Stranger » Malum

Day Five

3:21.

"Oh my god Calum, I'm so sorry!" Michael shouts, not even trying to be sneaky about entering the other boy's hospital room. He drops down to his knees and buries his face into the matress, completely disregarding the lonely chair.

He desperately grasps for the tanned boy' shand without removing his face from the soft Spiderman blanket that lay across Calum. "I didn't know!" he blubbers finally getting ahold of Calum's limp fingers, he raises his head to reveal a red face and teary eyes.

Seeking some kind of comfort in the sleeping boy, Michael climbs up onto the bed beside Calum, curling up into his side Michael tries to clm down.

"No one told me." He whispers, still clutching onto Calum's slightly cold and somewhat smooth hand as he rapidly tries to wipe away his tears with his other hand. "They never told me."

He raises a pale wrist in the air to bring attention to a thick strip of dark grey plastic wrapped loosely around it. It contrasted Calum's arm greatly, Michael had accidentally managed to interwine their fingers, Calum's dark purple bracelet made a papery scraping noise when it rubbed against Michael's.

Michael sniffs, "They were explaining my wristband and I asked what it meant if the dark gray was purple like yours and," he sniffles once again. "They told me I'd be in a coma. I'm so sorry, I didn't even know!"

"I'm stupid." He blubbers into Calum's side.

4:52.

It'd been a while since Michael had spoken, he'd had a couple coughing fits but quickly assured the other boy that he was completely fine.

"You know what I think is weird?" Michael's scratchy voice finally spoke up. "I haven't even see what colour eyes you have and I've already decided that they're the prettiest eyes I'll ever see." He lets out a sleepy chuckle.

"Its crazy that I haven't heard you talk but I'm already comfortable wth you." He continued, huddled up against Calum underneath his Spiderman blanket.

"Its strange how I know nothing about you and you've learned so much about me even if you can't register anything I'm saying." He twirls his bracelet absentmindedly and it scrapes against Calum's.

"If we met at a different time and place do you think we'd still end up side by side?" Michael asked  in a small innocent voice, shifting slightly so he could gaze up at the sleeping boy through his lashes. A thick white hair catches his attention, he picks it out of the boy's exceedingly darker hair. Although his mother would not tolerate pets, Michael could easily distinguish it as a cat hair.

"Maybe we have met before. . ." Michael trailed off, racking his brain for Calum's face in his memory while twirling the cat hair inbetween his fingers.

"I want to say December," Michael began. "Because I was probably buying Ashton's adorable Beagle some squeaky toys. I'm thinking Terry's Pet Products because I always shop last minute and its on the way to Ashton's house. Desipite Carol being a dog, I shop in the cats' aisle because they generally have better quality toys. . . I bumped into a boy I'd never seen before. I didn't see his face but he had nicely tanned skin and a head of thick black hair, much like yours. He was super lanky, with nice collar bones. I'd apologized on the spot, but he was gone before I could even finish. After that day I'd been extremely confused about everything."

He coughed, looking over at the clock and nearly fell off the bed, "Fuck-I mean, sorry. I had a Cardio Exam sceduled at four thirty that I completely blanked on. I've got to go." He rolled off the edge and stumbled around trying to regain his balance, in his rush to get to the door a small stuffed lion fell out of his sweater pocket. It landed on the floor, leaning on the leg of the bedside table.

"Goodbye Calum." Michael smiled over his shoulder as he walked out the door.