spotlight :: malum

: seven :

"You're absolutely sure you wanna do this?" Michael stared up at the building, a can of paint in the palm of their hand as Calum shook his own with a smirk, "Oh, hell yeah."

Why did he choose graffiti a building? If he was being honest he just wanted to start off easy, with something that could still make him excited but also stay within the friend zone because God knows what would happen if he went skinny dipping on the first day of knowing Michael.

"Now remember, this is a literal crime so if we get caught you bolt for it." Michael popped off the cap to his red paint can, he had to remind him of this. Calum's a celebrity, if he's found breaking the law he'll be hated on even more than when he left his concert. This fuck it list was risky but it was exactly what he needed to loosen Calum up. "Yeah, but I can't leave you here." Calum defended himself well, he would feel like a terrible friend if he just ran back to the car and deserted Michael to get caught without him.

"Wouldn't be the first time I was caught." Michael clasped the gas mask over his nose and mouth, catching Calum in awe at the boy. Once again, he'd never expect this nerd to be rebellious and nonetheless cool. He didn't think in a million years this boy would have gotten in trouble for vandalizing property. His lips parting to speak and ask when the hell that happened but Michael had tossed him a gas mask and was stepping up to the concrete wall displayed in front of him.

That's unbelievable, Calum shook his head. The sound of Michael's spray paint hitting the wall as Calum hurried to put on his mask. He had no clue what to write. His mind running blank on any ideas meanwhile Michael was already writing a quote in his red paint.

"What do I say?" Calum's voice muffled through the mask, his body stepping up to be right next to Michael and watch what he was doing. The bleach blonde shrugged, talking while his hand shook the can. "That's the best part about graffiti, say anything you want to tell the world." He trailed off, the sounds of his can spritzing letters against the wall while Calum finally caught onto what he was saying, his mind finally clicking and his paint hitting the concrete as if all the stress weighing him down lifted up and away with each word spray painted. The sky littered with stars as his white paint matched, contrasting against the dark of the night.

Michael kept his writing short, signing it off with his initials and running a red x over those for a bit of flare.

"Why the X?" Calum cocked an eyebrow, the bleach blonde tossing his nearly empty can onto the ground with a shrug of unsureness. "It's not just an X, it's an upside down X." He took a few steps away from the wall to observe what he had wrote, Calum finishing his own as he stepped back as well. "Kinda my way of leaving my mark, you know?" Michael tilted his head to the side, proud of what he had written.

The blonde's green eyes read over what Calum wrote, his lips quoting what was scripted onto the wall in dripping white paint. "No one wants to see the real me." Michael mumbled Calum's graffiti under his breath, his paint can flipping in his hand as he walked up to it with his mask covering half of his face and Calum keeping his eyes on the wandering boy. "It's true." Calum sighed through his gas mask, Michael's paint spraying onto the wall just below where Calum's words were written.

"On the contrary." Michael fought against that statement, backing away to show what he had added onto Calum's quote, underneath No one wants to see the real me there lies a small scribbled in I do underneath in red.

Michael wants to get to know Calum. Not the famous star with loads of money Calum. Not the bad boy rep Calum. He wants to see Calum Hood, the boy with a soul and mind worth sharing.

"Vandalism is more fun when you know what to write." Calum quoted the words Michael scripted against the wall besides his art. A furrow of his eyebrows as he tried to understand what he was saying, the phrase made his head think and it didn't really do that often. "What's that supposed to mean?" He faced the boy with his mask still on, Michael's bright blonde hair glowing in the dark light.