The Hemmings family is a very proud line of generations full of scholars. Doctors, lawyers, bankers, entrepreneurs, the sorts. They excel in social etiquette and interviews. They get straight A's on all of their exams and tests. They succeed and succeed and succeed again until they can boast about all of their accomplishments, except for whatever reason people don't get annoyed, because their accomplishments are so great that they even don't mind listening to them.

That's why Luke could hardly blame his family for seeing him as such a disappointment. Jack as a corporate lawyer and Ben as a college professor (he's written three textbooks. One of them was awarded one of the best educational literatures of the year). His parents worked as managers in some foreign government corporation. They wore suits and dress shoes. Hair gel was a necessary accessory for daily function. The Hemmings Smile was always plastered like glue onto their faces, and they always got what they wanted in the end.

Luke didn't like school. He never had. He didn't like authority, like all other teenagers, and he didn't see the point of becoming rich and stuck up like his parents one day. He didn't want to read documents or go over someone's financial struggles based on poor spending decisions from their twenties. He wanted to play his guitar and sit on his couch like the lazy bum he was and watch television until he passed out from exhaustion. That's what he wanted to do.

His choices of best friends didn't help his motivation. Michael, despite attending class and keeping up his grades, constantly criticized school and called it "lame" on a daily basis. Ashton hardly ever went and usually didn't do his work the rare occasions that he did. Calum, as excited and enthusiastic as he is, was always too excited to leave to really enjoy being the in class. Luke was doomed from the start. School was never going to be and never will be something important to him.

Which is why he made his decision.

"I dropped out of school this morning."

Michael, who had been hanging upside down off the leather lounge chair in the corner, flipped upright and twisted to look at Luke with wide eyes. "You what?"

"I dropped out," Luke repeated. Calum, seated beside him on the couch, stared at him and blinked. Luke waited for them to say something else, but they didn't. Luke reached for the controller. "I think it's Harry Potter marathon weekend. Let's see if it's on."

Michael snatched the remote from Luke's reaching fingertips. "Are you insane?"

"What's wrong with Harry Potter?" Luke asked. Michael tossed the remote back onto the table with such force that the cover snapped off, batteries spilling onto the wooden surface.

"Something is definitely wrong with you, Luke Hemmings," Michael snapped. "This is the worst decision you've made yet. And you've made a lot of bad decisions."

"Not as bad as Ashton straightening his hair back in junior high," Calum remarked.

His memories have been coming back sporadically, bits and pieces when he touches certain things. He touched Luke's mother's straightener when looking for the hair dryer and found the unpleasant memory of Ashton with stick-straight hair.

"No, this is far worse," Michael said, and his green eyes burned with fury and disbelief as they looked at Luke. Luke picked up the batteries with careful fingers and began placing them back into the remote controller. Michael gazed at him. "Why, Luke? This affects your future, too. This isn't something temporary. You'll miss out on so many opportunities."

"I know the consequences of my decision, Michael," said Luke. He slid the cover back onto the remote. "I don't regret it. I wanted this."

Michael said, "You may look back on this in five years when all of us are in college and you're still here, in this house."

Luke swore. "Just get off my fucking back, will you? You sound like my brothers." He jammed his thumb into the power button on the remote and the television screen blackened. Michael, jaw tight, remained silent. Calum reached over and took Luke's pale hand into his palm. Warmth spread through Luke's cold body like honey.

"If that's what you want to do, then you know we'll support you know matter what," Calum said gently. "You're-- our best friend, Luke. This is your decision to make, not ours."

A moment passed, and Calum quickly withdrew his hand, placing it back in his lap. Luke breathed in a few times before speaking. "My brothers will probably be here soon once they've heard the news. I'd prefer if you guys aren't here when they show up."

"I'm not going anywhere," declared Michael. "You may be a fucking idiot, but I'm not leaving."

"Yes, you are," Luke said tiredly. "And you too, Cal. I have to deal with this on my own. You could get hurt. Both of you."

Neither of them moved. Calum said, perfunctory, "Well, it's not like they can see me or anything."

Luke was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "Fine. You can stay."

"Oh, fuck both of you," Michael said, but stood up. He grabbed his leather jacket and threw his black backpack over his left shoulder. "Don't let them kill you." Then he opened the door and slammed it shut behind him.

The room fell into silence. Luke's house was normally always void of noise with his family always gone, but silence had become rare once he had befriended Michael. For once, Luke appreciated the lack of sound. Calum sat hunched beside him, examining his hands with interest. Luke figured it had something to do with the strange access of memories.

He knew dropping out of school would make plenty of his friends and family mad, apart from Ashton and Calum. But he knew what he was doing. It was what he wanted. It was what was best.

