𝙼𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚕𝚞𝚘𝚞𝚜|| 𝙲𝚊𝚕𝚞𝚖 𝙷𝚘𝚘𝚍

t w e n t y - o n e

9th January: Devon

Andrea has done a lot of thinking, so much thinking and now she didn't know what to do. Ever since the kiss, she felt different and this feeling has been following her around like a ghost and whenever there's a slight interaction with a certain bassist the feeling pounced upon her like a wild animal ready to demolish its prey. Every time she even caught a glimpse of Calum, Andrea found her cheeks tinting a soft red as she thought back to that night and how perfectly it was going.

Since arriving in Devon, Andrea had tried to be discreet about the whole interaction with Calum as she doubted Calum would want her screaming it from the rooftops. No more than ten words have been spoken between the two since that night and Andrea didn't know what to make of that. She felt sort of empty now that Calum at any given opportunity wouldn't speak or sit near to her. Whenever the group went out anywhere, Andrea never found Calum moving toward her in fact, he kind of ignored everyone. It did upset her that Calum didn't want to spend time with her, but she was hoping it was for a good reason.

Today was a quiet day, everyone had mutually agreed on staying inside because the past couple of days has been tiring. Currently, Andrea was on her bed reading a book her mum had gotten her for Christmas. The book was called Solitaire by Alice Osmen which admittedly was YA and Andrea was way past the young adult phase, but after the Heartstopper graphic novels, she just had to find out more about Charlie's sister. She was nearing the end of the book when Everly walks into the room and sits on the bed beside her. She was playing with a stress ball that Ashton had given her to help exercise her hand.

Luckily for Everly, she was physically fine. She escaped with a few cuts and bruises and a minor fracture to her wrist, but nothing that would stop her from playing the drums. The person who had committed the hate crime was found out to be working for Everly's mum. The police arrested her and the guy, but nothing could be done about it except they both have a criminal record and both of them were fired from working in PR. As a result of this, Everly was forced to come out to people online. She had to explain quite a lot, but the majority of people seemed supportive and unbothered at the knowledge.

"So," she began, "what is wrong with you?"

Andrea eyed her warily and closed her book, "what do you mean?"

"I mean why have you been all sad and dull," she threw the stress ball up and caught it again, "you look like you have a constant rain cloud above your head."

It was not wise to tell Everly anything, it wasn't wise to tell any of her bandmates anything. All three of them couldn't keep a secret, if she told Everly the whole house would know in under an hour. It's not as if she did it purposely, it's just the way she was.

"I'm just a bit stressed at the moment," the bassist looked down, avoiding Everly's eyes, "everything's fine."

"What are you stressed about?" Everly inquired, "our album is released and we don't have to worry about writing any more until after tour and we've still got a while till we go back on tour."

"It's not because of that," those words weren't the best to say to the drummer and instantly, Andrea regretted them.

"Why are you stressed then?" she sounded kind of patronising, but Andrea didn't blame her. Her problem was tiny compared to the whole 'I just got hate crimed and I've had to come out to the whole world'.
"I think I've upset Calum," this time she wasn't lying, this was the truth, just not all of it.

Everly's eyes went wide, "how on earth could you have upset Calum?" she looked at Andrea incredulously, "you're literally the same person!"

Andrea stayed silent for a moment and thought, how would've she upset Calum? He initiated the kiss and he didn't pull back because he didn't want it. Maybe her leaving in such a rush upset him, but he understood that right? He understood that no matter what her bandmates were way more important and surely he would do the same for any of his.