Nerds in Love//Cashton

Ash

Word Count: 980

I found Calum sitting in the left corner in our maths classroom. Grinning, I walked over to his desk and sat next to him.

"What's up?" Cal looked at me and offered a small smile. I frowned slightly.

"Nothing." He looked down at his hands.

"You okay?" This wasn't usually him. Maybe he was tired.

"Just tired."

"So, do you still want me to come over or...." Calum's eyes widened slightly but he shook his head.

"No no no no no. I want you to come over, if you want." He blurted.

"No, yeah I do." The teacher stood at the front of the classroom, calling the class to order. Calum and I turned to pay attention. I felt awkward next to him, like there was a tension hanging between us like a curtain.

We were handed worksheets to work on for the rest of class, and Calum quickly got to work on it before I had the chance to talk to him.

"Cal?" I asked after working in silence for awhile.

"What?"

"You're sure you're fine?" Before he could respond, the bell rang and he quickly shoved his folder into his backpack, practically running from the room. I frowned and slowly got up to leave.

-

"What's up Ash!" Michael Clifford ran up to me. I gave him a weird look. We weren't exactly friends, but I heard Calum talk about him a lot.

"Uh, hi?"

"Okay, so you guys should totally sit with us at lunch!"

"Who's we?"

"Uh, duh. You and Calum."

"I don't know. Calum's been acting weird today."

"I'm sure he's fine."

"Have you seen him at all today?"

"Nope! See you at lunch!" And he scampered away. I sighed and went to my English class, the last class before lunch. As soon as I stepped in, I noticed a lot of students were missing.

"Mr. Irwin," The teacher addressed me. "Everyone is working on their project. If you would like, you can work in the library. Just be conscientious of the study hall students."

I nodded. "Okay." I turned around and went down stairs to the library and saw there were only a handful of students there.

I walked towards the back to the computers when I heard to whispering voices. It sounded like they were arguing. Quietly setting my stuff at a computer, I snuck over to the aisle I heard the voices from.

"....It'll be fine...." One voice said.

"I don't know....I just...." The second voice, that sounded very similar to Calum , burst into tears. I peered from around the corner and saw Michael holding Calum who had his face buried in his neck. I stepped back, feeling my chest tighten slightly.

"There there." Michael soothed him. Usually I did that. Why was Calum so upset? He was fine this morning. Wasn't he?

"I'm so dumb." Calum sobbed into Michael. My stomach churned and I went back to the computer. What the heck was wrong with him? I quickly logged onto the computer and went onto Google.

"I didn't know you were in this study hall, Ash." I jumped and turned around to see Calum standing behind me. His eyes were slightly puffy and a hint of redness was around them.

"Oh, I'm not. I'm working on a project for English."

"Oh, the Hamlet one? I'm almost done." He smiled sheepishly.

"Me too. Just looking up any last fun facts. As I recall we both did research last night."

"Yep!"

"Hey listen," I began carefully. Calum looked just passed me, wringing at his hands. He was nervous. "Michael invited us to sit with him at lunch. How come?"

"I dunno." He shrugged. "This is the first I heard about this."

"Okay, well maybe we can walk to the cafeteria together?" I suggested awkwardly. Calum grinned.

"Sounds good. Can't wait." And before I could ask him anything else he scampered off to the front of the library, probably to talk to Michael.

-

"So, are you and Michael friends?" I looked up at Calum as we walked up the stairs.

"Yeah. You already knew that." Calum joked, carefully shoving my shoulder. I giggled.

"Yeah, I guess. But, he might be trying to be friends with me too."

"I sure hope so. You're my best friend, so my best friend and my other friend should be friends, right?"

"Makes sense I guess." We entered the cafeteria and found Michael and Luke sitting at one end of a really long, crowded table.

"Hey guys!" Michael said enthusiasticlly. Luke grumbled.

"Do I really have to sit with you dorks?"

"It would be the nice thing to do." Michael chirped.

"I'd rather lick the floor of a school bus." He picked up his tray and left the table.

"Well, he's in a good mood." I giggled.

"Right?" We all laughed and Calum seemed to be slightly at ease. From across the table, Michael and Calum kept sharing glances as if talking through facial expressions. That's what we did when we were ahead of the class and were bored after exams. What was going on?

"So, Ashton. Have ever formerly met before?" Michael pulled his attention away from Calum.

"No. But I've heard so much about you."

"Oh. Well, I'm Michael, and in case you didn't notice, I'm hella gay."

"I'm Ashton."

"I knew that."

"I, uh, like Mario Kart?" Calum snorted. I turned to look at him and he was wiping milk from his nose. "What?"

"I dunno, funny thing to say for an introduction." I giggled as he winced as he took a short breath through his nose.

"Aha. He snorted out milk." I laughed.

"It hurts like hell." He blew his nose again.

"Hey, don't swear!" I scolded, but rubbed his back. He felt tense. "You okay?"

"Mhm." He nodded and looked over at Michael. Something was going on, and I was going to find out.