somebody to love / cashton

Five

"What kind of plan." Michael asks, letting Calum in.

"Well since Luke ditched you-"

"Wait he's really ditching me? For who?" Michael asks sadly.

"Who do you think? Ashton obviously." Calum states, as they walk up to Michael's bedroom.

"Are you fucking kidding me. He's been here 2 days and already stolen my crush of 2 years. It's not fair." Michael whines, slumping down on his bed.

Calum gives Michael a bit of a sympathetic look, then gets up. "That's why I have a plan."

Michael sighs still cleary upset. "Take me on a date." Calum says suddenly.

"What?" Michael says confused.

"A fake date. Ask me out, take me out, we can fake date and make Luke jealous." Calum explains.

"What if it doesn't work." Mike frowns.

"Trust me it will. Luke doesn't know what he wants, that's why he cluelessly crushing on Ashton. But you and him have something special, hell you guys even cuddle all the time and act like it's normal-"

"Cuddling is normal!" Michael argues.

Calum shakes his head, "My point is. Once we "date", and Luke realizes you're not his anymore. He'll know what he wants, and Michael, he wants you."

Michael takes a moment to think, before nodding his head. "Okay, this might just work. How do we make this happen? Do I ask you out in front of Luke?"

"Yeah! And we should make it this big grand gesture. Say some stupid cheesy shit, and get me flowers. Rub it all in Luke's face." Calum says.

"What about like kissing..because we have to make it seem real." Michael replies awkwardly.

"Uh, once we've gone on the first date. I guess whenever Luke's around we should kiss, just like once or twice. Lot's of hand holding. Oh! And when we're all hanging out, cuddle me instead of him."

"Okay..okay. I think we can pull that off."

"We could even make jokes that imply we had sex." Calum laughs.

"Oh god, is that too much?" Michael asks, laughing as well.

"This is Luke we're talking about. We could slap him in the face and it still wouldn't be too much."

"You're right." Michael agrees, standing up dramatically. "Project Malum starts now!"

Calum looks at him weirdly, "Malum?"

"Our ship name."

"Oh."

"Yeah project Malum."

"And project Muke."

"What?"

"You and Luke!"

"Oh.

"Okay we need to take a picture and caption it malum."

"What if he doesn't like me?"

"Michael just take the picture."

-

At lunch the next day Calum, Luke, and surprisingly Ashton as well, were sitting together. Of course Luke was practically throwing himself at Ashton, and Ashton and him flirted the whole time, making Calum want to puke.

Ashton didn't even like Luke in that kind of way, but it was fun to harmlessly flirt with the boy and get him excited.

"Where's Michael?" Luke finally acknowledged the boy who wasn't there. Calum shrugged.

Soon, the sound of the marching band was heard, and the 3 boys realized they were marching right towards them.

Once the band made it to their lunch table, Michael was revealed from behind them, flowers in his hand. Calum was shocked at how seriously Michael took this whole Malum project.

Michael walked towards the three, purposely staring right at Luke, making the blonde boy smile widely at him.

But then he turned towards Calum, getting down on one knee. "Calum Hood. I-..I've been madly in love with you for 2 years. You're perfect, and you make everyday better with just your smile. Please, please, will you go out with me?"

And what Michael said was true, except it was about Luke, not Calum.

Calum put on a big smile, taking the flowers from Michael, smelling them. "Yes! Of course!" he replies happily.

The two boys hug tightly, really trying to sell the moment and shove it in Luke's face.

Michael decides to kiss Calum's cheek, which makes Calum blush because he wasn't expecting it. "I'm glad you said yes, because that'd be pretty embarrassing if you rejected me in front of the whole marching band."

Calum glances over to Luke, who seems to be frowning only a little. But he smiles when he realizes Calum is looking.

"That was so cute!" Luke exclaims.

What Calum doesn't see is Ashton's upset expression. Now Ashton would never admit it, but he was quite jealous.

But he has no right to be jealous, because he doesn't like Calum, he's his foster brother after all.

Okay, but at the same time he really likes Calum.

It's complicated.