Arms||Cake AU||

Chapter 4

Calum was rudely awoken by his mother yelling in his ear and pulling his duvet off him, depositing it on the other side of the room.

"Muuum." He groaned, rolling over as he rubbed his eyes. "Get out of my room."

"C'mon Calum, you need to get up. You've got school today." Joy said sternly.

"All the more reason to stay in bed."

"I mean it Cal. You've only got half a year left, this term is important."

"It is far too early for a lecture Mum." Calum mumbled sleepily, swinging his legs over the idea of his bed and sitting up.

"Just get up Calum, or you're going to be late." Joy said, heading towards the door.

"I am up Mum."

"Good, now get dressed, breakfast will be ready in 5 minutes."

As soon as his mother left the room, Calum lay back down on his bed, sighing loudly. He had enjoyed the two weeks they had just had off school, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and school holidays were no exception.

10 minutes later Calum dragged himself downstairs, attempting to flatten his bed hair.

"You can't go to school looking like that." Joy exclaimed as he walked into the kitchen, and grabbing the slice of toast out of his mums hand.

"Why not?" Calum asked, looking down at his outfit. "I don't see the problem with it."

"I do! You can't go to school with those tattoos on display, what will the teachers think?"

"Those are some pretty awesome tats Calum, presumably." Calum replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Joy raised an eyebrow at him, folding her arms across her chest.

"Mum, they don't care what you look like as long as you behave in their class."

"Which you don't."

"That's not true." Calum argued. Joy raised her eyebrow at her son and sighed.

"Please Calum. I'm begging you to take this term seriously. Your exams are 5/6 months away, please just work hard and focus."

"I will Mum." Calum replied nonchalantly, saying it out of habit. Both he and his mother knew he wasn't actually going to, but they could at least pretend.

There you go again Calum, screwing up your life as usual.

Everyone has an inner monologue, but for some reason, Calum's always sounded like his sister when it was insulting him. The harsh words echoed through his brain, hurting him as much as hearing them out loud did.

Not content with messing up Carmen's life, you've decided to mess up your own too.

You don't deserve a future Calum. Throwing your life away is probably the best thing you could do.

"Shut up." He mumbled, staring moodily at the wall behind his mother's head. He knew the voice was right though. Every word that Mali's voice repeated maliciously in his head echoed the truth. He was a screwup and there wasn't anything he could do to change that, so why bother.

"What did you just say Cal?"

"Nothing mum." Calum lied. I'm just telling the voices inside my head to be quiet, that's all.

Joy raised an eyebrow suspiciously but didn't say anything else to Calum until Michael pulled up outside and honked his horn, alerting them to his presence.

"Remember Calum, behave. I don't want anymore phone calls this year, okay?" Joy reminded him as he leapt out of his seat.

"Yes Mum." Calum groaned, reluctantly letting himself be pulled into a hug. Joy kissed his forehead and let go, smiling sadly as Calum walked away.

Deep down Joy knew that Calum wasn't a bad kid, he'd just had bad things happen to him, and this was his way of dealing with it, but as a mother, she just wanted what was best for him. She really didn't want to watch her child throw his future away, but it seemed like she was going to have to. Calum wasn't showing signs of wanting to change any time soon.
---------------------------------------------

"Hey Calum." Michael said as Calum climbed into the passenger seat.

"Hi." Calum replied sullenly. Michael frowned at his best friend. Calum caught him and flashed a smile that was too big to be genuine and didn't reach his big brown eyes. Michael, who could see through Calum's fake happiness, put the car into gear and drove down the street.

"Are you okay Calum?"

"Yep, all sunshine and daisies over here." Calum answered sarcastically.

Oh listen to you, feeling sorry for yourself. You're not the victim here Calum, Carmen was the victim. It's all your fault.

Calum shook his head, trying to shut Mali up. Michael glances over, his eyebrows furrowed in concern, before turning his attention back to the road.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Calum snapped. Michael drove the rest of the way to school in silence, keeping his eyes trained on the road. Calum slouched in the passenger seat, internally kicking himself for taking his anger out on Michael. The poor boy hadn't done anything. He was only being a good friend, something Calum had to work on.

Michael pulled into the school parking lot, kills the engine and turned to face Calum.

"I don't know what put you in a shitty mood this morning Calum, but please don't take it out on me. Not today. Find someone else to snap at."

Calum opened mouth to argue until he saw the date out of the corner of his eye on Michael's phone. Then, his heart dropped, and a wave of regret washed over him. He had forgotten, for the first time in 5 years.

"I'm so sorry Mikey." Calum mumbled, staring down at his knees. He couldn't bring himself to look his best friend in the eye.

"It's alright Calum, just...don't today, okay? It's going to be hard enough without your shitty moods."

"Yeah, I understand."

Calum and Michael climbed out of the car and headed towards the school, ready for the last stretch of high school before they were unleashed into the real world full of responsibilities.

And for Michael, quite possibly the hardest day of the year and the longest day at school he would ever face.

July 22nd: The 5th anniversary of his father's death.