Chapter Text
It was Monday morning and if that wasn’t bad enough, Michael had to start the day off with Maths. His only saving grace was his best friend, Calum, who was seated next to him going on and on about something that happened at footie practice last week. Calum was an amazing football player. He was only fifteen, but there were already university teams looking at him. Michael wasn’t jealous per se, but it made him feel stupid sometimes. He wasn’t very good at school and he knew he probably wouldn’t be going to university. The school had even held him back a year. Calum already had his future mapped out for him. All he had to do was keep playing football and going to school and some team would snatch him up and take him away from Michael.
“You should’ve seen his kick man! I’ve never seen someone our age make a shot like that!” Calum exclaimed. Michael couldn’t help but smile at the excitement in his voice.
“I’m sure you could do it too if you weren’t always late to practice,” Michael joked. Calum had gotten his ass handed to him by his coach last week for showing up late. Michael had heard all about it when Calum had come over after practice, sweaty and wide-eyed. Calum rolled his eyes.
“It was one time,” he said, annoyed. “Coach Farman was just in a bad mood.” Michael laughed. The bell rang, signaling class was starting. The only reason he was here so early was because he’d slept over at Calum’s the night before, and his mom was very strict about punctuality. Michael didn’t mind. He loved staying at the Hood’s place. It was his second home, and the Hood’s were his second family. Calum had been his best friend since he was six years old. Michael had never really had friends. He wasn’t good at socializing, and he was a bit of an outcast. People thought he was strange and weird. Calum on the other hand was great at socializing. He was one of those people who made friends with everyone. That included Michael. He remembers being six, waiting for a turn to use one of the swings at recess. There were only two swings, and these two girls had been on them ever since recess started. There were only ten minutes left before recess was over. He tried asking the girls if they would let him have a turn, but they just turned up their noses and ignored him. He’d tried not to get angry, but even at a young age Michael had a temper. His little hands balled up into fists and he kicked at the dirt. That’s when he met Calum. The brown boy had seen Michael standing there, waiting for a turn on the swings. He knew how people treated Michael. No one seemed to like him, but Calum didn’t know why. He couldn’t remember anything that would give him a reason to dislike the boy, so he decided to go help him out. He’d went up to the swing set and stood just in front of where the girls were swinging.
“Hey girls,” he said. The girls giggled. Even at six, Calum had no trouble getting people to like him. “Mind if I have a go?” The girls slowed down and hopped off the swings. Michael’s eyes had gone wide.’ How was that fair?’ he’d thought.
“Sure, here you go!” one of the girls had said cheerfully. Calum thanked them as they left and then sat down on one of the swings. He looked at Michael expectantly.
“You gonna sit?” he’d asked. Michael gave him a funny look, but walked over to the empty swing and sat down. “I’m Calum,” he said.
“Michael,” Michael replied. They swung in silence for a while.
“You’re in my class, right?” Calum asked. Michael looked up from where he’d been staring at his shoes.
“Yeah,” he said. “I sit at the back by Roger.” Calum nodded, remembering where that was.
“Do you like Power Rangers?” he’d asked Michael. Michael shrugged.
“I like Pokémon better, but they’re okay,” he answered. Calum’s face lit up.
“I like Pokémon too!” he said excitedly. Michael smiled for the first time that day. They got into an easy conversation about their favourite Pokémon. When the bell rang, Calum leaped off the swing mid-air. Michael’s eyes grew big. He’d never jumped off a swing like that. He’d always been too scared. He let his own swing come to a natural stop.
“Thanks for letting me swing with you,” Michael said softly. “No one's ever let me swing with them before.” Calum frowned.
“We should swing again tomorrow. You’re fun!” he said with a smile. Michael grinned at him and the two of them walked back to class together. They’d been best friends ever since. Everyone had thought it was strange that Calum chose Michael to be his best friend. The two of them were like night and day. Calum loved to go out, but Michael preferred to stay home. Calum was loud and cheerful, but Michael came off quiet and moody. Neither of them really cared what other people thought. No one knew that when it was just the two of them, Calum liked to stay quiet, content with letting Michael ramble on about whatever he was heated about that day. Michael tended to be loud and eccentric when we he was with Calum. They were always able to balance each other out.
