5SOS Sickfics

Can You Just Not? ~ Calum

Context: The band are in their garage phase.

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"I'm not being funny, Calum. But how are were supposed to rehearse if you won't let us play our instruments?" Ashton asked, kind of annoyed, at Calum.

The boy had turned up to Luke's house, even though he didn't go to school that day, dressed like an off duty chav and said that he had a throbbing migraine.

"You can play your instruments...just not too loud." Calum told them as he sat in the corner of the garage on a bean bag, his sunglasses on in the already dark room. Because he had asked that the lights be kept off.

Luke only lightly brushed the string of his Accoustic guitar, no amp, but that still made Calum wince and rub his temple.

"Too loud." He moaned.

The boys wanted to shout in frustration, but they were only just allowed to whispered, and it wasn't exactly Calum's fault for having a migraine.

"Why don't you just go home, Mate?" Michael suggested, not trying to sound mean but they couldn't use their rehearsal time wisely if they carried on this way.

They needed to keep productive, they had a gig in a few weeks, plus some of the boys had exams to study for.

"Because if I stand up right now, I'm going to vomit!" Calum groaned as he clamped his eyes shut to try and suppress the nausea.

Luke scooted away from his friend, not wanting to be in the splash zone.

"Do you want some ice?" Ashton asked as he pointed to Luke's jumbo freezer that was buzzing away.

The buzzing alone made Calum feel as if his head was being hit with a sledgehammer.

"Yes please." Calum pleaded.

Luke got up and took a look at what they had inside, rummaging around the selection of frozen food and enjoying the cooling sensation. The garage became a furnace in the aussie sun. Bloody oath.

"We've got a bag of frozen peas and ice pops." He said as he pulled the stuff out.

"Ice pops sound good right now." Calum said to himself as he hadn't eaten all day, he had thrown up before now, Luke just plonked the bag of peas on Cal's forehead.

"No the ice pops are for us, if you're gonna puke then I'm not going to waste them." Luke explained, he thought that was fair.

He gave Michael and Ashton an ice pop before turning back to their rehearsal.

"I've worked out a couple solos, do you agree with them?" Luke whispered as he picked up his notebook. The boys sat in a semi-circle around Luke to see what he had noted, the page practically illuminated with coloured highlighters.

It looked like Disneyland had spewed on the page.

Calum laid in an awful state in the beanbag, the smell of the freezer on the bag of peas was overwhelming and made him feel even more nauseous, and any noise sounded like a gunshot.

"Can you guys just not?" Calum groaned at the boys who were trying their hardest not to make noise. Just whispering lyrics under their breath.

"Could you be more vague?" Mikey asked, he didn't know what they were doing wrong.

The pain was just so bad at this point that he felt like crying, he knew he made a mistake by coming today.

"I don't feel good, and I feel like you guys couldn't give two shits about me." Calum replied, not really a direct answer to the question but it was what he felt.

He was definitely showing his more sensitive side.

The boys felt really bad, almost as if they had completely alienated Calum from the group temporarily due to his illness.

"Of course we care about you, Cal. We want you to be here but you've probably pushed it today." Ashton told him as he came to his side.

"Yeah, I just figured that if you couldn't come to school then you shouldn't really be at band practice." Michael told him.

"I even made notes for you in class, and I would have sent you pictures of my notebook so you can learn your solos." Luke continued, he had planned this rehearsal on the basis that Calum wouldn't arrive.

And sometimes it's OK to take the time off and listen to your body.

"Are you sure that you don't need me today?" Calum asked.

"Let us call your Mum to come and pick you up, Mate." Ashton volunteered as he pulled up his cellphone.

"Let me just give her a bell."

Ashton stepped outside to make the call to give Calum some peace.

"Do you think an ice pop will cool your head from the inside, like with brain freeze?" Luke suggested.

It was actually a pretty interesting concept of thought.

"Worth a try." Calum agreed, it would rehydrate him for sure.

Luke gave him the ice pop, it was a lemon and lime flavour, which Calum actually found to relieve the nausea for a bit.

He gave his pal a thumbs up, it seemed to be working.

"You mum is on her way." Ashton announced as he came into the garage.

"Thanks guys." Calum thanked his mates.

"No wukkas, bro." Michael replied as he gentley patted Calum's shoulder.

"Always no wukkas, you're stuck with us now." Ash said.

"Like glue." Luke added before Calum held up one finger...a rude finger.

"Too loud." Calum said as he cut off the love train.

But Calum learnt a valuable lesson...brain freeze doesn't cure a migraine.

And that pushing yourself isn't always the way to go.

Don't be a hero, listen to your body, and eat ice pops.

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Hope you liked this one.

I have big plans for my next two so stick around and tell your friends if you like this sort of thing.

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