Before fame; a 5sos fanfic

Chapter 3

Calum:

I was mad. First, my little sister gets punched right in the eye by some stupid, dumb ass jock. Then, I get on the bus that my sister and I always take home and find out that she's not even on it. I worried all the way home, thinking that something might have happened, hoping she'd be there, and I open the door to find her asleep on the couch, her back pressed up against Luke's chest. I didn't really like their friendship. I thought there was too much cuddling and hugging involved. I looked around. There was Starburst wrappers and cherry M&M's strewn all over the coffee table. The Big Bang Theory was playing mid-episode on the T.V.

Luke was asleep, his head resting in the crook of Clarissa's neck. His arm was on top of hers, fingers intertwined. I walked closer, planning on waking Luke up and lecturing him, when I saw the deep purple bruise on my baby sister's cheekbone. She had definitely been lying to me when she said that the blow she took for Luke hadn't hurt. She had said he hit like a baby girl. A baby girl couldn't do that to someone, unless she had some freaky super strength. I now understood what Luke was doing. He was either taking advantage of my sister in her pained state, which I doubted, or he was trying to make her feel better. He claimed that when they cuddled, it was usually because one of them was in emotional or physical pain and needed to be consoled or comforted. Sometimes, it was just Clarissa getting scared watching a scary movie, and Luke, seeing her jump at a sound, would open his arms and she'd crawl into his embrace. I used to think the cuddling was just Luke looking for a way to feel her up, or whatever the phrase was. Seeing her now, so calm, I realized that Luke was right. Clarissa needed the hugs and consolation that Luke offered when he held her. It calmed her. There was an old blanket draped across the back of the couch. I tried to pull it over the two sleeping beauties, but didn't realise that the corner of it was tucked under Luke. I pulled, and Luke rolled of the couch, bringing my sister with him. She was a very light girl, and all it took was a little push off the couch to send her flying. She landed on her ass and hit her back on the sharp edge of the coffee table. She yelped in pain and tried to pull herself into a standing position. She got to a squat, started wobbling and tumbled over. When she landed on her back, she cringed. Luke rushed to help her up, even though she told him she was okay and waved him off. He sat her down on the couch and she slumped against him. "Claire? Come on, you'll be okay. You'll be okay." Luke murmured, gently rubbing her upper back. She groaned. I stepped forward and knelt at her side. "C-Clarissa, I'm sorry. I'm so Damn clumsy. I'm so, so sorry. How bad is it?" I asked her. Luke looked at me questioningly. He didn't understand what I was talking about, but my sister did. Once, she got into an accident that had caused her a lot of plain and doing this was the only way she could communicate because of her head injury which inhibited her from talking. She hadn't been able to talk so she showed me with her hands how much pain she was in. Luke didn't know about her accident. I noticed that Clarissa's hand was moving. I looked down at it and see her holding up 5 fingers. The pain was only 5 out of 10, but she could barely move. Bullshit. Why did she always lie to me about her pain? She was probably trying to save me the guilt of hurting her.
I decided it was time to try a different approach.

I looked at her face again, and she slowly lifted her head to look me in the eye. "Do you need to go to the hosptial?" I spoke slowly. She faintly shook her head and whispered, "I-I am...I'm just tired. So tired." with that she lay down and fell asleep instantly. She was laying on her stomach, her back facing the ceiling. I looked at Luke. He looked at me. I had to occupy myself; I felt bad. I didn't know if Clarissa was going to be mad at me. What if she blames me? I mean, it was my fault, but it was an accident. I started cleaning all the candy wrappers strewn around the room. When that was done, I put the half eaten bag of cherry M&M's in the cupboard and sat down on the couch beside Clarissa. She groaned, rolling into my side as I sat down, causing the couch to sag. She opened her eyes and looked at me. My sister held up her hand; it was 4 out of 10 now. Luke was watching the silent exchange from the doorway. I smiled and she buried her head in the couch cushion, going back to sleep. I lifted the edge of her shirt curiously, wanting to see if she had bruises, if I had given her bruises. There was a red mark that looked like it stung on the skin of her back, but no bruise. Yet. Clarissa didn't get hurt often and you'd have to hit her really hard to bruise her. This looked like it was going to bruise, which meant she had hit that table harder than I thought. I remember from our childhood, she would fall and get scraped up really bad all the time hanging out with the boys and I, she even broke her arm once trying to climb a tree, but she just kept hanging around with us. She got tougher every time she got hurt, and now she was strong as hell because of it. She could run a marathon every day, and she could win any race, be it in the water or in a field. She was a great person. Both of my sisters were. Mali and Clarissa were both extremely talented and I loved each of them a lot. They loved me and made me happy, because they let me know that they loved me all the time, in weird ways sometimes, yeah, but I loved them even more for it.