Aries || Calum Hood

fourteen

ARIES: those who raise the stakes and make it difficult for others to catch up

C A L U M

THE MALICIOUS HUMOR in Calum's egotistical mind laughed at the wretched scheme he waited to unfold.  Charlotte acquiesced Calum's request for her to be his date for tonight, he originally wasn't going to take anyone, but torturing his best friend was way better than anything.

Arms padded with his leather jacket, Calum's body shifted its weight towards the peculiarly tall desk as his warm fingers brushed past his chilled cheek.  His dark brown eyes trailed across the bustling room, a myriad of all ages swarmed throughout the entrance, many sat down to struggle into their cumbersome skates.

"Where the hell is that lady?"  Calum groaned, he was told to wait for a minute (more like three million minutes) for the lady to get their skates and charge them.  Charlotte blew a breath from her red lips, her brown hair fell into waves behind her.

"Calm down.  She will probably be here in a minute."  Charlotte rocked onto her heels, her slightly tanned skin  rose with goosebumps from the cold atmosphere.  "Are you sure Luke likes me?"

"Why else would I take you out?" Calum rolled his eyes, he did enjoy hooking up with Charlotte sometimes, but he would never do anything else with her.  She wasn't necessarily his type.  "Just get him jealous, alright?  It'll be my only entertainment for the night."

"Don't you think that you are being an asshole to your own friend?"  The verisimilitude of Charlotte's statement slyly escaped Calum's thoughts, Luke's feelings were too sensitive for his liking.  Charlotte crossed her arms over her tight dress, even though she could be a persistent girl at points, she never dared to take things too far. 

"I say that it's called training him for the real world."  Calum pulled out his phone to inform Michael that they were finally there, Michael usually stopped replying to him when he got to a certain destination.  "The kid's gonna have to learn one way or another."

"What if I like him?" Charlotte blurted out, she quickly looked away once she caught a glimpse of Calum's disgusted look.  "I mean I don't, but you never know."

"Look, I don't give a shit about who you date or fuck.  But tonight, just make him jealous.  That's all you need to do."  The worker came out with two pairs of skates on her hands, her lilac hair was messily tied up as she struggled to hand them everything.  "Finally."

"I'm sorry about that."  The worker gave Calum change before taking a deep breath, her eyes anxiously gazed at the lengthy line erupting behind him.  "The machines were down for a while and we just got them to work again."

"That's not my fucking problem.  You all need to learn how to function whenever these problems happen."  Calum scoffed as the lady dropped some of the papers neatly pressed against the wooden desk.  "Charlotte, find the third table all the way towards the right.  They usually sit over there."

"Of course."  Charlotte sent a sympathetic smile to the lady, Calum rolled his eyes while swinging the white skates ripped at the edges.  The rows of wooden tables were cluttered with those struggling to put on their skates as others wobbled on the patterned carpet beneath them.  The maroon walls illuminated the lights booming through the ceiling that shook due to the music.

"I found them."  Charlotte fastened her pace towards the group of teenagers crowded onto one table.  Calum lazily followed afterwards, halting a few feet away from the table as his breath got caught into his throat.

Various events or moments could create numerous feelings and emotions to burst into your heart, but there is one amiss encounter when you feel like your stomach just drops down further into your body.  You feel like two cold hands are inserting themselves into your chest, clasping onto your heart as they slowly clench onto it, your mind feels as if it your thoughts slowly oozed out into an empty void.