Hoodwinked | Calum Hood AU

60.

"I just want you to know how much I think this sucks."

Calum and I made it to my dorm room. It's a tiny thing. Two beds, on opposite sides of the room and a long desk with two chairs against the other wall. There's no sign of my room-mate yet, which I'm happy about. I want the world to stop spinning and time to stop ticking so it can just be like this for a while longer: my hands in Calum's, and me in his eyes.

"And I want you to know that I know that you know how much this sucks." He lets out a breathy laugh. "But it's also awesome, and I don't want you to not enjoy USU just because I'm not here to enjoy it with you."

I nod, thinking about something my Dad said once before. "My Dad told me that in good relationships you encourage one another to grow. I'm not going to waste this, and I don't want you to waste your time at uni either. Being apart is going to suck, we owe it to ourselves to grow and experience it all at full-colour, so at least all the sucky-ness will be worth it."

Calum kisses me, and then fishes something out of his jean pocket. "That reminds me..." He hands over a piece of paper and watches me unfold it. It's a list: We Were Liars, Divergent, The Lost Marble Notebook of Forgotten Girl & Random Boy, it goes on and on for the entire page.

"Are these - "

"Books for us to read together?" He nods. "You didn't think going to separate universities meant you'd get to escape my secret nerd world, did you?"

I'm drowning in the list of books in my hand, and in Calum's brown eyes, in his secret nerd world, in our world. I drop the list onto the floor and reach up, pulling his full lips to mine and kissing him. "Promise me you won't stop looking at me like I put the stars in the sky."

He shakes his head. "You didn't. You didn't put the stars in the sky, Ruby. They fell out of the sky and all over you. Not just the stars, either. The stars, the moon, and the planets and their moons, I don't care how fucking cheesy it is. I look at you Ruby and it's like I'm staring at every celestial object to ever exist."

My wish comes true: the world stops, and I kiss Calum again, because what else can you do to a boy who thinks you walk around with entire galaxies in your body? 

He sits on the bed and I climb into his lap, ironically feeling like I'm seeing nothing but stars as our mouths suck the oxygen from one another.

Calum's hands are on my hips and in my hair, while mine stay on either side of his face, holding him and kissing him and hoping the world will stay at a halt for a while longer. "We should really stop," Calum manages to say directly into my mouth. My lips can't remember how to be apart from his.

"No, we shouldn't. The world will start spinning again soon, but for now we have time on our side."

There's a groan from Calum as I move my lips to his neck and start kissing the exact spot I know he loves. "Is the door locked?" I nod. "What about your room-mate?"

"At this point, she's non-existent." Everyone feels non-existent. It's just me and Calum, and every celestial object to ever exist.

He slips my shirt over my head, and kisses the skin across my chest. "I'm really sorry if it's quick," he says, wrapping his arm around me and rolling us over so I'm underneath him. "I'm barely holding it together."

My hand manages to slip underneath the waist band of his jeans, "How about now?"

He shakes his head, breathing laughter all over my face. "Fuck, I love you."

"I love you too."

My new room-mate still hasn't arrived after Calum and I are both fully dressed again. "Do you think it smells like sex in here?" I ask him. We're laying on my bed, feeling the world slowly resume to it's regular rotation.