[align=center][size=8][color=thistle]it was supposed to be just another silly little interview. many jokes were cracked and all the boys were genuinely having a great time. there were no silly questions like 'what would you do if you had boobs' but, questions about music and things that fans really wanted to know. then came a question that michael had gotten used to, if any of them were taken. as usual, michael sat there with a crooked smile on his face as ashton and luke both raised their hands; but the smile was ripped right off his face when calum raised his hand. maybe he was joking, right? trying to throw the interviewer off, right? but as soon as he noticed how calum had started to look panicked is when he realized that calum made a mistake, he didn't mean to raise his hand. maybe he just wasn't paying attention, just raised his hand out of habit. but either way, the world would now know that calum hood was off the market.
michael felt his stomach start to turn and his eyes burn with tears, he was so scared for when this moment would come. although he always pictured coming out to the fans via a tweet or something, same with exposing his relationship with calum. he always thought it would be done on the night of their anniversary with shaky hands and a quickly beating heart, a nervous post on instagram that showed a cute picture of the two with a caption wishing the younger boy a happy anniversary, explaining his love for him in a carefully thought out paragraph. he imagined that it wouldn't be long until fans realized that it wasn't a joke and it wasn't for their friendship anniversary. some fans would take it well and others not so much, but either way he would be proud that he could now hold his boyfriends hand and share cute pictures of them freely, that he could talk about the weird things calum did and how much he genuinely loved the boy. but no, that daydream was ripped right from him the second calum raised his hand and glanced over at michael.
michael stood up quickly, nearly falling down because of how his head spun. this wasn't supposed to happen, the whole world would crash down on them. fans would be outraged that they hid something so big from them for so long, the world would have tons of fun with the new information that two of the members of the worlds biggest band were gay. he could already see the hate, the way media would poke fun at them, all the criticism, the decline of the bands popularity. he rushed out of the room, wanting to get away from the cameras and the interviewer as fast as he could. all he wanted was to start the day over, to wake up in his calums arms again. to be sharing a breakfast with his band and explode with joy upon learning that their latest single went number one in another country. he wanted to start this interview over, somehow stop calum from exposing their long kept secret. but that wasn't possible, and michael had to face these consequences.
he stormed past the managers and people who worked in the building they were currently in, right into the bathroom. he locked the door behind him and slid down the wall, pulling his knees up to his chest and letting the tears fall. after slowing down his hiccuping sobs, he managed to pull out his phone and unlock it; even if the screen was blurry from the tears that filled his eyes. the second he pressed the little blue app, he was greeted with hate, criticism, and a supporter here and there but for one supporter, there seemed to be hundreds of haters. michael was sure he never felt so languished in his life, that he never felt so terrified. he just wished that he could redo it all, but here he was, sitting on a dirty bathroom floor, crying out every bit of fear and sadness.
