A Surprise ⇢ Callum Ilott

SIXTEEN

For the twentieth time in ten minutes, Callum checked his phone. His lock screen didn't have any notifications. He sighed and put his phone away, Callum bounced his leg and looked in front of him.

"Still no messages from Catherine?" Marcus asked curiously.

Callum was shaking his head. "Nope." He was supposed to meet up with Catherine to watch the F1 race together, but she never showed up or let anything know. "Nothing."

"Shit," Marcus whispered and looked at his housemate who sat on the couch.

"Can I call her? Isn't it weird to call her? Because...I don't know." Callum grabbed his phone again. "I mean, I don't want to look like a stalker."

"Mate, it is seven o'clock, Catherine would be here at one o'clock, and the race ended a few hours ago," Marcus said. "You should call her." He grabbed something to drink. "I don't want to ruin this and Catherine seems really kind, but she didn't show up or contacted you, and that is...odd."

Callum didn't reply to that. He could call her, but then he would get confronted why she didn't show up. Or even worse: she wouldn't answer his call. By why would she ignore him? Or why wouldn't she show up? Did I do something wrong? Callum tightened his jaw; everything felt so right, and now this. He unlocked his phone and stared at Catherine's phone number. His finger hovered over the button.

"You have waited the whole day, you have the right to call her," Marcus added to his story.

Callum called the phone number and brought his phone up to his ear. It didn't take until the call got disconnected. "Alright," he said disappointedly; he didn't even get the time to be nervous. "She declined it right away or...she blocked me?"

"What? Why?"

"It doesn't ring," Callum said frustratedly and got up from the couch. "Look." It looked like he was desperate. He called Catherine again and showed Marcus his phone; it didn't ring again.

Marcus rose his eyebrows, there was something suspicious. "This is odd," he mumbled. "Did she block you?"

"I don't know!"

"Check her WhatsApp. If her profile picture is gone, then she blocked you," Marcus blurted.

Callum nodded and went to Catherine's chat. "I can still see her profile picture and status. She was last seen last night around 8 o'clock. What the hell is going on then? Catherine doesn't look like a person who would ghost people."

It was silence from Marcus side; he didn't want it to happen, but he one afraid Catherine was one of those girls who would just use him. "I don't know, I'm sorry."

"We're not even together, and I'm so worried..."

"How was Catherine acting around you? Was she fake? Or was she asking a lot about people in the F1? Or was she fishing for information?" Marcus tried to ask the questions as kind as possible, but it was hard to do that.

"She's not using me, she's not fake," Callum immediately said. "George Russell is her twin brother, he has more connections to F1 than I have! There is no way Catherine would do that." A sigh rolled over his lips. "Catherine was sweet, genuinely interested in me and not only my racing career. There's no way she would use me..."

"These people are getting better at pretending and are almost unrecognisable."

Callum straightened his face. "You have met her."

"I have, and I don't want her to be a snake, but you don't know these days. And because you are beginning to fall in love with Catherine, you won't see it. Yes, Catherine is George's sister, and George is one of the most trustful persons I have ever met, but you don't know what she's up to." Marcus pressed his lips into a thin line. "I don't want to ruin this, but you're one of my best mates. I want to protect you from the worse, and there's a huge chance Catherine forgot to call you off because she's having the flu or going through something else, but you never know."

"I know," Callum muttered. "Maybe I'm just overreacting."

Marcus gave him a weak smile. "Perhaps you need to wait for a few days. Or if you want an answer, you should contact George. Now we are talking about George; his race was a mess. He made mistakes, he walked away from interviews, his team fell out on him, and it, unfortunately, got picked up by the media. Maybe something is going on in their family."

"But that doesn't give Catherine the reason to ghost me. She could have sent me a short message saying she wouldn't be here."

"We don't know what the reason is, but if it is important, then it is important. We can't make assumptions. Wait for a few days." Marcus walked to the couch, and he sat down. "I know it's terrible, but give Catherine time."

His eyes fell on the TV, the news was broadcasting horrible footage of a huge accident what happened yesterday. "The police has announced that another driver has passed away in the hospital. The accident happened in a town near Cambridge on Saturday evening. Two people died in the accident yesterday, and one person has minor injuries. The investigation on the accident is still running."