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

Chapter 50

The crowd scattered after Calum left, chatting amongst themselves and gossiping about what they had just witnessed. Michael didn't move from where he had been standing. His eyes were fixed on Nathan, who was massaging his neck.

"Michael, you there?" Luke asked, waving his hand in front of his face. Michael blinked and glanced over at him.

"Yeah. I just- I'm..."

"Let's go find the others again." Luke suggested, tugging gently on Michael's arm.

"In a minute." Michael replied, pulling away from Luke's grip and heading towards Nathan.

"Michael, what are you doing?"

Michael didn't reply. He kept walking with his fist clenched by his side. His anger increased with ever step he took and his heart thumped in his chest. Luke opened his mouth to say something but Michael had reached Nathan and punched him before he could form a sentence.

"What the fuck!" Nathan exclaimed, holding his jaw where Michael had hit him. "What was that for?"

"Take a wild guess." Michael spat. "You had no right to do that, you vile piece of shit." Luke rushed over to his side, tugging anxiously on his arm.

"Michael. Leave it, you've already punched him." Michael tried to shrug Luke off, but he wasn't giving in easily.

"Luke, let me go."

"No. You are not getting into another fight Mikey. I won't let you." Luke held eye contact with Michael, refusing to look away from him until he agreed to walk away. Michael sighed and walked away, but not before spitting at Nathan's feet.

"If I hear one more word from you about Calum, I won't make an effort to stop him, am I clear?" Luke growled at him. Nathan nodded, massaging his neck again with wide eyes. Luke and Michael walked away, both of their hearts still pounding.

Meanwhile, Calum was scanning the corridors of the school, searching for a particular boy with bright blue hair and an annoying smirk. He needed to apologise to him for blaming him for the rumours when he hadn't done anything. He'd been an asshole to him and that wasn't okay.

The longer Calum spent searching for Michael, the more he hated himself for blaming him and his embarrassment grew. If he didn't find Michael while he still had the courage to apologise then he would probably never do it. What Calum didn't realise was he'd already walked past Michael to get inside but in his haste, hadn't noticed him.

"Where the fuck are you?" Calum muttered to himself, tapping his fingers against his leg. He bit his bottom lip as he looked around frantically, praying he'd find him. Eventually, Calum spotted him leaving the hall with Luke and Ryan, talking quietly with them.

"Michael!" Calum shouted, making all three of them look up at him. Calum swallowed nervously and walked over, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down.

"What do you want Calum?" Michael said as politely as he could. In his heightened state of panic, Calum misinterpreted Michael's tone as harsh and lost all courage he had left.

"I-I..." Calum stuttered, shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously. "I..j-just.." He glanced up and saw Michael looking at him expectantly. Overwhelmed, he turned on his heel and sprinted down the hallway away from them, blinking back tears.

He'd messed up. His one opportunity to apologise and he'd bottled it and now Michael was going to hate him forever for blaming him. And he'd have every right to. Why didn't he just believe him?

"Stupid proud twat." Calum muttered to himself as he came to a stop outside of a classroom. He struggled to catch his breath for a few minutes before sinking to the ground and placing his head in his hands. He'd never be able to even look at Michael anymore. Not now.

Maybe if he hadn't been so distracted by Nathan he would have noticed Michael in the crowd and he would have still had the courage to apologise, or if he hadn't fought with Michael in the first place. Not earlier in the year when he got suspended, but when he first arrived in Sydney. He and Michael had so much in common but instead of becoming friends with him, 12 year old Calum decided to call him a dick during their first conversation. If he hadn't done that, he wouldn't be sitting on the floor in a ground floor corridor with his head in his hands having just thrown away his only opportunity to apologise to the guy he had a crush on. Maybe the whole school wouldn't know about his Dad either.

When the bell rang for the next class, Calum picked himself up off of the floor and headed to class. He met Ashton at the top of the stairs, and he handed him his bag with a small sad smile and a pat on the back.

He didn't deserve Ashton. Not in his opinion.

My poor baby 😢. This is probably shit as I'm not doing very well was updating recently and I'm sorry about that. I just seem to have hit a slump in my inspiration and motivation to write.