The pillows rustled as Calum readjusted himself on the couch to where he could look at Luke with his big brown eyes all he wanted. Luke looked at him and then looked away just as quickly. Ever since realizing Calum had quite literally risen from his grave, he had a hard time looking at him without feeling the sharp pain of grief.

"What made you want to do it?"

Luke knew what he was asking, but he said anyway, "Do what?"

"Drop out of school."

Luke spun back towards the coffee table and snatched a manila folder from under an empty pizza box. He held it up in the air as though it were a prize. "This, Cal. Ashton. How are we supposed to figure out how to get Ashton out of jail, and find out who killed C-- you, if I'm too busy spending eight hours at school per day?"

"Don't abandon your education for me, Luke," said Calum softly. Luke blinked at him for a few seconds before putting the the folder back on the table.

"I'm not," said Luke, only partly a lie. "I'm doing it for Ashton, too."

Calum looked less than satisfied with this answer, but before he could say anything, the doorbell rang. Luke automatically opened his mouth to tell Calum to go back into one of the bedrooms, like Ashton always did, but then he remembered Calum's situation. That, and the fact that Calum looked more than comfortable just to sit and watch the scene play out. He gazed expectantly at Luke.

The blonde boy stood up and crossed the room, his white socks slippery on the hardwood flooring. He shot Calum a look before turning back and opening the door.

To no one's surprise, it was Jack and Ben. Luke expected a fight to break out immediately. His fists curled at his sides. He waited for the punch to crack against his jaw. But nothing came. Jack and Ben stood like statues, cold blue eyes identical to Luke's staring holes through his skin.

"Luke," said Ben, who took the liberty of speaking first. "How good is it to see you."

Luke couldn't think of anything sarcastic to say. That was mainly Michael's job. Instead, he looked at his brothers and let the feeling of dread wash over him like ice water.

Jack had a beard growing. His normally clean shaven face had short, blonde hair instead, and it made him look about ten years older than he actually was. When he spoke, Luke got the image of a weary man stuck inside a younger man's body.

"Luke. Let us in? We need to talk."

"Will fists be involved again?" Luke asked, but opened the door wide for them to come in. They did. Neither of them noticed Calum sitting on the couch.

"Not this time," said Jack. He took off his jacket and cupped it around the back of a dining room chair. "We got a call from the principal. You dropped out, Luke?"

There was no acidity in his voice. It knocked Luke off his guard. "I-- yes, I did."

Ben sighed and disappeared into the kitchen. He emerged a minute later holding a beer, then lifted it to his lips as though he wanted to forget Luke's answer.

Jack released a breath and sat down on the couch, just a couple inches away from Calum. Calum stared at Jack without the burden of common courtesy, one eyebrow raised. He looked at Luke and said, "They look identical to you."

Neither of the brothers seemed to hear him. Luke opened his mouth to reply but closed it a moment afterwards, remembering that he was not supposed to be able to see Calum either.

"Luke," said Jack, "we have tried over and over again to prevent you from this. We've made calls, and emails, and requests--"

"Which I never asked you to do," pointed out Luke.

"We were protecting you, Luke," Ben interjected. His short cropped hair looked messier than usual. "Don't you see that? You think our parents would be pleased to hear that you abandoned your education?"

"I don't give a shit about what they think."

Jack said, "You should. We called and told them, and-- don't give me that look, Luke, it was either us or the principal-- and they were furious. They made repercussions. These things have consequences."

Luke's jaw tightened. "And what was their decision?"

Jack and Ben looked at each other. It was Ben who spoke. "They're selling the house, Luke. They want you to move in with them."

"They're what?" Luke shouted and leaped to his feet. "Are you serious? They can't do that. They don't even have a house of their own, they just travel for work and live in hotel rooms!"

"And since you dropped out, now you have to live with them. You don't have another choice, Luke," said Jack. "You don't have the money to just buy a new house."

There was a silence that replaced words. Luke slumped against the wall, all energy suddenly drained out of him. He honestly did not expect his parents to actually do anything about him dropping out. They had never exercised their parental obligations before, and he certainly did not expect them to do it now.

Calum leaped from the couch with almost unnatural grace. "He can live with me," he said, forgetting for a moment that nobody could hear him. Luke stared at Calum, eyes wide.

He stared a moment too long. "What are you looking at?" Ben asked, eyebrows furrowed. Luke broke his gaze from Calum and looked at Ben.

"I'm living with a friend. That's what I'll do. I'm not moving in with Mom and Dad."

Jack sighed deeply. "Luke--"

But Luke was already moving. "No. This is a solution. I'll leave, and the house is yours, okay? Sell it, don't sell it, whatever. I'm leaving."

