Sweaters || Malum

Chapter 23

Song for the Chapter: Get Up by Mayday Parade

Countdown to Talent Show: 2 Weeks

This chapter is fluff because I enjoy Malum

--

I place the ice pack back in the fridge when I hear Michael come inside. "She d-doesn't know you're my b-boyfriend, by the w-way. That's why she's l-letting me sleep o-over." Michael tells me with a small chuckle.

"Do you like singing?" I ask him, walking over to him.

He shrugs.

"Um, you like Mayday Parade, yeah?" I ask, scrolling through my phone. I look over to him and he nods his response. "Want to sing with me?" 

His emotionless face immediately transforms into a smile and glinting eyes. "You're s-so corny." He tells me with a laugh and through his grin. "A-Also, p-play the song G-Get Up." He orders with a fake strict look on his face.

"You're as intimidating as a kitten, hope you know." I tell him, plugging my phone into the stereo. He doesn't respond and I turn around away from the stereo and he is looking down with a smile. "You're my kitten, though." I whisper. I run my hand down his arm and I could tell that he was obviously being shy.

I go back over to the stereo and press 'Get Up'. I hear the beginning chords of the song and I go back over to Michael. I yell over the music; "Dance with me!"

I grab his hand and he was laughing. "This place is not quite what it seems..." We both start screaming the lyrics, both of us out of tune and sounding completely awful. 

"In this moment, we're connected. If we fall, we fall together!" We  continue screaming and dancing. I was getting out of breath as I spun Michael in a circle. He was laughing and so was I, the sight of his smile was contagious. His joy was radiating off of him and that was also partially contagious. His smile was so adorable and when he sung his stutter disappeared while doing this.

We collide our bodies together while singing, our faces close. His warm breath hit my face while our loud voices tried drowning out the even louder stereo. "Sing it like you're screaming at me!" We simultaneously sing. Our horrible dancing resulted in Michael hitting his hip on the corner of the table. 

"You okay?" I yell over the music and Michael just gives me a small nod and I frown.

I mess up a lot.

The music continues to play but I feel as if I've lost motivation to sing along and have fun. Michael was fine and continued what he was doing beforehand; but for some reason I couldn't.

--

The next day at school Michael and I go our separate ways for no honest reason. I go to my first class and on my way I bump into Ashton and Luke. "You did it!" Ashton automatically screams at me and shoves me back harshly. I expected Luke to push Ashton and stand up for me because of the amount of times he's done it before with other people.

But I look into Luke's leering eyes. I felt uncomfortable and I ask, "I did what?" I ask this knowing what I did, wishing to take back what I had done. But I don't regret it but then I knew by the look in Luke's eyes that he knew what Ashton did. He knew of his intentions and did not attempt to stop him.

"You're a jackass." Luke accuses me and I felt an automatic sting to the heart. It was only three words, but those words tore down a perfectly good friendship. I look at the two of them with my freshly teared up eyes. How was doing the right thing feel so awfully wrong?

"Tell me what I did then I will accept your insult." I tell Luke and then I look down to see Ashton with white knuckles. But his hand wasn't clenched into a fist, no. His hand was gripping Luke's wrist very tightly and I begin shaking. I see Luke wince a bit through his malicious stare he kept on me.

"You reported that Ashton shop lifted!" Luke yells at me.

"I'll handle this, shut up." Ashton harshly whispers to Luke and he then looks down with a small nod. Even though I could not completely understand or know what Luke was going through, it was obvious that he felt inferior to Ashton. Ashton seemed to have some sort of hold over him with the short time that the two have been dating. I wanted to yell and point out the fact that I thought emotional abuse was extremely possible. Ashton's hand moves from Luke's wrist and before I saw what happened, I felt pain where I had been punched yesterday.

I fall to the ground because of the quick agony and surprise of it. Ashton hovers over me with a grin on his face and I see a worried yet reluctant expression on his face. Ashton says to me; "Too bad somebody beat me to it." 

He was gesturing to the dark bruise I had on my dark skin. He walks away, stepping on me twice during the process. I get up and see many people staring at me. I swore I could hear something in me snap as I couldn't handle anymore of this physical and emotional torture.

"The fuck is everybody looking at? Mind your own fucking business you assholes!" I scream and watch people's horrified expression and them parting to make way for the principal to come through the crowd. My shoulders fall with defeat.

"My office." The principal orders and I sigh, wanting to hurt myself somehow. I didn't want to cut, I wanted to take out my frustrations. I wanted to punch a mirror, for glass to be stuck in my hand. I would stare at my broken reflection. It would reflect everything I held on the inside. Completely shattered and hopeless in terms of repair. I would watch blood drip from my knuckles onto the floor in steady drops.

Before I knew it I was walking into the office, thinking of the act over and over.