the job - calum hood

Chapter 17 - Take the day off.

The night I got home luckily Josie was asleep. Yes, her and I moved in together since we couldn't afford to each pay our own rent so now we half it and pay together. Its not that bad to be fair.

The next morning I woke up to my phone buzzing. I looked at it to see it was Josie. I picked up.
"You spoke to Calum." She said, no question.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I ran into him about 20 minutes ago. He was walking around the street where your music shop is" She said. For fucks sake Calum. Why? Is he stalking me now?
"Ok cool" is all I said before hanging up. I wasn't going to let him ruin my morning.

I made breakfast, got changed and ready for work.  The walk to work was short so I got there a little bit early. I prayed to god I wouldn't see Calum. I was wrong.
When I was near the shop I saw a man standing in front of the main doors smoking, I knew it was him from the outfit. Baggy blue jeans , black bomber jacket, green hoodie and checkered vans.
Before I could change direction to go to the back door, I heard him call out my name.
"Cora" a strong aussie accent spoke.
"Calum" I turned around to face him, again.
"How are you?" He asked, was he trying to pretend that he wasn't basically waiting for me to show up? Right.
"I'm uh..alright?" I mumbled.
"Good that's good" He smiled. He tucked his hands into his pockets and just stood there staring at me.
"You wanna come into the shop?" I asked him. He immediately nodded and we went inside through the back door. Me and my boss were the only ones there in the morning but usually he'd be late so I had to open. Today was that kind of late day.
"Uh my boss tends to be late sometimes so as it seems I'm opening the shop today" I sighed opening my locker , placing my bag inside and getting out my work shirt.
"I gotta go change I'll be back" I said as I walked into the staff bathroom. I quickly put on the shirt and went back. Calum was sitting down on the little bench on the side. When he saw walk back in a wide smile appeared on his face and I smiled back. I put my other shirt inside my locker and shut it. I walked into the front room and told Calum to follow me. He did. Just like a lost puppy.

I flipped the sign on the door to 'open' and unlocked the door.
"Why did you decide to work here" Calum suddenly spoke, sitting down on the front desk.
"I don't know...there weren't many jobs available that paid decent and then I saw an ad for this one. It pays decent , I actually enjoy music and I know my instruments." I explained standing in front of him. God even sitting down he is still taller than me.
"Interesting" He said and moved his head to look around.
"Yeah" I muttered and went to check the cash register. It needed to make sure everything worked properly and luckily it all did. He turned around so now he was completely sitting cross legged on the front desk, taking up half of it.
"Why don't just lay down at this point?" I asked him sarcastically. He laughed and laid down on his side, holding his head with his arm.
"Draw me like one of your french girls" He joked quoting Jack Dawson from Titanic. He knew it was one of my favourite movies of all time. Cheeky bastard.
"Very very funny Hood!" I muttered and walking into the back and bringing out some new records that needed to be put up on the shelfs.
"Mind helping me?" I asked him raising an eyebrow. He got up and nodded.
"There's more in the back" I added. He walked into the back room and brought back some records. They all needed to be sorted out alphabetically.
We spent a few hours sorting out the vinyls before my boss eventually arrived with 3 other employees, Rea, Lilith and Robby.
"My goodness, you did open the shop! Good job Cora!" My boss said as he came walking through into the front room. He then saw Calum.
"Who's this?" He asked.
"A friend" I answered bluntly. I could feel Calums eyes burning into me.
"Ah alright, well good to meet you" My boss said and gave Calum a small smile.
"Cora take the rest of the day off will you? You pretty much did all the preparations! Which definitely deserves a rest after! Those 3 idiots in the back need to do some front desk jobs so I don't think you'll be needed here today. You're free to go!" He said and gave me an empathetic smile.
"Thank you, I appreciate that." I smiled back and walked into the back to change. Calum following me.
"At least we can hang out?" He asked me as we got to my locker.
"Maybe" I mumbled and grabbed him shirt, walking into the bathroom, changing and walking back.
"Can I consider maybe as a yes?" Calum asked as I was putting on my oversized leather jacket. I threw my bag over my shoulder and shut my locker.
"Fine" I answered him. His eyes light up.
"Great! You can come to rehearsal for tonights show!" He cheered. Great. Now I had to see all the other guys. Great just great!! I can't believe I'm doing this! I can't fucking believe it!

"Ooh who's this?" Lilith says as she walks into the room, walking over to the coffee machine.
"Calum" I say. She looks at me weirdly. Her and I never really got on well, we're both extremely stubborn and cocky to say something or agree on something.
"I'm Calum" He said and he extended his hand out, waiting for her to shake it. I felt a ping of jealousy hit me.
"Good to meet you Calum. I'm Lilith" She said and shook his hand, shooting a smirk in his direction. I felt my blood boil, the way she looked at him made me want to scream at her. Why was I feeling like this?
"Calum we should get going now" I quickly said and grabbed his hand, walking out of the shop. He didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to her and I liked that. She didn't deserve a bye from someone like Calum.
"Oh well damn, drag me away? Jealousy are we?" He teased. I playfully punched his arm and told him to shut up.

It was nearing 2 o'clock now and not gonna lie I was feeling a little hungry. Calum and I have been walking around the city for a while now. Just beside each other. No holding hands or his arm around me. Just innocently, like two friends. We went to the local art museum and it was really cool to see all of the paintings and portraits.
"We need to be at the venue in 5" He said as he looked at his watch, speeding up his walking pace.
"Right" I said and caught up with him. We walked in silence until we arrived at a huge arena. The SSE Hydro also known as the OVO Hydro now.

"Here we are"