[ 53 ] 2014
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"I don't know why you keep insisting. But I won't fight you, mate. You're my girlfriend's brother. It would crush her if I fought you."
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After getting dried and changing into something comfortable--Calum into a pair of black sweats, and Harley into one of his soccer uniform shirts--the two got into bed together. Calum held her in his arms, he was over the moon to finally have such an intimate bond with her. She snuggled into his chest comfortably, her worries of the last few days melting away momentarily. They slept until the next morning and were woken to the sound Calum's alarm on his phone, informing him that it was a new day and that it was time to get up. He groaned out in annoyance, eyes refusing to open, a hand reached out to the night stand to pick up his cell phone.
"Fuck." He complained, more to himself than anything. The blue eyed girl in his arms was still sound asleep beside him. "I don't want to go to school today." His voice was scratchy and ridden with sleep. He was thoroughly tired out after the previous night.
He and Harley had been excused by their principal for a few days after the incident happened. Harley had been excused due to her injury, as she had spent a lot of time in the hospital recovering, while Calum had been excused because his uncle and legal guardian was in critical condition at the hospital. The principal at St. Genevieve's felt truly sorry for him. In the span of about one year, he had lost mostly everything that was important to him. His parents and sister had been murdered, he ran away from home, then one of his uncles was murdered, while his other uncle and his girlfriend were shot. It was one bad thing after another for Calum Hood, and it was why his grades were starting to slip. But the principal had asked all his teachers to have some consideration for him.
Harley stirred in bed beside him. The faded colors in her hair fell upon the pillows messily. Her blue eyes were hidden from sight, tucked away beneath her lids. She asked him groggily. "Is it morning already?"
"Mhm." He replied sleepily, setting his phone back on the bed and snuggling into the warmth of her body. His arms settled around her waist as he pulled her close, inhaling her scent. At the moment, she smelled of him, as they had shared more than just a bath together. He added with a lack of enthusiasm. "We have to go to that fucking hell hole they call school."
She giggled at his words, the sound barely there, but forced her eyes open. He was in awe at her breathtaking beauty, and he wanted to stop time with her eyes looking into his. He wanted to remember it forever, a little piece of bliss in their current moments of grief. But they had to return to reality. He loosened his arms around her and she sat up in bed, stretching her arms high over her head as she let out a yawn. His soccer jersey was big on her, considering she was much shorter than him, and he grinned when he caught a glimpse of his name on the back. Hood, 17. His name on her looked good, he thought.
"I have to go home and pick up my uniform." She said with a sigh, and grabbed her own phone off the other nightstand, the one closest to her. She had placed it there after Calum helped her gather her clothes off the marble floor of the bathroom.
Her blue eyes widened in shock when she saw her phone was littered with lost calls and text messages. They were from her parents and Billy, at least, which meant that they had nothing to do with Arthur. That gave her some sense of relief.
billy: where the fuck r u?
billy: mum & dad are worried
Those had been the very first messages, followed by a few phone calls from her family. As time seemed to pass by, so did their urgency to reach her.
billy: ffs harley
mom: darling where are you?
billy: pick up
dad: harley quinn, answer the phone right now.
mom: just watch when you get home, young lady.
billy: if you're just at calum's or something, i'll fucking punch you in the throat
Another few hours had passed with more phone calls before the messages were full of concern for her. A part of her felt bad for not answering and making them worry. But she was sleeping so comfortable in her boyfriend's arms that she didn't even hear the phone vibrate. Also, Billy did it all the time to her and their parents. It was her turn to be reckless for a bit.
billy: dempsey says ur at calum's -.-
billy: ur a little shit
billy: we were worried
She sighed and opened up the text messages from her brother, all of them talking about how she was a horrible sister. She then quickly typed back a reply.
harley: sorry billy, i was just so tired that i fell asleep
billy: i'm gonna punch u, and then imma punch him when i see u guys.
harley: goodluck
harley: calum could kill you with one blink lol
"What are you laughing at?" Calum asked as he peeked over her shoulder at the conversation she was having with her brother. She turned the phone around to show him what they were talking about, the amused smile on her face remaining. "In theory, I could kill him with one blink if I really wanted to. But I wouldn't because he's my brother in law and I want him to like me. He can't like me if he's dead."
Harley pointed out. "This is considering he doesn't know we slept together."
"He would really take a swing at me then." Calum chuckled, but the thought was very real. Many brothers felt like they needed to protect their sisters from no good boys. He was exactly the same when it came to his sister Mali, even though he was younger than her and kind of a runt when she started to date boys. So he understood Billy Quinn, he thought with a sad sigh escaping his lips. With everything that had happened over the last year, he had been distracted from his mourning of them, but that didn't mean he didn't miss them. Everyday they crept into his mind, their memories stinging because he wanted so badly to hug them and let them know that even though he was a jerk sometimes, he loved them so much.
Harley noticed the sudden sadness reflected in his eyes and quickly pressed her lips to his as a form of comfort, which he readily accepted. "Come on, babe. Let's go get ready for school."
Calum nodded and they got out of bed, ready to start their day. His arms slinked around her waist as he followed her into the bathroom.
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The two went to Harley's house, where her parents started to scold her, but stopped when she informed them she would be late for school. They promised her a talking to when she got home that afternoon, and she expected to probably get one from her brother that day at school. She and Calum skipped home class together, spending the thirty minutes in one of the old music rooms in the upper floors. Then they went to their classes together, the first being Shakespeare. Cindy was there, all smiles at the sight of her best friend. She gave Harley a real warning, as she knew what would take place if the two siblings ran into each other.
"You should try to lay low for today." The blonde informed her friend. "Billy claims he's gonna beat up Calum for corrupting his little sister."
