indie had done nothing but lay in bed sniffling all day with calum out and about trying to make sure she was comfortable in the state she was in even though she has repeated multiple times how she was fine and asked him to go home or scold him for putting her first instead of himself.
"calum, go home," indie groaned. "you mum is going to be worried about you."
"my mum knows i'm here babe," he told her, stroking her bare arms. "it's okay, do you need anything else?"
"yeah, i need you to go home because you have school tomorrow." she snorted, shoving him with her shoulder, lightly.
"i can always skip–"
"calum thomas hood!" she warned. "you are not going to skip school because of me, joy wouldn't approve."
"since when did you know my middle name?"
"ashton told me." indie shrugged, her voice croaky. "he was at camp."
"was he?" something in calum sparked his jealousy. "why?"
"their service thing, we didn't do very much together though, he had his own group to hang around with."
"he didn't try anything, did he?" calum asked, trying his best to stay calm and collected. indie shot him a look and scoffed.
"no, he has a girlfriend, remember?"
"who? sarah?" calum stifled a laugh. "they're only fuck buddies."
"wait seriously?" indie asked, sitting up slightly, her head resting on the headboard. "she was so nice though!"
"yeah, that's exactly why he wanted to stay fuck buddies." calum sighed, tracing small patterns on her arm, sending little sparks up and down her body.
"well then," indie pursed her lips, laughing slightly but stopped when she started coughing, "oh my god that hurts."
"your throat?"
she nodded. "then drink water," he giggled, taking the water bottle from the bedside drawer. "it'll help and i'll go get some panadol and advil and also cough drops-"
"calum! go home!" indie yelled, cutting him off making him flinch and drop his water bottle.
"asshole." calum scoffed. "do you really hate me?"
"of course not!" she rolled her eyes at her naive boyfriend. "your parents are going to hate me for keeping you in my house for so long, you need to go home, spend time with your family, study and go to school."
"fine fine," calum gave up, surrendering his hands, kissing her on the cheek and pulling a shirt over his head. "i'll see you soon?"
"yes baby, you will." indie groaned, attempting to throw a pillow his way which he dodged and laugh.
"baby?" he smirked at the new nickname. "that's new."
"i like it." she shrugged.
"i like it too," he kissed her on the lips profoundly, not expecting the pout on her face when he pulled away. "what? what's wrong?"
"you're going to get sick," she said.
"sick from mono that is," he winked before walking out of her room, leaving the door completely open.
x x x
"indie?" luke appeared in front of her door, she looked up at him and smiled.
"hey luke," she rolled out of bed, strolling towards the door. "what's up?"
"you didn't have to move, i just wanted to check up on you, incase you were dead or something." he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck.
"well aren't you so nice?" rolling her eyes, she opened the door wider and stepped out. "is it just the drugs making me hallucinate or is it michael's voice i hear downstairs?"
"yup, it's him. he was bored so he came over but he's been really upset late, like very very very upset." the poor blonde sighed.
it couldn't have been because of brodie; she thought. "like...how upset? on a scale of one to ten?"
"eleven." he scoffed. "he's been an ass all week and its bugging the fück out of me, can you please come down so i could stay up here and just take a nap?"
"the things i do for you," indie laughed before pushing past her brother and walking downstairs to see michael furiously tapping away on his phone. "hey michael."
"indigo." he nodded but his gaze was still concentrated on his phone. she furrowed her eyebrows and took the seat next to him.
"how are you?"
"fine."
"michael..." luke warned only to get an eye roll from the red head.
"it's fine luke," indie sighed, she got up from her seat but michael surprisingly pulled her down again. "what?"
"stay." he whispered, indie furrowed her eyebrows but nodded.
luke thought it was best to leave the two alone in case michael decided to open up or something to her so she could tell him what was wrong so he decided he would go bombard calum's house only because aria was out with her family to do some early christmas shopping.
"guys, i just remembered i have to meet someone," he lied. "i'll see you guys later tonight, bye!"
and then he was gone, when the door shut, indie turned to michael whose eyes were red. "michael, what's wrong?"
"everything! everything."
"can you tell me?"
"no because i'm such a fucking stupid–"
"i know about you and brodie." she cut him off, his breathing hitching, eyes widen and a small gasp escaped his lips.
"you what?" he asked, his voice raising.
"i know about you and brodie..." she repeated herself. "and it's perfectly okay–"
"no!" he shouted, making her flinch. he stood up, indie following his actions. "you weren't supposed to know about that! no one was supposed to know! what the fuck?"
"michael, calm down–"
"don't fucking tell me to calm down, evans!"
"it's fine if you're confused, i completely-"
"fuck you!" he spat, shoving right past her and out of the house, making sure to slam the door shut, hard.
x x x
time flew by, indie sitting and ignoring whatever her teacher was talking about like usual when an assistant knocked on the classroom door. "hi ms laila, there has been a family emergency with someone from this class, indiana evans?"
indie's head shot up, earning a 'what's wrong?' look from her best friend beside her, she only shrugged and spoke up. "i'm indie."
"aah, indie." the assistant nodded, her name was ms wendy. "the office called you, said that your cousin is here. apparently it's a family emergency, you're allowed to take your bags and leave the school grounds and ms laila, could you please email her the work?"
"yes, no problem." ms laila nodded and turned to indie. "i hope everything is okay."
indie nodded slowly, leaving the classroom entirely confused. she was never told whether her cousins were visiting or if she even had any cousins at all. the last time she visited her cousin was when she was eight, from that day on, she never heard from them again. "i'm sorry, miss, my cousin?"
