eunoia ; malum

02

LUKE AND ASHTON WERE TOGETHER THE NEXT DAY WITH THE EXCEPTION OF ASHTON SHARING MORE ABOUT HIS LIFE. His life was Calum, work and the warehouse. So, he figured the safest option was for Luke to meet his best friend again.

Calum looked less than excited to hear that he was going to be the third-wheel, but he was sick of cleaning up the mess from Ashton's tantrum, so he followed the muscly guy to a park. He watched the two boys flirt, and he tried to block out their thoughts but he hadn't quite mastered selective hearing.

"Okay, I'm going home." Calum groaned, wanting to have a mental break-down over their sexual/cute thoughts.

Being third-wheel was not his style. He preferred to be a unicycle. Somebody could ride him any day, but he always ended up alone.

Calum felt he had just made the saddest analogy known to man.

He cringed when he heard a group of teenage girls think about his ass, and tried to walk away but he couldn't help but just mumble a, "yuck!" under his breath. He hated when people thought about his ass like that.

Eventually, he got back to the warehouse, but was anxious to see that the door was wide open. He listened for thoughts, but didn't hear any. He walked quietly throughout the house, listening for anything. Breathing, footsteps, something.

When he didn't hear anything, he still stayed by the door, cautious.

About ten minutes later, he went through every room, seeing if they'd taken something. The only thing that was slightly bothering him were the pillows on his mattress. They'd been moved.

To Ashton: stay at lukes tonight.

Ashton: why?

Calum: somebodys been in our house.

Calum continued to clean up the mess in the warehouse shakily. He jumped at every sound, but tried to ignore it. He went to the back of the warehouse, using charcoal from the fire him and Ashton once made, and drew all over the walls.

He wrote in big, block letters: LEAVE US ALONE WE ARE NOT HERE ANYMORE.

He climbed the fence a little, looking at the places around the warehouse – a pub and shop across the street and broken down houses all around. He wondered if they'd ever wondered about the two boys in the warehouse.

It got dark quickly, and Calum decided the best way to get rid of his fear was to get drunk. So, he went out to a club and drunk until he couldn't feel his legs and he didn't know what way was up. He knew his way home, and that was enough.

He grinded on a black-haired guy and lazily made-out with him. He was fine with not remembering any of that night in the morning. All throughout them dancing, he heard the guy's thoughts get more perverted.

Calum pushed him away, accidentally dropping his fake ID in the process. Fuck. The guy he was grinding on showed the bartender, and security threw him out. And, just because he liked their shirts, Calum talked to security for an hour about hiring them to stand around his house.

"C-Cause . . . somebody went in my house, right? Yeah, they did. And they didn't take anything, but they fucking moved my pillows around."

The two guys with more muscle than Ashton looked at each other, shaking their heads. "Where do you live, man?"

"A warehouse across from Barney's."

Stupid, drunk Calum didn't think there was anything wrong with giving a stranger his address as one of the guys walked him home. In fact, he wanted the guy to stay. The guy laughed and said he had to get back to his job.

"You're cute."

"I have a girlfriend, and you're drunk as fuck." The bouncer smiled gently at the boy tripping over his own feet. He put him down on the couch – that seemed to have been ripped apart for some reason – and left him.

Calum fell asleep straight after, waking up to a hangover and the sounds of Ashton making soup. Ashton was thinking about how stupid it was that his best friend got drunk when he was scared. Calum rolled his eyes, going into the basic kitchen and grabbing some aspirin.

"Fuck . . ." he whined when Ashton started to make loud noises that weren't really very loud. "Ashton, please."

You need to get out of the house.

"I know I do."

The muscly guy seemed confused until he remembered that Calum could read thoughts just as easily as he could lift cars. He decided to try not to think about much so the Maori wouldn't have to be so offended and fucked off all of the time.

There was a knock on the door and neither of the boys moved to get it. They hid behind the kitchen bench, because Calum knew what Ashton was thinking. He didn't tell Luke his address, and they knew nobody else.

"Cal . . ."

"Shhh, I'm trying to listen to their thoughts."

He's probably too hungover to answer. Probably doesn't even remember me.

The bouncer.

It was the bouncer from the night before.

Calum got up and opened the door, seeing the guy from last night, except a little bit clearer now. He grinned, leaning on the doorframe. He liked the fact that the guy came back to check up on him.

"Hey."

"Um, hey, just wanted to check up on you . . . 'cause you were pretty smashed last night." Despite being so big and intimidating, he looked nervous as hell.

"Thanks, but I'm fine."

"Oh . . . okay. I'll go, then."

Calum said thank you one more time before shutting the door, hearing Ashton's thoughts loud and clear. He explained the story and then decided that they needed to go get sheets so he could cover the windows up, because the weather was starting to get cold, and Ashton broke a lot of the windows.

The tanned boys headed down to the shop and got some sheets. Calum – even though he would never admit it – was good with a needle and thread, so he even made Ashton and him some shirts. Actually using them for their purpose was secondary. They didn't need bed-sheets.

"Cal, these shirts feel funny." The strong boy said, adjusting their sleeves.

"They're meant for like suits and important people; of course they feel funny to you."

Ashton hit him in the back of the head as softly as he could, which still led his best friend to groan. Ashton got the nails and used all of them to put the sheet in place on the window-sills. He didn't use a hammer. Hammering was for normal people.

Ashton was not a normal person.

Suddenly, he was being hauled into the closest room, Calum hiding next to him. "Somebody's thoughts aren't very nice, and they're getting clearer."

If they aren't here, I'm going to fucking kill him. I'm going to snap his neck and feed him to the dogs.

"Ashton," Calum whispered as there was a knock on the door. "Break the wall; we need to run."

"Calum, behind the house is a fence. We're not going to make it."

The Maori gritted his teeth, narrowing his eyes. "We don't have time to argue. Just break the fucking wall." Ashton turned and put a hole in the cement wall. Calum heard their thoughts. They'd heard it. And they were coming.

The two boys climbed up the fence, feeling man grab their feet. The strong boy kicked them away and they got over the barb-wire at the top successfully, their hearts racing, but they weren't as scared as they felt like they should've been.

People had tried to hunt them down before. They were fourteen, and Calum thought he was insane hearing voices. But now he had to trust himself with these sorts of things. If he didn't, they'd end up in serious trouble.

They hid in somebody's balcony, watching through the railing. When Calum looked at the person who was chasing him, he nearly choked.

It was the redhead.