Swapped ☹ Muke

17

:: Calum ::

"N-now." I heard Luke's voice crack and I knew something was happening to Michael, now it was either the dance without pants or Luke was beating his ass -- and by the pleading tone in his voice I was assuming it was the second option.

I looked to Ashton with a glint of fear in my eye, we both knew there was a massive problem with this situation. See Luke didn't know much about Michael's anxiety nor about his family issues after his dad passed away, and Michael didn't know about Luke's anger issues. They were the only ones who could really control themselves, and they're not exactly themselves at the moment.

There was a loud pound as I assumed somebody was being thrown or slammed down, Ashton closed his eyes and clenched his fists before inhaling deeply.

"Run." He whispered as he started towards the stairs taking long strides.

I followed him trying to ignore the loud thuds of skin against skin followed by helpless whimpers, from my our jagged breathing it seemed like we were running. I swear we were running, but the hallway seemed to drag on for miles.

The sounds stopped and were followed by a scream that could only be identified by Michael's, it's so sad to know I can tell when the screams are emitted from my best friends mouth -- you shouldn't ever be able to identify somebody's screams of pain.

As I was enticed by my thoughts about how horrible this situation was I didn't instantly come to the realization that Luke's anger had overpowered Michael, and that meant Luke was in trouble if we didn't hurry. But the damn hallway just never seemed to end, we didn't seem to be running fast enough, because the screams were silenced by a thud.

Now the only sound you could hear was the pounding of our feet against the carpeted floors, our panting as we swung our arms to quicken our pace, and finally the door was coming into our perspective.

Ashton reached the door before me and hurrying to throw it open, struggling to open it by the sweat that coated his skin -- he was nervous and so was I.

I stopped beside him leaning over to catch my breath as he fumbled to open the door, it felt like hours were passing though it was only a few mere seconds. He pushed it open and stepped in the room only to be greeted by loud whines coming from Michael's figure -- Luke that is -- he was slumped against the wall clutching tightly to his wrist with a pained expression.

In the middle of the floor lie Luke -- Michael -- with bloody hands clutching tightly to his flattened blond hair as he was curled tightly into a shaking ball. Normally when this happened to Luke he would end up standing against the wall begging me to tell him what happened. But with Michael's anxiety it seemed to follow him into Luke's body, and now he was panicking.

The first time it happened he was terrified, but he's gotten used to it as it happens often -- the first time resulted into a hospital trip.

We'd been coming home from the movies as the boys were laughing in a huddle, I stayed behind observing them. Sure that might should weird but they were acting odd, they never include Michael -- not that I can judge because I'm just as guilty.

I don't even understand why we avoid him most of the time, sure Ashton watches over him when he's excluded, he's like a father to the boy and I've never understood why. He's so protective and constantly watching his every move, every facial expression, and I've never been able to conclude why -- all I know is it seems a bit dramatic to watch him like he's going to kill himself.

Luke normally hangs out with him when we weren't around simply because he found it easier to interact with Michael without other people around -- I've never understood why he prefers Michael alone.

But when were in a group he say Michael is "too depressing" to be around so he avoids him, it's really stupid if you ask me. If you see somebody down wouldn't you prefer to include them and make funny jokes so you can see their bright smile?

It's just so weird seeing them together like they are and I knew something was up, I don't know what card they were playing but I could see Luke was tense and Michael wasn't smiling honestly, his laugh sounded stale -- he just seemed so unhappy and Ashton took a notice to it.

He kept looking over towards Michael with a weary smile as Michael just shook his head and flashed Ashton a very fake smile. Luke dragged Michael off to the other room and their laughter was exceptionally loud as it caught my attention, Michael was indeed laughing.

But it soon stopped with a simple yell of, "shut the hell up you fucking faggot."

And that was followed by a scream, "Lukey don't hurt me, again."

My heart shattered and we were soon headed to the hospital as I clutched tightly to my unconscious friend tilting his head at a proper angle so he wouldn't choke on the blood flowing from his nose. Luke was in denial of anything happening, "I didn't touch him. Calum what happened to Mikey? Why are you looking at me like that?"

When we had gotten to the hospital they'd taken Michael and bandaged his ribs and stopped the flow from his nose, he looked terrified as he sat on the hospital bed. At his request they allowed him to wear a plain white long-sleeved shirt under the patterned gown -- he looked so small in contrast to the bed.

We walked in and he zoned his attention to Luke, his lip quivered slightly as his voice came out as a broken whisper, "you promised you'd never hurt me again."

I shuddered at the memory and turned to Ashton.

"Ash get Mikey, I've got Luke." I whispered slowly creeping towards the bleached haired boy as he continued to whimper, completely oblivious to our appearance.

"Luke, are you okay?" I asked as he jumped back though ended up wincing as he shook his head.

"I-it hurts bad." He fixed his gesture to the wrist he was clutching.

I nodded and brought him towards his own bathroom instead of Michael's, I didn't know my way around his. Luke was looking at me with pleading eyes as he grasped his wrist, but I couldn't find any bandages or anything.

"I'll be right back." I said striding towards where Ashton had begun to calm Michael down.