disconnected || calum hood

5 | Elizabeth

We were slowly getting to know each other better, eventually learning what we both liked and establishing a routine that worked for us both. I even bought a large calendar from Target, which I stuck on the fridge, and wrote in all the important dates: family birthdays, tests, job interviews, and more.

I also bought some chalk for the chalkboard on our bedroom doors, making it easier for us to leave notes or messages for each other.

Calum usually came home late from uni and his training with Michael and the mysterious Luke, who I've never seen. He takes a shower in the middle of the night before sleeping in until late. He usually wakes up around ten or eleven and then disappears again.

I was slowly learning about his personality through the little clues he left behind. Calum had an older sister, Mali-Koa, but he always called her Mali. Now the tattoo on his arm made much more sense. Mali lived in London but came around every now and again. Calum was a big fan of music like Panic! at the disco, Nickelback and all time low, but his guilty pleasure was definitely Beyoncé. He likes to wake up with music and goes to sleep with it as well. Duke's sign name is baby grandpa, because he's old but looks like a baby. He loves pineapple on pizza and he didn't want to tell me because he didn't want me to be disappointed in his choice of pizza topping.

There was a soccer ball laying in our small hallway because Calum used to play soccer when he was younger but apparently quit it to continue boxing. His bass was his baby, and no one besides Calum was allowed to touch it.

Another thing I've noticed is that he likes to bring home random girls every now and again. Almost every Wednesday, after he went out with Michael, he'd bring back some blonde bimbo to spend the night, and I thanked God that I bought earplugs when I moved in here.

I wondered how Calum would hit on those girls, seeing that he can't speak. Would Michael just awkwardly translate everything for the girl until they go home? Would Calum just text the girl all night? Or would he just kiss her and show her a condom to make it obvious? Lord knows.

He grew a habit of leaving sticky notes all over the countertops whenever he went out, with little reminders, cheesy jokes, and badly drawn smileys. He used the chalk paint on his door to write down the time he expected to be home or wrote little z's to tell me he was in his room sleeping. He used the chalk paint on my door to write stupid jokes in the middle of the night that I would see early in the morning when I was on my way to uni, making my mornings a little bit better.

On the weekends, on the other hand, he was home a lot and liked to spend time with me or his friends. Even though I haven't met Luke yet, I did meet his other friend, Ashton, the one with the dimples.

Ashton, too, knew sign language like Michael. Apparently, Ashton's little brother was deaf, so that's how he was able to sign and translate things for me whenever he came over.

We usually walked Duke together during the weekends, Calum showing me around parts of Los Angeles that I've never been to. He ended up suggesting a tradition of holding a movie night every Sunday, with the intention of enjoying a film together and unwinding. We both liked it, and soon it became a habit, with not a week going by without us sharing some kind of film.

Communicating with Calum became easier over time. I didn't understand sign language yet, nor had I made any effort to study it because I was way too busy with uni. So, he usually communicated with me through texting, using his notepad, or just pointing at things.

Calum appreciated my willingness to learn sign language, even though he told me I didn't have to. He was genuinely surprised by my insistence on it, as most people hadn't made an effort to do so for him in the past, except for his three mates and his family. It seemed like a sensitive topic for him, and I could only assume that he had faced difficulties and hurts related to his mutism.