“Okay class, good morning. Please pull out your homework from last week and pass them to the front,” their teacher spoke. ’Fuck’, Michael thought. He’d forgotten all about the homework. Whatever, maybe the teacher wouldn’t notice until later, and he could just make up some excuse and hand it in tomorrow. It was unlikely, but a guy could hope.
“I heard we’re getting a new student,” Calum whispered beside him. Michael frowned. Calum always seemed to know these things. Michael hadn’t heard anything about a new student.
“How do you know?” he asked, keeping his voice down as their teacher began to go through the attendance list.
“Sandra heard some of the teachers talking about it this morning. I think she said it was some girl from out of town,” Calum replied. Michael smirked.
“I hope she’s hot,” he said. Calum rolled his eyes.
“As if she would wanna go out with you. You can’t even get a date with any of the girls already here,” Calum snorted, and Michael narrowed his eyes.
“That’s because all of them have known me since kindergarten,” Michael said. It was true. The pool of girls had been the same ever since preschool. The only reason Calum could get a date was because he was charismatic and everyone loved him. Michael could get a date too if anyone would give him a chance. Before Calum could answer there was a knock on the classroom door.
“Ah, that must be our new student! Okay class, I want you to be nice and welcome them with open arms,” their teacher said cheerfully. She got up from her desk and walked towards the door. Michael watched as she opened the door that was hopefully concealing his future girlfriend.
“Class, this is Luke.” Okay, not his future girlfriend. Michael couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. “Be nice, offer to show him around, and help him out if you see him in any of your classes. Being a new student isn’t easy.” The boy, Luke, blushed. He was short, very short, Michael noticed. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. ’How typical,’ Michael thought. Luke looked kind of dorky, but not entirely awful. There was a bit of baby fat clinging to his cheeks, but he made it work. The girls would be all over him. He watched as Luke took a seat at the front of the room. Definitely dorky.
“That’s not a girl,” he whispered to Calum.
“Obviously,” his friend replied. “What do you expect from Sandra? She never gets her facts straight.” Michael laughed - a bit too loudly for his teacher’s liking.
“Michael? Do you have something to share?” she asked. Calum snorted beside him. Michael sighed.
“No, ma’am,” he said dejectedly. He saw Luke turn to look at him when he spoke. His blue eyes looked curious. Michael glared at him and the boy quickly turned away. The rest of the hour went by the same as any other day. Michael was bored out of his mind, and when the bell rang calling class to an end, he shot out of his seat immediately.
“See you at lunch?” he asked Calum. He had Science next, but Calum had English. They always sat together at lunch, and then met up again when they had gym together last period.
“Yep!” Calum said, already grabbing his books and heading out the door. Michael shook his head at his friend’s eagerness. He grabbed his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and walked to his next class. He was just about to walk in to the classroom when he saw the new kid standing in the middle of the hallway looking extremely lost. He kept looking at the paper he held in his hands, and then glancing around the hall. Michael groaned. Before he could stop himself, he was heading over to where Luke was standing.
“Lost already?” he asked the boy. Luke turned to look at him, eyes wide. He blushed, and then reached up to adjust the straps of his backpack.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. He had a nice voice, Michael thought. He grabbed the paper out of Luke’s hands and looked it over.
“History with Bergens?” he asked. Luke nodded. “You want to go down this hallway and make a left. His class is right beside the boys’ bathroom. I would hurry if I were you; he hates it when people are late.” Just as he said that the bell rang.
“Shit, thank you!” Luke said, before taking off down the hallway. Michael rolled his eyes. He walked back to his own class, only to find the door had been closed. Fuck, he thought. He knocked on the door, but no one answered. He tried again but still no answer. Just as he was about to accept defeat, the door opened and his teacher Mrs. Roslyn appeared, hands on her hips. Michael sucked in a breath.
“Late again?” she asked, clearly unamused. “You do remember what I said about being late, right Mr. Clifford?” Michael nodded.
“I know, I’m sorry. The new kid was lost so I was helping him find his way to class,” he said. Mrs. Roslyn squinted her eyes at him.
“I don’t care what you were doing,” she said. “Go to the office and get a late slip.” She shut the door in his face. Bitch, Michael thought. He wasn’t going to get a late slip. If she didn’t want to let him in, he wasn’t gonna go. He decided to head to the library and doodle for the next hour. Pulling out his head phones, he turned on Jesus of Suburbia and made his way there.
