To love you | Malum

Ch. 33 - You Fell Asleep In My Car + Just Let Me Love You

Michael + Ch. 33 - You Fell Asleep In My Car + Just Let Me Love You

The light peeking through the window was irritating my eyes, but Calum was beside me with his hands on the steering wheel, humming soft tunes that played quietly through his car stereo. The scenery was beautiful – the vibrant green trees, the bark covered in moss and crisp leaves, the roads blending in with the sky and the sun that was just beginning to set.

I looked over at Calum, and he grinned, his lips moving like a gravitational pull on the universe, and they twirled in circles until they met my forehead. "Well, evening beautiful, I missed you."

I yawned, my lips feeling chapped and my hands going dry. Calum had a bottle of lotion which would be at great use for me, but I couldn't reach it without moving my back in the wrong way. "What happened?"

"You fell asleep in my car." Calum pulled into a gas station, and parked the car near the fuel dispenser. He grabbed a blanket from the back seat, then laid it out on top of me so I wouldn't be cold. "I thought it'd be nice to just keep driving until you woke up. It calms me down, and it's a nice thing to wake up to."

"I think knowing you're beside me is nice to wake up to," I mumbled, holding my breath as I felt my nerves getting to me. "You know something, Calum?"

Calum chuckled, his dimple popping out. "What?"

"The sunset, it molds onto those picket fences, and on that neighbors lawn. It creates silhouettes, passion, and love. Oh, of course, love. The most obvious one."

Calum smiled, then pressed a quick, chaste kiss to my lips unexpectedly. I could feel my cheeks heating up, and my skin growing warm. There were definitely butterflies swarming inside of my stomach, and it felt weird, but a good weird.

He looked out of the window, then decided to open the car door to fill his tank with gas. I waited for him, thinking about how I could approach him with what I had to say, but I didn't know how to. My throat was dry, my tongue was numb, and my words were hanging off of a thread that was sitting on my jacket, ready to be pulled out to fall apart. When he came back, he had sweat on his forehead, and bitter eyes that reminded me of Luke's when he wanted to hurt me.

He hopped into the car, buckled his seatbelt and sighed, leaning his head against the seat.

"What happened, Calum?"

"The dickhead wouldn't give me gas because he saw me kiss you." Calum laughed, his eyes going red. "Called me a faggot. Said we don't belong out here."

"News flash – we're human," I reiterated, trying to remind Calum of our reality. People can judge, but judgments shouldn't tear people apart. It's wrong. "And just because we're gay doesn't mean we don't have the civil right to put gas in a fucking car."

"Whatever, Michael." Calum put his fingers over his forehead then rubbed small circles into it to calm down his headache. "I'm not even mad. I mean, of course I'm mad, but clearly we're not going to be accepted here, so we might as well just leave."

I took a deep breath, then pointed out the golden hue for Calum to see. "Look at the sun, the rays, the waves that are moving along with the planes in the sky."

Calum smiled, allowing himself to calm down and forget about the ignorance that came from inside. "You once told me that I reminded you of the sun."

"I wasn't wrong. I mean look at it, and look at you. Both are beautiful, but that orb can't compare to you."

"Oh please, Michael, I'm nothing." Calum held his hands out and reached for the steering wheel, his fingers shaking, and I didn't miss the way he closed his eyes to look away from the sun, or the way his lip quivered as he tried to steady his breathing, or the way he tried to distance himself from me, but I did miss the way he tried to pull himself back together. "Luke always told me that I was nothing. That Ashton was better. And I know you don't want me to talk about him, which I understand, because I wouldn't want to hear you talk about somebody else either."