Stay Together For The Kids - Michael Clifford Fanfiction

Holding the hand that holds you down.

"Michael?" I ask, perplexed.
He ignores me. His fist has hit the man with a sickening crunch.
"Michael." I breathe, leaping forward.
I pull Michael off the man. It was not that I didn't want the man to suffer, he deserved it. I just didn't want Michael to go to jail.
It's when Michael stumbles backward off the man I see who is standing behind him in the shadows.
"Calum?"
What the hell was going on?
Calum stood away from us, his face masked by the darkness. I could barely see his face from the small street light. He doesn't look good.
He ignores me, and takes a step forward to examine the man lying on the ground.
"Let's go." He says quickly, watching the man stir on the ground.
I agree. I have no desire to stay around here any more, all I wanted was to get as far away from that car as possible.
Calum turns in the other direction, striding ahead of us. It's only when I'm around the corner that I realise Michael has his arm around me.
"Get off me!" I shout, pushing his arm away. I don't want to be touched by anyone right now. Especially not by him.
Michael glares at me.
"I think you'd be a little more grateful, I'm trying to look after you." He shouts back.
In the better light I can see his eyes better now. They're glazed over and bloodshot. His face is sunken and I wonder if he's been drinking.
"Well I don't need you to babysit me, I'm a big girl, I can do it myself!" I snarl.
"Oh yeah, it really looked like you had things under control." Michael snaps.
I bite my lip. He was right. If him and Calum hadn't shown up, I shudder to think what would of happened. Which bought me to another point.
"How did you know where I was anyway?" I ask, my voice still raised but in a nicer tone then before.
Michael looks away from me.
"I know you better then you know yourself." He mumbles.
"Like you knew how much that video would torture me?" I ask, suddenly realising why I had been in the car in the first place.
Michael flickers his eyes to me for a second, in an annoyed way. It bothered me that he was annoyed with my question. How dare I be annoyed my husband fucked someone else.
"What do you care, you aren't coming back." He mutters.
"Not after that I'm not!" I scoff. "I ask you to get help so you think that means to go fuck your therapist?"
"She was giving me a lesson on patience." He smirks.
A sudden urge to kick him in the shins takes over me. I resist, barely.
"You're disgusting."
Michael rolls his eyes.
"Save it for court." He spits.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.
Michael smirks, the malicious smirk I saw in the video he had sent me.
"You're not thinking I'm going to let you have Ruby that easily?" He asks.
What the hell was he talking about?
"I'm not trying to keep Ruby away from you!"
Calum is now watching us intently. His eyes look like Michael's, and it surprises me to see him looking so sick.
"No, you were just wanting me to get help first!" He yells.
"You need it!" I yell back.
Michael pushes me backwards, and I stumble for a bit, thrown off guard.
He pushed my chest hard, and I can feel my body fighting to keep air in my lungs.
Calum lurches forward, grabbing Michael.
"C'mon, man, just leave it." He says lowly.
Michael glares at Calum.
"So you're taking her side?" He snaps.
"I'm not taking any side, just don't hurt her."
Michael shakes his head.
"I fucking knew it. I knew I couldn't trust you." He starts to walk backwards, but Calum grabs him.
"Michael, c'mon..." He pleads.
"Fuck off." Michael snaps, pushing Calum off and walking off into the dark.
Calum stands watching him walk off, while I clutch at my chest where Michael had pushed me. It felt like he had stabbed me there.
"You ok?" He asks, not looking at me.
"Fine." I lied.
Calum breathes angrily, kicking the curb.
"Calum." I say softly.
Calum murmurs, still looking away.
"What are you hiding from me?" I ask.
Calum looks at me, frowning. I see his eyes clearly now. It looks terrifying. His skin looks like it's peeling off and he just can't seem to focus on me.
"What makes you think I'm hiding something?"
"I've known you the longest then the rest of the boys. You aren't you." I say softly. I'm not afraid of Calum, he's never been that violent. If he was ever angry he would just yell.
"People change." Calum shrugs.
"What makes people change?" I ask, even quieter.
Calum looks closely at me and he knows I'm not buying that everything's fine. First of all, what was he doing with Michael? I thought they barely spoke now.
"I started doing things that have changed me. I like how I've changed though." He says quickly, seeming annoyed.
I feel my stomach tighten. Please don't let it be drugs.
"It's drugs, isn't it?" I ask quietly. I can't believe it.
Calum doesn't look at me, but nods. I see his jaw tighten.
I'm taken aback, but I'm angry at him too. What was he thinking, taking drugs? He was a good person.
"You're doing drugs?" I say loudly, shocked. Who else was doing crack that I wasn't aware of?
"Where do you think Michael got it from?" He yells back.
I stand for a second, swaying slightly. It was all falling in place. My messed up mind was slowly coming together, the realisation forming in my mind.
"You!" I yell, feeling betrayed. "You've been the one feeding him drugs this whole time. You're the one that's been taking him out until three am!" It was Calum that Michael had been hanging around with the past year. It was the innocent little boy that used to make me laugh that had single handily destroyed my family.
"You don't understand!" Calum yells back. "You don't know what it was like to lose Michael like that! He was my brother! And he wouldn't even look at me. When I gave him the drugs, he started to forgive me. He still hasn't forgiven Luke or Ash!" Tears are forming at Calum's eyes, and I stand watching him break in front of me. "He forgave me." He begs.
Calum sits on the curb, sobbing. I'm torn between the desire to yell and the urge to run to my old friend who's hurting so much. My old ways get the best of me, and I sit down next to him.
Calum's hands are over his eyes, and I can hear him choking through tears.
"I'm so sorry." He breathes through his hands. "I had no idea he was like this. I didn't know." He cries harder, and I put my arm around him.
I don't say anything, I don't know what to say. Calum used to be one of my best friends. To think of the idea of him on drugs too, it broke me. But to think he gave Michael drugs as well? It was like getting my insides ripped open.
But I know it's still not all his fault. Michael had had a drinking problem for as long as I could remember. Michael and I had started falling apart long before drugs every touched Michael's body. No, it wasn't Calum's fault.
"Where are you staying tonight?" I ask softly.
Calum looks up, his face and eyes red. He shrugs.
"You can stay at mine until everything's out of your system. Then I'm going to call Mali and she can take care of you."
Calum looks at me, studying my face.
"Why are you been nice to me? I destroyed your family."
I shake my head.
"No, Michael and I destroyed our family. Everybody else is secondary." I say, looking out into the darkness. I wish what I said wasn't true.
"I'm sorry." Calum whispers, new tears forming.
I nod. "I know."
Calum walks beside me silently when we walk back to my house. I hear him sob a few more times on the walk, but I don't say anything. There's nothing to say.
I lay out the couch for him, with a blanket and a pillow and a glass of water. I hope that's enough. I've never looked after a drug addict before.
I say good night to him briefly, and walk down the hall to my bedroom. It's already 3am.
I look into Ruby's cot and feel relieved to see her sleeping peacefully.
I think about Michael's words. I hope there isn't a battle ahead. I don't know if I could fight much more.