***
An hour goes by quickly when you aren’t being bored to death by lectures. Before Michael knew it, it was time to head to his next class – English. He fought his way through the crowded halls, not wanting to get yelled at by anyone else today. He made it to class early and found a seat at the back of the room. He was tapping his pen along with his music when he caught a glimpse of someone standing in front of him. He looked up and was met with the same blue eyes he’d personally felt he’d seen enough of today. Michael pulled out one of his earbuds.
“Mind if I sit here?” Luke asked with a small smile. He seemed so shy, but Michael didn’t feel bad for him. Maybe if he hadn’t been bitched at by Mrs. Roslyn for helping the boy, he would feel inclined to be nicer. But unfortunately for Luke, that was not the case.
“I got in trouble cause of you,” Michael spit. Luke’s eyes widened.
“What? Why?” he asked. Michael rolled his eyes.
“I was late to class and got bitched at. Unlike you, I can’t use ‘I’m new’ as an excuse,” he said angrily. Technically it wasn’t Luke’s fault, and Michael knew that. But he’d never been known for his rationality.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” Luke said with a frown. He looked hurt, and Michael found it hard to look him in the eye. He looked at the front of the room instead.
“Whatever. I’m not your new best friend. Sit wherever you want, I really don’t give a shit,” Michael said. He put his earbud back in and waited for class to start. He watched Luke turn around and find a seat near the middle of the classroom. He pretended he didn’t notice when he caught Luke staring at him halfway through the period.
***
The rest of the week went by slowly. It turns out he had three classes with Luke (Maths, English, and Gym) and Calum did too (Maths, Science and Gym). He’d told Calum what had happened with Luke on Monday, and Calum had said he’d overreacted. Michael already knew that, but he got mad when Calum said it anyways.
Michael had taken a liking to hating Luke. It didn’t matter what the younger boy did, Michael always had some snide remark to say about him. Calum always just rolled his eyes and tried to change the subject. For some reason unknown to Michael, Calum liked Luke. The two of them were slowly becoming friends, and to say Michael hated it was an understatement. Calum was always asking if Luke could sit with them at lunch, or if he could be on their team in gym class. Michael never said no, but he never made an attempt to talk to Luke or include him in his conversations with Calum. If Luke tried to join in, Michael would shoot him a glare and go back to ignoring him. The next week Luke stopped saying yes when Calum invited him over. Michael wanted to feel bad, but he was stubborn. Just because Calum was friends with the kid didn’t mean he had to be too. He told Calum as much, and Calum had just told him to stop being a dick.
It was Friday night and Michael was bored. Usually he would hangout with Calum, but he’d ran off after gym class saying something about not wanting to be late for football practice. He should be home by now though, so Michael decided to call him and see if he wanted to come over. He pulled out his phone and brought up Calum’s contact page. Calum’s picture was a disgusting shot of the inside of his nostrils, and seeing it always made Michael laugh. He hit call and held the phone to his ear. The dialing started and he tapped his fingers on his leg. Just as he thought Calum wasn’t going to answer, he heard the line become active.
“Michael? Hey,” Calum said. “What’s up?”
“Bored out of my fucking skull. We should chill,” Michael said. There was a pause on the other end.
“I can’t right now,” Calum said after a minute. Michael frowned. Calum was never busy, especially not on a Friday night.
“What? Since when are you ever busy?” he asked. There was another pause.
“Since now,” Calum replied. It sounded like he was talking to someone. Michael frowned again. Calum didn’t usually hangout with his teammates outside of practice.
“Are you with someone?” he asked. This time the pause was longer. He was almost scared Calum had hung up when he heard his quiet voice through the line.
“I’m with Luke,” Calum said softly. Michael sat up from where he’d been sprawled across his bed. Calum was hanging out with Luke outside of school now?
“What?” Michael asked. “Why?”
“Because I want to? I can hangout with people that aren’t you, Michael.” Michael’s face went red. Calum had never talked to him like this.
“I know that,” he said angrily. “I just didn’t think you were serious about your fucking charity case.” Michael was pissed now. Luke annoyed him enough on his own, but now he was taking Calum away from him? Michael’s breathing picked up.
