I'm Supposed To Hate You ||Malum AU||

Chapter 22

"Calum, what are you doing here? Not that I'm not glad to see you, I just-" Ashton said when he opened the door to find his best friend on his doorstep.

"Michael." Calum replied shortly.

"Right, I understand, you better come in then."

Ashton pushed the door open wider to allow Calum to pass. Calum stepped over the threshold and sighed. Ashton's brother Harry appeared next to them, smiling up at Calum.

"Hey Hazza, how's my little man?" Calum said, ruffling his hair.

"I'm good. Are you staying for tea?" The 9 year old exclaimed, jumping up and down.

"I don't know, do you want me to?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. Ashton shook his head, smiling fondly down at his brother.

"Well that's that decided then." Ashton said. "Now get back to your homework buddy, don't want to be getting into trouble now do we?"

"Calum gets into trouble at school." Harry argued, pointing accusingly at Calum. Calum raised his hands in surrender backing away.

"That's because Calum is a bad kid. You shouldn't do anything he does."

"Hey!" Calum pouted. "I'm not that bad." Ashton raised his eyebrow at him. "Okay, maybe I am, but you shouldn't follow my example Harry."

"See, now homework. I need to talk to Calum." Harry sighed and disappeared back into the living room.

"So what's Michael done now?" Ashton asked Calum as they began to climb the stairs.

"What hasn't he done? That's the real question." Calum replied grumpily.

"That bad?"

"Worse."
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"You know, I feel sorry for Joy right now." Ashton said after Calum explained his situation to him. "She has to put up with you two jumping down each others throats or the rest of this week. You're on day 3."

"She brought it upon herself inviting him into the house." Calum retorted, staring at Ashton's bedroom ceiling.

"Yes, but she couldn't have anticipated that you were going to fall out this badly." Ashton argued. "No one could have."

"That's because Michael is a dick. I've been trying to tell everyone all along but no ones listened."

"I'm not disagreeing with you mate, what he said is horrible but-"

"Here we go." Calum groaned, folding his arms. "Why are you so diplomatic about stuff Ash? You never seem to fully take someone's side, there's always a but with you."

"You have to look at things from both perspectives Cal. Michael opened up to you and you just argued with him, so he got mad and said something he probably regrets. You, out of all people, should understand that."

"I hate it when you're right." Calum sighed, letting his arms fall by his sides. "But that doesn't excuse anything he said. He can't get it through his thick skull that I don't want to talk about my dad, and until he does, I'm not going to forgive him."

"I'm not asking you to." Ashton told him. He paused for a second before he spoke again.

"I guess I'm losing 5 dollars at the end of this week."

"Unless a fucking miracle happens." Calum replied sulkily, continuing to stare at the ceiling. Ashton sighed, picking at a thread on the hem of his shirt.

"Calum, I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but if you don't mind me asking, what did happen to your dad?"

"Nothing happened to him." Calum snapped, sitting up. "He just- he done some stuff and, I'm really not comfortable talking about it."

"Did he-?" Ashton asked quietly, his eyes widening slightly.

"No, no. He didn't. He never touched me, my sister or my mum." Calum said quickly. He didn't know why he was so defensive about it. He just didn't want Ashton to get the wrong idea. His father had been good to them, he'd never hurt them.

"Okay." Ashton stopped asking questions after that, sensing that he probably wouldn't get anything else out of his best friend, who lay back down on his bed and was staring at the ceiling again.
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"That went well." Joy said sarcastically, coming into the living room after she heard the front door slam. "I'm glad you've managed to solve your issues."

"I still going to sleep on the sofa." Michael muttered, pulling his duvet around himself. "I don't think he'd want me in his room, even though he said so."

"No, you might as well sleep in his room Michael, it'll be a lot comfier for a boy your size. Don't pay attention to anything Calum says, I'm pretty sure he doesn't mean any of it." Joy told him kindly, picking up his suitcase.

"Well I'm pretty sure he meant every word of it." Michael grumbled, pulling the duvet over his head and groaning into it. "I'm the one that didn't mean what they said."

"Don't beat yourself up Michael, we all say things we don't mean when we are angry. Calum knows this. He's said enough to people when he's angry to understand."

"Most of its been directed at me."

"Probably." Joy sighed. She hung around awkwardly, halfway between leaving and saying something else. "He doesn't really hate you Michael."

Michael made a noncommittal noise in response, still hiding under the duvet. The only thing Joy could see was a mop of black and white hair poking out from the top of it, sticking up in every direction. Joy had one foot out of the door when she turned to face Michael again.

"I'd probably drop talking about his Dad if you want him to forgive you though." She said and exited the room, just as Michael sat up, pushing the duvet off his face. He'd never moved so quickly in his life.

He called after her but she didn't come back through, so he collapsed back on the sofa and sighed, staring at the ceiling blankly. Michael knew Joy was right, but dropping the subject of Calum's dad was going to be difficult, as he was incredibly curious as to why Calum acted the way he did when he was mentioned.
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Joy sighed as she dumped Michael's suitcase on Calum's bed. She knew why they were fighting and she couldn't find it within herself to mad at either of them. Michael was only being curious and Calum, Calum had always found it hard to talk about his father. She noticed the battered guitar in the corner, resting against the wall. It was well-loved that guitar, but once it had been very close to being thrown out.

12 year old Calum had hated it. The presence of the guitar in his room made him angrier than he had ever been. He wanted to smash it, but never had the courage to do so, in case his mum got mad. One day, shortly before they moved, Joy had asked him to put everything they didn't want in a box in the hall and she would take it down to the dump. The first thing Calum put in the box was his guitar.

"Are you sure you want to throw it out Cal?" Joy asked him, holding up the barely used guitar. Calum nodded vigorously, eyeing the guitar angrily. The next day, when Joy went to pack the box into her car, the guitar wasn't in it, and a soft melody could be heard from Calum's bedroom.

Some nice memories of Joy's and a lot of staring at the ceiling. It must be extremely interesting.

Thank you so much for over 850 reads. It is insane. I swear the plot is going to pick up in a bit, but these fillers are important.