chasing love ;; cth

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"You two know each other?" Luke asks clearly surprised from this new information.

"Uh..." Calum begins to reply, but his eyes are glued on me.

"I have to go," I say peeling my eyes away from Calum and beginning to walk in the other direction. I feel like something was different when I talked to him. Something was missing. Then I realized that I didn't stop breathing, my heart wasn't beating erratically, and the hairs on my arms weren't standing on end. All the symptoms I had from madly being in love with Calum have stopped. I feel nothing when I look at him. The attraction I had for him is no longer there. I mean of course he is still very good looking but a big part of falling in love with someone is not only falling for their looks but falling for who the person is. And I don't like who Calum is. Not anymore at least.

I keep walking through the crowd trying to get back to my dorm, without looking back once, until I feel a hand lightly grasp my arm. That's weird I didn't expect Calum to come after me. I turn around and my eyes meet a pair of bright blue ones. And my expectations were correct. I look at Luke, smiling so he doesn't sense that anything is wrong.

"What happened between you two?" He questions

I try to think of an explaination, but I can't come to words on it. I really don't know what happened exactly. Well I do know, but I just don't know how to explain it. Plus I do not need Luke knowing that I had a huge crush on Calum, "It's hard to explain," I mutter under my breath

"But you two can move past it right? You can still be friends," His eyes are filled with hope, as a weak smile fills his face. Why does he care if me and Calum are friends or not? All I do is shrug in reply because I honestly don't know if "friends" is even a possibility for me and Calum at this point,

"Well can you at least come walk around with us at the Campus meet and greet? You don't have to talk to Calum," he almost begs it seems. I am so flattered by his invitation. I wish boys at my high school could have been more like him, as oppose to, well....Calum.

I follow Luke back to where Michael and Calum are standing. My eyes travel to Calum whose eyes move back to me. I roll my eyes and cross my arms across my chest. I turn to Luke, because I plan on not paying any attention to Calum at all. Out of the corner of my eye I see him whisper something in Michael's ear. That jerk is talking about me? When I see Michael start bursting out into laughter as does Calum, I realize I'm just being paranoid. Unless they are laughing at me. No, just focus on what's important here. Well nothing is really important here, I just know that Calum is what isn't important.

I walk side by side with Luke as Michael and Calum follow behind us. The whispers are starting to get on my last nerve. All I hear is Calum whisper to Michael and they both start laughing and we've only been walking for about 3 minutes and I can't take anymore of it. I know they are talking about me, I just know it. I know Calum is telling him all about what happened last year and they are both laughing at how big of a fool I am.

Luke seems to notice how agitated I am because he pulls me aside and let's Michael and Calum continue in front of us.

"We don't have to walk with them," Luke says as he pulls me in the other direction.

I stop in my tracks and refuse to let him pull me any farther, "Luke you can walk with your friends I don't mind,"

"I spent the whole summer with those losers," he jokes as he grabs my wrist and picks up a walk again pulling me along with him, "Plus part of the college experience is getting to meet new people. So I'd rather walk with you," He looks down at me, a warm smile spread across his face. I return the smile and pull him in the other direction to look at the activity booths.

Me and Luke actually had a fun time together, and I really do enjoy his company. Not once during the campus meet and greet did Calum even cross my mind. Not until we ran into him and Michael again, of course.

"Do guys all want to get something to eat cause I'm starving," Michael suggests,

"Nah I'm okay," I reply, trying not to sound rude. It's just sitting at a table with Calum is not exactly something that sounds like fun to me.

Calum looks to me and rolls his eyes, "I on the other hand, would love to get something to eat,"

"C'mon you don't have to talk to him or anything," Luke whispers to me,

"I would but I promised my friend that I would eat lunch with him," Me and Ashton had actually arranged to get dinner together, not lunch. But I might as well use any excuse I can think of,

"He can join us," Luke suggests and Michael nods in agreement,

"Who's your friend?' Calum mumbles, but I ignore it.

I quickly text Ashton to meet us for lunch, and walk side by side with Luke, Michael and Calum behind us once again. This time there is no whispering this time, which makes me feel a little relieved. We make our way to a restaurant on campus. It looked just like a diner, which is horrible because I am not in the mood for greasy food.

A women at the front of the restaurant escorts us to a booth at the back of the building. Luke gets in on one side and Michael on the other. Great. I sit down next to Luke and Calum sits across from me, next to Michael.

Luke and Michael start to talk to each other about something that has to do with food. I assume that is a typical conversation starter for them. I just glance down at my menu to see if I can find something that isn't fried.

"You look different," Calum mumbles, but I ignore the comment, and continue scanning the menu.

"Valerie," Calum states rather than asks, his voice a little louder this time. I look up towards the door and I feel so relieved when the wide smiled boy walks through it.

"Hi guys, I'm Ashton," he says as he approaches our table.

"Hey I know you," Michael comments as Ashton takes a seat next to me in the booth.

"Yeah you're in my song writing class," Ashton replies as he picks up a menu, "Nice to see you again,"

"You too," Michael responds before he picks up his conversation with Luke again.

"This is your friend?" Calum mutters under his breath. I ignore his rude remark and focus my attention to Ashton who begins to explain how much he loved his first class.

I don't have any classes for the rest of the day so I take the bus to town to pick up a few things I could use to decorate my dorm. I spend the remainder of the night fixing up my room. Now half of my dorm is grey and the other half is colorful. It looks really strange, but I refuse to live in all grey.

Once I finish decorating my half of the room, I pick up my phone to call Ashton about dinner. Just as I dial his number I hear a knock on the door. I quickly press end call and make my way to open it.

I expect to see Ashton, but to my surprise I find Calum. He has his hands stuffed in his pockets and a beanie slung over his head, "Hey," He addresses me, nodding his head slightly

"Calum, what are you doing here?" I ask, confused by both why he is here and the fact he knows where my dorm is.

"Why have you been ignoring me all day?" He questions, without making eye contact

"I haven't been ignoring you," I lie,

"Yes you have," He comments, "Can I come in?"

"No," I shoot back, 

"Then tell why you're mad at me," He demands, crossing his arms across his chest.

"I'm not mad at you, I'm just done, if that makes sense," I try explain as I push a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

"It doesn't," He indicates as he removes his hands from his pockets,

"Well I'm sorry my explanation isn't good enough for you," I sarcastically apologize as I try to close the door.

"Can we at least talk about it?" He pleads as he holds his hand out to keep the door from closing.

"Fine," I give in. I open the door all the way once again, as he casually walks into my room.