“Don’t say shit like that,” Calum hissed. “Look, I’m busy. I’ll talk to you later.” The line went dead. Michael fought the urge to throw his phone at the wall. He tossed it to the side and huffed out of his room. Going down the hall, he turned towards the kitchen and headed to the fridge. He swung the door open and pulled out the leftover pizza from the night before. He shoved a slice in his mouth, not caring to heat it up, and took a seat at the table. Just as he was about to take another bite, his mom walked in.
“Oh, didn’t expect to see you home. Where’s Calum?” she asked. She walked over to the sink to pour herself a glass of water.
“With Luke,” Michael scoffed. His mom turned around to look at him and raised her eyebrows.
“I take it we don’t like Luke?” she asked. He nodded and took another bite of his pizza.
“No, we definitely don’t like Luke,” Michael said. She smiled and sat down next to him.
“Wanna talk about it?” she asked.
“Not really,” he answered. He watched her take a sip of water and then set her glass down. He didn’t want to talk about Luke, but maybe he sort of did. He sighed. “He’s the new kid at school, and I hate him,” he said.
“Why do you hate him?” she asked. Michael frowned. Why did he hate Luke? Where should he start? He got him in trouble on the first day, even though that wasn’t entirely Luke’s fault. There was the fact that he was always around, but he could blame Calum for that. Once Luke had gotten the hint that Michael wanted nothing to do with him, he stopped showing up. Maybe he was angrier with Calum. All he ever wanted to do was invite Luke to hangout with them, or tell him how Luke ‘wasn’t so bad’. Now he was hanging out with Luke outside of school. Luke was probably at Calum’s house. They were probably playing video games or watching movies or laughing about something that happened during the week. Michael liked to do all of those things. Calum hadn’t even invited him; not that he would’ve wanted to go if he knew Luke was going, but an invitation would’ve been nice. Maybe Luke was funnier than Michael. Maybe Calum had more fun with him than he did with Michael. Luke was probably nicer, and smarter. He was probably on time to all of his classes and girls probably talked to him. Calum was probably embarrassed by Michael. Maybe he was finally realizing that Michael wasn’t good enough to be his friend.
“I don’t know,” he said finally. Suddenly he felt sick. He dropped his half eaten slice of pizza back in the box and pushed his chair back. “I don’t feel good,” he said. He put the box back in the fridge and started back to his room.
“Let me know if you need anything,” his mom called behind him. He heard her sigh, but before he could feel bad about it he shut his bedroom door. Michael flopped back on to his bed and closed his eyes. Was Calum replacing him? Had he been such a dick about Luke that Calum finally realized he was a piece of shit? He groaned and pulled a pillow over his head, stupidly trying to block out his own thoughts.
“Fuck this,” he muttered to himself. He crawled under the covers of his bed and went to sleep.
***
Michael ignored Calum at school on Monday. Calum had taken his seat next to Michael in Maths, but Michael pretended he wasn’t there.
“Can we talk?” Calum had asked. Michael had only shook his head and looked down at his desk. He ignored Calum’s attempts to talk to him for the rest of the period. At lunch, he’d walked past their usual table and found a spot in the corner by himself. He knew Calum was looking at him, but Michael paid no attention to him. When he looked up half an hour later he saw Luke sitting in his spot, laughing at something Calum had said. Michael skipped gym class that day, not wanting to torture himself with the sight of Calum and Luke hanging out. He knew it was his own fault. If he hadn’t been such an ass to Luke in the first week, he wouldn’t be in this mess. If he would have apologized to Calum during first period, maybe they could’ve worked something out. Michael hated himself for being so stubborn, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to be friends with Luke, and he didn’t want Calum being friends with him either.
He didn’t talk to Calum for the rest of the week.
On Thursday he took the bus home. Usually he would walk with Calum, but seeing as they weren’t on the best terms he’d started taking the bus. There was an empty seat at the back, so he sat down and put his bag on the seat next to him so no one would join him. He pulled his headphones out and pushed them in his ears. Putting All Time Low on shuffle, he looked out the window and waited until he saw his street. The ride took about 20 minutes, and by the time he was getting off the bus his eyes were drooping. Being alone and angry all day could be exhausting. Just as he was heading up the walkway to his front door he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and was met with blond hair and blue eyes. They were the same blue eyes that seemed to be the cause of all of his problems.
“Hi,” Luke said. His hands were stuffed in the pockets of his jeans, and he looked nervous. Michael swallowed. “Can we talk?”