Arms||Cake AU||

Chapter 37

Luke knew Michael would not react well when he found out Jake has pulled a knife on him, but he was not expecting him to lose his cool. He had no idea how to calm down the rampaging red head, who was pacing up and down the empty classroom he'd pulled him into pulling at the ends of his hair.

"That son of a bitch!" He yelled, slamming his fist into the wall. Luke tensed slightly, watching Michael warily out of the corner of his eye. "Jut wait until I get my fucking hands on him.. I'll tear him apart."

"No!" Luke said sternly, surprising himself with the authority in his tone. Michael stopped his pacing and raised an eyebrow at him incredulously.

"Why the hell not Hemmings?" Michael said demandingly, "He had a fucking knife to your face."

"If you confront him it will only make things worse because he'll know that I told someone," Luke explained, sitting down on the edge of a desk. Michael narrowed his eyes at him.

"You have to do something Luke. He's fucking dangerous! Call the police or-"

"NO! No police. It's more hassle than it's worth." Luke waved his hands extravagantly, eyes widening with panic at he thought of the police getting involved.

"What the fuck Luke? You can't just let him get away without any consequences; what he did was illegal." Michael's eyes flickered to the cut on Luke's cheek as he glared at him. Luke focused on his knees.

"If I snitch, it'll make things worse," he mumbled defeatedly. Michael's glare softened and he sighed, stopped his pacing and sat down next to Luke. 

"This is a criminal offence Luke, he had a fucking knife to your face."

"I can't prove that to the police. That section of corridor doesn't have any cameras on it for some reason. I think some Year 8 smashed them in February and they never got fixed."

"You still need to report this," Michael said, placing his hand on Luke's shoulder. Luke glanced up at him and sighed.

"No, because if they search him and don't find a knife, Jake will come after me again,"

"You can't spend your life being afraid of people like Jake. How many more people will he pull a knife on Luke?"

Luke stared at his knees again, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. Michael watched him with a raised eyebrows.

"I don't know Michael," he said eventually. "I just want to get through these last few months of school stress free and then I'll never have to see him again."

"Dude, you live in the same neighbourhood."

"Jake would never try anything when there are people around; he needs the power imbalance. If I'm on my own, he knows he can over power me."

"Prick," Michael mumbled bitterly. "I'm sorry I left you alone at lunch. I wouldn't have left your side if I'd known it was all it took to protect you."

"Don't worry about it Mikey," Luke replied before jumping off the desk and heading to class.
----------------------------------------------

Calum was beginning to wonder where Luke had got to when he wandered into their Maths lesson late. The smile that spread on his face quickly dropped when he spotted the wound on his cheek. As Luke passed his desk, he grabbed hold of his wrist to stop him.

"What happened? Are you okay?" He whispered, studying the patched up cut closely. Luke avoided his eyes as he told him it was a scratch, which triggered alarm bells in Calum's head.

"Trust me Cal, I'm fine," Luke whispered, pulling his hand out of his grip. "It's nothing serious." Calum wanted to argue, but in the middle of their crowded Maths class under the intimidating glare of their teacher, he was forced to drop it.

Luke settled into his usual seat near the back of the class, far too close to Jake for both his and Calum's liking. Calum watched with narrower eyes as Jake nodded at Luke with a smirk plastered across his face. Luke shot him a anxious glance over his shoulder before hastily pulling his textbook out of his bag.

"Mr Hood, if you would please focus your attention to the front of the class instead of Mr Hemmings, it would be fully appreciated!" Calum rolled his eyes and turned to face the front, desperately trying to repress the blush that was creeping onto his cheeks.

Calum and Luke both kept their heads down for the rest of the lesson, but neither got much work done. Luke's mind was preoccupied with checking that Jake wasn't going to attack him in the middle of class, and Calum was focused on the cut running down Luke's cheek. As the bell sounded for the end of the period, Luke jumped out of his chair and ran out of class without a backwards glance. At the sight of Jake's widening smirk, Calum sprinted after him, eventually catching him outside the toilets.

"What did he do?" Calum asked demandingly as soon as he stopped running. Luke shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Luke?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Blondie, this isn't a good time to play dumb. What did Jake do to you? Is that his fault?" Calum pointed at Luke's cheek, watching him intently to gauge his reaction. Luke, who had been maintaining eye contact, looked down at the floor momentarily.

"No," he mumbled, knowing deep down that Calum could see right through him.

"Bullshit. How'd you get that cut?"

"I told you, it's just a scratch!"

"It clearly fucking isn't," Calum argued, raising his eyebrow at the blond. "I know Jake did that. I know it's not a scratch."

"Yes it is. And I am not letting you do anything stupid because of it," Luke snapped, glaring at Calum with an intensity he could never have expected.  Luke's ocean blue eyes were stormy, waves of emotion crashing around his iris.

"What does that mean?" Calum asked with a slightly insulted tone.

"It means you'll go running after Jake and beat him unconscious again when you're still serving detentions for the first offence."

"So it was him! That little prick won't know what's hit him." He ran a hand over his knuckles, cracking them menacingly.

"NO! You'll get kicked out! You're already in trouble."

"YOU ARE WORTH GETTING KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL FOR!" Calum took a step closer to Luke, who was pressed against the wall, still glaring at him with a storm raging in his eyes. Neither of them could tear their anger filled eyes from the other. Calum was moving towards Luke, closing the gap between them until their lips collided.

Time stopped.

Luke's heart was pounding in his chest as he started kissing Calum back. Just as he moved to pull the older boy closer, Calum pulled away. His brown eyes were wide, void of any anger they had held before. Like a deer caught in headlight, he blinked at Luke twice before he sprinted down the corridor and out of sight.

My updating has been horrendous at the moment oml.