Iris woke in a sweaty panic, her heart beating manically in her chest and her legs entangled in sheets. Her eyes scanned the lightening room for reassurance that she was okay, and she saw the way the sun gently rose through the curtains and basked the hotel room in early morning light and felt her bad dream wash away from the shores of her mind quickly. She heard the whirring of the air conditioning, sounding like a sleeping dragon in the corner of the room, as as she looked across at Calum asleep in the single bed next to hers, she couldn't help but smile. He looked much younger in sleep, his face unguarded and open in dream, his quiet snoring escaping from between his plump lips. His hair was flattened onto his forehead, his eyelids fluttering in sleep, with one of his arms hanging off the side of the bed. In sleep, he was alive with energy and optimism, and he was practically buzzing with light. He was a living, breathing organism in a tiny room, in a tiny city, in a tiny country, on a tiny planet, in a huge solar system.
It was at times like these, when Iris began to delve into her mind and the fragility of life that she knew she wouldn't be going back to sleep. She often times questioned the importance of everyday workings and life as a whole, and it was at those times when it was better to just get distracted. She climbed quietly out of bed and quickly changed into three quarter running pants, a sports bra and a long t-shirt, before slipping her feet into socks and then her black Nikes. She was never one for organised sports, but running had always seemed like an escape for her, a sort of release from whatever was happening in her life.
It was when she was on the street that she put in her headphones and started her music. It felt strange that she was practically pulsing with energy when the rest of the cities population was asleep, the sun only just dusting the buildings around her with light. The people that were out around her were still walking with the tired steps of people awake against their will, and she watched them move around her for a minute, before she bounced up and down on her feet and then she was off. She zigzagged around the tired zombie-like people, and ran as hard as she could, her feet slapping against the pavement beneath her. Suddenly she didn't have room in her mind for the thoughts of her own mortality or insignificance, her mind was overcome with her music pounding in her ears and her mind only thinking of running, just keep running. Soon enough she had sweat pouring down into her eyes and she could feel her hair threatening to fall from it's tie and around her face. As the sun had risen higher and higher into the sky, the city had started to get hotter and hotter until it had developed into a muggy heat enclosed space. Iris stopped in at a local coffee shop and bought herself an iced coffee and Calum an iced mocha, remembering that he didn't really like coffee but that he had ordered a mocha the last time they stopped for a drink.
When she was back in the air conditioned room, her tan skin glinting with sweat, she gently shook Calum awake. His eyes opened slowly against the assault of the ever raising sun, and his face scrunched up in a way that made Iris want to coo at him.
"Hey sleepy, I got you an iced mocha, it's all good if you don't want it," Iris smiled down at him, "but I was outside so I thought I should bring you back something to apologise for waking you up."
"Thanks Iris, that's really lovely of you." Calum's voice was still thick with sleep and dreams, his tongue felt too big in his mouth to work words around it. His eyes slowly focussed onto the real world around him and saw Iris standing out at the balcony, one hand holding her drink and the other holding her hair away from her neck. Calum found himself smiling at the sight of her here with him, somehow they had become such integral parts of each others lives in such a short amount of time (maybe just from being the only people together 24/7 for the past couple of days.)
Iris looked out from the balcony onto the city that stretched out beneath her, people hurrying to work or hurrying somewhere, cars driving along the winding city roads. She breathed in the tranquility of having nowhere to be in a rush, that was the main highlight of this road trip. The complete lack of a schedule, or itinerary. Both Calum and Iris were in no rush to get anywhere, and that was seeming perfect in the way this road trip was stretching out in front of them.
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"No seriously Lola, it was pretty embarrassing, I vomited in front of not only Calum but his very attractive friend." Iris said from her spot on her bed, the phone propped between her shoulder and her ear as she tried to pack the few clothes she had left laying around the room.
Lola laughed, so loud in Iris' ear that Iris flinched slightly, "you never could handle your liquor."
Iris and Lola had been talking already for 10 minutes, as Calum had gotten up, walked around like a zombie, and then muttered something about having a shower (of which he had not come out of yet.) Iris had filled Lola in on The Kiss, which she had made out to be a great incident and never to be spoken of again. After the constant stream of her mind thinking about The Kiss, it had only seemed fair that it had gotten it's own name and been capitalised in her mind as a great looming presence that seemed to fill the room whenever Calum and her conversations grew thin and silence fell over them like a blanket.
"So Lola, how have you been? How's school? How's everything going?" Iris lay back on her bed, giving up entirely on trying to pack and hold a conversation, her hand going up to grasp at the phone as she plonked her head down on the pillow.
"I've been really good, surprisingly, you know, with everything going on with the preparations for Nona's funeral. We're holding it off until you get back from California, and now our beloved mother has the ashes in her house. Let's stop talking about that though because it'll just make both of us upset..." Lola trailed off, as she heard Iris quieten even more on the phone, "school's been really good actually, I sat this practice exam for human study's and got 1 mark off full marks, so I think I'll go really well in the real exam."
The conversation between the sisters grew, as they both talked excitedly about everything under the sun. That was how their relationship was, how it had always been; they were best friends, nothing off limits in their relationship. Iris almost didn't notice Calum walk out of the bathroom because she was so enthralled in the story Lola was telling about her professor accidentally bringing in his cat to class, until she did notice Calum, and the laughter caught in her throat. He had walked out of the bathroom, his tan body still glistening with water, his hair pushed back from his face and the towel sitting dangerously low on his hips. He still hadn't noticed her watching, and she happily sat their drinking up the sight of him.
"Iris?" Lola's voice pulled her back from the vision of Calum in all of his glory, and Iris made a sound of disgruntlement at Lola through the phone. "Listen I've got to go, but I'll call you maybe tomorrow or the next day, but someday soon, okay? Have the best time ever, and tell Calum I said hello and that he better be acting behaved. Love you sis."
"Oh, okay, yeah bye Lola. Love you lots." Iris managed to say before the call ended.
Calum's eyes met hers as he smiled, "was that Lola on the phone? How is she?" He was seemingly unaware of his half naked self, and also unaware of the affect it was having on Iris's breathing.
"Yeah she's good," Iris managed to say, without sounding half strangled, "I'm just going to have a quick shower, and then we'll be on our way." Iris's smile she tried to give Calum was too stretched and uncomfortable on her face, as her emotions swirled in her stomach. If Calum noticed the way her bag still wasn't packed, and therefore she wasn't ready to leave, he didn't say anything. Just smiled another big smile and turned around to get dressed as Iris scrambled to the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
Jesus christ, he would be the death of her.
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OKAY YEAH, so half naked Calum does things to my body, and it's only fair Iris gets affected too :-)) Also writing this after I saw 5sos live 3 days ago, and my heart is doing the thing. You know, the post concert depression thing, but I still felt inspired to write this about Cal, what a beauty he is.
Also, I know I don't update often, but I am in the middle of year 11 and quite busy, but now I'm on school holidays so hopefully can get a few updates out before school starts again in a couple weeks!! Thanks for reading xx
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hitchhiker // c.h (au)
Fanfictionin which a girl picks up a hitchhiker, and both their lives are changed forever