He ran to his room and started packing random essentials into his emptied backpack-- clothes, toothbrush, his journals, anything he saw that he could grab in a matter of seconds, and shoved on a pair of black converse. He went back into the foyer to find Calum standing by the door, brown eyes wide, his finger pointing to the coffee table.

Luke snatched Ashton's files and crammed it into his backpack, then looked at Jack. "Well. Bye, I guess."

Jack had stood up as well. "Luke, you can't live on your friend's couch forever."

"Try me," Luke said, and threw open the door. Calum slipped out into the sun and Luke slammed the door shut behind them. The two boys raced to his old Toyota, Calum plummeting into the passenger side while Luke twisted his key into the slot. The car roared to life and Luke slammed on the reverse as Jack opened the door.

"Luke, Mom is going to kill you!" he yelled, but Luke just slammed his foot on the gas, pushing his car to its limit as it sped down the neighborhood road.

Calum gripped the side handles as he peered out the window, watching the trees turn into blurs. He turned to Luke with a wide smile. "Fuck yeah!"

Luke laughed a little. "Damn right."

He slowed down once he was out of his house's sight, and rolled down the windows so Calum could stick his arm out into the wind. He drive slowly, turning carefully into the neighborhood road that contained Calum's old apartment. He hadn't been on the street since Calum had died. He couldn't bare to see the familiar street signs, the worn down roads, the cracked line splitting the concrete that Luke always knew to swerve around. It hurt his chest to think about.

But now, miraculously, Calum was sitting beside him. And it was strange and confusing and powerful and for once, Luke wouldn't trade it for the world.

Luke pulled into Calum's familiar driveway and turned off the car. The engine stilled into silence, but neither of the boy's moved. Calum has one leg stretched out in front of him and the other braced against the edge of the seat, his toes digging into the part of the floor where the leather chair meets the carpeted ground. He didn't look at Luke, but his eyebrows were drawn, his expression vaguely puzzled.

"You look awfully confused," commented Luke. Calum glanced up.

"Sorry," he apologized unnecessarily. "I was just thinking. About everything."

Everything was a lot to think about, in Calum's case. Luke knew he was probably not as nice as he should have been toward Calum before he knew it was him. He supposed Calum was just as upset about his upturned life as Luke was. Especially now, that Luke can see how clearly it really is him, and how strange that is for him. To realize one day that you had died just a few months before, that you had been somehow placed back on the earth with your memories stripped from you. It's like your entire life is some extremely intricate puzzle.

"Let's go inside," said Luke, and so they both got out of the car. Luke grabbed his backpack full of belongings.

In Calum's apartment, very few things had changed since Luke had last been there months and months earlier. The old brown couch was still sitting in the corner of the room. The television screen still had the crack in the far right corner where the tiny triangle remaining was only black. He saw the coffee table in the middle of the room that opened into a chest, glasses piled up and old newspapers stacked. The familiar door that led to the kitchen, and the familiar door that led to the bedroom. It was all so dizzyingly familiar.

Calum's hand found his. "Do you want to go sit down?"

Luke twisted to see Calum's face. His dark hair was curly and overgrown, the same way it was when he died. His fitted jeans and thin t-shirt looked like it belonged on him, his black Vans worn from wear. He big brown eyes blinked expectantly up at Luke.

"How much do you remember?" Luke asked. "Of us?"

"Of us?" Calum echoed. "Well, it comes in bits and pieces. I wake up and find that I'm able to remember something else sometimes."

Luke took a deep breath and inclined his head, letting his forehead touch Calum's. Slowly, he pressed his lips to Calum's.

They kissed. It felt familiar and warm and Luke's head got fuzzy and he managed to forget about his family and Ashton and the rest of the world other than his Calum's lips on his.

Calum broke away first, his hands worriedly gripping Luke's shoulders. "Sit down. Will you?"

Luke sat down on the couch, Calum following next to him. He grabbed a blanket and pulled it over Luke's legs. Luke burrowed his head in his hands. "I'm sorry."

"You're fine. I never mind you kissing me," Calum said, and laughed a little. "But I know you, and you're upset. As you should be. I mean, your family just kicked you out. It goes without saying that you can stay here, right?"

"Man, moving in before we're married?" Luke joked. Calum shoved his shoulder but smiled.

"Get some sleep. I'll call Michael and tell him to come over," Calum said. He sighed. "And maybe after you've rested, we can figure out how to get Ashton out of jail."

Luke was already falling asleep as Calum's last words filtered through his ears. He didn't realize how exhausted he was until Calum had sat him down. Luke allowed the sentience to overtake him, but not before he felt Calum's hand caught in his own, warm and pleasant and lovely against his skin.

---
A/N: long time no see

feelin those monday blues today so im keeping this authors note short and precise.

thanks for reading. i hope you enjoyed. please vote and comment your thoughts!! i love to hear them.

i love you to the moon, byee