Mute | Luke Hemmings &' Ashton Irwin (Lashton/5SOS)

Chapter 9

The next school day came and went painfully slower than most. I sat slumped in my seat next to Calum tiredly. We both seemed exhausted, and confused, but I couldn't quite decipher why he was feeling those things at such an early hour in the morning to begin with.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, emptying out my books onto the desk. Calum looking dazed, confused, and sad was beyond him. He always held a smile even when going through pain because he simply cared for everyone else around him more than himself. I couldn't quite understand what made today different from every other day.

Instead of answering me back, he looked at Michael's empty seat between himself and Niall and back down to his work.

"What'd he do?" I continued on going under the assumption Michael's done something wrong which was oddly peculiar if you ask me because Michael's a saint in Calum's eyes. He could never do anything wrong in Calum's eyes.

"We got into an argument. He's been so secretive, and lately it's just been becoming too much for me to handle. I feel like he's cheating, but I can never allow myself to go deeper into the thought for more than a few seconds without wanting to cry," he responded back, waiting for the class to begin.

Every few seconds, he glanced up at the door hoping within the late comers would be his boyfriend as well, but he never showed.

The bell is roughly about a minute away from ringing when I decided to speak again. "Let's ditch," I whisper, placing the texting book I had taken out back into its rightful place.

"Mr. All-Honors-Classes wants to ditch?" Calum pathetically asked in a mocking tone.

"Yes," I said, arising from my seat and dragging Calum out the class with me.

I have this deep feeling within me that I'm not going to want to be here anyway. It's only Monday, but I'm positive everyone will be talking about Michael's party on Saturday as if nothing better had happened in their lives since then.

Then the thought of Meghan sets deep into my stomach... I don't know what she's told people or who she's told, but either way I don't want to be here to face everyone's commentary and silent or verbal judgment.

My life shouldn't interest or involve anyone other than myself. But it's astonishing, really, how much the average teenanger enjoys prying and picking at other people's lives instead of focusing on their own. It's something I don't think I'll ever understand.

"Let's go out the back. The bells are going to ring any second now," Calum says, interrupting me from my self reasoning. "The last thing we, well you, need is to get caught."

Nodding my head in agreement, we go down 2 flights of stairs walking into a hallway that's almost completely vacant.

There's really no use for this hallway other than for the student lockers. Most of the classrooms here are locked and boarded up due to staffing issues.

Silently, I remember Luke's locker being located somewhere near here and the slight thought of possibly seeing him makes my cheeks red and my stomach churn.

Calum is looking for the hidden stairwell that'll take us down and out of the first floor unseen quickly as I take in our empty surroundings.

The doors on the other end of the hall rushed open quickly displaying two people walking toward a locker arguing. Immediately I find myself pushed up against the nearest door with Calum's hand to my mouth silencing me.

Calum and I can't hear much, but we do hear slight yells blaming another for something. We aren't close enough to decipher what the two are actually arguing about or who it is to begin with, but slowly Calum and I decide with our eyes to peek through the array of lockers keeping us hidden from them.