Two Bassists > C.T.H.

Chapter Eight: Calum's POV

thank you so much for 1K. here's a thank you that i wrote on a whim a year ago

January 2018

Today had been one of the worst days imaginable, and it wasn't even my life that was ruined. The house that I was in, sitting on the unfamiliar suede couch which had a million different memories sewn into it, was haunting; These memories were now destroyed.

The couch was no longer comfortable with the unsettling thought that nothing would be the same after this day for her. This day would mark something awfully special, and every year will be another year of torture. The reality of life was death, and that was inevitable for everything.

On that unfamiliar suede couch were people not so unfamiliar: Mikayla, Michael, Luke, Ella and Ashton. My best friends. Mikayla, however, had it the worst out of all of us, being that her mother had just passed away this morning.

Since we'd arrived to her childhood home, Mikayla hadn't stopped crying. She was okay when she arrived home and put her keys on the white entry table and when she hugged all of us. Then, she sat down on the couch, glanced at a family portrait on the wall, and cried, and cried, and cried. Mikayla spoke in between sobs occasionally to apologize and rant, but it was mostly sobbing.

And all I could do was rub circles on her thigh and nod my head to phrases I didn't quite understand because she was crying too violently.

We sat there for about thirty minutes before she asked Ella to talk to her sister and apologized to us for the millionth time. Mikayla never needed to apologize, yet she always did.

"No apology needed," Luke says with an awkward smile. It was kind of uncomfortable for all of us. In reality, we had no idea what to do or how to do it.

"You didn't have to come," She looks at me when she says it, almost like it was for me, but I knew in my head that it was for all of us.

"But we wanted to," Michael speaks up from the far end of the couch, "Because you are our friend."

"And I know your opinion with pity," I finally speak, forcing a small smile, "Don't give us that bullshit - That you don't want attention."

Mikayla huffs and rolls her eyes, but smiles back.

That's what I want to see her do: Smile. I never want to see her stop smiling.

Ashton made the good choice of changing the subject. We talked about so many things and just tried to make each other laugh, because that's what we all do best. Ella returned from Terra's room from deeper in the house and announced she needed to leave. It had been a long day and both Ella and my bandmates had to leave sooner than later.

"How is she?" Mikayla asks with a concerned look.

"The same as you," Ella admits, "I have to leave. My manager and publicist called me in there and told me to start getting ready for my flight."

In no time she was gone. Not long later, Ashton gets a call and we're told to leave as well. It's not what I wanted to do, and it took my entire heart and soul to take myself of Mikayla's couch and to walk to the car. I'm about to step into the car when someone tugs lightly on my sleeve.

"Wait, Calum!" Mikayla says, and when I turn to face her, her eyes plead. "Does he have, like, 30 minutes to kill?" Speaking to Ashton now, he gives a light shrug while eyeing me.

"Yeah, I guess," He finally nods.

I step away from the car, Mikayla pulling me aside.