Reaction || Malum ||

9

"I don't want to be here anymore." Calum sobbed. What was he talking about?

"Be here? What do you mean?" I asked and with the look Calum gave me I felt extremely naive for even asking that question.

"You wouldn't understand Mikey. I mean how could you? You are rich, popular and talented, how could someone like you possibly ever know what this feels like." He said gesturing to his wrist that was bleeding out into the sink.

I hated when people said that about me. When they assumed I was so happy and put together just because I was rich. Newsflash, my parents are the ones with the money and they hardly know I exist. I ran a nervous hand through my hair and continued to stare at Calum who was still sobbing in front of me.

"I may not know what this, is like but I understand how it feels to want to escape something." I said and tried to move towards Calum but he backed away.

"Stop Michael just go." He begged and my throat was strangled at the vision in front of me. His eyes were darting from me to the open door and back to his wounded wrist. He sunk to the floor and I did the same but he was still trying to escape me. He whimpered with tears streaming down his face and I reached out to wipe them away and he tensed under my touch. "P-please." He pleaded but I remained where I was.

"Just let me help you get cleaned up." I whispered and Calum nodded. In the cabinet under the sink was a first aid kit and I grabbed it, sitting it between Calum and I.

"P-please s-shut the door." He stammered and I got up quickly to shut the door. I knelt down in front of him and took out the rubbing alcohol and some bandages to doctor up Calum's cuts.

I rubbed some of the alcohol on Calum's skin and he whimpered in pain. I apologized but he was trying to pull away from me now.

"Calum I have to clean this up. Can you sing me a song?" I asked looking into his brown eyes and he nodded. Whenever I was little and I fell or hurt myself Rose would make me sing with she tended to my wounds.

"This, is the start of s-something b-beautiful. This, is the s-start of something new." Calum sang through sniffles and I continued to wipe away the blood from his wrist.

"Good Cal, keep going." I said and he nodded, taking a deep breath to keep singing.

"You, are the earth that I will stand upon. You are the word that I will sing." His voice was a little stronger now and I was wrapping the bandage around his now clean wounds.

"All done Cal." I said and he looked up to me then pulled his body into mine. Sobs shook him in my arms and his tears were soaking through my shirt.

"I h-hate e-everything." He sobbed and I felt my heart break at the fact I might be included in that everything.

"Do you trust me Cal?" I blurted out and things went still until Calum nodded slowly.

I pulled myself away from him slightly and tilted his chin up to look at me. I wiped away a couple tears from his soft cheek with my thumb and leaned into him. I barely touched our lips together and my eyes fluttered closed. Cal's lips were tense at first but eventually melted into mine. When I pulled away his eyes were still closed but they fluttered open slowly, with less fear than before.

A touch of a smile was on Calum's lips and his trembling hand reached out to touch my cheek. His calloused finger tips ghosted over my pale skin and my eyes closed from the electricity. When they opened again Calum's eyes were wide and a brighter brown.

"Maybe not everything." He whispered and buried his head back into my chest.

I cleaned up everything and Calum and I crawled into bed before the other lads came back. His arms snaked around my middle like they've done for so many nights as of lately. I liked that he wanted to be so close to me and I liked that he said he trusted me.