"It's Not Love If It Hurts" //5sos

/44/

  Luke drove without much regard to the speed limits. Even with that, he was sure he was going to be too late.

  7 minutes. 7 minutes since he got the call, 7 minutes since he jumped in the car and drive without a second thought. He didn't even turn off his laptop.

  But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, except making sure Calum was okay.

  "It- it's Calum. Please, come quick, I- it was an accident. He- there's blood, and, and-" at that point, Luke was already halfway out of the door.

  Maybe he should've brought the other boys, or called an ambulance. He just assumed Annie would have called an ambulance first, before calling him. She better have.

  He pulled up in the driveway of their house, and slammed the brakes. Putting the car into park, he yanked out his keys and ran, not bothering to even lock his car. No, he had a higher priority.

  Luke sprinted to the front door, turning the handle and shoving it open with his full body weight.

  Annie was on the floor in the corner, where the lamp used to be. She rocked back and forth, sobbing, but Luke couldn't care less. "Where is he?" he demanded, and Annie pointed to Calum's room before being hit with another round of sobs.

  Luke stormed in, slamming the door open. Calum jumped in surprise.

  "Woah, Luke what are you doing here?"

  Luke ran up to him, grabbing his head and tilting it from side to side, as if looking for a bullet wound. Finally, he saw Calum was okay, and he backed up, running his hand through his hair. "Oh God, oh God."

  Calum furrowed his brow. "What?"

  Luke looked at him like he was crazy. "What do you mean, what? I thought you were dead!"

  Calum chuckled without humor. He looked at his feet, uncomfortable. "She's pretty bad then, huh?"

  Luke was still in shock that Calum was okay. The only think that seemed wrong was that Calum held up a towel to his jawbone, as if he gone bruised. But besides that, he looked fine.

  "Annie's doing horribly. What happened?"

  Calum inhaled shakily. "She was having an episode. I don't known what triggered it, but she was freaking out, in the kitchen. When I came home, she had a knife, and started walking up to me when she dropped it and started screaming."

  Luke grimaced. He may not like that Annie took Calum from him, but that didn't mean he hated Annie. He definitely didn't like the idea of her hysterics. No one should have to go through that.

  Calum shook his head, as if reading Luke's thoughts. "She was hysterical, and started swatting at her entire body as if she was being attacked. I tried to get the knife off of the floor, but for whatever reason she saw me as the enemy and attacked me." Luke looked at him worridly, and Calum answered his question without Luke even having to ask it. "She got in one good swipe." He pulled the ice away from his face, and Luke realized it wasn't ice. It was a towel wrapped around a swaddle of toilet paper. The toilet paper was completely soaked in blood.

  There was a gash along Calum's jawline, and it was still bleeding. Luke felt all his strength leaving him at the sight.

  "Calum, sit down in the bathroom, I'm calling Ashton, and then I'm cleaning you up."

  Calum started to object, saying he was fine, but Luke refused to listen. He called Ashton and told him to come over, that Annie was still crying but not a danger to anyone. He asked Ashton to make a stop at a hardware store on the way.

  Hanging up his phone, Luke walked to the bathroom where Calum was sat on the edge of the tub, holding the tissues to his face. Luke kneeled next to him, asking him to tilt his head so he could see the cut.

  "You know you don't need to do this," Calum argued. "I'm fine. It doesn't even hurt that much."

  Luke took the bloody tissues from him, tossing them and getting new ones. He kneeled next to Calum and pressed the fresh toilet paper to his face. "In the nicest way possible, shut up, Cal."

  Calum snickered, which hurt with the cut on his face. "Why'd you call Ashton? Obviously I'm fine."

  Luke would've laughed if he weren't so worried. "Obviously you're not fine, you're bleeding. Ashton's going to come over and help Annie."

  "With all due respect, I can hold a wad of tissues to my face on my own. Why can't you help her?"

  Luke looked off to the side. "I don't want to be emotionally supportive right now, at least now for her. And I want to help you- you're my friend."

  Calum looked down. They both knew that wasn't the whole truth, but now wasn't the time to address it.

***********************************

  Ashton didn't bother knocking. When he'd be summoned to the house, it wasn't out of pleasantries. Besides, who knew if anyone would even hear him.

  He came inside, and set the bag of supplies on the floor. He didn't have to search to find Annie- she was sitting in the corner, rocking back and forth and crying. Ashton wasn't in the most helpful mood, but he was feeling rather efficiant, so he picked Annie up and slung her over his shoulder. He brought her to her room, and dumped her on the bed. Much better.

  Then, Ashton went to the kitchen, getting out his bag of supplies. He installed a lock on the knife drawer, and it didn't take that much time- he had done it once before already, in the boys house after Annie had stabbed Mikey.

  Violent child, he thought to himself as he walked back to her room. It was sarcastic- she had every reason in the world to be angry, and violent.

  He walked into her room, sitting on the bed next to her. Annie had her legs pulled in close to her chest, and was still crying softly, though she'd stopped the rocking and the shaking.

  Ashton sighed. "What happened."

  Annie wiped at her eyes, looking up as if that would keep her from crying again. "I- I remembered something. I remembered back when Calum was pretty bad, and this one really awful dream about him, and, and I was really scared. I saw him and I thought he was going to attack me. Ashton, you don't understand, it was as if I was living through it all again. And then, he came up to me, and I don't know. I slashed him with a knife."

  She started crying again. Ashton was worried, and wanted to check in on Calum, but knew he was being taken care of by Luke.

  "The worst part was afterwards. When I realized, I could've hurt him, I did hurt him! And he's in pain, he's in pain because of me!"

***********************************

  "The worst part was what she said while she was having the attack," Calum narrated as Luke applied bandages. "In the last one, with the lamp, she was screaming Mikey's name, and thought I was him. But in this one, she screamed at me, and I knew it wasn't just coincidental. I just hate to know that she was in so much pain, because of me!"