thin walls / calum hood

3.9

Michael

"It's not my fault you can't seem to stay in your own damn lane," Calum muttered. "I would punch you right now, but Luke is holding me back." Calum pushed forward, but was stopped by Luke's arm.

"Look, mate," Michael spoke, desperation in his eyes. He backed up a bit, as he didn't want to cause any more drama than he already had. "You weren't supposed to know about this, nobody was supposed to know. I only told Hayley because I needed to tell someone. You're a dick for reading texts that weren't meant for you to read."

"What are you on about? I saw you trying to get with her just now."

Then, Michael realised that Calum had no idea. He'd got it all wrong. So he played along, pretending that the whole thing had been about Hayley the entire time. "You got her drunk even though I told you to treat her right!"

"Nothing happened! Do you really think I would take advantage of her?"

Michael lifted his snapback, ruffled the hair around and put it back on. He let out a frustrated sigh, looking from Luke to Calum. He'd never seen Calum so worked up - his brown eyes flaring hot brown and cheeks stained by angry tears. Having taken a deep breath to calm himself down, Michael met Calum's eyes again. "I don't know. Considering you like to mess her about and getting her drunk."

Calum launched at Michael, Luke no longer able to hold his friend back. Punches were thrown left and right, Michael letting out cries of profanities.

"Guys, stop," Luke tried, but got no response. There was nothing he could do anymore, but call his mother to help solve the situation.

There was the sound of an engine filling almost empty car park, the slamming of a door and just a moment later, Liz and Ashton hurried towards the fighting boys. Ashton put a hand over Michael's chest, breaking him away from Calum. "Mikey, it's time to go."

"Let go of me!"

"Michael!" Liz said sharply. "What is wrong with you boys, behaving like wild animals? Luke, take Calum home please. I need to get Michael to A&E for this cut on his head."

Liz didn't say much on the way to the doctor's, she kept her eyes on the road in an intense stare. "Why were you fighting?"

"Because of a girl," Ashton chipped in from the backseat, earning a glare from Michael, who couldn't turn his head without groaning in pain.

"You used to be best friends." Liz sounded unimpressed. "Luke is getting caught into these stupid things you're doing, he doesn't like fighting - keep him out of it."

"I'm sorry, Liz," mumbled Michael, resting his head back. He knew Luke was nowhere as innocent as his mother thought, but as Liz was nice enough to drive him to the doctor's, he wasn't going to bring that up. If he did, Michael didn't doubt a second she'd drop him off at the middle of the road to walk the rest of the way - Liz had no time for any of Michael's bullshit. No matter how true his stories of the things Luke had done were.

"Yeah, Luke's a good kid." Ashton fake coughed, letting Michael know that they were both on the same page. Liz had no idea.

Stopping at the entrance, Liz turned to Michael. "Will you be alright or should I come with to hold your hand?"

"I think the hand holding and kissing it all better is my job," Ashton joked, but Michael glared at him in response. "Thank you Mrs. Hemmings. I'll handle him from here."

"Will you be alright to get back?"

"I'll call his mother," Ashton said.

"No you fucking won't," Michael responded, hitting Ashton in the shoulder, soon as the blue car had disappeared around the corner. "You're not calling my mum."

"Easy tiger, no more punching today," Ashton laughed, rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm serious."

"Fine, I'm not telling your mum. What other secrets do you keep from her?"

"Not as many as Luke, apparently," Michael let out a short, dry laugh, but stopped as it was only causing his head to throb even worse.

"Apparently. I can't believe she actually thinks he's so innocent."

"It's always the quiet ones, mate."

Michael came out of the doctor's office with a bandage around his head, and a sad look on his face.

"You okay?" Ashton asked as the two made their way outside.

"He shaved a bit of my hair to get to the cut. I have an effing bald spot now."

It was hard for the curly headed boy to keep his laughter back. He looked at Michael's head, trying to get a look at where it was, and then bubbled into a fit of laughs and giggles. "You have a bald spot. I can't believe you have a bald spot!"

"Wow, that's so funny."

"It's actually pretty funny."

"I guess my snapbacks will come in handy now."

"This is going on snapchat." Ashton brought his phone out of his back pocket, holding the camera up towards Michael. "Give me a smile."

"No."

"Please," Ashton giggled.

"You're not snapping my bald spot. Fuck you."

"Fine, I'll do it when you're asleep."

"Then I'm not going to sleep," Michael shrugged, itching at the side of his bandage. "Ugh, this thing is really pissing me off already."

"That's what you get for being a little bitch and trying to punch Calum. You should have known you have no chance against him - the boy is like karate kid."

"I had to defend myself. Fuck it, if it were a Pokémon battle, I'd win."

"You're such an idiot."

"Yeah, that's what my shirt says, arsehole."

"Seriously though, you didn't even bruise him. Not even a little bit."

"Bad aim," Michael muttered.

"Sure."

"Fine. I didn't want to hit him. Even though he's been a dick lately, I just couldn't do it."

Putting his arm around Michael, Ashton smiled at the red haired boy. "You've grown a heart, Clifford," he said, and Michael shrugged his arm away.

"Ashton, I'm gay."

"You can't joke about that! Having a heart doesn't make a man gay, Mikey."

Michael sighed. "No, Ash. I think I'm gay."

It took a while for the words to sink in, and Michael watched as his friend processed it. "You can't be-"

"I'm pretty sure I am. Hayley was the only one I'd told, she's the only one I could talk to about, well, this, uh, issue."

"But you kissed girls. So many girls."

Michael shrugged. "Things change."

-

HE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE GIRLS CALUM !!!

queen liz to the rescue

also is luke innocent or not who knows

thank you guys for the support I love you all

~lauren