Cadences [cake au] ✔

// twenty-one //

Calum's bedroom 💖💎

Chapter 21

Calum's POV

After perhaps the scariest night of my life, dad let Luke stay over. He explained that he'd been meaning to save Calum from being harmed but he'd never gotten the opportunity. Apparently, Luke and Liz didn't even know he had called the cops but he did all right. I don't think I appreciated my dad so much till that evening.

"Your room is so cute," Luke whispered, his strong arms enveloping my stomach. Liz left about half an hour ago, having had a cup of coffee with my dad. They turned out to get on quite well which was a relief for me.

Don't get me wrong, I was still afraid of my mum. Despite everything, I still loved her and I didn't want her to get into trouble because of me – I especially wouldn't know how to live if she ended up in prison. That'd be the end of her for sure.

"What are you thinking about?"

I nestled into his musky smoke scent, shaking my head. "Nothing. Thank you for coming tonight, and staying over."

"Anything for you babe," he replied as he pressed a long kiss on my forehead. "Say, what was your mum like when you were younger?"

I chuckled. "She was really mean. Well, for the first ten years of my life she was lovely, and then something changed inside her and she'd break something every time I made a mistake when practising."

"Wow, that's harsh. Didn't you cry?"

"Oh, all the time! But she'd get even angrier and I soon learned that it was useless."

I didn't particularly enjoy reminiscing about past times, but Luke was the only person that deserved to know. My finger reached up to his lip piercings and played around with them whilst he wrapped the duvet around us a bit tighter. It was a cold night, and my room was notorious for its low temperatures during the autumn and winter months.

"Babe as long as I'm here, she can never hurt you again. Please don't be scared."

My lips automatically curved up into a smile and I thanked him quietly. "Without you I never would've had the courage to do something like this."

"No Cal, I saw it come from within. You're strong and brave and that's all you need to be. You don't have to be loud and obnoxious to be courageous – sometimes it those who are the most insecure. You're fine as you are, you hear me? Now can we watch a film or something?"

"What's a film?"

I almost died laughing when I saw the look on his face. "You... you're joking right?"

"Of course, I'm not that uncultured. But we'd have to go downstairs to the living room, I don't have a computer."

"You know what, let's just sit and talk. I can't wait for you to come back."

"D-do you think I can go back to university?"

Luke laughed. "Duh! Your dad was totally up for it earlier."

"But like... what if no one wants me back?"

He gave me a gentle shove, frowning. "Trust me, if anything, people miss you. Especially that friend of yours, Jason – he came looking for you so often last week."

This made me smile a little. In the past no one had cared much about me nor had I bothered trying to make friends, so it was both a surprise and a relief that this was the case – even if it was Jason, the classical music nerd.

Well, who was I to speak?

Luke's POV

"Before you go, I just want to talk to you about something," Calum's dad announced as we dragged our luggage down the grand staircase. In all the months that I'd known Calum, I never expected that he'd live in such an awesome house, but whatever. That wasn't technically relevant.

Calum set his stuff down on the marble floor and dusted his hands on his blue jeans. "What's the matter, dad?"

His dad cleared his throat, and it was actually possible to sense the dread emanating from him. "I thought you ought to know why your mother is like this."

He went on to tell us all about her brain tumour, and how the treatment had stopped working at some point. The tumour was placed in a part of her brain that affected her mood and impulses, hence the constant frustration at her wonderful son who never did a thing wrong. Her doctor had obviously been prescribing her the meds but it wasn't highly effective as not enough research had been put into this kind of brain cancer.

I watched as Calum began to tear up – any child would, if they heard about their own mother having cancer. Now, his dad reassured that it wasn't a terminal illness and with the right help, she'd live the life of an average human, if not cut short several years.

"Hey Cal, it's okay. Now that we know, we can be there for her," I said softly, pulling him into my chest. He sniffed and blinked, clearly trying not to cry but at the same time, clearly failing.

"I just... if I'd known before, maybe I wouldn't have gotten so angry at her..."

It was his dad's turn to be a father. He approached Calum and placed his hands on his shoulders, turning him to face him. "Son, you did nothing wrong. It wasn't clever of you to slap your mother but even I got fed up of her sometimes. I held back because I knew why, but you didn't have an excuse to. All you need to do is from now own, treat her a bit nicer, keep her calm and keep doing what you do best."

With that, we said our farewells and headed outside to the taxi, which would take us to the train station. Neither of us had enough money to fly all the way back to Sydney, so we had to take the long arduous train journey – not that it was a bad thing necessarily – it meant I got to spend more time with my little precious Calum, and that was all that mattered.

~

Two hours into our journey, Calum started nodding off on my shoulder due to lack of sleep from last night. Since there weren't many people in the carriage with us, I decided to speak my mind for once, unlike usual where I'd just put my thoughts in a song lyric.

"Hey Calum," I began in a whisper. "We've only known each other a little while but ever since you came, you've made me realise a lot of things. Firstly – I'm into guys who play the piano like a pro, who wears beanies and jeans and Converse; who has the voice of an angel – an alive one, obviously – and the skills of God himself. If we hadn't met on that very first day in the abandoned music hall, do you think we'd be where we are know?"

He shifted about to get into a better position, but it was clear he hadn't actually heard anything. So I continued.

"When I found about your bruises and marks, I'll put it truthfully – I was scared. I didn't know who was attacking my favourite guy, and whether he imposed any major threat to you. Then you said it was your own mother and I felt really uncomfortable. There was a dark feeling inside and I knew I had to do something, because no one deserved to be hurt by people of their own blood.

"Anyway, you're safe now and that's all that matters." I reached my arm over his shoulder and brought his cheek to my lips, planting a quick kiss on his soft skin. "I'm gonna take you back to my dorm and we'll cuddle, then maybe make out and maybe let our hearts decide what to do next. Whatever happens, I'm gonna be here for you and if I'm not, I'm not worthy of your love."

***

Calum's mum drama is over now 💖 thanks for being patient, i just want all my stories to have real issues that are going on everyday but shouldn't be. It's sad to still be living in this kind of world, but on the other hand it has a lot to offer too.

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Kimmy xx