Prove You Wrong // Cake AU [complete]

16: Revelations

A/N: Am I the only one who doesn't ship Lashton bc this is insanity. (HOLY SHIT THIS IS 5 PAGES LONG.)

[Calum.]

I had just been lying on my bed, trying to figure out how to go about this whole situation when my door swung open and a completely pissed off Taylor stormed into my room. "What the hell did you say to him?!"

Oh, shit. This is why you don't date your sister's best friend, people. I scampered to sit up straight on my bed, my eyes wide. It was becoming a trend, her yelling at me because of something I did to Luke. I really needed to watch out.

"I just- I-"

"He told me you broke up with him. I warned you! I warned you not to hurt him and what do you do? You obviously go and hurt him. Good job!"

"Taylor, you don't under-"

She groaned loudly, walking over and smacking me on the back of the head. "I don't care. You need to fix this, pumpkin brain! Holy shit, I knew it. I shouldn't have ever- ugh!"

Before I knew it, she was pacing my room, yelling. "And I saw you with Olivia! Did your standards really lower so drastically? Jeez Calum, if you left Luke I'd hope it would be for someone with an actual brain or something, not someone who's literally just a walking talking s-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," I growled, causing her to raise her eyebrows at me, ceasing her steps.

"Defending her, are we?"

"No! I'm defending myself," I snapped, getting off my bed and standing up so I was in front of her. "I would never leave Luke for Olivia."

"But isn't that what you did?" Taylor snapped back, clearly not phased by my change in tone.

"No! I mean... Yes, but no!" I shook my head, trying not to confuse myself. "I would never have done it if I had the choice."

"Excuse me? You're acting like she held a gun to your head and forced you to get back with her. And between you and me, I don't think she's smart enough to even hold the gun the right way, so seriously, you always have a choice."

"Okay, fine. Yes, I did have a choice. But you wanna know the two options? Getting back with her, or getting Luke to hate me. I think anyone would have chosen the first one."

She frowned. "Luke could never hate you."

"You're wrong," I sighed, sitting back down on my bed and hanging my head in shame. "Olivia... Olivia has her ways. She can make him despise me so much that he won't even want to look my way. But more importantly... I... He'll hate himself."

"It can't be that bad-"

"You have absolutely no idea."

"I know that Luke's self esteem isn't exactly the highest thing ever, but it really can't be that bad."

"Trust me, it's bad. And that's why I'm doing this. I'll find a way to get away from Olivia, I'll find a loophole, I don't know, but I can't afford to let Luke find out what Olivia knows."

I heard Taylor sigh, and after a few seconds she spoke. "Okay. But... Don't hurt him even more than you already have."

I looked up at her with an apologetic look on my face. "That's the last thing I want to do."

---

However, that was proving itself to be incredibly difficult. It had been four days of agony. I couldn't even face Luke without wanting to run up to him and engulf him in a huge hug. He looked miserable, and as the days passed he just began looking worse. He looked like what I was feeling on the inside.

Needless to say, the first thing that happened when I walked into school today was Olivia pressing her lip gloss coated mouth against mine. It felt wrong. It felt like kissing a fish. Not that I've ever actually kissed a fish, but if I had, it would probably feel like that.

I had shoved her away, but she was determined. Her arm was perpetually wrapped around my waist throughout the day, as it had been, and many people came to ask me what happened to Luke but I couldn't answer them truthfully because of her constant presence. I don't know how I had dealt with it before, because right now I really had an uncontrollable urge to just strangle her.

Throughout the days I had been texted Luke, but he was completely ignoring me. I mean, I get where he's coming from, but I was really missing him.

Michael and Ashton confronted me about this whole situation, but I couldn't tell them what was going on either. I couldn't bring them into this mess either. I had already hurt Luke, I couldn't afford to lose the only other people I cared about.

When the final bell rang, I wasted no time in grabbing my bag and darting towards the front doors, eager to leave school before anyone could ask anymore questions, or worse, before Olivia could catch up to me. I practically ran home, and once inside I locked the front door, hoping that Taylor had her keys. I had been doing this for the past four days, so hopefully she should have caught on. All I wanted to do was call Luke and talk to him, and forget that this day even happened.

So that's precisely what I did. However, his phone immediately went to voicemail, which was incredibly weird. These past few days he picked up, and even though we only talked for a few minutes, we still talked.

"Hey Luke, I miss you, please call me back," I simply said before hanging up. I then tried to call Ashton, but no such luck: his phone went to voicemail as well. I was about to call Michael when a banging on the door made me jump in surprise and drop my phone. I swore before picking it up and heading to the door. I checked the window to make sure it wasn't Olivia. Nope, it was just a very annoyed Taylor.

"Sorry," I apologised sheepishly as I opened the door.

She simply rolled her eyes and asked, "Have you talked to Michael at all today?"

I nodded. "I did during the day, and I was about to call him."

"Okay, tell me if he picks up."

She walked past me down the hallway, and I just shrugged before looking down at my phone and tapping on Michael's name. I pressed the phone to my ear and it rang continually until...

"Hey!"

"Michael, finally," I groaned, but I realised he was still talking.

