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

Chapter 37

"Thank you for looking after him Joy." Karen said as Joy handed her and Sam a cup of coffee.

"It was no problem Karen. You'd do the same for me." Joy replied, sitting down next to her.

"I don't think I would have been able to deal with their arguing. Michael face-timed me with a black eye on Wednesday night and I just felt bad for you having to deal with them fighting."

"I was at work when they were fighting, by the time I got home, Michael had left for Luke's." Joy explained. "They did have a little hiccup in the middle of the week, well, more of an explosion but they've been getting on better over the last couple of days. It's not been too bad."

"You're a saint for taking him honestly. He is old enough to stay on his own but last time we did that he threw a party and I couldn't let that happen again."

"I understand that, I would have done the same thing." Joy said, smiling at her best friend. "He's a good kid Karen, he just rubs Calum up the wrong way sometimes."

"Most of the time." Sam interrupted, feeling left out of the two women's conversation. Joy and Karen laughed.

"So, how was the holiday?" Joy asked, gaining an excited squeal from Karen. Sam smiled at his partner as she gushed about their trip, adding in small details in places but generally just listening to her tell Joy all about it.

"And then we went to this really cute little cafe and had the best seafood I've ever had." Karen told Joy happily. Michael appeared in the doorway, smiling at his mother.

"Hey Mum!" He exclaimed, waving at her. Karen got up off the chair and pulls him into a tight hug. Calum showed up behind him, attempting not to laugh as Michael tried to escape from his mum's tight grip.

"Mum, get off. I can't breathe!" Michael complained.

"I haven't seen you in a week." Karen exclaimed dramatically as she let go of him. "Am I not allowed to hug you?"

"Not that tightly no." Michael grumbled, placing his hand on his hip and panting. "I think you've squashed my lungs."

"Stop being so dramatic Michael." Calum said. Michael raised his eyebrow at him, his eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, because you're the least dramatic person I know." Michael replied sarcastically. "You're the queen of being dramatic Cal."

"Guilty as charged." Calum chuckled, raising his hands up in surrender. The adults looked around each other in confusion, surprised by their friendliness.

"Wouldn't you be a king Calum?" Sam pointed out.

"Nope, definitely a Queen." Michael answered before Calum could. Joy rolled her eyes at the two of them, secretly agreeing with Michael. Calum was definitely a drama queen.

"If I'm the drama Queen then you're the Princess Michael. You're almost as dramatic as me." Calum stated, crossing his arms.

"I make a great princess." Michael grinned, flipping his hair. "How was the holiday Mum?"

"Fantastic Michael." Karen gushed, launching back into replaying her trip minute by minute. Sam placed his head in his hands. They were going to be there for a while.
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The Clifford/Little family left at 6pm, 3 hours after Karen and Sam had arrived. Calum looked around his empty looking room. The blow up mattress had been packed back into the cupboard, and all of Michael's bag were no longer sitting in the corner. There was no loud, skunk haired boy sitting cross legged playing the beat up old guitar or making rude comments about Calum. Michael had only been gone for 5 minutes and Calum was already missing his presence.

He was very surprised by that. The house seemed to quiet for Calum's liking without Michael. He had no one to argue with, or have competitive games of FIFA with. He had gotten so used to having Michael in the house that now he wasn't there it felt weird.

Ashton had a lot of things to say about that when Calum phoned and told him.

"You owe me $5." Ashton shouted once Calum had finished explaining to him.

"No I do not Ashton Irwin. When we made this bet, you said, we would be great friends by the end of the week. We only just get along."

"No no no, the bet was on whether or not you would still hate him at the end of the week. I remember it clearly. You said, and I quote, "5 dollars says that I will still hate him this time next week." You don't still hate him, therefore you owe me 5 dollars." Ashton argued, putting on a terrible version of Calum's voice while quoting him.

"I do not sound like that." Calum exclaimed.

"I do not sound like that." Ashton mocked down the phone. "Stop changing the subject. I want my $5 tomorrow morning at school, in a sealed envelope with my name on the front of it."

"Or I could just hand you a $5 bill and not be extra. Or better yet, I could not give you $5 because I still hate him."

"Did Joy never tell you that lying was wrong Calum?"

"I'm not lying!"

"That's why he makes you feel safe at night and you miss him." Calum bit the inside of his cheek in annoyance. If Ashton has been standing in front of him he would have hit him.

"He made me tell him my deepest secret Ash, and he now has blackmail material that he can use against me whenever he feels like it." Calum retorted. "And I never said I miss him, I said I miss his presence, having someone else my age in the house. It's too quiet now."

"You're backtracking."

"I am not! He is still obnoxious, loud and dirty minded and I can't not hate him because he made me tell him the one thing I was trying to keep a secret. He brought back memories that I don't want to have Ash. I'll never forgive him for that."

"But you don't hate him Calum. Part of you does and that's understandable but you can sit in the same room as him, watch a movie with him, share a bed with him and not want to punch him whenever you see him, so the rest of you doesn't hate him."

"I want to Ashton. I should hate him, I'm supposed to hate him but I can't. As much as I hate him for getting my secret out of me, telling him about it actually made me feel better. It took a lot of weight of my chest, if you get where I'm coming from. He also comforted me when I needed it and I he can be funny, sometimes." Calum sighed defeatedly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "I guess I don't hate him, I just hate what he did. I'll have you're $5 dollars tomorrow morning."

"I knew you didn't really hate him." Ashton said. "I understand why you claim you still do, I don't like him for that as well. Overall, I'm just glad you guys are getting along."

"He's walking on thin ice though. If he makes one wrong move, I will hate him again."

"I don't doubt that." Ashton laughed.