Ease [Cashton/Muke]

Chapter seventy

Calum - Michael: You free?

Michael - Calum: Sorta?

Calum instantly dials Michael from his desk, Monday rarely had meetings anyway.

"What's up?" Michael answers the call on the first ring.
"I think Ashton should call me Sir all the time but I don't know how to break that to him without seeming authoritarian."
"I'm possibly the least qualified person to be giving relationship advice but anyway, tell me why." Michael deadpans.
"He keeps getting overwhelmed easily and then he indirectly confessed on Friday that he doesn't call me sir as often as he could. He's afraid of saying it too much. So, naturally, I made him call me air all weekend at my parents house. It was the perfect balance of him being out of his depth and needing me and us being in a safe environment." Calum rambles.
"You're giving me too many details, get to the point." Michael cuts in dryly.
"I have a theory that he gets so easily overwhelmed because I'm not giving him the constant support and guidance he needs, he's yo-yo-ing and that doesn't feel healthy."
"So I take it it went well with him using sir all weekend then?"
"It really did. He seemed more comfortable. Content. At ease."
"Well that's good then..." Michael trails as he gets a text from Luke.

Luke - Michael: I feel sick

Michael - Luke: What sort of sick :(

Luke - Michael: Idk, just sick

"You there?" Calum asks, shaking Michael from his thoughts.
"Oh shit, sorry, yeah. Luke just texted me, doesn't feel well." Michael apologises.
"Oh? Is he alright?" Calum frowns.
"Um, not sure. Look, you know I'm underqualified in this area. Just talk to Ashton and see how he feels. Based on what you're saying, he probably wants this too. Even if he doesn't know how to say it."
"Okay, thanks. You've been more helpful than you think, I needed to get it all out loud." Calum smiles thankfully.
"No worries, I'm always here. Talk later?"
"Yeah, go make sure Luke's feeling alright."

They end the call and Michael scrambled back a reply as fast as he can.

Michael - Luke: Sorry for the slow reply, I was on the phone to Calum when you texted. Are you at school?

Luke - Michael: No worries and yeah, wish I wasn't though

Michael - Luke: Can you go to the sick bay or something?

Luke - Michael: Maybe, I think we have a nurse or something

Michael - Luke: Okay, text me if there's anything I can do. Or you just wanna talk xo

Luke - Michael: Thanks xo

Luke spares a glance up at his teacher, the maths class was mostly silent. People were just working away at questions while the teacher did goodness knows what, maybe marking tests or something. Luke gets out of his seat and approaches the teacher's desk.
"I really don't feel well, can I go to the sick bay?"
"What kind of sick?" The old woman purses her lips as she looks up.
"Like I'm about to throw up?" Luke supplies unsurely. He didn't think he will throw up, he's a person who very rarely does, but right now he feels completely awful.
"You do look pale... I'll send an email so the office know to expect you. Take your books in case you don't come back before the end of class." She decides, Luke weakly nodding as a thank you before he gathers up his stuff and walks out -offering a quick explanation to the people he was sitting near. He didn't have any close friends in his maths class so he sat with some sorta friends in case he needed people to talk to.

"Luke Hemmings? I'm Ms Sears." Luke walks into the sick bay and is instantly greeted by a teacher he's not familiar with, he thinks he's seen her around the primary school area -it was a P-12 school so easy to not run into everyone. She looked younger than most of Luke's teachers and she was tall, Luke would guess nearly 6ft, and had long dark hair.
"Hi. I, um, feel sick?" He says unsurely.
"Tell me about it." She gestures to the bed for him bed to sit on, sitting on a chair across from it herself.

"Are you a nurse or something?" Luke asks instead.
"Sort of." She laughs. "I thought I wanted to be a nurse but after two years at university doing nursing I changed my mind and went into teaching. So I'm not technically a nurse but I know a lot of it."
"Right." He nods. "Well I don't know what to tell you. I just feel sick and exhausted."
"Like nauseous?"
"I think so. I feel like I'm gonna throw up, but based on my track record, I won't." He sighs, as if disappointed he's not about to vomit.
"Your track record?" She raises an eyebrow.
"I just don't throw up. With the exclusion of the one time I obviously gave myself food poisoning, I haven't thrown up in over a decade." He shrugs.

"Well, there's good and bad to that I suppose." Ms Sears concedes. "Tell me about your exhaustion, and how long has all this lasted?"
"I didn't feel 100% over the weekend but it's mostly started today. I just- feel more exhausted and I don't know why."
"Well it could be any number of things and, as we've covered, I can't diagnose you with anything anyway. Just try and take it easy for the next few days, rest up. I'd be happy to email your teachers and let them know you're not feeling great at the moment."
"I don't think I'll need that, but thanks."

Luke tries to rest up, even though year 11 can be pretty relentless, but it's only three more days until he's in the sick bay again. This time he was in English, sitting there feeling as awful as he has everyday this week. He was staring at the essay on his laptop, not being able to type anything and reading the same sentence over and over again. He honestly thought he was about to puke.
"Hey," his best friend, Sierra, lightly nudges his shoulder.
"Please don't." He groans, focussing all his attention on not throwing up right then and there.
"You look so shit, you need to go to the sick bay." She frowns.
"I went Monday, she said to just rest. There's nothing she can do Sez." Luke replies numbly.
"Well you're not doing anything here anyway. The point is that it's easier on everyone if you throw up there and not here."

Luke heads back to the sick bay after his teacher nearly has a panic attack thinking Luke's about to vomit on the carpet. He's once again met by Ms Sears.
"You look awful." She comments.
"Thanks." He laughs dryly.
"I don't generally use the same euphemism's around you older students as I do my own class of littlies."
"What class do you teach?"
"I have a grade one class but because there's two teachers for every class at that grade, I can be on call for the sick bay as well. That's how I do it." She answers. Luke nods, lying back with a groan when he starts to focus on the pain again.

A/N: hiii I'm here with today's update. I wanted to leave y'all hanging for a little bit after Luke came in but I promise there's more muke to come :))))

Here is a great bushfire fundraising link; https://www.facebook.com/donate/1010958179269977/

-Grace Williams xo