Cadences [cake au] ✔

// twenty //

No hate to Calum's mum at all, their characters are just fictional in this story!

Chapter 20

Luke's POV

"That's the plan," he repeated, giving me a brief kiss on the cheek before heading towards his gate. I blew him one back, waving until he went out of sight, before letting a massive sigh.

We'd devised a plan over lunch to get him out of his unofficial house arrest. It wasn't gonna be easy, but when was anything in this world nice to us? My sole job was to get my mum involved in the whole thing. I knew she'd be able to sort everything out – so the first stop I made after dropping Calum off was go back to my family house.

"Luuuuuke! Bro what you doing at home?" Ben screeched at me as soon I entered the hallway. He had a slice of toast in his mouth despite it being almost dinner time, which was so typical of him.

Suddenly, a head popped round from the living room.

It was Jack – but not my brother Jack.

"Jack, what are you doing here?" I whispered, eyes widening like a reflex. These days, him being around only brought trouble and I wasn't willing to compromise my situation with Calum again because of him.

"Oh, I invited him over!" dad announced, appearing from the top of the staircase. I sighed; Jack had gotten on really well with dad and now that he'd been discharged, the first thing he'd done was call Jack over for dinner. They particularly liked to discuss guitars and really old rock bands, which was fine and all, but I was with Calum now.

They went back to the living room and continued their conversation whilst I tracked mum down in the kitchen, sitting myself down at the island and pouring myself a glass of water from the tap.

"Evening son, what brings you home at such a weird time? Did you finally decide to come back for dinner? Miss your old mum's cooking?"

She grabbed my nose dotingly as I wriggled out of her grasp, taking a sip. "Actually I need to ask a favour."

~

"Oh, hello Mrs Hood, I'm Liz. I'm here to see Calum?"

I was hiding in the shrubs beside the massive lawn in front of Calum's mansion, listening into mum lying through her teeth to help us. Honestly I don't know how she agreed but she did and that's all that was important.

"It's quite late. But since you're such a role model to him, I'll let you in," Calum's mum replied very reluctantly. I guess mum being relatively famous helped sometimes.

I watched the door close before throwing a tiny stone at the window Calum had put a piece of tape on, having decided earlier that that was the only way I'd be able to distinguish his room from the rest. He opened the curtain and looked down, giving me a nervous smile as he swung the window open slightly so I could climb up the ladder I'd prepared earlier.

All I had to do was record his mum saying stuff about Calum. Like, bad stuff. Then that could be submitted to the police who could then do something about it.

Now I didn't exactly want Calum to be taken away from his parents because I was sure they still loved him deep down, but this wasn't right and I hated seeing Calum get hurt when he was pretty much the perfect child to them. He never rebelled, he went along with all the competitions his mum entered him into, and he never retaliated either. In other words, he was the opposite of me.

When I'd safely made it in, I gave him a massive hug despite the fact that the last time we met was less than six hours ago, before kissing him quickly. He showed me the way to the closet and I hid inside, making sure my concealed microphone was definitely recording.

"Oh yes, my husband and I have just been on a weekend retreat."

"That sounds lovely! Andy's been in hospital recently, so that's the only place I've been able to go..."

I listened in on their conversation as they entered the door.

"Calum, look who's here to see you!" his mum said cheerfully, so cheerfully that I could hardly believe this was the woman that harmed Calum, almost tipping him over the edge. But then again, she was in the presence of my mum, so that probably influenced her.

"Hi Liz, what brings you here at this hour?"

I could tell the nervousness in mum's voice as she said, "I'm just here to talk to you a bit about your mother abusing you."

Immediately the tension was felt all around the room – even as I sat in the closet, beads of sweat forming on my forehead as I gripped the microphone harshly, I sensed the pressure. I peeked through the miniscule gap between the two wardrobe doors and watched Calum's mum laugh anxiously.

"What do you mean dear? Who are you to come into my house and accuse me of-"

"Show me, Calum."

Calum lifted his shirt up gently, revealing the faint bruises on his chest and stomach. His mum scoffed, shaking her head. "Bruises don't scar, you idiot. Were you thinking of reporting me to the police?"

I watched as Calum stayed firm and strong, which reassured me a little. It was soon my turn to make a grand entrance, but not quite yet... there was one vital question that hadn't been asked.

"The police, perhaps not. If I can persuade you that harming your own child is bad, and you stop, then I have no need to take it that far."

Suddenly his mum grabbed Calum, holding him in a headlock with her brute arm muscles. I winced, ready to burst out. "M-mum, please..."

"Calum, you can't go around telling everyone about your self-inflicted injuries, okay?" she said in a patronising tone. Self-inflicted, huh? Is that how she managed to trick everyone?

"T-they're not self-inflicted," Calum replied, but I could tell his façade was beginning to fade. The weakness within was about to show and if I didn't step in, sooner or later he would collapse. I prayed that my own mum would do something instead... but it turned out she didn't need to.

"How do you know about them anyway, Liz? As far as I'm aware, you're not his doctor."

That was my cue! I stepped out, the light stunning my eyes. "He told me about them! And about you," I cried, as I tried my best to hide the microphone behind my back. She gawped at the fact that I'd just appeared from his wardrobe.

"What on earth were you doing in there?! How long..."

She dug her nails into Calum's arm, leaving clear red marks and making him wince. I leapt forwards to stop her, in turn dropping the microphone. Mum picked it up quickly but Calum's mother had already seen and was making for mum, who, for the first time in my life, looked incredibly hopeless.

We heard sirens. That stopped everyone's actions and gave Calum time to lean into me, letting his tears dampen my shirt. I watched as his mum's face went from angry to even angrier, with a hint of confusion and worry etched into her wrinkles.

A round red-faced man appeared at the door, shaking his head desperately. "I'm sorry Joy. I'm sorry it came to this."

Two uniformed policemen came in behind him and took Calum's mum, handcuffing her immediately. "You... you'll regret this David, you will! I'll expose all your business secrets, everything you'd worked for, I'll destroy everything!"

They took her away as Calum continued to weep into my chest. I pressed my lips together to form a small smile for mum, who just seemed glad everything was over.

***

FEAR NOT MY CHILDREN, the story is not over yet XD but there won't be any major plot twists k? Just some interferences. I'm not ready to let this go just yet...

Who here has ever secretly recorded something? When I was in year 8 I once recorded my teacher speaking; it was a guy teacher that I had a crush on XD don't worry I'm over it now... or am I?

Vote+comment for virtual 5sos microphone recorder thingys

Kimmy xx