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

Chapter 49

Calum ran through the corridors, pushing past students making their way outside to enjoy the sun. He could hear Thomas and Ashton shouting after him, begging him to slow down. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't; his feet were carrying him without any input from his brain. The walls and people in the corridor blended together into a multicoloured blur as he ran. His heart pounded. His lungs screamed for air but he kept going.

"You!" He yelled, pointing at Nathan with a glare as he found him sitting on a bench with a small group in the grounds. "You fucking lied to me."

"Calum! Calum stop. What are you doing?!" Ashton shouted, coming to halt a few feet away next to Thomas.

"Piss off Ash." Calum snapped.

"What have I done?" Nathan asked innocently. His eyes were wide and panicky which he tried to disguise badly with a smile.

"What have you done? I fucking tell you what you've done. You have come back into my life after 5 years and fucking ruined it. You've told the entire school about my Dad and now everyone thinks I'm dangerous." Calum shouted, glaring at Nathan. Pupils gathered in a semicircle around the bench, watching curiously as Calum lost his temper yet again.

"You can't just walk around accusing people of things like that Calum. What proof do you have that it was me?" Nathan asked, raising an eyebrow at Calum with a smirk on his face.

"The newspaper article." Calum muttered after a short hesitation. "You must have photocopied the newspaper article and stuck it around the school. You are the only person who knew of its existence and had access to it."

"Okay Sherlock, if you got me all figured out answer this. Why the fuck would I want to tell the whole school about your scumbag of a father?" Nathan's voice was no longer innocent or curious but harsh and defensive, laced with an underlying tone of panic from being caught out and he was standing up, away from the bench, in front of Calum.

"I-I don't know." Calum replied truthfully, looking down at the ground for a split second. "But I'm going to find out because you're going to tell me."

"How are you going to do that when it wasn't me."

Nathan had badly finished his sentence before Calum shoved his against the bench and grabbed his neck, bringing his face mere inches away from his face.

"Calum No!" Ashton shouted from the side, attempting to run forward only to be grabbed and dragged backwards by Thomas.

"You're really doing a great job of defending your image as a harmless citizen." Nathan said sassily through nervous laughter. "You should really listen to your friend over there."

"Listen here you piece of shit. You are going to drop the tough guy act right now and tell me why the fuck you would bring up my Dad in your brand new school or I will tighten my grip."

"Planning on joining Daddy in prison I see."

Calum stuck to his word and tightened his grip on Nathan's neck. It wasn't tight enough to cause any restraint on his breathing but it was tight enough for Nathan to get scared. His eyes widened and he looked around his group of friends desperately. None of them gave him the backup he was looking for, one of them even ran off, stumbling over his own feet as he went.

"Why?" Calum demanded. The crowd was watching with baited breath by this point, some of them filming the confrontation, others covering their mouths in fear.

"Why?" Nathan repeated with a slightly hysterical laugh. " The rumours haven't fully died out at home and everyone still remembers you as the murderers son. I move to Sydney after five years without you around and on my first day at my new house, I witness you fighting in an ice cream parlour with a seemingly harmless boy. You are angry at him even though he's apologised multiple times and then you have to be grabbed away from him by security. I recognised you instantly and realised that you were a danger to everyone. Then I come here, and find that you are one of the most popular kids in this school even though you are clearly dangerous. I came to the conclusion that they didn't know about you past so I decided to give them the truth they deserved. Do you know that it's wrong to lie about who you are?"

"I wasn't pretending to be someone else." Calum retorted angrily, tightening his grip a fraction more.

"You were walking around the school, acting like a nice, harmless kind kid all while hiding the fact that you have a murderer for a father. In my opinion, that counts as lying about who you are."

"I wasn't lying!" Calum argued. "I've been blunt about my opinion and I've made it clear what I like and don't like the whole time I've been here. I've made great friends and been as true to myself as possible. I've worn my heart on my sleeve but my Dad wasn't mentioned because he doesn't have a place in my heart. I want nothing to do with him or what he did. You ruined that. YOU FUCKING RUINED THAT!"

Calum let go off Nathan's neck and stared at him with tears in his eyes. All of his anger had been replaced by a sense of relief which filled his chest and made him feel lighter.

"I could have tightened my grip again." Calum said slowly. "I could have kept tightening my grip until the last breath left your body. But I'm not like my Dad. I don't kill the people I have disagreements with. What you did was cruel and unnecessary but it's not worth you dying for. The right to tell people about my Dad was, and has always been mine, not yours. If I wanted people to know, I would have told them. If I thought it was important, I would have told them. But it's not is it? We are not defined by who our parents are, or what our parents have done. We are defined by who we are and what we do. I'm just sorry you were too immature to see that. Now excuse me, I have an apology to make."

The crowd that had gathered cheered as Calum walked away, patting him on the back as he pushed through them.

The attached image is what I imagine Nathan looks like.