Castaway ➳ cth [EDITING/HIATUS]

Chapter 27

(A/N): I dedicate this chapter to one of fave readers mrshood44 😁
------------------------------------------------------------

He was right all along.

Walking home after a lengthy and upsetting day of school was agonizingly annoying and nerve-wracking. Due to the fact that I had no one to talk to, my mind was buried into the thoughts and what if's, doubting that I will ever stop thinking excessively about the current situation.

Calum never showed up to one single period we had together, let alone to school, what did I expect? I was aware that I broke his heart, that I broke his self-esteem and his pride. Nevertheless, he blindly lied to me, without caring what effects it will trigger on me.

After that night, I stopped running and began to stroll around the streets covered in thin fog. I was lucky that it wasn't difficult to track my way home. The tears wouldn't stop rolling down my cheeks, let alone the stream of blood from the horrid wound on my temple.

As I arrived home that day, my mother confronted me about so too many things; I couldn't even keep up with them. The only part I could recall in my memory was me pacing up the stairs and slamming my bedroom door shut. Pretending to overhear the furious knocks on my door, I covered my ears with the thick, black headphones and began listening to heavy metal music until my eyelids fell shut and my brain became cloudy.

Touching the big plaster on my temple, I groaned as a mind-blowing pain responded to the touch and I flinched, tripping clumsily and falling right into the stem of a tree.

Now the back of my head was pounding uncontrollably and I sat down on the pavement, sighing and rubbing my scalp with my fingertips in anger.

"You certainly don't make the impression that you had a good day."

I rose my head to lock eyes with the one and only Michael Clifford.

"Oh, hey", I shyly greeted him by taking his hand he offered to help me stand on my feet. "Haven't seen you around for a while."

Michael snickered as he noticed my flushed, crimson cheeks and patted me warmheartedly on my left shoulder blade. "Not that you're supposed to care", I state back with a sarcastic touch to my voice. "I have the urgent feeling of not talking to anyone right now, I apologize."

"You don't have to talk at all", Michael responded and laid his arm around my neck, nuzzling his head on my shoulder, tickling the crook of my neck with his fiery red hair. I was sure he tried to cheer me up by doing that. This position gave me some sort of awkwardness though, especially because we were walking.

"Michael, not now please", I begged and pushed him away softly. I liked Michael; but I wasn't in need of any affection at that moment. On the other side, he could possibly bring me away from my sorrows and thoughts. I could use a deep brain cleanse.

"You know what, you can ramble, but I beg you, don't annoy the heck out of me. Oh and also," I mentioned, "don't expect me to give you a world-changing answer."

And here goes Michael talking and talking all those minutes we would've shared silently if I'd denied his offer. I was only able to hear couple of words out of is never ending waterfall of words – about school, family, music and hair dye.

"One day we should dye the rest of your hair", he ascertained and ruffled my blue-brown hair with his fingers, "looks kind of ratchet."

Scoffing, I cock my head around. "Wow Mike, you're very direct." He mumbled a quiet 'sorry' and changed his topic to electric guitars and how I should get into instruments, but my consciousness zoned out as I continued looking around myself.