Deal // Calum Hood

Study.

Annabelle.
.
Just as I was about to give up on him, he arrived. Breathless and angry, he stood before me. His chest was heaving and I watched closely as he regained his breath.
.
"You need to listen to me very carefully, okay?"
.
I nodded. Concerned as to why he seemed so anxious.
.
"What Sam told you the other day, that is bullshit-"
.
Sighing because he didn't get it, I ran a pained hand through my hair.
"No it wasn't, Calum." He looked at me as though I had been possessed.
"I would just embarrass you if people knew we were friends. You can't pretend that isn't true. I don't want to be the reason that you loose your friends."
.
"Those people are not my friends." He grunted and I must have looked as confused as I felt because Calum shook his head. "Just forget about that, I can tell you about that another time." He looked at me for a moment, perhaps thinking of a way to say what he apparently needed to. "Annabelle," his heavy breath fanned my skin. "we have to talk about the other night. It will kill me if we don't."
.
"Why?" I spoke on behalf of my jealousy. "It seemed at lunch you were already over it."
.
We stared at each other for a few more moments, but he seemed to have no answer to that one. We walked home in silence.
.
That all changed when we were back up in Calum's room.
"So you're jealous of what you saw at lunch." He just randomly began the conversation.
.
"Excuse me?"
.
"You we-"
.
"I wasn't." I snapped, anger bubbling inside of me; maybe because he was saying the truth. Maybe because the truth scared me. "Sorry to burst your massive ego, but not everyone is wildly obsessed with you."
.
We were currently at opposite ends of his bedroom. He was standing in front of his desk, his back facing me. As soon as I had said what I did, he slammed the pencil he was fiddling with onto his worktop and span around. If it were possible, steam would be propelling out of his ears right now.
"Well you've made that one pretty fucking clear, haven't you?"
.
I opened my mouth to ask him what the hell he was on about when he continued.
"Just running out of here after that night, leaving me with no explanation. Do you know how shit that made me feel? It felt like you used me to feel better about everything you had been sad about."
.
"Like it meant anything to you."
I growled in response. He walked over to where my feet were shakily stood. I tried to not look as nervous as I was.
.
He shook off my muttering and moved the argument to a whole new route.
"You made me into someone I'm not.
I was never good enough for you."
.
I let out a sarcastic laugh.
"Yeah okay, like that person isn't you. It's not my fault you're too afraid to just be yourself around your supposed friends."
I said in complete honesty.
.
It only made him angrier.
"You're the one that's too afraid."
He yelled, suddenly so close to my face.
.
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What was he on about?
.
He took a step closer and looked me even deeper in the eyes.
"You are the one who's too afraid to admit that you have feelings for me."
.
Calums words quickly turned me into a hot mess. Feeling incredibly flustered as my skin burned a deep shade of red, I began to stumble out a response.
"I don't . . . I don't, I mean, why would-"
.
"I know you do, Annabelle." Without even thinking about it, my feet took a nervous step back. He took another two steps closer, never breaking eye contact. Was he about to yell at me? Was he angry or scared that I liked him? "But it's okay." He eventually said softly. "Because you are all I can think about."
.
I stared at him, totally dumbfounded.
My entire body was hot and my stomach had twisted in a way I didn't know to be possible.
"W-What do you mean?"
.
"I like you, Annabelle. Really like you."
.
I shook my head in denial. There was no way he was telling the truth. He was amazing and talented and so attractive, and I was . . . I was just me.
.
"Do you know who I am outside of us? I'm not afraid Of anything, Annabelle do you understand that? Nothing I do means anything to me anymore. Nothing but you. You're the one thing that makes me nervous. Terrified actually. You're all I care about. All I think about. You mean everything to me."
.
Butterflies were swarming ridiculously fast inside of me. It had gotten to the point were I could no longer think straight, but I still didn't believe him, and he knew it.
"But-"
.
"I wake up at four A.M. thinking of things to say to you, and I lay there repeating them until my alarm goes off." I waited for him to start laughing, or his eyes to stop watching me with such intent, but it never happened.
"Every day, Annabelle. I do that every day."
.
He gently took my hand in his, pulling me that teeny bit closer before tucking a piece of fallen hair behind my ear.
"Now are you going to tell me how you feel?"
.
I nodded slowly, opening my mouth but I didn't have the chance to say anything. Calum's lips crashed onto mine, his hands cupping my face, and then trailing my sides, and then resting on my back.
.
"What about Sam?" I wondered when we finally pulled apart.
.
"Fuck Sam. And anyone else who has a problem with you. You're the only person I need."
.
I blushed, feeling dizzy with happiness.
He was all I needed too.
.
"I'm sorry about kissing Niamh."
He was still unbearably close, his fingertips brushing gently over my skin.
.
I nodded. "It's okay." I smiled, because it was.
.
He took my hand and led me to his bed, plopping down onto the soft mattress and dragging me down with him. "If it's any consolation," he began, shuffling over so that we were as close as possible. "I did it so that we could get to this."
.
My smile grew. "Then it's extra okay." He chuckled, muttering under his breath something about me being cute before our lips collided once more.
Something I knew I would be incapable to become used to. It was wonderful. Today was wonderful.