Captive || 5sos AU

Dear Laurie,

Laurie's eyes flickered open and she yawned lightly. She had the best night of sleep since she had arrived, and was almost satisfied until she remembered that she wasn't at home. She looked around the room she had been moved to and sighed.

Everything was set up perfectly as if it had never been touched, and Laurie was uncomfortable with the cleanliness of it. Her scan of the room was stopped short by the sight of Calum asleep in the desk chair.

His head was tilted slightly to the right and was rested on his shoulder, and his face was deeply furrowed and obviously distressed. Suddenly, his head snapped up and he inhaled sharply. Laurie shut her eyes instinctually and pretended to be asleep again.

She heard shuffling and figured it was probably the sound of Calum standing up from the desk. She squinted one eye open slowly to avoid being noticed, and saw Calum messing around with something on the desk, then watched as he discarded it in the trash bin next to it.

He plopped back down into the chair and Laurie was finally able to see Calum's hands working furiously to jot words in the notepad on the desk in front of him. He began to scratch the words out angrily and tore the sheet of paper from its pad before tossing it into the trash where he had thrown the other one. "Ugh!" Calum yelled, letting out a loud groan, and pounded his fist on the desk, creating a thud which caused Laurie's body to jerk violently upward.

Calum hadn't noticed; he sighed heavily and buried his face into his hands. After a moment, he stood up and ran his hand through his dark hair. He mumbled a few things to himself, pushed in the chair, and left. As soon as Laurie heard her door lock she shot up. She couldn't help but wonder what Calum was so furiously writing, and slung the blankets off of her body.

She stood up slowly in an attempt to keep the bed from creaking, and tiptoed to the trash bin where Calum had thrown away his writings. She peered inside and saw a mountain of scraps, all written on in Calum's messy handwriting, and sat down on the floor. As she pulled the pages from the bin, one specifically caught her eye.

Among the torn and tattered pages, Laurie found one with what she identified as her own handwriting. She wondered how Calum would have gotten something written by her when she hadn't written anything the whole time she had been there, and began investigating the paper. As she read the words on the page, Laurie began to tear up.

She and Calum shared a math class last year, and they had created a tradition of passing notes to one another in class. Sometimes the notes would contain jokes, other times, little snarky comments about their classmates, but sometimes- on very special occasions- they would write deep notes to one another. The note which Laurie was presently holding was one of the more heartfelt: the note she had written to Calum on his birthday.

Laurie was aware that Calum was pretty much on his own in the world. He was originally from Australia, but moved to the United States with a few friends (whose identities at this point had become pretty clear to Laurie) after his parents kicked him out of the house at 17. He immediately befriended Laurie, and after just a short few weeks, they had become an inseparable duo.

Laurie set the note aside. Was she ready to read what she had written to her friend so many months ago, when he was still the Calum she had trusted? She bit her lip and looked back down at the note, letting temptation take over. Quietly, she read the note aloud.

"Dear Cal," she started, and was already feeling overwhelmed with emotion. "Happy birthday loser! I can't believe you're 18 today ! It's a little weird that you're legal now, but I guess I can deal with it. Listen, I know your situation hasn't been ideal, and I know what it's like to be without parents... My brother has been raising me for the past four years for Christ's sake! But if you ever need anything, and I mean ever, I'm always here for you!"

Laurie's voice was unstable and her hands were shaky, but she continued reading. "I'm glad I met you, I've never met someone with so much in common who really understands me. I'm just glad that person was you. Love ya buddy, and happy birthday again! Laurie."

Setting the note aside gently, Laurie leaned against the desk and allowed all of the emotions she had let build up inside of her out. "God." She whispered, placing her face in her hands. "I was so stupid!" She threw her head back, slamming it against the wall she leaned on, and closed her eyes to keep the tears from falling down her face. Not just stupid, she thought, but incredibly naïve. Why would a boy like Calum, who could have easily fit in with the popular kids, actually want to spend time with a quiet bookworm like herself?

There was a knock on the door and Laurie wiped her eyes and rushed to throw the papers back in the bin. She stood up and brushed herself off. "Come in." She said, trying to disguise the fact that she had been crying. The door opened, but Laurie turned around swiftly and laid down in her still unmade bed.

She heard the sound of the door close and felt someone sit down on the bed next to her. She looked up and was greeted by Michael's little grin. "Good morning Michael." She said as normally as possible, suppressing the tears that still threatened to push themselves forward. Michael set a plate down on her nightstand. "Good morning Laurie. Don't take this the wrong way, but you kind of look terrible." He said half-jokingly.

Laurie rolled over in her bed and glared at him. "Thanks, matches the situation I'm in perfectly." She shot back, reminding Michael that she was not there by choice. He sighed. "Alright, alright. I didn't mean it like that, I just- have you been crying?" Laurie broke eye contact with Michael immediately. Of course she had been crying, but what did it matter to him? He was a part of this whole thing, and he was just as guilty as Calum and her captor.

"Listen, I get that you don't want to be here. I know that. But if you've been crying you really ought to let me know, I'm here as a friend." He said, and rested his hand on Laurie's leg. She exhaled heavily and gave in, she couldn't survive this hell without at least someone to talk to each day.

Laurie sat up and pointed to the bin where she had thrown her letter to Calum, and Michael retrieved it. Michael examined the page thoroughly, and read it aloud as she had just done, causing the emotions to return even more strongly, and making Laurie cry again. Michael flipped the page.

"Dear Laurie," he read, but was stopped immediately. "No, he never wrote back. That one was just from me to him for his birthday." She said, sniffling. Michael looked from the note to Laurie, then back to the note before responding. "That's not what I'm reading." He said, still looking at the paper.

Laurie snatched the page from him and read her letter again before flipping to the back, which was written on from the top line to the bottom, all in Calum's handwriting, and was dated for that morning. Finally it dawned on her-- Calum was trying to get a message across on the sneak.

"Well go on!" Michael said, gesturing for Laurie to read Calum's letter. She looked back down at it, slightly touched that Calum planned on using a letter as special as this one, and traced her fingers over the words on the page. "Alright." Laurie said in a half sigh.

"Dear Laurie,"

A/N: Okay so all of that was prewritten, and the rest is in the process of being written, so if there are any suggestions it'd be super cool to hear them! :)  -Britt