Punchbag - Calum Hood (5sos) Alternate Universe [ON HOLD]

10: cassidy

10: gale song - the lumineers

= [unedited]

©assidy

I wouldn't have gone into Calum's house, but I was desperate. I'm also quite a nosy person, but let's not mention that. We walked into the living room and it was freezing cold. Calum swore, and ran into the kitchen, presumably to turn the heating on, and the air con off.

"So," Calum said awkwardly, passing me a cup of coffee I didn't realise he'd made. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't really know," I muttered, suddenly shy. It had just hit me I was in some randomer's house. He could be a murderer for all I knew.

"Ok," it was silent for a moment. "Um, why are you homeschooled?"

"My mum thought I'd get a better education," I said. "I don't live with her, my parents are divorced and my dad got custody of me and my sisters. They're all old enough to live where they want, but I still have to live with dad and visit my mum every other weekend. I'm supposed to be visiting this weekend but my stepbrother's got some concert thing so I've been blown off. Anyway, if I want to go to a 'proper school' I have to go live with mum. What about you?"

Calum blushed. "You're probably going to run away when you here this, but ok. I, erm, hospitalised a teacher? My parents are divorced too, not many people knew at school and my teacher was poking his nose in because of some project about happy families and I didn't want to participate because I don't exactly know what a happy family is, do I? My mum's single, well at least I think, and I've never met my dad's family because he lives in America. I thought it would be inappropriate for me to share my views. But he just kept pushing me, so I lashed out. And I'm honestly not the kind of person to do that, I swear. It was so weird..." He trailed off, looking at me wearily.

I shrugged. "Sounds like he deserved it. Before my parents broke up, when I went to normal school, this kid kept calling me a boy and saying I shouldn't be doing sports, so I punched him. Kind of a similar thing, except I only got suspended. I'm guessing you got like, full on excluded?"

"Yeah," he admitted sheepishly. "Permanent exclusion. My mum went crazy."

"I bet she did," I laughed. "Hey, do you want to watch spongebob or something?"

His face lit up. "Yeah!"

He grabbed the remote and flicked the channels until he got to Nickelodeon. We sat and watched really old episode reruns, until his home phone started ringing. He motioned for me to be quiet when the person started to leave a message.

"Calum? It's me. I'm sorry I'm out again, you know how it is. But you're a big boy, you can look after yourself. How did boxing get on? I'll speak to you tomorrow, I should be back. If I'm not, it's little Lorrie's christening tomorrow, and we're not going. When Auntie Lorraine rings, tell her you're sick. Oh, and your dad wants you to call him tomorrow, don't let him hang up like last time, little bugger. Anyway, I'll speak to you tomorrow Cal, love you." The person, who I presumed was his mother, hung up.

"I wanted to go to that Christening," he mumbled, and I smirked it him.

"Do you not get along well with your mum?" I asked.

"No, I mean, I kind of treat her like shit. But at the same time, I feel she deserves it because she's the one who kicked dad out, and she's the one who's never here. Dad almost never forgets to call, mum almost always forgets to even cook dinner."

"I know the feeling," I admitted. "I really dislike my mum, she calls me out about stupid shit that doesn't even matter, like the fact I need a haircut or that I should wear more make up. I go round her house and all she does is compare me to my step siblings. It's like, I only make the effort because if I didn't, I'd have to live there permanently. And I'd hate that."