|Damage||cth| -au- DISCONTINUED

|Twenty-Two|

Calum:

My heart dropped seeing Aria and Luke together like that. I didn't care what Luke did with her but she looked uncomfortable.

Who was I to judge the way they kissed?

But I was pretty sure girls weren't supposed to look like they were going to cry while making out with their boyfriends.

I was pretty sure that wasn't how it worked.

Luke pulled away, giving me a dirty look. I knew Luke hadn't told Aria that I was here. For some reason, she looked relieved to see me.

"Sorry I didn't mean to interrupt anything but your shower is broken," I mumbled.

"Just use the one downstairs," Luke responded with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

Knowing my way around his house, I walked downstairs. I wondered what Aria was thinking.

She had been nothing but nice to me since we were assigned lab partners.

She helped my unconscious, narcoleptic body of the ground.

She told me I wasn't stupid and even after she so obviously had a panic attack because of me, she didn't even acknowledge it. She didn't even acknowledge me.

It was then that I was sure that I didn't rape her.

I couldn't have.

If I had raped her, she wouldn't be so nice to me.

Yeah...I didn't rape Aria.

Luke would have my head and so would have everyone else.
Why would Ashton and Michael say something like that?

It was a joke.
Definitely, a sick and twisted joke.
They even had me convincing myself that I...me...CALUM THOMAS HOOD raped someone.

And of all people...Aria.

I know I hardly remembered anything from that night but I think I would at least know if I raped someone...wrong.
I was so fucking wrong.
I didn't remember it.
Maybe...I did.

I stood in the shower as I pondered about Aria and Luke. Everything about their relationship bothered me. It wasn't so much Luke as it was Aria. It was definitely Aria.

No one ever liked Aria.

No one ever noticed her.

It wasn't supposed to be that way. She's a nobody. I wanted her. Maybe it was because she was Luke's-

But, women don't belong to men...right?

Someone opened the door as I dried my body off. Assuming it was Luke, I didn't care and continued to dry myself. I took the towel from off my waist onto my head, drying my dripping hair. As I took it off, I saw Aria staring back at me, a lot longer than she should have been.

I didn't care.

I didn't care at all.

We looked at each other for a bit, held eye contact and made me wonder what she was thinking.