Amnesia • Calum Hood

•Chapter Twenty-Two•

That had to have been one of the quickest showers of my life.  I just wanted to get out, get dressed, and see Calum again.  It was kind of pathetic, especially considering I'd kicked him out when we last spoke.  But the kiss we shared was electrifying, and I found myself craving that buzz again.

With my hair still dripping, and the tee shirt sticking to my damp skin, I tip toed out of the bathroom and jogged downstairs.  I was surprised to find the house fairly empty, everyone seeming to have disappeared.

Frowning a little, I called out, "Sadie?"  That wasn't the name I had wanted to ask for, but shouting for Calum would have been far too obvious.

She emerged from the kitchen a moment later, but hurried right past me.  "Sorry, I'm going out," she said breathlessly, finding her purse and slinging it over her shoulder.  Turning to me, she grinned.  "Ashton is showing me this old school pub.  And Michael," she added quickly.  "Do you want to come?"

I shook my head.  "No thanks."  My lips pursed, and I casually slid in, "Where's Luke and Calum?"

Sadie glanced around for a minute, and then shrugged.  "Dunno, I think Luke decided to follow us to the pub.  Calum probably went home."

My heart sank.  "Oh."

I honestly wasn't that surprised.  Calum hadn't been the most consistent person lately.  The kiss probably scared him off, made him doubt himself or me.  I was certainly pretty confused about it.  But I had thought we were getting somewhere, finally finding some common ground where we could stand together and fix things.

Maybe he didn't want to fix things.  I mean, Calum had told me flat out just how badly my leaving had hurt him.  If I were him, I wouldn't trust me again either.

But along with telling me he was in pain, he also said he was happy I was back.  He'd said some things that night at the hill that sounded a lot like he wanted to be with me.  My whole body wanted to believe him, and yet I knew getting my hopes up was not a good idea.

So, I decided to remain neutral.  He would have to come to me if he wanted things to change.

Sighing, I meandered into the kitchen and picked apart some of the cupboards, debating on what to have for dinner.  I probably should've gone along with Sadie and the others, because a night out did sound tempting.  But I also wanted alone time to deal with the mountains of grief and exhaustion still resting on my shoulders.

Just as I had grabbed a box of pasta and opened the fridge to find sauce, the front door slammed and caused me to drop the whole box onto the floor.  It spilled across the tiles in a sea of yellow noodles, and I cried out as I dropped to my knees and scrambled to pick them up.

"Hello?"  Calum suddenly appeared from the foyer, brows furrowed.  When he saw me, his eyes immediately lit up and a smile broke out on his face.  "Ah, fancy meeting you here."

He watched in amusement as I shoved all of the spilled spaghetti back into the box and threw it onto the counter.  Scowling up at him, I crossed my arms and said pointedly, "You know you don't have to scare me like that."

Calum just shrugged.  "Sorry.  I thought you knew I was coming back."

I rolled my eyes.  "No, I didn't even know you'd left."  Curiosity pricked at my mind.  "Why did you leave?"

He paused from walking towards the living room and raised his eyebrows at me.  "I needed to convince the others I was leaving for the night.  You do want to be alone, right?"  His eyes bore into mine, brown flames licking at my skin, and I grew hot.