smoke • calum hood

quatorze.

fourteen: oh, my god! it's a...

"hey, addy, what time's calum picking you up?" luke asked.

calum was picking adelin up to go to the doctor and then get the supplies for mali's gender reveal in their town. she figured she would have an uncomfortable conversation with brett about it, but he had family stuff again and wasn't really concerned about it.

she didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. naturally, luke thought it was a bad thing.

adelin checked the time on her phone. "he should be here any minute."

as if on cue, there was a knock on the door. luke walked with adelin downstairs, however, liz beat them to open the door.

with a frown on her face she simply said, "calum. i didn't know you would be coming by today."

adelin and luke walked up behind their mom. "mrs. hemmings," calum nodded, trying to mask his annoyance. "i'm just here to pick up addy."

adelin cleared her throat, "well, before this gets any more awkward, i'm gonna go."

luke said, "if that's possible," through a poorly hidden cough.

"adelin, we will be talking about this when you get home," liz scolded her daughter, but not even trying to prevent her from leaving. adelin figured liz knew that no matter what she said, adelin would be leaving with calum.

adelin didn't bother answering her mom. she simply said goodbye to luke, who gave her a sympathetic look, and left with calum.

"you didn't tell your mom what we were doing today?" calum asked as he opened the car door for her, one of her favorite habits of his and something brett never did.

adelin waited until calum was in the car as well to say, "i didn't feel the need to." and she also tried to tell herself to stop comparing her boyfriend with her ex-boyfriend. it wasn't fair to either of them.

"how are you guys, anyway?" calum placed his arm on the passenget seat to reverse out of the driveway, another one of adelin's favorite habits of his.

"i honestly didn't think it could get any worse, especially because i was dating brett," adelin sighed. "but somehow it did. i can't tell you the last time we talked without fighting. we eventually just stopped talking altogether."

"i'm sorry, ad," calum looked at adelin and then turned back to focus on the road. "you know i'm here for you if it gets bad again." he was referring to the one weekend where they were fighting so bad that adelin didn't go home for two days straight and stayed with him instead.

"thanks, calum. but it's okay, i really don't want to talk about it." adelin's phone buzzed with a text from brett, but she wasn't in the mood to talk to him. she changed the subject, "so what do you think mali's having?"

"oh, it's definitely gonna be a boy," calum scoffed.

"you're just saying that 'cause you're a guy," adelin couldn't help but smile as she rolled her eyes.

"so you don't think it's gonna be a girl?" calum asked, a smile forming across his lips.

"well i didn't say that," adelin mumbled, crossing her legs. she looked down at the floor, her heart slightly dropping at the empty pack of cigarettes that lied there. she didn't know calum started smoking again.

calum didn't notice that she saw them, and she didn't want to to ruin the mood by asking about it. he just laughed and said, "way to prove yourself wrong, ad."

adelin couldn't help but think the rest of the car ride felt just like when they were dating. calum rested his hand loosely on adelin's thigh as he tapped along to the music with the other hand on the wheel.