Deal // Calum Hood

Dinner.

Annabelle.
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"And where do you think you're going at this time, young lady?" My suspicious mother loomed in the hallway.
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My fingers slipped from the door handle as I turned to face her grave expression. "I left something at the library." I lied, a custom which seemed second nature to me now.
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Her pale green eyes looked me up and down. "Dressed like that?"
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Subconsciously, my hands reached for my coat to cover my dress.
"Isn't it you who always says its far better to dress up than down?" I challenged.
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She watched me carefully, attempting to access what could possibly be happening.
". . . Huh." My mother eventually mumbled. "Take a key, your father and I are taking your sister out for a celebratory meal. She aced all her finals yesterday." 
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"Well isn't that wonderful?" I nodded my head bitterly, forcing the door handle down and escaping before I launched at her. Where was my celebration? For my birthday, for my results, for my help, where on earth was it?
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Grumpily, my feet clomped against the gravel and then the pavement all the way round the corner where Calum and his car were waiting.
"Wow." He blushed as I came into view. His back straightened up as he stopped leaning against the car and took a step forward to say hello.
"You look incredible."
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It was my turn to blush as I let him pull me in for a hug. Butterflies swarmed mercilessly around my stomach as his lips pressed against my forehead.
"Well, so do you." I responded honestly. He was dressed in the same suit from the night I took him out for a practise dinner. Somehow now he managed to look even more handsome.
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Politely Calum pulled open my car door and shut me inside. When he too had sat down we began to drive to the location.
"I'm really sorry about this you know. If it were up to me we would be doing something a lot more fun on our first date."
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His hand rested on my knee and I placed mine on top.
"I already told you, I always have a good time with you."
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~~~
At the dinner.
~~~
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Anybody with eyes could tell that Calum was nervous. Perhaps some of his fear was about our first proper date, though it was mainly due to how well everyone knew what they were doing. I watched with amusement as he clumsily unfolded the napkin onto his lap, then seconds later removing it and tucking it in his shirt, only to immediately put it back on the table.
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"I don't belong here." He huffed.
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"Neither do any of these people." I promised him quietly. "Why do you even have to go to all this extent anyway, what kind of football collage is this?"
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He looked at me, dead serious.
"It's the best one around, Annabelle. They take the consideration of who to accept way too seriously."
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"Well, I know you will get in."
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He smiled down at me and kissed my cheek. "How is it possible for you to look so good and be so kind?" He sighed.
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I looked at him with big, saucer eyes. Of course I knew I was blushing, but for once I didn't mind about that.
He scanned the menu and then the surrounding groups of people and I tried to push back the worry that he was also nervous about being seen with me.
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After the second course Calum slipped his hand into mine.
"Can we walk around a bit, I don't think it's possible to be any more bored." He whispered closely to my ear.
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Holding back a giggle, I nodded, letting him whisk me away and take me around. We finally got the chance to talk properly without so many surrounding others eavesdropping in. We talked about anything and everything. We played games where we guessed couples stories and attempted awful accents and impressions.
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"Woah look at that!" Calum pointed at the wall ahead.
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I gazed at it momentarily, failing to find anything other than wall.
"Look at wh-"
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My sentence cut off alongside my breath as Calum pulled me into the darkness of a small hallway that seemed to lead on forever but to nowhere. He laughed at my surprised expression and I joined him once the initial shock melted away.
"You just look so beautiful." He complimented again. "And now that I get to kiss you, I don't ever want to miss out on the chance."
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I smiled as he leant forward kissing me lightly before pulling back a little.
"Is this too cheesy? I think it's the suit you know. It brings it out in me."
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As a person who loved cliche gestures, I decided to tell him no, it wasn't too cheesy, by kissing him harder. What scared me the most was the way that it was only the first date but I had never felt this way about anybody ever and he had the power to, I'm pretty sure literally, erupt fireworks within me. Again I found myself pushing worries back, particularly ones about him feeling this way with all his previous dates and girlfriends.
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I wasn't the same as all of them . . . Was I?