Wrong Number (Cake Hoodings)

78 *

{ s e v e n t y e i g h t }

Like he had been burnt, Luke pulled away as soon as his lips touched Michael's. Michael brought a hand up to his mouth, retracting himself from Luke's body and staring wide eyed at the blond. Luke's lips just touched his own. He didn't really know what to think about that. 

"Um- alright..." Michael whispered. He shook himself out of the daze he was in, wiped his mouth and stepped towards Luke again, hesitantly pulling Luke into his chest. "Okay. Shh." 

"You wouldn't s-stop talking," Luke cried. "And I- I don't know what I'm doing a-and-" He broke off into sobs and Michael wrapped his arms around him again. Luke curled his body into Michael's, fisting hands into his band shirt and getting his tears all over it, and Michael for once, had absolutely no idea what to do when it came to Luke. 

"We're okay, it's fine. You're fine." He tried to whisper reassuringly, his own voice shaky. "Everything is going to be okay. We'll go home, and you can have a bath or something, and we'll talk and- and yeah, you're okay. It's okay." Michael was so far from okay, and Luke couldn't stop crying. He tangled a hand in the blond hair in front of him and continued whispering what he hoped were comforting things. 

When he glanced around the hallway, it was still empty, but then he caught sight of movement. He looked back to the practice room, and realized they'd been right in front of the window that entire time, and that both Calum and Ashton had seen everything. 

Michael had never pulled Luke away from a place faster. 

* 

Luke was asleep. As Michael had suggested, they'd come back to Luke's house, Luke had a bath, and then curled up to Michael's figure on his bed, and fell asleep. They hadn't talked, but they didn't really need to. Michael was straight and Luke was in love with someone else, it was obvious he just needed some comfort. 

They were on top of the covers, Michael's head propped up with pillows, one free hand scrolling through his instagram feed and the other stroking through Luke's hair. Luke had one leg over Michael's, head on his chest and a hand under his body, curling in his hip where Michael's shirt had ridden up. It hadn't been the first time Luke had fell asleep cuddling his best friend.

Michael sighed and liked a girl's picture who he'd been trying to woo for a while; small, subtle, perfect. He smiled at his own stupid thoughts. It wasn't too long later when he heard a quiet knock on Luke's door, and then it was softly pushed open, and Calum appeared in his line of sight. Michael's phone dropped onto his collarbone. 

"Shit, that hurt." He cursed, picking it back up again with his free hand. "Why the fuck are you here?" Calum seemed to take on selective hearing, choosing instead to gawp at the cuddled up sight of his (maybe ex, who knows) boyfriend and enemy cuddling in bed. Michael waved his phone around. "Hey, fuckface!" He hissed, Calum finally looking him in the eye. "Why are you fucking here?" 

"I, uh... I know I fucked up." Calum stuttered. "And I am a shit person, okay, and I lied and I hurt your best friend-"

"Are you apologising?" Michael abruptly cut him off. Calum nodded solemnly, giving the red-head (recently died again) a hopeful look. "You're pathetic." The look died. 

"You aren't exactly any better for him, you know!" Calum argued quietly, both of them still not trying to wake Luke up. 

"I don't try to be!" Luke shuffled and Michael cleared his throat. How dare Calum insult him, Calum doesn't know anything about Michael other than the rumors he'd undoubtedly heard. "Luke knows exactly who I am, he knows everything because I'm not a liar. He accepts that I sleep around, he accepts that I'm aggressive, he accepts that I constantly fuck up, because I tell the truth when I do; he accepts everything about me because I'm upfront about who I am and he's an absolute sucker for honesty. You broke it Calum, whatever the fuck was going on between you two; you ruined it. Don't you dare try and say that I'm not aloud to pick up the pieces." 

It was silent for a few moments. "I didn't..."

"You didn't what? You didn't mean to suck on some bitches neck at some dumbass jock party? You know Cal, if you wanna be the perfect straight player your daddy wants you to be, I'm not going to stop you, but keep people like Luke out of it. He's not some dirty little experiment and he's especially too good to be someone's closet case." 

"I panicked," Calum admitted, Michael stuttered, about to cut him off when he noticed Calum's eyes watering up. Calum sighed when he realised he was being given a chance to speak. "Okay? I panicked... I don't drink, and I don't smoke and I don't hook up or kiss girls at parties, and the boys just thought I was frigid and I was fine with that. But the rumors, Mike," Calum wiped under his eye quickly, as if Michael wouldn't notice. "I was fucking terrified at the party anyway, but then I was cornered and question and it's- it's easy for me to lie, okay? I'll admit that." Calum bit his lip before releasing it. "They took my phone when I wasn't looking; I won't go into detail but Luke and I talked...a lot over text. We sent each other selfies and the only time's we weren't constantly texting was when I was at practise or I was here." Calum wiped under his eyes again and stared at Michael for a few seconds. "So I just panicked, and I'm not proud of it, but you don't understand, Mike-" Calum shook his head. "He'd kill me."

"Who?" 

"My dad- Coach Hood- whatever. I don't know what he'd do but he was so mad when he heard the rumors and he gets violent and angry and fuck, the very least he'd do is disown me." Finally, Calum sniffled. "I love him, you know. I really do." They both looked to Luke as he sleepily shuffled against Michael.

"Mhm... Love you too, Cal." Luke mumbled sleepily, before crawling a little more up Michael's body and sighing, resting his head and closing his eyes again. Calum and Michael continued to stare before Luke's eyes shot open, his body rising from Michael's. He gave Calum a deadly stare and turned to look at Michael. "Are you crying?" He finally asked Calum. Calum didn't say anything. "Jesus Christ- fine. Mikey, I'll text you, yeah?"

"Wait, what-" Michael began to protest but Luke was already pushing him out of the bed. He'll have to speak to Calum sooner or later anyway.