Do More Good (5sos ot4)

Chapter 14

Luke sat on the couch, biting his lip as he thought things over.

Calum was seriously considering leaving. They were doing something wrong if that was the case. He should have all sorts of protests about why he couldn't leave, and they should all be living in this house with him. He thought things were going well. They were, at least until last week when Ashton cornered him after dinner.

Maybe Calum was just too good of a person to consider Helping people in their regard. Was it possible to turn him? He could be their greatest asset if he just got out of his own head.

"EMERGENCY BOYFRIEND MEETING!" Luke stood up, screaming in the living room. He padded into the kitchen, wrapping the small throw blanket Ashton had gotten him a few months ago around his shoulders and sitting on the stool in the island. Then he waited. "CALLING ALL MY BOYFRIENDS, WE NEED TO TALK!"

Not even a moment later, a breathless Ashton skidded into the room, eyes anxiously scanning the area. He rushed to Luke and held his face in his hands.

"What's wrong, baby? What happened?"

Before Luke could say anything, Michael strolled in, hands in his pockets and rolled his eyes.

"Ash, it's not an emergency like that, Lukey does that when he wants to chat about something."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ashton let him go and slouched down against the counter.

"Oh, I thought something was wrong."

"Yeah, it does seem that way, doesn't it? I thought I told you not to do this again," Michael raised his eyebrows. "If you wanted to talk, there's a thousand ways to get our attention."

Luke blushed, shrugging his shoulders quickly and innocently.

"I forgot, sorry." Luke pouted, too cute for his own good.

Michael shook his head.

"Well, what is it you wanted, Sunshine? For what reason have you caused Ashton to need an early retirement?"

"Hey, I'm not old," Ash pouted, swatting at his boyfriend with a frown.

Luke would have laughed ordinarily at their antics, but he couldn't find the heart in such dire circumstances.

"Okay. Well you know Calum?"

Ashton scoffed. This was going to be one of those stories, the ones with minutes of background information, dramatic pauses, and superfluous details.

"Yes, Bubba, we know Calum," he said amused.

"Okay, well yesterday he did a pharmacy run in the afternoon. He came down and was waiting in line because Stupid Phil got there before him and Felix was on his break so it was just me at the counter."

"Wow, this sure does have a lot of background info," Michael smirked, looking at Ash amusedly.

"Shut up, I'm just giving you all the details. Or I could just not tell you," Luke crossed his blanket cover arms, about to draw the covers over his head to pout, but Michael repented and asked him to continue. "Okay, fine. So Jack walked down the hall, he must have been coming from one of the back units, and he stopped to talk to Cal. Ash, did you know Calum's contract is almost up?"

Ashton's heart sunk. He could already connect the dots from here.

"Wait, is he—"

"Don't interrupt," Luke scolded. Ashton shook his head fondly, knowing Luke liked to create these climactic build ups. "But did you know that?"