Bruises ? Luke Hemmings a.u

Five.

"You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to," Brooke says, her hand landing atop of mine, giving me a reasuring squeeze, straying my attention away from Calum. "We can walk out of here right now."

I shake my head at her. "No, it's okay. I mean we have to talk eventually, right?"

Ashton's jaw clenches tightly, and I see that his eyes are settled above my head, meaning that Calum is stood right behind me.

"Helen," he says from behind me, his voice gruff, and I'm almost too scared to turn around and look at him. Almost, but not fully, so I do, meeting his brown eyes with my own.

"Hey," I say, not really knowing what else to say. Do I ask him how he's been? Ask him why he wasn't in english class today?

"Can we talk?" he asks me, leaving it so that I don't have to ask him anything.

"I don't really want to be alone with you right now, Calum," I tell him honestly.

Brooke's hand is still on mine and she gives it another squeeze before letting it go completely.

Calum looks at both Brooke and Ashton with a poisonous glare.

"Don't look at them like that," I blurt out.

"I'll look at them however I want to look at them. I bet they've been feeding you a bunch of bullshit about me to make you hate me," he spits out, his eyes still on Brooke and Ashton.

"You're such a-" Brooke starts but I interrupt her.

"They haven't said anything about you. They just hate the names you've called me."

His eyes meet mine again, no longer cold. At least he isn't ignoring me. Maybe when all of this blows over, we could go back to being friends.

"That's what I want to talk to you about. I want to apologise to you. What I said to you, the names I called you, I didn't mean them, Helen. You know I didn't. I was just upset. I should have given you more time to fall for me and that was my fault."

"What?" I ask him in disbelief, because surely the only thing he has taken away from all of this can't be that? Surely he can't still believe we will be together.

"We would be so good together, Helen. I've been thinking about it, all weekend actually. I don't care that you have feelings for some other guy-" he pauses, and I notice Brooke's eyes are suddenly on me, and I know I'm going to get questioned about this later. "But I'll wait it out," Calum continues. "I'll wait for you to fall for me." And there it is again. That cockiness. That arrogance, the only thing I don't find appealing about him.

I don't know what to say. I'm stunned. He can't be serious. He want's us to go back to how we were, back to us being friends having casual sex until I fall in love with him.

"Calum, I don't have feelings for you. I won't ever have more than platonic feelings for you. I won't ever fall in love with you, you have to understand that," I tell him, my voice pleading. Don't make this harder than it already is.

He frowns, his eyes looking down to the floor. "That's just because you won't try. If you tried, you would. I know you would."

"I won't."

"Helen-"

"Calum, listen to me. I love you, you're one of my best friends. I want us to still be friends, but you having feelings for me, and that leaves a huge gap between us. And those words you said to me on Friday, I still haven't gotten over that. You hurt me, Calum."

"I just said I was sorry for that!" he shouts, gaining the attention of the tables around us.

Students stop their conversations to watch us. His face is venomous; his fists clenched tightly by his sides.