FIFA || Malum

08

"Who are we meeting?" Michael asked once Luke pulled into an empty parking spot, Calum got out of the car and headed straight for the entrance. He hadn't seen Ashton since his last game, he missed him a lot and was incredibly excited to see the lad again.

"My friend who's visiting from England." Calum muttered vaguely as the other two tried to keep up with his quick pace.

Michael couldn't help but roll his eyes at Calum's reply, Calum lived in England so naturally he'd have friends there.

Within three seconds of walking through the door, Calum almost barrelled into Mr. Bend, the dude that showed him to Luke's office when he first arrived.

"I'm going to get you guys fired!" He yelled when Michael tripped on the way in and bumped into Mr. Bend and then Luke walked in and purposely smashed into the employee only to knock him onto the ground.

"What do you have against Bend?" Michael asked, knowing there were a few altercations between the two but nothing that would make Luke want to knock the guy on his ass.

"He fucked my girlfriend while I was his secretary, well I mean ex girlfriend." Luke spat, picking up his pace so he could still keep up with Calum who was basically jogging by now.

"Bend looks like he should be that one old person that yells at kids for walking on his lawn, how did he manage?" Michael asked.

"The question is more of a 'how did he manage to get it up?'" Calum laughed a little breathlessly.

"She was mad at me for not buying her a car." Luke answered, with an exaggerated sigh.

"Wait. That girl? Oh man, she's the same one that wanted to do the thing in the church?" Michael asked with a laugh, Luke managed a laugh too.

Calum threw open the door and was immediately engulfed into a bear hug.

"I've missed you, mate." Ashton said into the fabric of Calum's shirt as the boy tightened the hug.

"Guys, this is Ashton. Ashton this is Luke and Michael." Calum introduced them when the hug dissolved several long minutes later. He felt the need to say the pale boy's name with a small amount of underlying emphasis, he even managed a moment of eye contact with Ashton where he communicated that they would be talking about things later on.

"Ashton Irwin?" Michael asked. "The Ashton Irwin?"

Ashton chuckled, like most footie players, he was used to the awed looks and excited reactions. "That's me, although I don't remember my first name being The."

Calum snorted, he'd seen Ashton use that joke several times when the team was out clubbing after a game.

"You're awesome, Manchester United is my favourite team of all time. You're such a great player, defence doesn't get much action but you manage. It really sucks that Liverpool took you out, I swear they cheated." Michael was blabbering in excitement, probably not aware that everyone was glancing at Calum awkwardly. Ashton was expecting the lad to at least defend his team and his honour, but Calum was too in shock to say anything. Michael had never once mentioned liking football in the slightest, in the first few days Michael had watched clips of Calum playing to get his style of playing down.

Here he was now, talking to Ashton about strategies and goals Manchester had achieved flawlessly. Calum had not felt this offended since the time Mali had told him that she preferred Italy over England, the mention of Italy made a bad taste come to his mouth, it was a rivalry he seemed to feel in his bones.

Eventually Michael noticed that Ashton would glance over his shoulder with an uncomfortable expression, the purple haired boy turned and spotted Calum.

He let out the most inaudible "Oh." Calum had ever heard. Michael didn't sound apologetic, he didn't sound like he regretted insulting Calum's team right in front of him, he didn't sound like Calum's saddened expression made him feel bad. It sounded like he'd been found out, caught doing something that he didn't regret but felt slightly guilty for not telling anyone.

It was the kind of "Oh." you hear when someone is talking about how great mums are and then they ask about yours and you have to go through the awkward experience of telling them that you don't have one, or you don't share the same love they feel for mother figures. It's the oh you hear when someone asks you if you've seen their favourite tv show and you have never heard of it. It was the oh Calum would get if he came out to his teammates in the locker room after a game, when they were too tired to let it fully sink in but knew they could no longer talk about girls with ease around him anymore.

He's sure Michael didn't mean for it to sound like that, after all they both sat and watched the sunrise this morning, but it still stung. Calum visibly winced at the word, if it could even be called that. It didn't sound like a word in Calum's ears, more of an insult or something used to hurt people, it sounded too mean to be a word but not quite a swear word. It was unsettling that something that contained no more than two letters could hurt so much.

Oh.

Ashton could see the hurt, having been friends with Calum for so long. Luke could probably see how rigid he stood after the word was used. Michael could sure as hell see what he'd done, but he didn't look at the tanned more any different. Calum felt like curling up into a little ball.

Oh.

They say if you repeat a word to yourself enough times it starts to feel made up, weird, funny.

Oh.

Michael didn't look like he was going to stop Calum from leaving, much less start a movie marathon to distract him.

Oh.

Ashton started to make his way over, he'd only seen Calum get like this twice. He had his large hand hovering above Calum's shoulder.

Oh.

Calum moved, he didn't want comfort. It was one word with two letters, it's not something you need to be comforted over. Seeking comfort over a word that was pronounced a certain way, a different way, was ridiculous. It's not like someone was yelling disgusting slurs at him, he should be able to handle an 'oh' barely loud enough to be considered a whisper.

Oh.

He felt then, shoving past Luke with Ashton trying to catch up. He needed air. It was so stupid how one could be effected by one word, two letters, a sound.

Oh.

Calum ended up running to his hotel, it was a long tiresome run but he didn't want to stop to call a cab in case Ashton was still following him. He needed to rest, he felt heavier than he did after losing a game. He was still repeating the stupid word in his head, hearing it in Michael's voice like some kind of broken record, it didn't lose any meaning, it didn't sound weird or unnatural. It just felt like he was being hurt over and over again.

Oh.