The game | Calum Hood

Comfort Zones, Hair Dye and Sofa Snuggles

"You want me to do what?" I exclaimed, standing in front of an excited Michael.

"Yeah, come on Riles, live a little. This is your comfort zone," he said, squinting to look through the tiny gap that he had created between his fingers, "and this is the first step to making this your comfort zone!" He yelled, making large arm movements and stretching as far as he possibly could.

"What colour did you say?" I asked, treading cautiously, trying to avoid giving Michael the wrong idea.

He smirked, knowing that he had almost won me round. "Pastel blue. Look Riles, it's only semi-permanent, but you can get it done this colour permanently if you like it. Just try it, for me?" He smirked, knowing that I would now agree.

I sighed. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

"I've had my hair over 30 different colours this year alone Riley, I'm a pro." He smiled, grabbing my hand and excitedly leading my up to the bathroom.
-
"Now time for the big reveal!" Michael squeaked, more excited than I had ever seen him before. "It's gonna look amazing because of how blonde you were before. You have no reason for it not to work perfectly."

I exhaled deeply in preparation for the excited boy to reveal what was hidden underneath the towel which now occupied my head. "I'm gonna close my eyes, and open them once you've seen it." I laughed, closing my eyes, my heart beating in my chest.

The towel left my head and I heard a large gasp from the boy standing behind me. He ran his hands through my hair and let it fall down my front before telling me to open my eyes.

"Riles, look."

Unable to wait any longer, I flickered my eyes open, only to be astounded with what I saw before me in the mirror. The reflection held a girl that I didn't know. He was right, my blonde hair had worked perfectly, leaving now an icy blue colour instead of my light blonde one.

"Michael it's, amazing." I smiled, throwing my arms around him, unable to thank him enough. "Did you say this was semi-permenant?"

"Is that what I said, oh, yeah it's not." He smirked, watching me take in how amazing my hair looked. "It matches your eyes Riles."

I stared into the mirror and indeed saw that my eyes and my hair were exactly the same icy shade of blue. My mouth curved into a slight smile as I touched my hair, hardly believing that it was real. I looked like a real life disney princess.

"I love it," I stammered, thankful I didn't have any mascara on anymore, as it would be halfway down my face. "Thank you Michael."

I tied it into a braid and followed Michael downstairs where we sat ourselves down on the sofa.

"So, Princess Riley, what do you want on your pizza?" He grinned, turning in the TV. "Pepperoni as always?"

I nodded and flicked through the films which were displayed on the screen whilst Michael ordered our food.

"Big Hero 6 ok?" I mumbled as he returned, only to get and excited "yes" in return. I pressed play and he curled himself up on the sofa, patting his chest for me to lay my head down on.
-
"Hey Riles?" Michael whispered, as he brought the pizzas in and placed them on the table. "Don't you think you should let your mum know where you are. It isn't really her fault you disappeared anyway, it shouldn't be her you punish."

"Yeah, I probably should." I groaned, standing up and walking to get my phone from my bag, stealing a slice of Michael's pizza as I did so.

I unlocked my phone and it had blown up with messages and missed calls.
14 missed calls, 39 messages.

All of the missed calls were from mum, but not all of the messages were. I slid open the messages from mum and they all consisted of Riley where are you? And Riley I'm worried. I pressed the call button and only had to wait a few rings before she answered.

"Riley are you ok?"

"I'm fine mum, I just went to Aunt Karens to have a movie night with Michael."

"I know, I called Karen. Look Riley, we need to talk."

"If it's about him, I don't want to talk because you know how I feel about him mum. You could have at least warned me."

"I knew there was no chance at all if you knew he was coming Riley."

"I said I don't want to talk about him."

"I know Riley, but he just..."

"I don't care about him mum! He can't just prance back into my life whenever he feels like it and expect to be welcomed with open arms!" I cried, unable to hold back my anger.

"I'm sorry Riley, I didn't mean for you to,"

"I know mum, it wasn't your fault. Is he gone now?"

"Yeah, you can come home now if you want. But Riley, we do have to talk about this when you do come home."

"I'll be home in the morning. See you tomorrow mum, I love you."

"I love you too Riley, see you tomorrow."

Then she hung up.

I sat down in the stairs and thought about what had just happened. How dare he just expect me to forgive him after all of these years. How dare he? And what else was there to talk about? I wasn't going to see him again and that was that. I hated the man for all that he had done to me and my family. He wasn't going to do it again.

My mind racing, I checked on my other messages, which were practically all from the same person: My number one footballer <3

My number one footballer <3 : Hey, the Porsche has gone, you coming home now?
My number one footballer <3 : Don't ignore me Blondie :/
My number one footballer <3 : You should probably talk to your mum, she's worried.
My number one footballer <3 : Ah, it's ok now, you've spoken to her.
My number one footballer <3 : Wait, that means your on your phone.
Blondie: **you're
My number one footballer <3 : Hello Blondie.
Blondie: Hello Cal, is there any reason why you have been giving me updates on my own life?
My number one footballer <3 : There's no reason, I just like talking to the grammar police.
Blondie: You like talking to me?
My number one footballer <3 : Do I like talking to the girl who called me a terrible footballer earlier and said she never wanted to speak to me again? I suppose so.
My number one footballer <3 : p.s. The lack of a genuine quote is due to the fact that Logan put me on a swear ban after saying fuck when I stubbed my toe earlier.
Blondie: But you just....? 😂
My number one footballer <3 : Look, when are you back home? I wanna talk to you, it's been so longgggg 😫
Blondie: I'll be home tomorrow loser, got to go, I'm missing big hero 6!!!!!!
My number one footballer <3 : Pretty face and good film taste, perfect.
Blondie: see you tomorrow Cal. X
My number one footballer <3 : Enjoy your movie night Riley xx
-
"All sorted?" Michael smiled as I walked back into the living room where an empty pizza box sat on the floor and half of my pizza had disappeared.

"Yeah," I grinned, taking my place next to him and burying myself under the blanket that he had covered himself up with whilst I was gone.

"You missed the best part!" He groaned.

I looked up at him, smiling weakly.

"You know what's the best part Mikey?"

"Which bit?"

"When I'm with you, every bit."

"Riles you're cute!" He giggled, tapping my nose.

"I do try!" I smiled before watching the rest of the movie to the beat of Michael's heart beneath my head.

-A/N-
It's a triple update day again and that makes me happy, but I won't be able to update as often after next week because I go back to school, but I'll try 😿