Over the next two weeks, everything falls into a new version of normal. I start leaving for school earlier so that Luke and I don't have to avoid making eye contact as we get into our cars at the same time. Sometimes I drive to school with Michael, but mostly I drive alone.
Calum starts sitting with Michael and I at school everyday. Bizarrely, Heath and Tess start joining us sometimes too. Wherever Luke and Joss spend their lunch break, it's not within our line of sight. I start worrying a little less about them every day.
I finally finish a Wrinkle in Time, even though I found it unbelievably boring. Calum laughed last night when I told him - he came over to watch Paper Towns, which we both agreed was on par with the book - and then promised to not recommend any old classics to me anymore. This morning we went to the book cafe and picked out a new book together.
Actually, Calum chose the book based on reviews he's read. It's called We All Looked Up and I laughed gently when I read the back and discovered it's about an asteroid. Calum didn't let me pay for my copy, so I slipped a $20 note into his when he isn't looking.
Calum: What page are you up to?
Me: I haven't even started yet!
Me: I've got legal studies reading to do
Calum: I'm 90 pages in. I'll stop reading it until you catch up
Me: You don't have to do that, I send back. I don't mean it though. I'm smiling from ear to ear, giddy over the fact that Calum wants us to read it together.
Calum: I know :)
Me: :)
Outside my window, I see Luke getting out of his car. His beard is already beginning to grow back again, I notice. He glances up at my window and for less than a second, our eyes meet. I don't hate you anymore, I find myself thinking. And then he's inside his house and my phone beeps again.
Calum: Can I ask you something?
My stomach lurches. Why do those five words scare me so much? Things between Calum and I have been perfect since the night we watched The Outsiders together. We haven't kissed again, incase you're wondering, but we text all the time and talk late into the night.
I've been giving a lot of thought to what Dad said, about how good relationships encourage you to grow and really get to know yourself, in addition to the other person. Maybe Calum and I haven't connected on a physical level yet, but emotionally and intellectually, it's magic.
Me: I guess so
Calum: Can I meet your Dad soon?
Me: Haha ok I wasn't expecting that to be your question
Me: Why do you want to meet my Dad?
Calum: I don't know
Calum: I want to make a good impression
Calum: Like I don't want him to think I'm some teenage kid with raging hormones who only visits his daughter when he isn't home
Me: He doesn't think that
Me: He calls you book boy
Calum: Book boy? Oh my god
Me: Hey, it's better than fuck boy
Calum: Do you not want me to meet your dad or something?
Me: Yeah i do. It's just
Me: Idk it's just weird. I've never introduced him to a boy before
Calum: What about Luke?
Me: Luke was different.
Calum: Right
Me: He met Dad as our neighbour
Me: Not as a boy that I like
Calum: So you do like me ;)
Me: Well, yeah
Me: Isn't that obvious?
Calum: Actually, not really
Me: We text all the time
Me: We hang out a lot
Calum: You hang out with Michael too
Me: You make a good point
Calum: You should really finish your legal studies reading
Me: Getting sick of me? :P
Calum: No
Calum: But Mrs O'Sullivan is hectic and you can't afford to get any bad grades
Me: ??
Calum: We can't have anything getting in the way of you coming to USU next year
Me: :)
Me: You could always come over and tutor me
Calum: Trust me, you'd get none of your reading done if I were to come over right now ;)
I find it in me to put down my phone and focus on the rest of my Legal Studies reading. Once I'm done, I read through the first thirty pages of We All Looked Up, and then check Dad's work schedule in the kitchen.
Much later, after Alfie and I have taken Pepper for a walk and cleaned up the kitchen after dinner, I text Calum back: Tuesday night. You can come over for dinner and meet my Dad on Tuesday night.
(i know this chapter is short but there'll be another update soon)
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Hoodwinked | Calum Hood AU
Fanfiction"That's never going to work, you idiot." It's her senior year and Ruby has vowed to tell her long-term crush, Calum Hood, exactly how she feels. But when things don't go to plan, she skeptically takes on the help of Luke, the boy next door, who beli...
