To love you | Malum

Ch. 11 - Polaroids + Football

Michael + Ch. 11 - Polaroids + Football

Calum started hanging out with me more than usual, outside of school, that is, since Luke had relatively strict parents and wasn't allowed to go out during the most important week of the season. The homecoming game was tomorrow, and I was surprised that the brunettes parents let him hang out with somebody, let alone a person like me that's as boring as ever. I guess there's a reason he spends time with me, though I can't quite figure it out. I've spent countless nights thinking about how it could be possible that the most popular guy in school likes hanging out with me, but maybe it's just out of pity because he knows about my feelings. (Or does he? I'll never know.)

"What is this place?"

"City Park," Calum cackled, brown eyes scanning the green trees and grass that smelt of gasoline, pebbles sitting in the palms of his hands as he glanced back at me with a small smile on his face, "I used to come here all the time with my sister to just think about things." – Things that could mean anything.

"And your parents allowed it?"

"They're not very strict when it comes to being with a relative or a friend, but in any other case, they'd blow up on me." (I could relate to that in more ways than one, but I couldn't tell him that without feeling embarrassed.) "So, I don't really know much about you, aside from the fact that you play guitar, that you're in a wheelchair and you used to play football."

"How did you know I used to play it?" I quirked, my nerves colliding with my immune system and damaging everything, my breathing intensifying as brown met green, my heart beating to the sound of his exasperated voice, my lungs wanting to give out from the amount of peer pressure I was feeling, but I held myself together like glue in hopes that he wouldn't catch on to what I was trying to hide.

"Coach notified me when I first joined the team, but he never told me what happened with you. I'm aware that you were one of the star players?"

"The star player, yeah, but if I told you what happened, you'd never believe me."

"Michael," Calum sighed, kneeling down once again so he could sit flat on the concrete in a criss-cross position, "I don't understand why you keep doing this."

"Doing what?" I mocked, feeling those nerves again that I was trying so damn hard to get rid of. Calum Hood really has an effect on me like no other. "I'm not doing anything."

It was in this moment when I stuck my tongue out, expecting him to act childish back, but he just sat there with a numb tongue and an emotionless expression, pondering on what he could say to me. I didn't miss the way his eyes lit up for a quick second before going dull. I didn't miss the way he placed his hands together and pressed small kisses to his knuckles. I didn't miss the way he inhaled softly, and exhaled loudly. But I did miss the way I could feel so many chemicals in the air, the bad kind, and it was making my head spin like a tornado.

"I want you to tell me why you're not on the football team anymore," Calum pressed his lips into a thin line, arms drooping at his sides as he made eye-contact with me, all anxiety beginning to bubble up inside of my system as he continued to speak, "I've seen the videos. You were really good."

"I broke the tibia and ankle portion of my foot, and fractured my spine," I laughed coldly, knowing that this wasn't a laughing matter, but I couldn't think straight with how fast my mind was racing. "It's nothing to worry about, I promise."

"How'd you do that?"

I sighed, throwing my head into my hands as gently as possible while running a couple of my small fingers through my dyed hair, thinking about how easy it'd be to tell him and get it off of my chest, but knowing Calum, he'd think I'm lying because his teammates mean everything to him. So I did what I did best, and that was avoiding the subject or changing it to something better or more interesting. I was never interesting.