insecurities » malum

epilogue

1 year later...

after graduation, everything that michael and calum planned didn't go as they expected. michael had made it to university and calum surprisingly was offered to join the national football team. it was mostly a good thing for their own good and they were both happy for each other. though neither of them would admit it, but they felt like their relationship was fading.

as for luke and ashton, their relationship had grew more intense. michael and calum doesn't see them as much anymore as the two were now worldwide famous vloggers. luke and ashton were paid and sponsored to go travel around the world, which was an amazing opportunity for the two. ashton also had proposed to luke while they were in paris, and their wedding was expected soon. maybe it was a bit too early for ashton to propose as they were only nineteen-twenty one, but he loved luke too much and won't risk letting him go.

deep inside, michael despised lashton's happiness because he himself didn't get the happiness that he deserved. and little did calum know that michael wasn't happy at all in university. calum was very (maybe too) happy on being able to play football in his team that he didn't notice michael's despair.

apparently, university is supposed to be the matured version of high school but no. it was thirty times worst than in high school. maybe michael wasn't bullied mentally, but being verbally bullied left a bruise lingering in his heart. especially since 'varsity teams' exist.

"fag", "ugly", "fat", and a few other more insults had been thrown at him whenever he was seen publically in the university. even in his dorm, his roommate would laugh and disrespect michael with his friends until michael couldn't handle it anymore and practically begged the secretary for him to stay in a dorm without a roommate because 'he wanted to study in peace'. thankfully, the secretary was nice enough to give the last room to michael.

ever since the insults started, michael had stopped wearing feminine clothing and awfully uncomfortable 'boy' clothes instead in hope that the insults would be stopped, but it still went on and on. all he wanted was it to stop. the day calum found out about this was when he facetimed michael at lunch, and michael hesitantly accepted the call.

the first thing calum noticed was that michael wasn't wearing his normal clothes, instead a white shirt with a big smiley face on it. calum just shrugged it off, maybe michael was just about to nap. but thinking back, michael always slept and napped in his cute matching pajamas or even calum's shirts. and that wasn't even one of his shirts. calum knitted his eyebrows when he noticed dark circles around michael's eyes, michael really didn't look like himself. michael nervously fidgeted as calum looked at him suspiciously through the screen. "michael?" calum paused, his gaze moving to michael's messy uncolored hair. "are you okay?"

michael hesitantly nodded, feeling a lump forming in his throat as he did. "you're lying." calum spoke, furrowing his eyebrows. michael teared up, attempting to lie once again, "i'm not." but it failed as his voice cracked at the end.

"mikey, babe. please, tell me what's wrong." calum asked, his voice more softer now and laced with concern. michael swallowed, feeling like he was going to burst into tears in any second. he willed himself not to cry but failed as he suddenly broke into tears, sobbing loudly, murmuring that he's a 'fag', 'stupid', 'fag' and saying that calum doesn't care and love him anymore. it was back to square one all over again.