Reckless || c.t.h.

16 - Caught

16 - Caught

{arabella's point of view}

I couldn't believe the words left Nate's mouth. Nate; the guy that supposedly had been crushing on me since we were 10. The guy that wouldn't let anyone talk shit about me, or even come near me in a sexual way if he was around, that guy had just said that to me. I had always thought he was a bit mixed up and could be impulsive, but not like that.

I'm sure that he didn't know what he had just said to me, but then again, people did say he knew everything about me. Maybe he knew what he was saying. But if he did, who would've told him? No one knew. I made sure of that. No one.

"Arabella?" I felt myself jump about three feet, not prepared for the dark figure to emerge behind me. I was so engrossed in my own world I didn't realise someone had approached, that someone being an above six foot, muscular man.

I had run to the school pond. No one knew we had one, apart from me. We had two fields, one was slightly sectioned off around the corners. One of those corners, covered in bushes, had a small overgrown gate that led into a well trimmed pond. It had purple flowers surrounding the edge, not one was out of place. In one of the 'corners' there was a big rock that had some ivy growing on it but that was it, everything else was calm and perfect, and no one knew. Well I thought no one did. Seems like I had been wrong about that twice today.

"Calum? How did you -" he stopped me from carrying on with a shake of his head. He came and sat next to me on the carved, overturned tree trunk. It was meant to be an ornate bench but I knew it was the trunk of the old tree that stood here.

"You underestimate how well I know this school." That was all he said. It was all he needed to say. I felt his body warmth spread around the right side of my body. I welcomed it.

"Why are you here?" I asked after a few moments of silence passed between us, it wasn't an awkward silence though, it was comfortable. Somehow he had ended up even closer than I had thought, our bodies were now touching at the shoulder; I knew I should've moved, but I didn't want to.

"Everyone was worried about you. You walked away without a word to anyone. All the girls and my boys expected you to fight Nate over that comment but you just walked away. Natalia said something about you getting defensive over highways and someone had to come and check if you were okay," he explained. There was still one major detail he was missing in his story.

"But why did you come? Like... Here, to see me." I was confused, to say the least. "We aren't friends, I don't like you, you don't like me. No one can find out that something, that was almost considered an act of friendship, happened between us. I want to forget it happened. I wanted us to be the same, you were a constant and now you're not. Why do you suddenly care?" I asked him.

"Why do you?" I knew it was one of his stupid cocky replies but it made me think. Did I care that Calum was talking to me now?

"I thought we were going to keep the friendship on a down low," I said, turning my head to face his, which was looking at me.

"We're not friends Arabella, we never have been and we never will be." His voice was void, there was no emotion in his words. I couldn't tell what kind of way he was saying it. One of his superpowers seemed to be the ability to confuse me, someone who is usually very level headed.

We stayed like that for a long time. I heard the bell go and I knew that we had missed our first two lessons, but neither of us made any kind of movement that indicated either of us wanted to leave. We just looked out at the pond and the flowers, living in perfect, beautiful harmony. They went together perfectly, the purple bringing the best out of the blue and the blue making the purple look brighter. There was a slow ripple that crossed the water every now and again but that was it, it was entrancing.

"To answer your question: it was my fault the whole incident happened. No matter why that hurt you, I was the one that caused the situation, I should've stayed calm but... The way he was talking about you, like you were his property, and then all of a sudden you had a slight rip and he didn't want you. That's not something a real man would do. He needed to be taught a lesson-" I stopped him this time.

"I thought you were saying how it shouldn't have happened," I laughed. He looked down at me, his eyes a lighter brown than usual.

"Yeah... But anyway, I told everyone that it's our problem so I had to see what was up," he finally stated. I smiled at him.

Calum Hood had a heart. The cold blooded monster that had been my competition for years, he felt bad for making me feel bad.

"Thank you. I don't know, it's just... A long story. I haven't even told my girls so don't get offended because I don't feel like telling you, I just hate them. He must have known to make that joke. It just spiked a lot of hurt in me, you know?" He nodded.

"I understand. Don't worry about not telling me, I was just curious. Also, don't worry about anything that son of a bitch says," he stated. I couldn't help but find the corners of my mouth lift into a smile. "I'm pretty sure he won't do it again after the slap you gave him anyway," he joked. It made me giggle slightly.

"I made sure I gave it Calum strength."

"Calum strength?" he asked, unsure about why I had named my slap strength using his name. It wasn't a cute reason.

"The strength I only use to slap you. Another way of saying as hard as I can, to make maximum affect; like the noise and pain and-"

"I get it. Thanks for calling it that, it means a lot to me," he spoke with sarcasm riddled in his voice.

"No problem." We both laughed together for a while.

"I feel like we should get back to our classes," Calum finally broke the silence that had settled over us once again.

"I feel like we shouldn't. It's not like we're going to miss much, an assignment or two; as if we'd do them anyway," I said. Calum knew I was right, neither of us did anything, ever. There was no need; both of us held the secrets of our teachers.

"Alright then, how about ice cream?" he offered, I paused but shook my head, I saw his face crumple into confusion.

"You have to run in and get it, we can't be seen together; rumours will start again," I told him. I was right and he knew I was, which was why he nodded in realisation.

"Okay I'll run in and grab two ice creams and then we can go back to mine?"

"That's better. As long as we don't get caught. I don't want to be seen or associated with you."

A/N: thank you to everyone reading and leaving us amazing comments! I hope you enjoyed this scene between them.