Arms||Cake AU||

Chapter 15

Calum was glad that the weekend has come around again as it gave him a couple of days to relax and forget about the stresses of school.

Calum woke up at 1pm to the smell of bacon drifting up the stairs from the kitchen. Calum rolled over and kicked his duvet off, stretching sleepily.

"Calum, wake up!" His dad yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"I am up!" Calum shouted back, pushing himself out of bed. He wandered through his dimly lit bedroom, yawning. Still in his pyjamas, he wandered downstairs, his stomach growling.

"Can you pass me the ketchup Mum?" Calum stopped in his tracks. He must still be dreaming. Mali couldn't be home, it had only been two weeks since the last visit. Calum stepped tentatively into the kitchen and there she was, sitting at the end of the table with a piece of bacon dangling from her fork. When she noticed Calum, she smiled innocently at him, but her eyes were narrowed and glaring.

"Tell me I'm dreaming." Calum mumbled, looking Mali straight in the eye. "What is she doing here?"

"Calum, sit down and we'll explain." Joy said gently, placing a plate of bacon at the other end of table from Mali. Calum glared at Mali and reluctantly sat down at the table.

"Go on then. Tell me why she's here." Calum demanded, raising his eyebrow at his mum.

"Calum, drop the hostility. We're her parents too. She's allowed to visit as often as she liked." Dave told him sternly.

"Not when I'm here!" Calum argued, stabbing his bacon with a fork.

"Calum..." Joy whispered desperately. "Please, just hear us out."

"Fine." Calum grumbled, shooting Mali a dark look.

"Well, Mali and her boyfriend broke up yesterday and she's got nowhere else to live so she's going to be moving back in." Joy explained quickly, avoiding eye contact with her son. Calum dropped his fork with a clatter, looking around the room angrily.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Calum exclaimed. "This is a joke right?"

"No Calum. This is not a joke." Dave said sympathetically. Calum stared at his Dad, breathing heavily as his heart pounded in his chest. After a couple of minutes, he pushed his chair back aggressively and left the house, slamming the door behind him.
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Calum cursed his parents under his breath as he walked through the streets of suburban Sydney wearing nothing but an old pair of joggers. He was struggling to think straight. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he walked. His bare feet pounded against the pavement and were slowly beginning to hurt.

Why did Mali have to move back in? She'd made his life hell when she lived with them before and now she was back. Calum was sure he'd end up killing her.

"You've already killed one sister. Do you really want to do it again?" Mali's voice hissed in his head. He balled his hand into a fist and exhaled slowly, trying to force her out of his head. No matter how far he went, he'd never escape her. She was right inside his head, tearing him down from the inside out.

By the time Calum reached the other side of town, the "more affluent" side of town, his feet were killing him. They screamed for him to stop, for the pain to stop but Calum kept walking.

He liked the pain. He felt like he deserved it.

The houses on this side of town were a lot larger than Calum's house. The streets were neat and well kept. In the distance, Calum swore he heard the faint tinkle of water from a fountain. This was the side of town where the rich people like Jake Peters lived, and Calum felt very out of place walking around shirtless with his tattoos on display. His feet were aching, too much for him to handle, so he limped over to a bench outside a nearby park and sat down, massaging his swollen feet.

Calum broke down after a few minutes, unexpectedly bursting into tears. His mind had stopped racing and the anger had ebbed away, leaving Calum with a heavy heart and aching sadness that surrounded him. Tears rolled down his cheeks and onto his joggers. Calum let them fall. He couldn't find the energy within himself to fight them.

Everything that Calum thought was good in his life was crumbling around him. First, he'd fallen out with Luke, the closest he had to a friend other than Michael and then Mali was back at home, the only place he could fully relax. Calum continued to cry until there were no tears left, and he sat on the bench staring straight ahead, eyes unfocused.
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As the sun began to set, the air got cooler and Calum had to curl up into a ball to conserve body heat. With no shirt to protect him from the cold air, Calum began to shiver and he had no phone to contact anyone to come help him. His feet were too worn and painful to walk any significant distance and he'd resigned to the fact he'd probably be on the bench all night.

"Calum?" A familiar voice said from behind him. Calum looked around slowly, spotting Luke with an older boy with curly hair and glasses. "Calum, what on earth are you doing out here?"

Calum shrugged, wrapping arms around himself as a shiver went down his spine.

"You must be freezing Calum. Why are you out here without a shirt on, it's the middle of winter." Luke said sternly but Calum could hear concern in his voice. "Don't you live on the other side of town?"

"Yeah." Calum replied monotonously.

"You've got nothing on your feet. Did you walk here barefoot?"

Calum didn't reply, he didn't need to.

"Are you hurt?"

"You're asking too many questions Luke." Calum whispered. "Just leave me alone, please."

"No way. You'll freeze to death if you stay out here all night dressed like that. Can you contact anyone to pick you up?" Luke asked, slipping his jacket off and draping it over Calum.

"If I could I would have done it ages ago." Calum replied. "And I don't need your jacket. I'll be fine."

"No. You're coming with me. Ashton, can you help me. I'm going to take him to mine, he might need help walking, his feet look painful."

Both Calum and Ashton were surprised by Luke's assertiveness. Ashton has never seen his best friend take charge of a situation like that before and Calum, who had been on the receiving end of his fair share of Luke's sass, was shocked that the same boy allowed himself to be beaten up everyday.

"I don't need you help Hemmings." Calum argued as Luke slipped his arm around Calum's shoulder and hoisted him up.

"Yes you do." Ashton replied, holding him up from the other side. "You're freezing mate."

Calum sighed defeatedly and allowed himself to be escorted towards a large house not far away from where he had been sat all day. Ashton and Luke lowered Calum down onto the sofa gently and Luke grabbed a blanket from the other side of the room, throwing it over him as Calum's eyes closed and he let the exhaustion take over, falling into a deep sleep.