"What? Sorry? Can't hear you!"

"Can you hear me now?!" I practically yelled.

"-got you! I'm probably busy or I just don't like you, so leave a message!"

I groaned loudly again. "Why the fuck are you all ignoring me?! Dude, text me."

I hung up, growing incredibly annoyed by the second. I called Luke again, and - you guessed it! - it went to voicemail. I didn't bother leaving a message this time, he probably wouldn't listen to it anyways.

I sighed before slipping my phone back into my pocket and walking over to Taylor's room. I knocked on the door and she opened it seconds later, giving me a hopeful look.

"Any luck?" she asked, and I shook my head.

"Nope. Neither Ashton nor Luke are picking up their phones."

Taylor frowned. "That's strange."

"I know."

----

[Luke.]

I couldn't bare to look. I can't stand her, I can't even stand to be in her presence. She made me sick.

Which is precisely why, after days of wallowing and ignoring the majority of Calum's sappy texts, I turned to Ashton and Michael for help.

I caught up with them at the end of school as I watched Calum practically sprint away from the building.

"Hey, uh, Ashton?" I asked nervously, tapping him on the shoulder.

He turned around, a huge grin on his face. "Hey! What's up?"

"I need your help. And maybe Michael's too," I explained nervously, biting my lip ring.

"Okay," Ashton frowned slightly, noticing my nervousness. He yanked Michael by the back of his shirt and pulled him aside.

"What the hell Ash?" Michael practically whined, rubbing the back of his neck. "That hurt!"

I looked up at Michael's newly dyed hair, distracted by the bright pink for a split second before focusing back on what I meant to ask them. "Um, well, you see..."

"It's about Calum, isn't it?" Ashton asked, and I nodded. "Why is he back with Olivia? Last I checked, he hated her guts."

"Last time I checked, he did too," I nodded, then sighed. "I don't know. He looked miserable. He told me that it was to protect me or-"

"That bitch probably said some shit, she probably blackmailed him," Michael sneered.

Ashton smacked him on the arm. "Don't swear! But I agree with Mikey. She probably did."

"You guys really don't know anything about this situation?" I asked curiously. I had expected them to know what was going on.

They both shook their heads. "Nope," Michael sighed.

"Okay, great," I sighed, shoving my hands into my pockets.

"Is that what you needed to ask us?" Ashton asked, readjusting his grey bandana as Michael pulled out his phone with a confused look on his face.

"Well, yes and no," I admitted. "I need to find out what Olivia said to make Calum do this."

Michael furrowed his eyebrows, looking down at his phone in his hand before tapping something on the screen and shoving it back in his pocket. "I don't think you'd want to know."

"Why not?" I replied. "I want to know what could be so bad that Calum thinks he needs to protect me from it. I can fend for myself."

Michael nodded, understanding my point. However, Ashton still looked unsure. "But what do you want to do about it?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Confront her? I mean... That's what I want to do about it. But I can't do it alone, I'm kinda scared of her," I admitted with a nervous chuckle.

Ashton's gaze softened, and he gave me a smile before throwing his arm around my shoulder. "Okay, well, I guess here goes nothing."

"Wait, we're doing this right now?" Michael asked, beating me to it.

"Well, yeah?" Ashton answered, confused. "I thought that was the plan?"

They both looked at me, and I shrugged. "Not really, but might as well."

"Okay," Michael nodded, standing a bit straighter to my right. We located Olivia and started walking over to her. She noticed us halfway, and the look she threw me would have been enough to send me scampering for shelter if it hadn't been for Michael and Ashton standing on my either side.

"Can we talk to you?" Ashton said sharply as we reached her. "It's important."

"Can't really be that important," she scoffed, rolling her eyes. Nevertheless, she moved away from her group of girls and walked to the side with us. "What do you want?"

"I- Uh-" I stuttered, suddenly unsure. I was about to back out when Ashton spoke up.

"What did you say to Calum?"

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked, batting her eyelashes and playing dumb.

"Why is he back with you?"

"Because he realised that he can do better," she shrugged.

At that, something flipped inside me. "No, that's not what it is," I snapped. "He told me that you threatened him!"

She raised a perfectly done eyebrow, not even batting an eyelash at my outburst. "He said that, did he?"

I nodded, my jaw clenched. "Yes. And I believe him more than I believe you."

"Well then," she laughed. "I only threatened him with the truth."

"The truth?" Michael asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You don't know?" she faked surprise, her eyes wide.

"We don't know what?" I asked, frowning.

"What Calum really thinks about you," she shrugged, picking at her nails.

"Calum really loves him," Ashton shrugged. "Everyone can see that."

I froze. Love? Love?! No. This wasn't a time to be talking about love. I'm almost 17, I don't know anything about love! Do I love Calum? No, I can't even think about it, so how could I possibly love him?

While I was having my mini freak out, Olivia had said something and was now flicking through her phone.

"Whatever you have on your phone is way too old to still be relevant," Michael muttered, and she shot him a glare.

"Well, people don't change that easily, you know," she answered, before handing me her phone. "You wanted to know the truth? Here's the truth."