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"Fuckin' hell... you are something else." Calum stared in awe as I took a bite into the burger that had just arrived to our table, and I rolled my eyes as I took my time to chew the food in my mouth. "That kind of turns me on." I kicked Calum's shin under the table and he yelped, but started to laugh seconds later.
"You're annoying," I muttered with my mouth full, which caused Calum to smile. "Stop looking at me." I looked back down at the burger in my hands and smiled once my tastebuds sent their feedback to my brain; I just bit into, possibly, the best burger I had ever tasted.
"It's good, huh?" Calum asked, almost as if he were reading my thoughts. I nodded eagerly as I took another, smaller, bite. "Man, I hope someday I'll find a girl who looks at me like you look at that burger. There is some serious chemistry between the two of you."
"Shut up, Calum," I said, my voice whiny. "Just let me eat, okay? I'm starving. My dad usually makes me breakfast and I didn't take into consideration that he wouldn't be here this morning, so I didn't leave time to make something... Sam is neither a cook, nor a morning person."
"I can bring you breakfast tomorrow," Calum casually offered, before taking a bite of his burger.
"No, you don't need to do that... I can get something myself. My dad's not going to be there every morning of my life... I need to get used to doing stuff on my own," I told Calum, speaking aloud the thoughts that had been swirling around my head the past couple of days. "I rely on him too much."
"It's not bad to occasionally rely on people, you know... of course, you should never live your entire life relying on those around you, but you're still a kid, technically. Use him to your advantage for as long as you can, I know I would," Calum started to joke around with me a little, and I smiled at him. "It's normal for you to rely on him, Maya."
"I know that... but I also worry that if I go too long with his constant, undivided support, I might not know how to live without it. I also worry that if I don't keep him close... I might lose him, too." My voice became softer as I continued and I heard Calum sigh as I looked down.
"You can't think like that." Calum reached across the booth we were sitting in and gently touched my arm. I looked up at him and started to nod slowly. "You both have to lighten up... you don't wanna lose each other, but you also don't want to suffocate one another. You can only tolerate someone for so long." I sent Calum a small smile, and he let himself smile back. He gently started to rub his thumb against my arm and as I became aware of the fact we were in public, and that I was sitting with Calum Hood, I pulled away from him ever so slightly, so that he got the idea to take his arm away. "Sorry."
"No, it's totally fine." I waved it off and picked my burger back off the plate. "I can't believe I've never been here before. My dad is a burger fiend... he knows all the places around here."
