The Queue [c. hood]

23 // 4:31 p.m.

Caro was leaning up against Calum once again, but she was sure she wouldn't fall asleep this time. The butterflies she was feeling were sure to keep her awake.

"If you want to go back to sleep, you can." Calum tells her, moving slightly as if to nudge her.

Caro smiles, looking up at him, though her face is still resting against his arm. "I am not trying to fall asleep again."

Calum laughs as she goes back to how she was, just watching traffic go by. He was so happy to sit here with her. Instead of also just starting off, Calum pulls his phone out.

While scrolling through Instagram, he likes whatever pictures of his friends that he hasn't seen yet on his homepage. After looking down at Caro, he notices she's now watching what he's doing on his phone.

She didn't mean to be nosy, she was interested in what Calum was interested in. However she did feel bad, so she has closed her eyes, just wanting to relax for now.

Caro was doing whatever she could to not overthink this situation with Calum, but it was fucking hard. All she could think about was how if anybody heard the story of what's happening here today, they would just laugh at Caro. They would probably call her a child, and say none of this made any sense.

Who cares what other people think, though? If she wanted to have a crush on Calum she could, because that was her business and nobody else's.

"Are you okay?" Calum asks, making Caro look up at him again.

"Yeah, why?" Caro questions.

"You started breathing heavy, I got worried you were going to panic about something."

Caro hadn't even noticed her breathing until Calum pointed it out, and she quickly does her best to stop. This was her problem with overthinking. Why couldn't she just turn her brain off?

"Caro?" Calum calls, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Sorry. I'm okay." She tells him, and ignores all of her thoughts telling her not to when she reaches for his hand.

Calum hesitantly accepts, which immediately sends Caro spiralling. Why did he hesitate? Did he not want to? Did she say something wrong?

"A- Are you okay?" Caro asks, now that she's concerned something is wrong.

"No. No!" He says, noticing she's not herself. "Caro, I didn't mean-"

Caro nervously pulls her hand away, even though she was the one who just initiated it. Now she was really overthinking it.

Calum didn't mean to stress her out, he just really wasn't enjoying the comments from his friends. He was nervous about what they'd say if he held hands with Caro again.

After a few moments of silence, Calum speaks up again, finishing his thought from earlier. "I didn't mean to make it weird. I'm sorry. I just can't keep dealing with the comments from my friends."

"I'm also getting the comments, Calum. But I don't care. If you're uncomfortable with holding my hand, just say so." Caro mumbles.

"Caro, I'm not." He tells her, then reaching out to grab both of her hands. "I- I'm just getting in my head."

He knew his friends were going to say something about this, and he's trying his best to not care. It's not that he doesn't understand why his friends were making comments, things with him and Caro were strange. But he didn't enjoy the comments about him just hooking up with her. He wouldn't do that to her, and he didn't want her to overhear anything his friends have said about her. They can go too far sometimes, and he just wants to do what he can to stop it.

Caro sighs, not wanting to get upset. When she gets anxious, she can end up taking it out on people. She really didn't want to take it out on him.

"This has just been... a very strange and long day. Not that I hated it or anything, it's just... not what I expected to come from today." Calum tries to clarify, really not wanting to fuck things up after they've made it this far.

"I know. I know this is so weird." Caro whispers, fidgeting with his fingers, though their hands are still intertwined. She stares at their hands, not focusing on Calum.

Calum gives her a small smile, also looking down at their hands. "I think we just have a good bond."

"It's still not something that happens to people, like, ever." Caro tells him, pulling away.

He couldn't figure out why Caro was trying to convince herself out of this. All it was doing was making him now more nervous.

The pair just happened to keep saying the wrong things at the wrong times. Both of them were very much overthinking, and screwing themselves over.