To Build A Home || c.h

Chapter 9

Calum's POV:

My head snaps towards the door. Ashton is standing there with a confused expression mixed with another that I just can't figure out. It almost looks like he's worried, but I don't see why. Why would he care about me?

"What do you want?" I snap, some anger still left inside of me.

"I-I was wondering if you wanted to come out with us..." he stutters, almost like he's a tad scared or shocked.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" I ask rudely and lift my brows.

"I did knock, but you didn't open and I heard some banging so I figured I should check up on you..." he mutters. Oh.

"Are you okay?" he asks me after a couple of seconds. I don't reply, I just get up and push my hair away from my face. 

"I'm fine," I say when he keeps staring at me without saying anything. Why can't he just leave me alone?

"Sure you don't want me to get your aunt? Because your fists and, what is that even, a computer? The point is you don't look fine," he rambles, sighing in the end. I look down at my fists and realize what he's talking about. They are all red and I have several small cuts on my knuckles, most of them bleeding.

"God d.ammit," I mutter with furrowed brows.

"I think Carol has a first aid kit in the bathroom," he says. I just sit down on my bed and look down at my bleeding fists.

"Do you want me to get it?" he asks. I shake my head slightly.

"I really think you should come out with us Calum, we're just going to have some fun in the snow while our moms are together," he says. I'm about to say no but instead I take a second and think about it. Maybe I should join them? I don't want to sit all alone in here with the computer mocking me, and I don't really have anything else to do. 

"I don't have any appropriate clothes," I mutter.

"You can borrow some," he offers. I think about it for a couple of seconds before I nod again. I might as well have some appropriate clothing if I'm going to be out in the snow. 

I go into the bathroom and wash my hands to remove the blood before we go over to his house. He tells me that we're supposed to meet the others outside in ten minutes, so we both get dressed right away. He hands me a beanie, mittens, and a huge jacket. Well, at least I'll stay warm.

As we go out I pull the beanie down so it covers my ears completely, but it's a bit hard with the mittens I'm wearing. Okay, maybe I was wrong. I'm probably going to freeze my ass off. I feel ridiculous, but once I see what the others are wearing, I feel slightly better.

"Calum! You joined us!" Luke smiles once he sees me and I answer with a small nod and a smile. I guess it won't hurt to be a little bit nicer to them right now.

"C'mon, I've been dying to make a snowman that's as good looking as me," Michael says with a cockily smile.

"So we're going to make a snowman that looks like s.hit then?" Alaska asks and looks at him. I can't help but let out a tiny laugh along with the others. So she's sassy, I see. 

"I said it was supposed to look like me, not you," Michael fires back while crossing his arms, and Luke and Ashton laughs even louder. Alaska'a laughing too, but just not as much as them. I'm glad she can take a joke instead of getting pissed at him.

"You might have won the round Clifford, but you haven't won the game yet," she laughs and shakes her head. Michael, who's still smirking, just shrugs in response.

"Alright, let's build a snowman!" Ashton smiles widely and we begin. Or, I should rather say that they begin, because I have no idea what to do. Alaska must have seen me just standing there all confused, because she walks over to me with a small laugh.

"You have no idea what to do, do you?" she laughs and shake my head as I blush lightly. I'm actually blushing because I don't know how to build a snowman, I don't think it can get more dumb than this.

"Come, we can find his arms and the things for his face, I think we have carrots at home," she smiles and begins walking. I just follow her to her house, which is like, thirty seconds away. Even though it's not far away, I almost fall over several times because of all the snow. Damned snow! 

"Just wait here," she smiles and hurries inside. I stand there awkwardly until she comes back with a carrot and some small, black rocks in her hand.

"Where did you get those from?" I ask, referring to the rocks.

"Mom uses these to decorate the flower pots that have bigger plants in them," she just explains as we start walking towards the others again. Oh yeah, my mom does that too. We have this lemon tree in our living room, and I swear, sometimes I think she loves it more than she loves me. I can't blame her though, the lemon tree is nicer to her than I am. At least it can't hurt her. That's all I seem to do to her lately... Wow, I really need to stop doing this to myself. And her. God, I suck so much...

"Can you get two branches from that tree? For the arms," Alaska says, breaking me out of my thoughts. I nod and hurry over to a tree. There are many trees here, so I have no idea which one she was actually talking about, but I'm just going to get branches, so it doesn't really matter. I break off the branches I need before I jog to catch up with her again. 

When we get back to the boys, they have already finished the snowman's body, so we put the things we have gathered where they belong. Just as I put on the last arm I feel something rather hard hitting my back. I turn around and see Alaska with a snowball in her hand and a smirk on her face.

"What was that good for?" I ask with furrowed brows.

"What are you going to do about it?" she just answers with a smirk while throwing the snowball up in the air and cathing it gracefully.

I raise my eyebrows and look at her.  

Challeng accepted.

I know this is a boring chapter, but hey, Calum is kinda cute in this

It's so annoying that I have all these chapters as drafts and I want to talk to you guys about them, but I can't bc I don't want to spoil anything... 

And guys, this book has like 275 reads or something, and for me that's pretty amazing

I'm so grateful that someone finds this book interesting, it means so much to me whenever you guys comment or vote, it's just amazing

Okay, I'm going to stop now, so yeah

ily guys