Reaction || Malum ||

39

Michael's POV

Headlights came and went but neither of us were saying much of anything. Ashton was in the hospital and Luke was panicking so now Calum and I are racing down the road to be with them both.

"Did Luke say what happened?" Calum finally broke the silence with his nervous voice.

"Just that Ash started complaining about his stomach then passed out." My words were flat but my mind was elsewhere. Ashton was a dear friend to us and of course we were both worried for him but I was also worried about Luke. He and Ashton were getting closer and I can imagine the pain this situation has probably inflicted on him.

"I hope he's alright." Again Calum's voice was small and he went to tangling his fingers in his nervous habit.

"Me too Cal, me too." I said, my own voice small as I softly rubbed his leg. I was about to pull my hand away when Calum's rested atop of it.

I glanced over to catch the brown of his eyes capture light from a passing headlight and offered him a smile. He tangled my fingers in his as I continued to drive us as fast as I could down the winding hi-way. I'm terrible in these situations and all I keep thinking about is the first time I had to rush Calum to the hospital. Probably the scariest situation of my life besides when I was in there myself. It's weird how the hospital has played so many roles in my life with Calum but it's still making me nervous. What if Ashton is hurt really badly and I have to watch Luke go through that, it'll kill me.

Almost as if Calum was reading my thoughts, he squeezed my hand reassuringly. From the beginning I felt connected to Cal in this weird way and every day he supplies me with evidence that this could be true. I glanced back over to him and my heart and stomach back flipped. His lips were pouting, his brows furrowed as we played with my fingers. It was innocent the way he did so and I felt my groin tighten just watching him. If this wasn't an emergency I'd pull off the road just to fuck him but I need to gather myself.

"Are you nervous Mikey?" He asked and my eyes snapped back over to him.

"Yeah." I breathed barely hearing myself.

"Me too." He admitted, kissing my fingers one by one. Damn it Calum.

"Keep doing that and I'll have to pull over." I growled and Calum looked at me with wide eyes. His lips were pouting even more now like he had just been scolded but he kept my hand resting in his lap.

We were growing closer I could tell by the familiar streets around us. Like a weight sitting on my chest, my nerves returned. I'm scared about what's going on behind those sliding glass doors. Calum finally released my hand as we climbed from the door and walked fast towards the door. I was just about to step through the door when Calum's hand gripped my upper arm, pulling me back. When I turned to face him my eyes met a color of brown that only existed in Calum's eyes. They dropped to the concrete between us but then met mine again.

"Cal what's wrong?" I asked taking a step closer to him.

"I just, can you promise me that if things are bad with Ashton right now, that you'll be strong enough for both of us. I know that's a lot to ask but I'm awful in these situations as you already know." He rambled and for some reason I started to smile.

"Of course Cal. But promise me that you'll tell me when you're not okay, you can't hide it like before." I added my own promise and Calum nodded.

"Promise?" I asked holding out my pinky making Calum laugh softly at me before connecting his to mine.

"Promise." When the words tumbled off his lips I knew we were promising a lot deeper than the situation was right now.

After a few moments of staring at each other, we rejoined hands and walked through the automatic doors. Hospitals are always unforgiving. They allow for life to begin and for life to end and both are terrifying concepts. My boots thudded against the floor as we walked towards the information desk. A snarky looking blonde woman was manning the desk and barely made eye contact with us as we approached. I scrunched my nose at her and Calum shrugged before I opened my mouth to speak.