Priorities | Malum

〰 8 〰

Ashton promised he'd call Calum the morning after because Michael was still incredibly upset over the fact that he was drinking. He said he'd quit with his obnoxious habits, yet there he was with bloodshot eyes and a bottle of beer in his hands.

"Are you sure you don't want to be the one to call him?" Ashton asked Michael as he held the boys phone in his hands. They only recently became friends and it felt somewhat weird to just be told that he had to talk to somebody else's boyfriend when he couldn't even talk to his own. But he was doing a favor for his friend that he's platonically grown fond of and he wants to help out as much as possible.

"I'm sure," Michael whispered as he leaned his head against the car window. The two best friends were sitting in the back seat of Ashton's mums car, because he begged for her to take them somewhere special since they were both incredibly down and couldn't even afford to go out to a movie or a restaurant because they were so in debt over college funds.

"Okay," Ashton nervously mumbled as he hit the call button on Calum's face. It was weird dialing somebody he didn't know, but again, it kills seeing Michael sad.

"Baby, I'm - wait, who the hell are you?"

"I'm Ashton."

"Why do you have my boyfriends phone?"

"He asked me to call you," Ashton replied nervously. Calum probably thought Michael was cheating at this point. Maybe this wasn't the best idea but he really needed to talk to the brunette.

"Where is he?"

"Right next to me," Ashton said, aiming the camera as far away as possible so he could get both his and Michaels figure into the view. Calum could see Michael had his earbuds in and was practically ignoring everyone and everything which sucked because his baby looked so sad.

"I assume you're his new boyfriend."

"Oh god no. I already have one, who is in fact also a part of the military. You might know him; his name is Luke."

"Luke? As in Hemmings?"

"That's him," Ashton replied proudly, but then he remembered that he had to focus on why he was calling Calum in the first place. It wasn't to talk about his own love life but to talk about Michaels.

"Look man, Michael wasn't breaking up with you. He's still incredibly in love with you. It's just that he misses you a lot and he's still depressed over the fact that you chose something like that over him. And when he said losing him, he meant that you risked losing all of the beautiful moments and memories."

"But I didn't - they're still here."

"But are they, Calum?" Ashton asked, making Calum really think. You don't have as many memories when video chatting as you do in person. He's never really happy when video chatting either, because it doesn't have the same effect as it would when kissing, hugging or spending time together.

"You're right, they're not. I've been so focused on my job that I didn't realize how broken he is."

"Maybe you should come and visit him."

"Like a surprise visit?"

"Yeah, without him knowing. And you could let him know a day before or something. It'd be super cute and you could have one of those cliché moments where I record you meeting again for the first time in four years and you'll both probably be in tears and come on, it'll be adorable."

"I'll have to see. But Ashton, is it?"

"Yep."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

With that, Calum said he had to go because he had technical issues he had to take care of and Ashton understood immediately. It was his own boyfriends typical excuse as well, so he didn't really mind the fact that Calum had to leave so suddenly.

By the time he hung up, Michael took out his earbuds and looked at Ashton with a hopeful expression on his face. He didn't hear any of the conversation because he was too sad to hear Calum's voice, so he had his music on full blast.

"What happened?"

"He now gets that it was all a misunderstanding and he still loves you very very much."

"So he isn't mad at me?"

"He loves you too much to ever be mad at you, to be honest."

Michael unexpectedly wrapped his arms around Ashton and while it was awkward at first, the older boy just accepted it and smiled while returning the hug to his new best friend.

"So we're going to a restaurant of your choice. You can pick anything, as long as it's under thirty dollars for three people."

"Let's just go to Country Buffet. It's not that expensive and it's all you can eat."

"Sounds good."

And that's exactly where the two boys went. And despite enjoying the company of each other and laughing at nearly everything, Michael still felt extremely sad inside. Because he missed his Calum and nothing was okay anymore.

Nothing.