"yeah, your cousin. he's incredibly pale and has red hair. the principle almost had a heart attack when he saw it." the assistant chuckle, fiddling with the files in her hand. indie narrowed her eyes, trying to think of a cousin that would have red hair and pale skin and that was when it hit her, michael.
she was right. there in the waiting sat michael, anxiously tapping his foot on the floor and chewing on his lip, when he saw indie walk in, he grinned. "cousin!" he exclaimed, crushing her in his embrace.
"yes...cousin." indie shot him a glare and he waved his hands in surrender.
"miss–" michael paused for a second to read the assistant's name tag. "miss wendy, we should be on our way now, her aunt is incredibly ill and we're afraid she might die in twenty minutes."
indie had to swallow multiple times trying to bite back her laughter as she nudged michael in the stomach, miss wendy's face flushed with worry, "oh my god, leave now! i hope your aunt makes it! good luck!"
"thank you!" indie yelled running down the hallway with michael pulling her towards the door. "michael, what the hell are you doing?"
"kidnapping you of course." he answered, pulling his car door open for her and gesturing her to jump in which she didn't hesitate to do so even though she knew he was mad at her just yesterday.
"but why?" she asked, watching him closely as he inserted his key to start the car.
he scoffed, turning to her. "please don't tell you were actually having fun in your lessons."
"of course not." she snorted. "i was asleep."
"then don't complain," he retorted, driving out of her school gates earning a confused look from the guards but he waved at them goodbye. "i'm taking you to mcdonalds."
"what sort of kidnap is this?" she chuckled, turning the radio on and letting taylor swift surround them.
"a friendly one," he gushed. "i wanted to talk and apologise about a few things but now that i'm hungry, we're going to do so whilst we eat. it's on me."
"if you say so," indie rolled her eyes playfully, slowly humming to the words from 'shake it off' and staring out the window whilst michael anxiously tapped on the rim of the steering wheel.
when they did arrive at mcdonalds, michael wasn't lying. he ordered a huge portion of almost everything while indie only ordered chicken nuggets. "what are you? trying to keep your figure?" michael joked.
"do you really think that if i wanted to keep my figure i would be in mcdonalds right now?" indie shot at him, biting her chicken nugget dramatically and slowly.
michael pretended to be in thought before shrugging. "whatever, dude."
"so..." indie tried her hardest to think of how to start the conversation. "are you going to talk to me about why you got so pissed off at me last night?"
michael sighed before dropping his burger on his tray. "i'm sorry, alright? i honestly thought i could go and not talk to you for a few days and then i suddenly felt guilt and anger and i suddenly thought it was unnecessary and stupid of me to be mad at you when i don't even talk to you."
"michael, it's fine."
"no it isn't!" he protested. "it's not fine because you asked because you care. not because you're nosy like your brother–no offense–and ashton and calum."
"non taken," she laughed wholeheartedly. "but why were you so upset though?"
"because..." he hesitated. "i don't know! the whole topic just makes me upset. i didn't think you would know."
"i mean brodie is my ex, michael." indie reminded him making him roll his eyes. "he told me you kissed him."
"gah!" michael squirmed in his seat of frustration. "i don't like hearing the word, it was a mistake."
"yes," michael said, hesitantly. "–no–i don't know! it felt like it wasn't." cupping his face, tears were beginning to escape.
"if you're gay, it's okay. if you're bisexual, it's okay," indie said, rubbing the small of his back. "no one would be mad."
"how do you know that?" he asked, his voice shaking for being so afraid. "luke, ashton and calum will definitely think of me differently and my parents-jesus christ! they'll fucking disown me!"
"they're not going to disown you, michael." indie sighed, stroking his pale arms. "they're your parents. they wouldn't do such a thing."
"you don't know them!" michael hissed. "they'll fucking disown me or send me off somewhere! they wouldn't want anything to do with me. when i was young, they would talk about how one day i'm going to find the perfect girl and make beautiful babies and i'll end up becoming a ceo and have lots of money and we'd afford a house and shit like that, they still talk about it now."
indie wanted to argue right away but instead she shut up, she never thought about michael's parents that way, she only thought about how andrew and georgia would handle the situation if luke was gay. they would be nothing else but accepting but she didn't know how michael's parents would react. a knot in her stomach formed, she never thought michael would be the one to be gay or bisexual out of their whole friendship circle and she never thought that he would come to her especially since they've never had a proper conversation apart from his regular banter and flirting.
"michael, you might not be gay." indie began, thinking her words carefully. "you're allowed to like boys and girls. you can't accept or deny what your sexuality is because all you've done is kiss a boy. you didn't do anything else with him so it's perfectly alright."
"i know but it's been popping into my head every second of every day and that sucks, indigo!" he sighed, cupping his wet cheeks again. "it's bothering the fuck out of me. it sucks."
"it sucks and it's going to be hard, i'm not going to lie." she wrapped an arm around him. "but you can't beat yourself up over it. it's not your fault."
"it is!" he protested. "i kissed him first! i shouldn't have kissed him!"
"–and it's fine! kissing him is fine!" indie raised her voice out of annoyance at how stubborn michael was being.
"i don't want to disappoint anyone, indie. i really don't." michael was confused and in pain and she could her it in his voice.
"michael, you need to stop." she spoke blankly, grabbing his face and making him look at her. "stop thinking about everyone and just think about yourself, okay? you need to yourself more than anyone right now, the only thing that you need right now is to pull yourself together and that can only be done by you, you got that?"