billionaire - cake

[24] Betrayal

Luke turned to Calum, trying to remain as calm as possible. "What did you think you were doing?

"Well I-I mean I thought t-that-" Calum stuttered, stumbling clumsily on his words and struggling to form even a coherent thought as his face turned a deep shade of red. He'd really messed up, and he had absolutely no idea how to explain.

"Thought so," Luke scoffed, "you're going to take me to Michael's house so that I can make sure that Ashton is okay, and maybe then you'll be able to talk about it."

The blond threw the key hard at Calum's chest, and he stumbled backwards as he just managed to catch it. Luke motioned towards the door and they both left through it one at a time, a fair distance between them. The silence was unbearable.

It turned out that Michael lived just over a two minute walk away from Luke, something which the blond hadn't actually decided to check before storming out of the house, but was now grateful that he would soon see Ashton again. He'd know what to do, he was so much more experienced in all of this and was like a protective big brother.

When they got to the house, Calum inserted the key into the lock and turned it with shaky hands, glad that the two were safely inside but also knowing that Luke would expect answers from him soon, and he had absolutely nothing to give.

Once the door was open, Luke went first. He walked slowly into the house, peering around every corner carefully as if scared of what he might find, because in truth he had no idea what his dad was capable of.

Fortunately, they found the two boys sat side by side on the floor in the kitchen, leaning up against the wall. A huge tub of ice cream was open in front of them, and they took it in turns to take a spoonful.

When they noticed Luke and Calum, it was Ashton who jumped up, flinging himself at Luke. "I tried to stop them finding him but they wouldn't listen and I was going to tell you but he stopped me and locked me here I'm so sorry," he rambled, holding the blond so tightly he felt like he couldn't breathe.

"Ash it's okay, he's gone." Luke turned to Calum and Michael, who had also hugged. "We'd like some some time to talk. Alone."

Michael threw his hands up. "Hell no! This is my house, you two can go elsewhere."

Luke glared at Calum, who sighed and grabbed Michael's hand, leading him into a different room while the red-haired boy moaned.

Ashton frowned. "Are you sure you're okay? I'm assuming you and Calum have some, um, things you need to sort out."

"Yeah," Luke ran his sweaty hands through his hair, "it's just, I don't understand. The reason I never told Calum about my dad was because I wanted to move on, I was finally getting over it and I didn't want the memories burying themselves in my thoughts again. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, but now I'm wondering why I ever did."

Ashton thought carefully. "He didn't mean for it to end like this. Calum thought he was doing what was best by you, if you never told him about your dad then how was he to know?"

"I guess you're right, I love him Ashton I really do, I just feel so betrayed right now."

"And that's normal," Ashton continued, "not everything works out perfectly first time. Every journey has a few bumps in the road, you just have to take it slow."

Luke smiled. "Thanks, Ash. I really needed that."

Ashton looked at him curiously, then nodded his head towards the door. The blond knew what he meant, he had to sort things sooner rather than later. Luke couldn't afford to lose Calum, he just couldn't.

His hand was on the doorknob when he began to hear murmured voices on the other side. One was loud and angry and the other quiet, not sure who was who.

When Luke yanked it open he was surprised to find Calum sat on the sofa, his head in his hands and crying quietly to himself. Michael stood by the wall, massaging his temples and trying to calm himself down.

He kept muttering "Calum you're such an idiot," over and over again, which Luke certainly couldn't disagree with.

Calum's head shot up when he heard Luke at the door, and the blond knew immediately he'd been too harsh on the boy. His eyes were red and puffy, the tears leaving stains down his cheeks and his bottom lip slightly swollen from the pressure of biting down on it.

Luke ran over and sat down next to him straight away, wrapping his arms around Calum as the billionaire sobbed into his chest. "I-I'm so s-sorry," he choked through uneven breaths, continuing to soak Luke's shirt. Luke rubbed his hand in a circular motion on Calum's back, trying to help him to relax.

Michael and Ashton observed from the wall as the two sat there, Luke holding Calum until he was too exhausted to cry anymore. His sobs became sniffles, and his eyes started to feel heavy.

Minutes later, he was fast asleep in Luke's arms.

Michael cooed, noting how cute they looked and ordering Ashton to remind him to take a picture of them later. "Since you're all here and Calum doesn't look like he's going to wake up anytime soon, how about you all stay the night? I have some pillows and blankets upstairs, and my parents aren't coming back until tomorrow so we can steal their mattresses."

Luke smiled, looking down at his beautiful boyfriend who was now snoring softly. "Yeah, that would be really nice."

Ashton also agreed that it sounded like a good idea, immediately pulling his phone out of his back pocket and texting his mum to say he wouldn't be home that night.

Michael grinned and bounded upstairs to fetch the stuff, Ashton trailing behind to help.

Luke kissed Calum's head and wiped under his eyes, pulling his body closer. "I forgive you. For everything. I'll always forgive you, because I love you with everything I have."

~~~~~~~

A/n: HAPPY HALLOWEEN

So I haven't updated in... how long... a couple of weeks... ha ha ha ha ha oh

Yeeeeeah so I'm bad at updating and most people have stopped reading this BUT YAY EVERYTHING IS HAPPY AGAIN

I'm hopefully going to end this at 30 chapters and I am so not ready lmao but I hope this was okay ily xx