notepad ; malum

18

It was raining, the sky was grey and everyone was in a bad mood. Overall it was a shitty day as Michael and Calum began to finish packing up their stuff to go back home. 

"Yeah, mum. Our plane leaves at 12:00AM." Michael sighed into the phone. His mum had been nagging him about when they were coming home all morning; he swore this was about the sixth time she'd asked what time their plane was leaving. 

Calum shoved the rest of his clothes into his suitcase, faintly smiling as he overheard Michael and his mum's conversation. Karen had always been so sweet when Calum and Michael were little boys; she'd make them cookies and let them stay up past their bedtimes when Calum was over for a sleepover. She was still sweet, just overworked and exhausted. 

Michael pulled at the strings fraying out from the blanket draped across his legs. "Ok, love you too." He mumbled into the phone, hanging up and setting his phone on his lap afterwards. "I swear to god, she asked me the same three questions ten times each. 'When are you coming home?', 'When does your plane leave?', 'Are you and Calum alright?'. I love her but, Jesus Christ." 

Calum softly chuckled, shuffling over and laying himself down on Michael lap. He snaked his arms around his neck, snuggling up to the boys chest and letting his eyes fluttered shut. 

Gently, Michael wrapped his arms around Calum's waist and set his head on top of Calum's. "I love you." He whispered gently, his heart leaping when Calum nodded. Calum didn't need to say it back, as long as he knew, Michael was alright. 

They laid like that for a while before Calum felt Michael's phone vibrate underneath of him. Calum shifted out of the way so Michael could grab his phone. It was a text from Ashton, telling Michael that him and Luke would be waiting at the airport in Sydney when they arrived. 

While he had his phone out, Michael checked the time and his stomach almost immediately dropped to his ass. It was 11:34AM and the airport was approximately a half hour away. 

"Oh, fuck. We need to go." Michael squealed, lifting Calum off him and immediately beginning to gather all of their luggage. Calum helped as well and they both began to frantically rush for the door. 

After stumbling down the stairs and outside, Michael ran to the edge of the road and started shouting for a cab. By the time Calum caught up to him, Michael had already gotten a cab and was piling the luggage into the trunk with help from the cab driver. 

"We need to go to the airport and quickly." Michael said, out of breath as the three got back into the cab. The cab driver nodded and took off quickly, making a safe assumption that they needed to be there quickly because they were late for a flight, which they were. 

Calum clung onto Michael's arm as they drove, giving him a scared look. "We aren't gonna miss it, ok, baby?" He whispered reassuringly, pressing his lips to Calum's head softly. 

As they drove, Calum constantly checked his phone. 11:45AM, 11:49AM, 11:52AM. He was internally panicking because he didn't want Michael to worry too much. It would be a lot of money wasted if they missed this flight because Calum didn't know if they could get their money back. 

They finally arrived and gathered all of their stuff, sprinting into the airport as fast as they could. Michael was guilty of running into a few people as they ran but this was urgent. 

"Flight 108 to Sydney, Australia is now departing." The lady announced over the speakers right as Michael and Calum were about to reach the place where they handed in their tickets. 

Calum dropped to his knees in defeat and exhaustion, covering his face with his hands. Michael paced next to him, muttering profanities as their plane began to take off down the runway, vacant of their presence. 

After about an hour, Michael and Calum found themselves still at the airport, sitting on seats that looked out the window. They'd both been silent for the whole hour, just staring out the window and thinking about what they were going to do next. 

"Fuck, I'm sorry." Michael sighed, finally tearing apart the silence. He rubbed his eyes in distress. "I should've kept a closer eye on the time." 

Calum shook his head, reaching over and placing his hand on top of Michael's. He didn't think it was Michael's fault. He thought it was both of their faults. 

Calum's phone rang suddenly, which was odd because who would be calling a mute man. Calum pulled out his phone, furrowing his eyebrows at the unknown number then handing his phone to Michael. 

Michael took his phone, looking at the number skeptically as well before answering it. "Hello?" He asked, confusion very clear in his voice. 

"Michael? Hi, it's Dr. Long." The phone spoke back to him, a smile obvious in her voice. Michael couldn't help but feel angry, even though it wasn't Dr. Long's fault that they weren't physically able to do the surgery. 

"Uh, hi. Is everything alright?" Michael asked, not quite clear on why she would be calling Calum's phone. 

There was shuffling noises in the phone before Dr. Long spoke again. "We were looking over the files again because I was terribly upset we couldn't go through with the surgery and after looking over a few things, it seems that if we just use a different machine, we should be able to go through with Calum's surgery without the risk of harming him permanently." 

Michael's face lit up and so did Calum's because he could hear the phone. "Seriously? Oh my God, when? When can we do this? It's so convenient because we just missed our fl-"

"Right now." Dr. Long interrupted. "We have everything set up right now and if you can get yourselves to the hospital as soon as possible it would be appreciated. You would have to wait in the waiting room, though, Mr. Clifford. Since you're not immediate family."

Michael nodded before realizing Dr. Long couldn't see him. "Ok, ok. We'll be right there." He assured, then hung up and gave Calum his phone back. 

They both gathered up all their bags, rushing out and hurrying to get another cab. The drive to the hospital was about an hour and both Michael and Calum were jittery the entire way. Calum couldn't believe it, he was finally going to get his voice back. 

Once they arrived at the hospital, they hauled their bags in and someone was already waiting for Calum as soon as they arrived. They took Calum and led Michael to a nice, private lounge thing to wait in while the surgery commenced. 

Michael waited for 5 hours before he got any feedback from any doctors. A young female doctor came out and told Michael the surgery was finished but Calum needed about an hour to rest which he requested to be alone in. Michael found that odd. 

Another hour later, the door opened and out walked Dr. Long and Calum, who was leaning on his for support. He was pale and looked absolutely drained. His neck looked all bruised up and you could see outlines of stitches on his shirt. 

Everything was silent for a bit but then, unexpectedly and something he hadn't done for a while, Calum broke the silence. His voice was rapsy and exhausted sounding but what he said, oh, what he said made Michael's knee's go weak and tears to run rapidly down his face. 

"I love you."

The end. 

+

ahhh!!!! i feel like that was a shit ending but idc!!!!!

i think it's appropiate now to say that calum was based off of the fish from chicken little

i hope y'all liked this book bc i liked writing it. thank you to everyone who read and voted!!

i have two other stories on the run atm: drunk (cashton) and LOUD (muke), you should go read them :))))

btw it's my birthday tomorrow (well it's on december first so it may already be it wherever u are)

well, that's all folks. 

byeeee ((: <3