Carry Me Home // cake

nineteen

If Luke thought that the incident at the party had been weird, then there was no accurate way to describe how he felt a few weeks later, a message notification from Calum taunting him from his phone screen.

The message preview gave away nothing but pleasantries, and Luke's mind was racing at a mile a minute trying to piece together what the rest of the message could possibly contain. He couldn't check it until his lunch break, because he knew that if he did, his work would come to a halt while he waited impatiently for a response.

As if teasing him, time passed by excruciatingly slowly. Thankfully, he had a lot of work piled up to help him pass the time, but even then, the message remained in the back of his mind no matter what article he was writing or editing.

When it was finally time for him to take his lunch break, he shot out of his seat, barely managing to inform Mia before making a beeline for the exit.

"You're excited about something," Mia commented, quickly catching up to him and just managing to slip into the elevator before it closed. "What's up?"

"Uh." Luke rocked back and forth on his feet before shrugging. "I just really need to get out of that cubicle. Too much work today."

Mia, thankfully, seemed to buy it. "I know right! With all these deadlines piling up, everyone and their grandmother wants us to do their editing."

"What can you do." Luke smiled sympathetically at his friend.

After some mindless chatter, Luke and Mia were finally seated at their usual table, and Luke didn't wait to pull his phone out and check the message. He knew Mia wouldn't mind.

Calum Hood

Hey Luke, how are you? I don't know if you remember, but we met at Mia's party, about a week ago. Sorry this is kind of out of the blue, but I was wondering if you would be willing to get coffee with me today? I get off work at 5 and I think I work nearby your office. There's something I'd like to talk to you about.

Luke frowned. He didn't have any expectations for the message, but this certainly surprised him. Calum wanted to talk to him? About what?

Noticing his perplexed expression, Mia spoke up. "What's up?"

"Uh... Calum asked me for coffee," he explained, looking up from his phone screen at his friend.

Mia smiled. "That's great! You guys can catch up!"

Luke was about to ask what she meant when he remembered his lie about them being old friends, and quickly nodded. "Yeah, it'll be... Interesting."

"Do you not want to go?"

"It's not that," Luke shook his head. "It's just been so long. I'm a little nervous."

"Don't be!" Mia insisted. "It'll be just fine."

Luke nodded, entirely unconvinced.

- - -

"Thanks for meeting up with me on such short notice," Calum greeted him when he slipped into the chair opposite him.

They had agreed to meet up at a cafe in between their two offices and Calum had picked a table tucked away in the corner, by the big front windows.

"It's no problem, sorry I'm a little late," Luke replied, slinging his bag across the back of the chair. His heart was racing: he had spent the whole afternoon imagining scenario after scenario, and he still had no idea what Calum could possibly want to talk about.

Calum chuckled, looking away from Luke for a second as he began to speak. "This is going to sound kinda crazy, but I feel like we know each other."