RUN! [Muke/Cashton]

Chapter Twenty-Three.

There was the insistent tap of a pen knocking against the surface of a desk coming from the back of the class. Those around him tried their best to ignore it and focus on the notes the teacher wanted them to copy scrawled across the whiteboard in his barely legible hand writing, but the only thing Calum was focused on was his watch.

It was the last period before lunch on Tuesday and the boy wanted nothing more than to leave before the teacher could get any deeper on economics in 1832. Yesterday he had shown up at school wanting nothing more than to see Ashton. This stomach fluttered even more now at the name than it had before, flashes of their night (extended to weekend) together running through his mind rather than the answers to the questions being thrown out by the teacher every few minutes.

Ashton was the only reason dragged himself out of bed early Monday morning for school. The boy had hope of seeing the hazel eyed boy and his expression lighting up like it had that morning when they had woken beside each other. There was also the chance having another real conversation and not the small talk they had for the past years. He knew that his feelings for the other were accepted and that was the only that mattered him now; not even the joy of winning could take that place.

Instead for two days Calum was met with an empty desk where the boy would of been if he was at school. On Monday he spent his first two classes of the day looking towards the door hoping for Ashton to walk in, but that never happened. It was at lunch when the realised that there was no sign of the boy amongst his friends at the head of their groups table. It was then he concluded that the teen hadn't made it to school that day.

Now today Calum found himself flicking his pen against his desk as his gaze bore into the back of Ashton's empty chair. He didn't want to admit but he was starting to worry about the boy. Calum knew all that he gone through in just a couple hours, and how all those things piled onto what he already had to deal with in his everyday life. Calum wished there was a way for him to help the boy, but he sensed that wall Ashton had built around himself hadn't fallen completely. Sure, Ashton had spilled a lot about himself that night, but there was still more that the boy didn't want him to know. He wished that Ashton would just let him know so he could soothe it all for him, but, he knew he'd have to wait until the older was ready.

It didn't help that Ashton wouldn't answer any of his messages. Calum sunk further behind his desk sighing, maybe he was worried about the curly haired boy. He watched the digital numbers on his smart-watch flick over and the bell echo through the hallway telling him he was free to do whatever he wanted during his lunch hour. He waited for most of the class to file out of the room, before following after them to the cafeteria.

He had a daily routine when it came to lunch times which always ended with him sitting amongst other rich kids and wannabes that he called his friends. He entered the crowded cafeteria, walking towards the tables that his group had pushed together, only to be stopped by a small hand on his shoulder.

Normally Calum would of shrugged the hand away, putting the touch down to one of his 'friends' from his lunch group playing around to get a rise out of him. For some reason today he turned around confused when he saw Jacob's girlfriend staring up at him.

Although he had been fairly close with Jacob and his brother since he joined the track team, Joelle never attempted to speak to him since she had begun dating Jacob in their second year of high school, choosing to stay glued to her boyfriend's side. Yet, her she was in all her head cheerleader glory, looking up at him with an analytical squint in the middle of the school cafeteria.

Calum remained frozen under her stare, eyes flicking around the room awkwardly as the girl continued to examine him. Jacob was right, she could be scary. A lump caught in his throat when she finally backed away from him.