Cadences [cake au] ✔

// twenty-nine //

Chapter 29

Luke's POV

When I finally returned to Calum's dorm after two hours of constant searching, I saw him standing with the lights off by the open window, his head sticking out with a stream of smoke floating up from his lips.

Without bothering to take my shoes off, I ran over and faced him, tears already falling. "Calum... Calum I promise you, I had no idea he was gonna say stuff like that-"

I stopped talking when I saw the state of him. His hair was all dishevelled and had strands going in every direction possible, and his eyes were red and dry from all the crying he'd done. His cheeks were swollen and there was a scent of cigarette smoke lacing his lips. He threw the white half-burnt stick out the window, wiping his hands on his jeans.

"S-sorry Luke. I took one of your cigarettes," he whispered, clearly having cried his eyes dry. I grabbed his hand and he winced, so I lifted it up in the light and saw a red patch on his thumb, making my insides hurt.

"What happened?" I asked quietly and calmly.

"I didn't know how to use the cigarette lighter."

I squeezed my eyes shut, letting out a shaky breath. "Are you okay?" I managed after a few moments of pure silence.

He shrugged. "I'm not sure." His eyes swivelled to look out the window. "I don't really know how to feel."

"Can we at least take care of the matter at hand? You're hurt. Let me take a look." I didn't mean to come across as rude or anything but honestly, the pain in my ankle suddenly started throbbing again, even more painfully than it had been just ten minutes prior. A wince escaped my mouth unintentionally, making Calum turn his head quickly to face me.

"What..."

"Mind if I turn the light on? I can't really see your hand in this darkness," I breathed, holding in the urge to scream out in hurt. He nodded subtly, and I dragged my stiff leg over to the light switch, flicking it and walking back, sitting us both down on the sofa.

Under the coffee table there was a small and simple first aid box with a few essentials. I opened it up and took out the things I required, trying to put pressure on my leg at the same time to counter the ache.

"So, what happened earlier... I want you to know that-"

Calum suddenly stood up, shocking me into dropping the box onto my leg – my bad leg, of course. "You know what, it would probably be better if you went back to Michael's dorm for tonight. I... I want to be by myself, just until morning..."

"Just hear me out Cal-"

"Please. Do this for me."

With much reluctance I picked up the plasters and bandages, grabbed my jacket and limped out, closing the door behind me with a louder bang than usual.

I hated this. I hated how things had turned out.

Just when my life was beginning to get better, everything went downhill. This always happened, and it seemed impossible for me to find a way to overcome the constant cycle of distress. Well, at least Michael always had a solution in situations like this, at least he'd welcome me back for one night. Right?

Wrong.

"Sorry Luke, Rebecca's here, can you go stay with Cal like you always do? Sorry, bye!" he garbled, slamming the door in my face. Now I really had nowhere to go.

I ended up in one of the rock department studios, writing a song and eventually, recording it. It was unusual for me to write anything that wasn't borderline punk or guitar heavy – instead, I played around with the strings on the recording software, spending my whole evening recording a very special song for a very special person.

Calum's POV

I blinked the tears out of my eyes. Why had I pushed him away like that? He didn't even do anything wrong, it was that stupid Jack guy who said all that stuff; yet I couldn't quite make myself believe that Luke was in the clear. Some of the things Jack said weren't entirely false, I thought.

Had Liz asked Luke to date me? Surely she had no reason to? I never told her that I liked guys, nor did she even believe that someone like Luke would go out with someone like me. Okay, she hadn't had an issue with it, but maybe that's what was strange?

Any sane person would've told me I was overthinking, and it was true. I knew it was. That didn't stop me from entering an endless vortex of questioning myself and how genuine Luke was and if Jack was spewing lies or actual cold hard facts.

It made me realise that actually, I didn't know Luke as well as I wanted to, and in a way that made me more motivated to get to know him. There was so much more to him than his outer appearance, I'd experienced that first-hand and felt the love that he'd given just to me.

I glanced at the light burn on my hand. It was gonna leave a scar, wasn't it? I hated scars. They were like a constant memory of a particular period of my life, and I didn't want to come back to this moment in thirty years' time and make myself unhappy.

Fumbling through the mess of plasters on the coffee table, I cleaned up the wound with a wipe and stuck a plain plaster over the majority of the red raised bump. It would hurt to play the piano, but then again I didn't feel anything when I lost myself in music. The keyboard was sitting right in front of my eyes so I went and played on it for a while – and by a while, I mean the rest of the night.

~

I was out taking a morning walk when I heard loud shouting from one of the dorm blocks a few buildings down, the one that Michael stayed in. Stuffing my hands into my pockets and blowing out a puff of steam, I approached the scene whilst keeping hidden.

"Well it's not my fault you and Rebecca are all over each other!" a voice I recognised as Ashton's screeched. I could just about see his hazel curls from behind the bush.

"You and Josh were clearly together last I heard!" Michael hollered back.

Ashton stepping a bit closer and lowered his pitch. "Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't sleep with Rebecca last night."

A few moments of silence followed, certifying that Michael had indeed slept with Rebecca last night. Ashton let out an exhausted sigh, shaking his head. "I knew it. I even bought All Time Low tickets for us, Michael, and you go and do stuff like this? I'm done with trying to get back together with you-"

Michael grabbed Ashton and pulled him in for a kiss, making me smile a little. It was nice to know one couple was enjoying a beautiful morning kiss as passionate as theirs. As soon as I was reminded of Luke however, the smile collapsed into a thin line and I turned on my heel to go back to my dorm.

There had to be a way for us to work out. If only it was written down as instructions in a book, or a manual or something – at the end of the day, only one action could sort this out. And that was talking to Luke.

But was I ready? Would I ever be?

"Calum!"

Too late, that decision had already been made for me.

***

Sorry for not updating yesterday! I tried to update this morning but Wattpad fucked up so I'm doing it at school because I feel bad XD

Basically for those of you who don't know, my mum sent me to my grandma's on Friday after school for some random reason and I can't update there because of the wifi, but what's important is that I'm updating now :D

Also for 5SOS' 5th bday I wrote a lil something in my most recent chapter of Gender, so feel free to check that out ;))))

Vote+comment for virtual 5sos mashton

Kimmy xx

P.S. next chapter is the last chapter...................