thin walls / calum hood

1.8

Hayley

Hayley's mum had pulled her into the other room, wanting to have a conversation. Had he stayed the night? Were they boyfriend and girlfriend? All the questions seemed to be easily answered; no, no, no.

"Okay. Just remember the rules," her mother said.

Hayley knew the rules - backwards, forwards and in her sleep. One: no closed doors. Two: no sex. Three: if she was going to do it anyway, use a condom. She blushed.

Her mother was really overthinking it. She hadn't even thought about having sex with Michael. Not until just now, when she had indirectly implied it by giving the rule talk. Great. Now she was thinking about it. And oh my god was that weird.

"Mum, I know the rules. We're friends. That's it."

"Great," she smiled. "What's with the hair, though?"

"He's kinda punk rock, I guess."

Her mother laughed. "Punk rock?"

"Yeah."

When returning to her room, Hayley found Michael smirking, sitting back down on her bed. "What are the rules?"

Hayley, still working on getting the blush to go away, rolled her eyes at him. He'd been listening in. "Shut up."

"No, please I wanna know," he teased. "I'm here as well and I think it's only fair I know the rules, so fill me in."

"I'm not telling you."

"Is it to do with sex?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Not happening."

Nothing else had to be said. To Hayley's surprise, he didn't ask again. She thought he'd be more persistent.

Calum didn't text her again, and Hayley was never going to to text him first. Not after the awkward message. So instead, she hung out with Michael to forget about the fact that she may or may not miss Calum's shy glances, giggles, and his little lisp.

They hung out a lot the following week; Hayley and Michael. He was easy going and talked freely about absolutely everything and nothing. Sometimes it was difficult, because Hayley felt like she wasn't interesting enough. But then again, he didn't seem to mind. With him, silences never seemed entirely quiet. It was nice, for a change.

Michael had decided to get his brow pierced and Hayley went with him. He said he wanted help deciding whether he was actually going to go through with it or not, but Hayley knew he just wanted a hand to hold in case it would hurt. Sneaky boy. She'd agreed, anyway.

Hayley teased him about that it was her mum's comment about him not being punk rock that had made him want to do it, but he denied, saying he had been thinking about it for ages. She wasn't entirely convinced, but laughed it off.

"How does it look?" he asked, moving his face around for Hayley to check all angles.

"Swollen."

"Shut up, it looks cool."

"You know what would make it even cooler? An ice pack."

"Whatever." Michael playfully rolled his eyes at her, and ran his hands over his purple hair before putting his snapback on again. Hayley found it attractive, but didn't say anything. She couldn't get carried away. He held the tattoo and piercing shop's door open for her.

"Thanks," she mumbled, biting her lip to keep herself from smiling.

There was one problem, going into town with him. Michael's hair was bright, even when sticking out from under his snapback, and made her plans on going unnoticed fall apart. Not that she minded his company, not at all. It just attracted attention.

The petite brunette waved, smiling as she approached them. Hayley did recognise her, and kept a straight face. It was just easier that way.

"Hi Mikey," the girl beamed, bringing him in for a quick one armed hug. She was balancing two drinks from Starbucks.

"Alyssa," he said, "how are you?"

"Yeah good thanks." She studied him for a bit. "You got your eyebrow pierced!"

"I did," he laughed.

"Looks good." The brunette looked from Hayley to Michael and back. She had a smile on her face Hayley couldn't quite work out.

"This is Hayley, my moral support." He put his head to the side, smiling at Hayley. Michael seemed sincerely happy to have her by his side. The way he spoke about her stirred up butterflies at the pit of her stomach.

"That's cute! I remember you from Luke's party. Aren't you Calum's friend? He said he had to help you home," she said.  "I'm Alyssa." 

"Hi," she said, feeling awkward.

"Anyway, I'm off to see Calum." Alyssa smiled, seemingly unaware of how the name had made the air around them quite cold. She was pretty. A line of dark eyelashes framed her blue eyes, sparking as she smiled. Hayley could totally see Calum liking her. There was a perkiness about her personality.

"Uh," Michael stuttered. "That's cool," he said quickly.

"I'm so glad you introduced us!"

"Yeah, that's ok, um..."

Hayley wanted to leave, and she could tell Michael was thinking the same thing. He was running his hand at the back of his neck, dragging his speech. Alyssa seemed to catch on.

"I'm sorry for holding you guys up," she giggled sweetly. "Nice to meet you, Hayley!"

As soon as Alyssa was out of sight, Michael put his arm around her, pulling her into half a hug as they walked. "You okay?" he asked. "I feel bad."

"Can I just ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

"At that party, was Calum going to sleep with her?"

Michael looked away, as if the question was difficult to answer. "Sort of, I guess it could have lead to that. He didn't, though."

"I know." She just needed to know, to validate her own decision to stay away from him. His intentions confused her. Like Macy had said, it was always the quiet ones. Seeing how Michael's face had sunk, she made a mental note of never speaking about the brown-eyed boy again. "Your piercing does look good, by the way."

"Thank you," he smiled, seemingly very proud of her compliment.

"Very punk rock. When will you get a tattoo to go with it?"

"When you get one," he tried, nudging her.

"And what tattoo would I get?"

He grinned. "A naughty one."

"I'm not talking to you ever again."

Michael just laughed, his green eyes glistening in the sun as he leaned his head back. "I guess the answer is never."

-

im having mikey feels and i cant stop

oops alyssa and calum ??

thank you for 8k you guys are rad iiih ilysm 

~lauren