the sophomore||muke

||22||

Calum sat in his bedroom on his game chair as he played a video game with Ashton two nights later.

"Shit! I'm out of ammo!", Ashton's voice screeched from the headset around Calum's ears.

The tanned boy remained silent as he concentrated on the screen, his fingers pushing the buttons frantically.

"Go and hide until you level up, I'll cover for you", he watched as Ashton's avatar escaped the violent scene.

Ashton whined.

"Why do you always have to cover for me?"

Calum snorted.

"Because you're a sore loser who can't play?"

"You dick."

He laughed, looking carefully as his avatar ran across a planet full of strange monsters trying to attack him.

"I'm gonna find the key to Galaxy Titan, just stay put and hopefully you won't get hurt."

"Fuck you!", Ashton exclaimed. "I'm not a beginner, I can do this."

Calum sniggered.

"Look, I'm ready", Ashton's player glowed a green color to show his ammunition was back.

"Alright. Follow my lead."

"Follow my lead", Ashton mimicked.

Calum laughed, fighting the monsters who came in his path.

"I've got them."

"I'll help you", Ashton spoke, running behind him, using his rifle to attack. As they got further and further to Galaxy Titan, more monsters approached them.

"Fuck!", Ashton shrieked.

"Shit", Calum mumbled under his breath. "Quick, come beside me and help me tackle them."

"I'm trying!" the curly haired boy huffed, aggressively hitting the buttons on the console. "They're too fast! Why do you make me play this? Everytime I-"

"Ssh", the older boy warned. "Just concentrate, use your shield and drop lives if you have to."

"I already have 2 left I'm not doing th-"

"I see the key!", Calum interrupted, moving on the edge of his seat.

"Where?!"

"3 o clock! Quick! Distract them while I get it."

Ashton frowned. "What? So you get the key and I die?"

"You said you had 2 lives, you can do it!"

"Ugh! You are unbelievable do you know that?"

"Ashton!", Calum killed two characters at once before trying to dodge the others.

Ashton sighed. "The things I do for you."

He made himself bait, running in the middle of the monsters as Calum ran around, collecting the key.

"Yes!", he cheered, watching as his avatar glowed purple.

"Congratulations. You have reached Galaxy Titan."

"Woop!", he relaxed back into his chair.

"Yeah yeah well done.", Ashton mumbled.

"I couldn't have done it without you", he sniggered.

"Whatever", Ash smirked, watching the screen as it loaded. "What next?"

"Uh", Calum clicked next. "We should be able to carry on to the next level."

"Then let's go! So I can be the one to kick your ass this time."

Calum giggled."I'm trying it's just frozen I- I don't know what's going o-"

Ashton furrowed his eyebrows as Calum stopped talking. 

"What? What is it?"

Calum gulped slightly, his eyes glued to the screen.

"Michael's online."

Ashton widened his eyes. "He is? Does he wanna join us?"

"N-No it just popped up saying he's logged in."

Ashton nodded slowly.

Calum looked curiously at Michael's username.

"Should we add him? What should we do?"

Ashton sighed.

"It doesn't change anything Calum."

Calum gulped slightly. "Y-Yeah you're right."

"I mean, he's different now-"

"He's not different", Calum interrupted, surprised how his voice raised. "He just got into UVA that's all."

Ashton stayed silent for a moment.

"Exactly bro. He got into UVA, we were supposed to do that together."

"We're waiting for our applications, you know how long it takes for them to go through."

"Stop making excuses Calum. You know that Michael's Dad got him in, and I'm sure as hell if he wanted he could help us too, but he didn't. Mike's in some sort of whirlwind where only he matters. Yes, we were hard on him, yes it must be scary to come out to your parents when they thought you were a completely different person for 18 years, but it's just not right. Michael got into UVA and that's amazing, but Michael shouldn't have UVA if he can't be himself."

Calum sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"How do we get him back?"

Ashton huffed. "I don't know. All we can do is wait and see if he comes to his senses."

The black-haired boy suddenly wasn't in the mood to play games.

"You know what bro, I'm gonna call it a night."

Ashton nodded, he could understand what he was going through, after all, he was too. They had both lost their best friend.

"Alright man. Call me if you need anything."

"How about a new game buddy?", he smirked.

Ashton chuckled."Don't push it, Hood. Night."

"Bye", he smiled, taking off his headset as they disconnected.

As Calum stood up to get ready for bed, he looked back at the screen when Ashton logged off, seeing Michael was still online. The senior sat down slowly, his brown eyes glued to the screen as he clicked the messaging option using his console.

He began to type nervously.

"Hi, we miss you", he spelled, hesitating to press send.

Calum bit his lip, deleting the message and retyping it.

"Hi", he stopped, his fingers shaking on the console. 

Calum finally typed the message he's been wanting to send to Michael for days.

"I miss you."

He was about to press send before his Mother knocked on his door.

"Cal?"

"C-come in!", he swiveled his chair around as she opened it.

"There's some leftover pizza in the fridge. You can save it for your sister or you can have it."

"Since when did I share food? Thanks, mom."

She chuckled. "Night honey.", she closed his door.

Calum giggled to himself. As he looked back at the screen his heart sunk as he saw 

Michael Clifford: Offline.

He sighed, deleting the message before turning off his Playstation.

---

omg so sad bye