spotlight :: malum

: fifty two :

Hospitals fucking suck. They're busy, full of dying people, and they smell like cleaning supplies and dust. Nothing good ever seemed to happen with Calum's time spent in them. He never had that kind of luck where the positive surpasses the negatives. So when Michael was a patient in one, all he could do was panic.

Currently, he was on the phone with Luke. It was out of nowhere and the timezones made it weird because it's one in the morning where he is but it's three in the afternoon in Australia. But he needs someone to talk to. His best friend had sounded as cheerful as can be when he said hello over the speaker, the brunette's eyes glancing into Michael's hospital room through the wide window.

"Put Ashton on the phone." He rushed it out, he didn't have his number and he knows those two are attached at the hip, he just needs some form of relief that he'll be okay and that he didn't just make Michael's health plummet to something he can't push through.

"Why do you need him?" The voice wasn't curious it was almost bitter as he spat it to the maori. The tone nowhere near what he wanted to hear as his teeth grit together.

"Put him on the phone, dammit, I know he's with you." Those brown eyes watched with fear as the doctors stuck an IV into his boyfriend's arm, the boy's green eyes frantically following their motions as he looked so distraught but they won't let Calum in to calm him down and he can't take it anymore.

A faint shuffling was heard before a just as ignorant, "What?" Came from the mouth of none other than Ashton Irwin. His impatience of this conversation clear through his tone.

"Michael's hurt." The brunette's hand clutched his phone tighter as he watched the doctors start to give him more blood through his system, his face was so pale and he keeps on breathing so heavily the maori just wants to make sure he feels safe.

"How bad?" The dirty blonde instantly grew serious, the switch turning his voice stern with suspicion as the brunette instantly felt his heart anchor down to his feet. It's not even close to good. "Bad. It's all my fault, one of my crazy exes attacked him and it's because of me."

Saying out loud makes the thought one hundred times worse. His stomach started to knot uncomfortable, he felt like the walls were caving and the floor was spinning. He caused this. He was a smart ass to Emily and she fought for a spot back in his life that she's definitely not getting now.

"Jesus Christ, where did they hit him?" An instant reply because now he's got the curly haired boy worked up too, those mocha eyes blinking back tears as he sniffled, "She hit his head and he fell back on it so it's bleeding and his nose started bleeding in the ambulance, he's just losing blood and I can't talk to him but he looks so scared, Ashton." His whole body turned away from the window so he didn't have to watch.

He felt so weak trying not to cry to Ashton over the phone, there's a very limited amount of people who have heard and seen him cry- Michael, Tiffany, and David. If he doesn't stop now he'll have to add Ashton onto that list.

There was a moment of silence on the other end. Deep breaths from the speaker as the maori's bottom lip went between his teeth anxiously, guilt-filled eyes falling down on the floor as he scuffed his shoes against the tiles waiting for a reply. His mind only came up with the worst circumstances that can result from this. All the cameras caught it and there were plenty of witnesses but some fake news article already claimed he was the one who hit Michael and he nearly threw his phone at a wall because he would never in a million years hurt him.

"Did you tell them you're his boyfriend? Maybe they'll let you in." Finally, he said something and it got the maori to go quiet. His lips clamping shut while he froze, a sigh heard on the other line, "You forgot to tell them you're dating?"