redefine | calum hood

thirty six

Thirty Six

Maddie

"You have to tell me where we're going," I mumbled to Calum as we both looked at the directions to Iris' house.

"I can tell you if you want," he offered, "but you need to act surprised when we get there,"

"Yeah,"

"Is it because you won't be looking at the directions?"

"Mhm,"

"That's fair," he nodded. "Then I can tell you,"

I stopped for a moment and remembered what I told Aria, about it being my goal to not look at the directions. This also meant a lot to Iris, and I didn't want to mess that up.

"No, don't tell me,"

"You sure?" Calum glanced over at me.

"Yeah, I'm sure,"

"Ok," he lightly smiled. "If you change your mind, let me know," I nodded as he pulled into Iris' driveway. Outside she was waiting and rushed over with a skip, getting in the car once Calum was parked.

"Hi Maddie, hi Mr. Hood," she grinned.

"Call me Calum," Calum smiled and Iris nodded. "Ready to go?" he asked and we nodded. The drive was awkward and uncomfortable, neither of us really knew what to say. Calum tried to start the conversation, but it normally quickly died down. Finally he was pulling into a parking lot, making me look at the building to see it was an arcade.

"An arcade?" I glanced back at her.

"Trust me," she smiled, "it's fun,"

"Alright, have fun, I'll pick you two up at eight," Calum said. We both said bye and thanked him, then Iris grabbed my hand and excitedly rushed into the building.

"It has food, ice cream, and tons of games," she told me with a giggle, "and I am definitely battling you in dance dance revolution,"

"You're so on," I smirked, "I actually beat Michael and Calum in Just Dance,"

"Then I got competition," she winked at me.

"You look beautiful, by the way," I told her as we went over to the cash register.

"You do too," she smiled. "I thought it would be awkward to say it in front of Calum,"

"I did too,"

"Come on, it's time to play arcade games," she smiled. We went up and got game cards, but before Iris could pay, I quickly handed the cashier the forty dollars for two game cards.

"Mad-"
"Too bad," I looked at her and smiled. He took my money and then gave us the game cards. While Iris glared at me, I innocently smiled at her.

"I'm buying dinner,"

"If you can beat me to it," I nodded. We rushed off to the arcade, playing tons of games for an hour. Iris was great at all the luck games, meanwhile I was great at the skill ones. I ended up doing all the claw machines and other skill ones to win tickets. Iris was just a wild card, playing every game as quickly as possible, which I found adorable.

After the arcade, we sat in the dining party eating a cheese pizza and talking. I learned more about her family and our friend group, since I didn't know much. I didn't get into much detail about my past, but I did mention I had two brothers. "Do you ever miss your brothers?" Iris asked.

"No, not really," I shook my head. "I like where I am now. I used to not get in cars without having the directions up, but tonight I didn't look, so I conquered that,"

"Wait, really?" Iris smiled and I nodded.

"Please don't think it's stupid,"

"I don't think it's stupid," she reassured me. "I'm proud though,"

"Thanks," I giggled and looked up. "We should do this more,"

"Oh believe me Maddie Hood, there will be a lot more dates,"