pay you with love ♡ malum (discontinued)

23 ➵ two weeks later

I remembered when Ashton and Peyton got together. They were young but already so in love. It all went really fast with them. After two weeks of knowing each other they dived into a relationship and the fact that they barely knew each other caused a lot of problems which led to them constantly fighting. 

Ashton would always come over to my house and whine about how much of a horrible boyfriend he was and that he hated himself for disappointing Peyton. He thought it was all his own fault when in fact it was both of their fault. 

It took a few months until they finally got over the phase of fighting and breaking up at least twice a month and they finally were happy. It made me happy too since Ashton stopped showing up at my house every second day to cry about his heartbreak. Of course I comforted him but it got annoying after a while, since I already knew that they were going to make up on the following day and that he was crying about practically nothing.

"Hey Michael, how's it going with smoking? I know you wanted to stop but did that work? I've heard it's kind of hard," Ashton asked and ripped me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, since Calum got the job at the photo studio I haven't touched a single cigarette. It's kind of great, I save so much money since this shit is expensive as fuck," I explained and laughed. "I'm also so happy that I don't have to hear 'smoking is bad for you' from you anymore, it was really annoying."

"I just didn't want you to die, man. Sorry for being your best friend and worrying about your health," he chuckled. "But yeah, I'm glad you stopped."

I opened my mouth to say something but the doorbell cut me off.

"You're expecting someone?" Ashton asked.

"Not really, let me see who it is," I said and got up, walking towards the door.

Who could possibly show up at my house at eleven? It could've been Calum but he texted me a few hours ago saying that he was very tired and I supposed that he was already sleeping.

I opened the door smiling, excited to see Calum standing in front of me but my smile dropped fast as I saw the state he was in. His fragile body was shaking.

I took a step closer towards the pained boy, examining him, carefully. I could feel my body begin to slightly shake. My blood was rushing and I felt like throwing up. 

“Calum,” I say, hoping he would respond. My voice cracked, filled with so much pain and my expression was worried. “Baby, what happened?"

Before he could answer, his eyes slowly closed as he fell to the ground; I caught him before he hit the floor, though. His eyes were shut and he was curled up to my side, looking much smaller. His hair was a mess and his shirt wasn’t clean and pretty like it always looked, it was dirty, almost like it was placed in the dirt and has never been washed before.

I panicked as I held him closer in my arms. I placed two fingers underneath his jawline, around where his pulse would be. I moved my finger around slightly until I could feel a faint beat. 

Then another. 

And another.

“Baby? Baby, please wake up.” No response. "Ashton!" I screamed, though once more, I got no response. "Ashton, get your fucking ass up and help me!" I yelled even louder, tears were brimming in my eyes and I didn't know what to do.

Calum was just laying in my arms; his chest rising slowly, his eyes were closed and he didn't react to anything. If you weren’t looking close enough, you would think that he was no longer breathing, but his patterns were slow.

"Jesus, you don't have to be so fucking rude. What's wrong?" Ashton asked as he walked over to us. 

"I -- I don't know. Fuck, Ashton, he isn't waking up and there's blood on his clothes," I explained and turned to Calum again. "Please wake up, baby. Please."