WRONG NUMBER / CH

chptr 53

a/n: its currently december 24 11:17 pm MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS HERES AN UPDATE

"Hey," Calum greeted when Luke came home that night, completely unaware of what had just transpired.

Luke looked up, startled. He gave a nod in response and plopped himself down on the couch. He was exhausted. Even though he just went and talked to Leia, he felt like he had just survived the biggest war in history. All he wanted to do now was sleep. Calum joined him in the couch with a bowl of cereal he was having for dinner, but Luke ignored him. He didn't want to look or even think about Calum right now, afraid he might spill something about their odd heartfelt talk with Leia.

"Where've you been?" Calum asked, nonchalantly looking up and down at his best friend. "And why is there a wet stain on your shirt?" he added with a frown.

The blonde boy didn't even glance at his shirt and stared straight ahead to the television. "Just out with Nicky. I told you."

Obviously, Calum wasn't satisfied. "Why are you so quiet? You usually can't shut up after you go out with her," he joked. "Unless you two broke up." Calum laughed like the idea of it seemed preposterous, like flying pigs, but it quickly died down when Luke didn't even crack a smile. In Luke's defense, he was just really tired, but Calum took it the wrong way. His eyes widened. "Holy shit, you broke up?"

"No," Luke replied, slightly irritated. He got up and stretched his arms and realized he was being mean to Calum. He sighed. He knew his best friend didn't deserve this hostility, so he managed a smile and clapped his hand on Calum's shoulder. "I'm beat. Night."

"You're weird," Calum mumbled apprehensively. Luke just laughed and continued to his room, but before he could enter it, Calum called out to him again. "Seriously, Luke. What happened today?"

The blonde boy considered the question with a tilt of his head, but he said, "Just...a lot of things." He smiled softly. "Things will get better, Cal." Then he disappeared into his room without another word.

With Luke gone, Calum was left alone in the living room to ponder on his own thoughts. He hated that Luke was being all pissy and secretive about what he was doing. He began to think Luke, Michael and Ashton met up today, since he couldn't contact them all. The thought confused him– why would they be going behind his back? Were they planning an intervention for him, because he was still hung over–

Leia. Her name was like a cannon ball exploding in his chest. It hit him hard again just how he missed her. Even thinking about her name sent him into waves of misery. Grabbing his phone out of his pocket, he swiped the screen aggressively and began to type out a message. He wanted to just reach out to her, talk to her. But at the same time, he didn't want to, thinking it'll only makes things worse. Plus there was a twisted part of him that kept waiting for her to come to his doorstep and apologize to him.

Loneliness was doing strange, terrifying things to his brain.

He sighed and leaned back, discarding his phone. He closed his eyes and allowed his thoughts to travel to Luke. What the hell did he mean by, things will get better? Did he attend a religious seminar or something and start preaching about how God helps us in mysterious ways? The thought made him laugh a little. He could picture Luke in a formal button-up and knocking on people's doors saying, "Would you like to take a moment to talk about Jesus Christ, our Savior?"

He had an inside joke with Leia about something like that, so once again his thoughts travelled back to her. For some reason, he couldn't shake off the weird feeling that she had something to do with Luke's strangeness today. He didn't know why, but his gut was telling him there was a lie in Luke's eyes earlier, and he decided to go with it. Oh God, what was he and Leia doing together? Bad thoughts clouded but his brain, which he shook them off. No way was he going to torture himself over this again.

He shut the TV off and made his way back to his room. He heard Luke talking softly behind his own room, having a good night conversation with his girlfriend. Something about that hurt Calum. Not that he wasn't happy for his best friend, but because it reminded him of how he and Leia called each other every night, just to talk about conspiracy theories or garden gnomes, or sometimes just for the comfort of having someone on the other end.

Those days were almost two weeks ago. It felt like two centuries to him.

He figured she needed more time and that he needed to give her that space. He had crossed a boundary on her privacy, and now that she knew, it would take a while to cope. He'd know when the time was right to try again. He just hoped she knew when that time was. Because if she ever shut the door on him, he'd absolutely break.

Nevertheless, the first few days after their fight, he left her some voice mails and texts just saying how sorry he was and that he'd give her the time she wants away from him. After that he stopped. He didn't even ask his friends to help reach out to Leia again– he thought about it, but every possible scenario in his head turned terrible.

He climbed into his bed and placed his laptop in front of him, deciding to occupy himself with silly dog videos or looking for new music. Anything to keep his mind off her.

But it was a futile attempt. He shared everything with her. Everything reminded him of her, since they were always together. Not even videos of dogs pooping on babies could fully get his thoughts off Leia, because he missed her so damn much. With a sigh he unlocked his phone and scrolled through their messages. Her last reply to him was almost two weeks ago. Their conversation remained sadly one-sided.

The night air felt dry and empty, just like Calum. He noticed the crescent of the moon and wondered if she was looking at it, too. "Leia," he mumbled softly. "Let me know if you're still out there thinking of me, too."

He heard a small ding— at first he thought it was a microwave (which didn't make sense, they didn't have a microwave) but then he realized it was his phone. Reading the message, his heart stopped.

He tore out of his bed abruptly, racing out of his room, not bothering to put on a jacket to shield himself from the freezing air outside. There really is a God out there, Calum thought to himself.

Back in his room, his phone sat on his bed, glowing in the darkness with a single text message still on the screen.

from: Leia❤️
im outside your apartment.