me to many therapists and doctors but all I got was that I was shy. That's basically why I started my YouTube channel. I love music so much and it killed me that I could never be able to enter a profession in it because I was so terrified of others hearing me and knowing who I was. I wanted to feel comfortable with what I was doing."

"I decided to do it anonymously. I have horrible, horrible stage fright which I guess you saw at karaoke. I just wanted to find a way to follow my dreams without people knowing it was me. It made me so happy and the more it grew, the better it felt. Trust me I've considered telling the truth multiple times but I just get choked up whenever I try to. I also never want to use Michael and never will. I know he loves my covers and stuff but he can't know. I literally kind of peed myself when I got his message the first time and that was huge. He had been one of the biggest people to shout out my videos and he's so persistent on finding out who I am but he can't know."

"I know he's your best friend but please, this is all I ask," Calum was practically begging at the end of the rant. One person finally knew who he was. Two years later and someone knew his story and why he posted covers.

Calum sniffled a bit and wiped at his eyes, hoping Ashton wouldn't rat him out or something along those lines. He looked u

"Your secret is safe with me but you'll have to tell Michael eventually. He's so infatuated with you. It's honestly sometimes so irritating and I want to punch him in the jaw. He's obsessed with all your covers and is constantly blasting them in the apartment," Ashton said. A sincere, joking vibe was in his voice and Calum laughed softly.

"Punch him lovingly of course," Ashton then added.

"Trust me. I feel the same way. Do you know how awkward it is to hear my own voice constantly? And to hear him speak so highly of me without knowing that he is? It's so fucking weird," Calum said in agreement and Ashton laughed loudly, his dimples on full display as he did so.

"You're not that bad, Hood. I'll definitely keep your secret. As long as I get to post a cover with you. I want to see Michael's reaction," Ashton said cheekily.

Calum nodded his head and told Ashton that he was about to record a song anyways and he could always record two in the same day if Ashton wanted to join. The brown-haired boy obviously agreed and that's how the two ended up on Calum's music room wooden floors, recording a new cover to the song "Everglow" by Coldplay.

***

This is lowkey kind of lame and I feel like I could've written it better but I'm so exhausted so imma leave it. I just can't wait until like chapter 20 or so in this book so <33333 sorry it took so long for me to update but I'll be updating again more frequently now that schools over! Sorry for the wait. Xx

-Lee