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"Not even for fifteen minutes?" Calum and I were standing on opposite sides of the island in my kitchen, facing each other as we occasionally plopped a grape in our mouths. We had been talking for at least an hour and all I had come to learn was that Calum was basically immune to severe sickness, and that he had a serious addiction to partying.
An intervention would commence eventually, but for now all I could do was talk him out of walking over to Noah's house.
"I'm not going over there, Calum." I shook my head before eating another grape and he sighed quietly as he placed his hands on the countertop. I glanced at his strong arms that seemed to be accentuated by the pressure he was putting on the surface. "And if you go over there and try to come back over after you've had a couple drinks... I will not be as understanding as last time."
"You wouldn't even offer me a cup of joe?" I laughed quietly at Calum's words, but my head shook in response. "Abbie's going to be there," Calum told me, continuing to try and persuade me to go with him.
"Calum, why do you want to go so badly? I know they're your friends, but..." I trailed off as I realized I was keeping Calum from spending time with the people he liked and I sighed to myself. "You can go if you want, I'm not keeping you here."
"I don't want to go without you, Maya." Calum walked around the island and to my side. "I'll drop it, okay? We don't have to go."
"Calum, you don't want to be here all night alone with me. You can go—"
"Whoa, I would love to stay here all night alone with you," he said and my eyes playfully rolled as I hit his shoulder. "It's just, I didn't go to school today, so I haven't seen my friends. Ashton's supposed to be there, and it would be nice to see Luke and Michael... Noah not so much."
"I am so sorry I'm creating some weird rift between you and Noah, I feel so strange about it."
"The rift has always been there... you just make it stand out a little more. We're competitive, and we always have been. Don't worry about it, he's still one of my best friends... he's just an asshole sometimes, but I can be an asshole too, so I can't get too upset with him." Calum took my hand into his and I found myself smiling before I could think to hide it. Any physical contact that Calum made with me caused butterflies to flutter throughout my entire stomach, and the feeling was almost addicting. "I know I keep apologizing, but I'm sorry for avoiding you all day. It's one of my biggest regrets thus far."
"Calum, if you bring it up one more time, I'm going to change my mind about it being okay. We're both a little scared of this... and that's okay, that's why we're in this together." Calum smiled down at me and I smiled back at him, finding it hard to look away. "Look... how about we go over for a couple minutes? But I'm serious when I say a couple, okay? I don't want to be there for very long."
