Calum tries to walk through the kitchen, he really does, but something catches his eye. And it's not that Michael and Ashton have somehow managed to get into Luke's kitchen and are now furiously making out against the counter. It's not that Olive is scrolling through his phone at the counter top bar with a plate of scrambled eggs in front of him, either. It's sparkling.
"What the hell?" Calum marches into the kitchen and grabs Michael by the shoulder firmly to rip him off of Ashton. "What the fuck is this?" He demands, grabbing Ashton's wrist. He eyes the ring on his finger in surprise, while Ashton squirms and blushes. It takes a lot for him to blush, Calum's officially suspicious.
"It's a ring," Michael tells him, like Calum's blind. Calum shoots him a glare and returns to examining the gold band on Ashton's finger. There's a small diamond set inside of it, shiny and sparkly, which was what had caught Calum's attention to begin with.
"An engagement ring?" He asks hopefully, wiggling his eyebrows at Ashton.
"Yeah, but-" Ashton starts.
Calum lunges forward and wraps his arms around Ashton's neck tightly, making him choke in surprise. "This is so exciting! You're engaged!"
"Technically-" Michael starts, so Calum grabs him around the neck as well and makes a group hug of it. Ashton shoves at Calum's ribs with his elbows and Michael squirms, but Calum holds strong to his stupid friends.
"Dibs on being best man!" He shouts. Ashton flinches, considering how close Calum's mouth is to his ear, and shoves harder.
When Ashton finally manages to dislodge Calum, he stomps on his foot for good measure and scowls. "Stop, it's fake, we're not getting married."
Calum glances over to Michael, who just shrugs lazily, then decides he'll can't bear to look at either of them and stares at Olive, instead. The violently red haired boy glances up and fiddles with his nose piercing with raised eyebrows. "Don't look at me, man, I told them it was a bad idea."
"It's a great idea!" Ashton scoffs.
Calum frowns and looks at Ashton, again. Begrudgingly. "What idea? To harass your best and probably only friend into thinking you're engaged?"
"No, to harass other people into thinking we're engaged," Michael grabs Ashton's hand and pulls the ring from his finger, then drops it on the counter. It makes a strange plastic sort of noise as it bounces, and Calum pouts. "It's fake. Hear me out, okay? We were at this restaurant last night, and somewhere in between Ashton kicking me under the table and nearly breaking my shin and me launching mashed potatoes at him, the couple behind us got engaged! And the restaurant gave them their meal for free! The entire thing, Cal, completely free!"
"There's more," Ashton adds.
"Oh, joy," Calum mutters dryly.
Ashton ignores him and continues. "Then, this morning, we went out for breakfast and-"
"Is that all you two do when I'm gone?" Calum interrupts. "Go out to eat? Why don't you ever go out to eat with me?"
"You're always with Luke and we hate Luke," Ashton replies dismissively. Olive makes a noise of agreement and returns to picking at his eggs. "Anyway, this other couple was next to us and we heard them tell the waitress they just got engaged, and they got a discount! It was, like, twenty percent!"
Calum glances between the two of them and starts to piece it together. "You're scamming people into thinking you're engaged?" He asks, slightly appalled, slightly impressed. Michael grabs Ashton's hand to slip the fake ring back onto and nods eagerly. Calum's not sure if he should congratulate them on a great scheme or punch them both in the throat for having any scheme at all. He shakes his head instead of speaking or punching and looks back to Olive.
"Luke and I get discounts because we're cute," he informs them. "Twins, and shit. People eat that up."
Ashton gasps and grabs Michael's arm firmly. "Do you have a twin?"
"No?" Michael looks confused. "Ashton, you've met my family, remember, they kicked me out when I was 12? I only see them on Christmas?"
"They're hiding something," Ashton decides. Calum opens his mouth, but decides it's not worth responding and turns back to Olive.
The red haired boy raises his eyebrows at Calum and shoves a fork full of eggs into his mouth. "Especially," he continues through his breakfast. "Especially if the waitstaff is attracted to us. Sexually ambiguous twins really get people going for some reason."
Michael gasps softly, then darts his eyes to Ashton, who's already glaring at him. "No, hold on-" he manages to get out before Ashton is grabbing a fistful of his dark hair and tugging him down forcefully.
"See this?" He shoves his hand into Michael's face and rubs the ring all over. "We are fake engaged. You can't focus on our fake engagement if you're distracted by sexually ambiguous twins!"
Calum is always exhausted with their endless banter, so he walks around the counter to sit in the stool next to Olive. Olive nudges his plate over a bit, so Calum picks a few pieces of scrambled eggs off and shoves them into his mouth. A quick glance across the counter confirms that Ashton still has one hand tugging in Michael's hair and the other in his face while they bicker quietly.
"He gets jealous easily," Olive gestures to Ashton with his fork.
Calum nods and reaches over for another piece of egg. "Unfortunately. He's always been like that, even before they started dating. They both get jealous really easily."
Olive raises his eyebrows again and suggests, "Kink?" Ashton and Michael both look over immediately at the single word, but Olive doesn't offer an explanation and they don't ask. Calum is slightly disgusted. Enough that he turns away with his nose scrunched up. His phone vibrates in the pocket of his shorts before anyone can start arguing again, so he pulls it out to find a text from Luke.
Can you come back to bed please??
Calum furrows his eyebrows when the text is followed up by a photo of Luke buried in the blankets so only his face is visible, bottom lip dropped in a pout and eyes red rimmed and sad.