Calum couldn't help but snort at that.
But Harley knew that Cindy meant it, and she knew her brother would do it as well. Billy was usually calm and collected, but when it came to his sister, he was always quick to jump forward and defend her against boys he thought were not good for her. Because of Luke, Billy thought that Calum was a bad boy who was only after sleeping with his sister. Then he would discard her like he did with Cindy, and plenty of other girls at St. Genevieve's.
At that moment, Harley was at least grateful that she and her brother had no classes in common, and that her brother had no classes in common with Calum. That was due to the fact that she and Calum had all classes together, and school administration didn't want to place siblings in the same class with their siblings.
It wasn't until lunch time that she saw her brother. She was sitting next to Calum at the lunch table with the rest of their friends. Niall and Andrea had gone to school. Dempsey had attended after getting back to her house late at night from the hospital. Paul and James had stayed there to watch over Arthur. Now it was only them--Michael, Hazel, and Jack had all dropped out of St. Genevieve's. A hand dropped on Calum's shoulder from behind, and the couple had barely any time to turn around before Billy Quinn's closed fist came into contact with Calum's face.
The lunch room fell silent, the only sounds heard in the room were gasps. Luke was not far behind, smirking at Billy's handy work. Cindy, for once, was nowhere to be found, which probably explained why Billy was currently stupidly falling into Luke Hemmings' bad advice. Niall and Andrea, and even Harley, stared with wide eyes. They all thought Calum would retaliate and would probably half-murder Harley's brother. Harley thought she would have to pry his hands off her brother's corpse by now, but she was even more surprised when all Calum did was bring a hand up to his lip which was busted. There was a light trickle of blood that Calum saw as he pulled his hand from his face to assess the damage done.
When he didn't even move, Billy challenged him. "Are you too scared to fight me, mate?"
"Billy--" Harley started.
But Luke cut her off. "Don't try to act like nothing happened, Harley. We all know Calum likes to fuck good girls for fun. Then he throws them away like a used tissue." At the moment, he was like the devil in those cartoons where a person was listening to their good side and their bad side. Luke was whispering bad thoughts into her brother's head and he was eating it all up like he had been starved all his life.
"Fuck off, Barbie boy. I'll fight you any day." Calum hissed and Harley saw the way his hand balled up into a fist. He was angry, and he was ready to lash out at someone. He just didn't want that someone to be Billy Quinn. He'd much rather have Luke Hemmings be his target. They already hated each other anyway. Trying to reason with Billy, he tried to keep his voice steady. "As for you, I don't know why you keep insisting. But I won't fight you, mate. You're my girlfriend's brother. It would crush her if I fought you."
"Back off, Billy." Harley said, standing up from her seat next to Calum. Now she stood in between the two boys, afraid that Billy would take another swing at Calum if she didn't.
"You don't know how he really is." Billy attempted to get her on his side. He was being manipulated by Luke to believe a twisted version of what supposedly happened. "Luke told me all of the fucked up things he did. No one could know him better than his former best friend."
"Because I know him I can tell you that Calum isn't like Luke says. At least not anymore." She said. Then she added with a determination, refusing to back down. "I'll tell you what I said to Luke that day at the beach, and what I said to you that other time you tried to fight him. If you want to fight him so badly, you have to fight me first."
Her brother heaved a frustrated sigh. "Harley move."
He grabbed her arm and moved her to the side, but he had been so engrossed in his anger and desire to hurt Calum that he ended up pushing her a bit too roughly. She fell onto the linoleum floor with a thud, still a bit weak from her injury. That was the very thing that triggered Calum. Just as her brother was opening his mouth to apologize, Calum got on his feet. The two were just about equal height, and both were athletes, which made them both have lean and muscular builds. The boy with Raven hair brought a hand up to grip the material of Billy Quinn's uniform shirt.
"You really shouldn't have done that." Calum said with darkened eyes.
He balled his hand into a fist as Billy called to his sister, "I didn't mean to, Harley. I swear."
But Calum was no longer hearing his pleas. He was too lost in his anger, and he swung his fist into Billy's face. Just one hit, and he let him go, kneeling by his girlfriend's side, and pulling her into his arms. "Are you okay?" He asked her.
She nodded slowly.
There was another sound, one coming from the administrative office. The office opened right into the lunch room, and was the only way out of the school to prevent people from skipping out on detention or mandatory tutoring. "You, young man." A woman's voice boomed with authority through the lunch room. It was their school principal who seemed to be speaking to Calum. She had just conveniently seen the part when Calum hit Billy, and not vice versa. "Come with me."
Behind her followed two male teachers to help her take Calum into her office. They pried him from Harley's side and dragged him away, leaving the other teenagers in the lunch room to a commotion of people chattering.
Calum was already on thin ice at school as it was.
Harley couldn't stand to think what they would to do him.
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END OF BOOK III
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wtf am i doing now?
okay guys, hear me out. i know only a handful of you still read this. but it doesn't matter to me. i just got some really good ideas for this story and i thought i couldn't just end it now.
so with these other ideas i've been having, i thought i might write another book. a part four, and i promise this will really be the last part of the series. i also did it mostly because this story had reached 52 chaps like the others and was not wrapped up.
and it makes me really uncomfortable when books in a series don't have the same amount of chapters.
i'll be posting it later tonight, after i get back from working out.
so please stay tuned for it. i have a lot of plans for harley, i have plans for calum, i especially have plans for ashton. i have plans for michael, luke, just about everyone in the book. also harleen and arthur. do you all want that ship to sail? or are we all satisfied with aaron x harleen being a thing? i have two possible paths for them to take. i kinda like her with aaron tbh, but i also like her with arthur. so im torn. maybe you all can help me decide.
-clary