smoke • calum hood

dix.

ten: november - seven months after he left

"bye, gorgeous, i'll see you tomorrow," brett kissed adelin as he dropped her off at her house.

"bye, brett." she cooed back at him.

adelin and brett had been dating for just over three months. after hanging out all summer, brett decided to make it official and ask adelin to be his girlfriend the week before senior year started. she was hesitant at first, because she didn't know if she wanted to let herself be vulnerable again, but she knew brett was nothing like calum and decided to take a leap of faith.

but the problem with brett being the complete opposite of calum, was that he was the complete opposite of calum.

their relationship was fine. just fine. there was no excitement, no passion. and she knew that she couldn't compare everyone to calum for the rest of her life, because he was her first love. but she knew that no one in the world could make her feel the way he did.

"hey, sweetie, how was your day?" liz asked as her daughter walked in the door.

adelin shrugged, "it was fine, nothing special."

"how's brett?" liz, of course, was over the moon about adelin's new boyfriend. naturally this made her not want to date him, but she didn't want to give her mom any sort of power over who she dated even if it was someone she approved of.

"he's fine. his parents are excited about dinner tomorrow," adelin said casually, with hardly any emotion in her voice.

liz had been begging adelin to invite brett and his family for dinner, seeing as liz felt the need to impress the town's golden family, and so adelin finally did.

"oh, good! i can't wait." liz clapped her hands in excitement. "i'm so glad we could finally have a chance to meet them."

"i am, too." adelin said, unsure if that was really true. brett's parents were nice and all, but she felt they were a little too invested in adelin and brett's relationship. mrs. porter had talked about her mother-in-law's engagement rings to adelin more than once and it made her a little uncomfortable.

"make sure to let luke know he needs to dress appropriately." liz told adelin.

"why can't you? i mean, you are the mother after all."

liz rubbed her forhead, "adelin, please."

"fine," adelin mumbled, trekking upstairs to luke's room.

she knocked on the door. "come in!"

adelin flopped on the bed while her brother sat at his desk doing homework. "mom wants you to dress nice for dinner with the porters' tomorrow."

luke groaned, "ugh, that's tomorrow?"

"yep." adelin said, "can't wait."

"you sound so thrilled," luke teased.

adelin laid on her stomach and propped her head on her elbows. "oh i'm overjoyed, didn't you know mom is bringing out the good china?"

luke rolled his eyes, "of course she is. i don't understand the big deal."

"me either," adelin shrugged. she didn't really care to be excited for dinner tomorrow.

"you're just saying that because you don't even like your boyfriend."

"not true!" adelin said a little too defensively. "if i didn't like him, i wouldn't be dating him."

that was true. while adelin didn't necessarily love him yet, she really did like him.