to build a home; cth + afi

VII

chapter VII; calum

after a deep breath, calum let his shoulders slump and breaks his gaze away from ashton

"fine. just get the fuck off of me." calum sadly mumbles but it has no bite to it

"only if you promise you won't run to go find zach."

with this supposed information calum perks up, "oh my god, is he still here? holy fuck i'll kill him if he is. he stayed in my house? that asshole."

"no you fucker, if you were to actually listen to me and what i say, i already told you he's not in your house. actually even more so, i already did the damage control this morning. "

"what do you mean you did damage control?"

part II; ashton

a few hours earlier

the soft buzzing of his phone underneath the pillow was the first thing ashton noticed when we woke. he silently thanked himself for turning off his sound last night

he checked his screen to see a text from their favorite publicist, no sarcasm intended

sammy: congrats. he made it through another night without anything. he's pretty damn lucky right now. make sure it doesn't happen again please.

and with this relief ashton lets go of a breath he forgot he was holding. he'd been in and out of sleep all night worrying and checking on calum to make sure he was still breathing. he had grown so accustomed to watching the slow but steady flex of his friend's back that he didn't realize it hypnotized him into sleep. the guilt consumed him as he realized calum could have been really bad last night but he's still so thankful to hear the soft snores coming of his friends mouth.

he checked on calum once more to make sure he was okay. it seems as if calum gained some consciousness last night because he now was laying on his back with an arm across his chest and the other behind his head underneath his pillow.

he quietly rolled over and placed his feet on the hardwood floor to walk over to calum's dresser. he grabbed a pair of calum's sweats and a sweatshirt because now it was freezing in calum's house. he was so curious as to how calum slept in such a cold room every night. however, after he got dressed and checked his reflection in the mirror, only to avert his look away seeing how tired and hallow he looked, he then walked out to the living room to see that most people had already left. the only 4 that we're stuck were roy, mike, luke and jack. ashton was pretty lucky and pretty damn happy to only see them and not any others.

the one thing calum is very good at is making sure it's was known people were not welcome to stay in his house. it was always just for the evening and into the early morning and then it was a requirement to get out. it didn't matter if anyone made it home, slept in a car, or crashed in the front yard. no one was welcome to stay inside the house.

however, as time went on, a few of his actual friends managed to slip past that rule. but there was a clear understanding between all those that left and all those that stayed.

jack and luke were some what awkwardly cuddling on the couch, it really almost seemed more like someone strung them around each other and then shoved them into the sectional.

ashton would almost find the situation endearing if not for them being hungover, calum's house being trashed, and calum being passed out in his own bed one room over.

however, he knew calum, and the rest of the stragglers could potentially wake up soon so he makes breakfast and gathers the essentials. water for everyone and any painkillers ashton could find in calum's medicine cabinet.

he first wakes up luke and jack becaus they're the ones that will probably be the most sore.

he starts by slowly shaking them awake, but luke's mouth is way to far open and is making an absurd amount of noise that he came to the conclusion that his gentle tactics weren't going to do it.

so he took one of calum's throw pillows and started repeatedly hitting both jack and luke until they began to stir.

"motherfucker"

ashton stops his gentle assault when he realizes they're fully awake.

"ah good morning, nice to see you" he chirps just a little too obnoxiously

"ash, what the hell are you doing here?" jack asks while rubbing his eyes in attempt to wake himself up even further

"cleaning up this place, and you my friends are inhibiting that process so go to the kitchen and fix yourselves and then get outta here. i don't need you here when cal wakes up." he says as he shoos them along

"yeah don't worry we'll pass" luke grumbles as he trudges his way to the kitchen

after they both reach the kitchen, ashton wakes both roy and mike who were sleeping on calum's last two couches. they were easy to wake as they were not hungover like the other two. they were some what responsible drinkers last night. ultimately just lazy and felt like crashing at calum's instead of driving home late at night.

"hey kids" ashton says as they both stir "go to the kitchen i made you breakfast"

micheal's eyes light up at the thought of breakfast being made for him and says with a slight glimmer of hope

"did you make waffles?"

they were always his favorite, especially when ashton made them.

"nope sorry love, just toast"

"ah dammit i got so excited"

"we know mikey" roy decides to butt in "let's go eat though, i am starving"

after they all ate ashton's patented cure for a hangover, toast smeared with peanut butter, he quickly gets them out of the house and forms a little group chat of everyone they all can inform ashton when they all made it home safely.

but before luke could leave, he stands in the doorway and turns to ashton

"take good care of him."

"you know i will."

luke give ashton a curt nod with a tight lipped smile because he also knew what events could potentially unfold.

and when the door finally shut, ashton if left to now deal with the empty home.

he decides to take calum a glass of ice water and some advil, as he's guessing the poor boy is going to be in a lot of pain. once those are neatly tucked onto the beside table, he starts slowing putting all the alcohol back into the cabinet where it belongs. he then proceeds to wash down the kitchen as there were drinks still spilled everywhere and glasses left sitting astray all over the house from last night.

he's thanking his lucky stars again as most people have either the intelligence or just common decency to not spill drinks all over the house so minimal cleaning was done there. it was overall a quick process that just reassured ashton things would go over a little better when calum finally awoke.

however, not even after a minute or two of sitting down after he's finished cleaning he hears calum stirring decides it would probably be best to make his presence known.

he can't back out now. and he's really hoping things will be okay.

did that make ANY sense at all? idk tried doing a time switch thing not sure if it worked lol

but this is the longest chapter to date!! a little proud of myself :)

but yeah sorry for slow updates i'm wrapping up my senior year of high school and it's fucking exhausting

see you soon

love you lots x