the kink club • luke hemmings ✔️

13. the one where calum is joey tribbiani.

chapter thirteen:
the one where calum is joey tribbiani.

"I've decided," Calum says, walking towards the table with a proud smile on his face. "I'm going to become an actor."

"Oh, boy." Bailey murmurs to herself, rolling her eyes as she settles her head on Michael's shoulder. The older boy just pats her hair reassuringly, looking tired himself.

"What? It's a genuine interest of mine," Calum says, waving at Chloe to move over. As he takes a seat, his eyes scan around the rest of us. "And besides, I need a day job."

"Then get one here." Ashton chuckles.

Calum frowns. "Uh, no. Only boring people get jobs at coffee houses,"

"Excuse you," I fold my arms.

"Well, except for you, of course,"

"What about me?" Ashton asks, looking slightly offended. Calum pauses, allowing his gaze to travel.

"My statement still stands."

"Rude," the curly headed boy murmurs, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Hey, speaking of jobs," Michael pipes up. He turns to Ashton and I. "Aren't you two supposed to be working right now?"

"Yeah, we're supposed to be. But do you see any customers around?" I ask, gesturing to the empty coffee house, bar the five of us that have managed to squeeze into one of the bigger booths at the back.

Michael just shrugs, his newly dyed evergreen hair falling into his eyes as he reaches for his hot chocolate.

"Fair point. You two basically get paid to do nothing."

"I guess."

"Yeah, well, not for long," Ashton says sadly, sitting up. His tone, as well as the way his expression is twisted, makes me frown.

"What do you mean?"

"Not for long?" Bailey echoes.

Ashton pauses, looking around the café as if expecting our boss to come out from nowhere to fire him for spilling some big secret. "Don't quote me on this, okay? I just overheard Sadie talking about it over the phone,"

"Alright," I say, both curious and dreading to know the answer. "What's going on?"

"She's thinking of letting this place go," Ashton answers, somewhat calmly. I freeze. "I mean, I can see why. It doesn't get that much business. And when it does it's pointless because we can never keep up with it all,"

"So? Tell her to hire some more people!"

"Haven't got the money," Ashton shrugs. My own shoulders slump. "The most we've earned this entire month came from that one time I got my hand stuck down the drain. And even then, it was only because we had Luke to help us,"

"You could ask Luke to help again," Calum suggests. "Maybe he has a way of drawing people in."

"Wise words from a wise man," Michael nods.

"Like I said, we haven't got the money."

"Luke won't mind." Bailey quips. "He's into all that volunteer work, remember?"

"What? We can't expect him to work with no pay," Ashton says, with a slight scoff.

"He'd do it," Michael says, thoughtfully. "You know what Luke's like." then his eyes drift from Ashton to me, a small smile on his face. "Oh, he'd definitely do it."

"Mike." Calum says, a slight edge to his voice.

"What?"

"Stop talking."