limbo ~ malum au (boyxboy)

4 - i don't like boys!

Nothing but thunderous silence filled the large, open white room, along with about twenty four white tables and two boys who hadn't said a word to each other for the past-

"Wait, what time is it?" Calum asked.

"It isn't." Gordon said in a monotone voice. He was laying on one of the cafeteria tables (his feet hung off of the edge) and stared blankly at the ceiling, possibly counting each perferation in the thin canvas material.

Calum furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "What does that mean?"

Gordon sighed and sat up while he rubbed his face with his small hands, which Calum felt the urge to hold, but he would never admit to that. "How long has it been since you've been here?" He asked rhetorically.

"I.. I don't know? That's why I asked."

The pale boy chuckled fondly at Calum's response and replied, "Me neither. We don't have any perception of time in this place. It feels like I've been here for five minutes, five weeks and five years all at once, and that's probably the most terrifying thing that I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing."

"Then how do you know how long you've been here?" Calum began tapping his foot against the white bench. "You said you've been here six months? How can you tell?"

"I watch the people in the hospital on the tv a lot. There's an electronic calendar above the clock in the corner of the room. It's basically the only source of entertainment I have in this place. Well, until you came along that is." He blushed a bit before continuing, " It only comes in sometimes though, only when something exciting or new is happening. Like, this one time this twelve year old came into the ER because he jumped off the roof into his pool but missed and like, his arm looked like the letter L. Literally! It was all flopping around and I guess he was in shock and didn't feel it so he started to flail it and I could hear it snapping and it was sooooo gross!"

Michael started laughing, and Calum grinned fondly as the white haired lad's eyes screwed shut and he threw his head back. His bunny-like teeth poked out between his lips and he looked genuinely happy. His story was actually disturbing Calum a bit, but the white haired boy continued to laugh even harder and he even began to mimic the young boy's broken arm by flailing his own, which just caused him to laugh even harder. Calum had to admit, Gordon's laugh was quite contagious, and it resulted in both boys cackling hysterically. The raven haired lad couldn't remember a time when he laughed that hard without breaking out into a nasty cough, and that was nice to experience.

After both boys calmed down, and Gordon wiped the tears from his eyes and sore cheeks, Calum spoke up, "Can we go see what's on tv?"

Gordon responded, "Yeah! I can show you where it is, let's go!" He jumped off of the table and hopped and skipped around the cafeteria until he met the large doors. He swung them open, and challenged, "Race ya, Calum!" He then darted off down the hall and Calum could hear him yelling and hooting at himself.

Calum thought that Gordon was a bit annoying and childish, and in every day life, he would probably make fun of him. Call him names and make a joke out of his existence. But seeing the glimmer in Gordon's eye from finally having contact with another person, especially someone in the same age group as him, made Calum forget about horrible he is. Plus, it was a bit refreshing to Calum to see Gordon go from mysterious and deep to crazy and childlike in a matter of seconds. It's not like Calum has anyone to impress in this place anyway, so his whole "gotta protect my image" charade flew straight out the window.

Realizing this, Calum quickly dashed down the hallway, screaming, "Hey! wait up- You cheated!" and even skipped and clicked his heels together in mid-air.