"I'll be right back," He stands up quickly and hurries away before anyone can respond. Upstairs, in the bedroom, Luke is still curled in the blankets, which are shaking slightly.
Calum steps into the room and shuts the door softly behind him. Luke glances up at the noise and pouts pathetically.
"What's wrong?" Calum asks at the sight of his boyfriend's flushed cheeks and tearful eyes.
"I'm tired," Luke replies softly, burying himself further into the blankets. Calum frowns and crawls into the bed. Luke doesn't move or offer to pull back the blankets, so Calum sits against the headboard next to him. After a couple seconds, he wraps an arm around Luke's shoulders and shoves the blonde down into his lap gently.
Luke grunts like he's in pain, which makes Calum smile. "You're fine, stop it."
"I'm delicate," Luke counters.
"And I barely even touched you!" Calum protests as his blonde boyfriend squirms around to get comfortable. When he finally settles, he's still wrapped in the duvet, but curled up so his head is in Calum's lap.
Luke grabs his cheeks and squishes them in both his hands, then swipes a thumb over Calum's bottom lip. "Why were you downstairs and not up here paying attention to me?"
"You're so needy," Calum laughs, even though he immediately turns his head to press a kiss to the center of Luke's palm. "I heard something downstairs, so I went to check. Olive is having breakfast and Michael and Ashton are engaged. Sorry, fake engaged."
"What?" Luke frowns in confusion.
"They found out they can get discounts at restaurants if people think they're engaged," Calum explains, rolling his eyes. "Listen, I don't think it's a good idea either-"
Luke's eyes widen for a second before he squishes Calum's cheeks again and forces him to stop talking. "That a great idea!" Calum groans, so Luke fumbles to sit up again and crawl completely into his lap. "No, it is! Think how much money they'll save! Like, it wouldn't be a good idea for us, but it's perfect for them!"
Calum raises his eyebrows at that and automatically wraps his hands around Luke's waist to steady him, where the blonde is perched in his lap. "Why wouldn't it be a good idea for us? Because you're rich and don't need discounts?"
"Well, I'm not gay," Luke blurts, before he realizes what he's said and slumps. His face drops into a pouty frown again as he ducks forward to bury his burning red face into Calum's chest. Calum tugs the duvet closer around his boyfriend's shoulders and rubs his back soothingly for a while.
"It's okay," he whispers, even though Luke is completely still, apart from his panicked breathing. "Luke, it's fine, I understand."
"No, I-" Luke cuts off abruptly and tilts his head up to peer at Calum curiously. "I'm sorry. If someone thought- if you proposed to me in public, even fake, I- people would think-"
"We're dating," Calum reminds him. "People will think, anyway. There's nothing wrong with that."
"You don't understand," Luke rushes out, eyes darting around for a second before he sits up again, still in Calum's lap. "You don't know what it's like, you've never been on the other side."
Calum figures that's true. His family was never religious, and they raised him to know they would love him no matter what. He wasn't afraid of his family, not like Luke is. Calum doesn't know what it's like to think something is wrong for a long time, only to switch sides abruptly.
He flicks his tongue over his bottom lip. "Luke, I- I know you're taking your time with this whole relationship thing and I completely respect that, but- be honest with me. Do you think we have a future? Or am I a placeholder while you work through your gay thoughts?"
Luke stares at him for a second, mouth dropped open and eyes wide. He looks almost terrified for half a second, but Calum doesn't really blame him. "You're not a placeholder."
Which doesn't answer Calum's question in the slightest, so he asks it again. "Do you think we have a future?"
"I don't know," Luke admits softly. His eyes automatically flick to the wall behind Calum's head while the older boy sighs softly. "I don't- I don't know anything, I don't know what you want me to say and I can't predict the future and I don't- I don't know what you want!" He sounds almost hysterical as he finishes, which makes Calum frown.
"What I want?" Calum echoes. "I want to know what you want? And you're avoiding the question, which kind of tells me what I need to know, Luke."
"Just tell me what you want me to say!" Luke cries.
Calum's getting frustrated. "Just tell me the truth! When you think of your future, am I in it?"
"I don't know!" Luke says again.
Calum huffs softly and shifts until Luke gets the hint and crawls off of him. He stands up and frowns down at Luke, still wrapped in the dark blanket and looking terribly sad. "I love you, I really do, but I don't think you're as serious about this as I am. If this is going to work, I need you to commit, and you're- you're just avoiding it! Do you want me here while you work your shit out, or do you want me long term? Am I a boyfriend to you, or a doll to test your gay thoughts on?"
"You're not a doll," Luke mumbles as he looks down quickly.
Calum groans in frustration. "But I'm not your boyfriend either, huh? Great, Luke, thanks for clearing that up." He turns on his heels and marches out of the room as slow as possible, hoping Luke will say something. He doesn't, so Calum storms downstairs.
He has to go through the kitchen to grab his jacket and finds Michael, Ashton, and Olive chatting around the counter top bar. Michael raises his eyebrows when Calum stomps in and scans his eyes around the room quickly.
"What, lover's quarrel?" He asks.
Calum grabs his jacket from the back of Olive's chair and refuses to look at any of them. "I think we broke up."
"Wait, what?" Ashton scrambles to stand up from his stool, but he can't round the counter quick enough. Calum flees before anyone can get to him and let's the front door slam shut behind him.