two moons ❦ calum

❦ chapter four ❦

Flossy expected many people to be on her doorstep the next morning. she had a mental list of everyone to be sitting there before her instead if who truly was. Diff definitely, the worlds most adorable gay couple, maybe even Lesla if she had problems with girls or acting jobs, possibly Belle if she really needed her, even her too-keen-on-following-the-rules younger sister Chessie made the list before he did.

when she saw him, she at first didn't even realize he was there. he stood and moved like he was going to try to stop her from walking away which made her jerk back in astonishment. she stared at him with wide eyes for a few seconds before she could finally get a mutter out.

"c-calum?" she asked weakly. god, now look who's stuttering. she wasn't 100% sure if this was a dream or not. if it was a dream, it would be a happy one, followed by morning depression because it wasn't.

"hi," he breathed once the fear melted from her chocolate eyes. "I just wanted to apologize f-for last night."

"wait. what?" immediately rolled off her tongue without much thought as to what she'd said.

"I - I offended you," he reminded her. he tilted his head to the right like he pulled a muscle in his shoulder and looked at her curiously. he looked more confused than she felt. "I didn't mean what I said the way it-it came out and - and I apologize."

"honestly Calum," she told him in a tone that was motherly and protective, though he didn't look at her by now. she knew it was because he was still bad with eye contact. "I wasn't insulted. I mean, yeah, at first I was a little thrown back, but as I was doing my ap bio homework, I empathized that you wouldn't say anything like that with the intention to hurt my feelings." she suddenly gripped his upper arm in a reassuring kind of way and shot him a small smile when he looked up into her eyes. she was astonished to find that he wasn't as lanky as she expected. her eyes went wide under the contact and looked back up at him with a glare of bewilderment in his eyes. "you're much too nice for that."

she looked around and noticed that the school kids had already left for the bus. he looked over at what she was looking at, met her eyes, and looked away. she wondered if he would ever be brave enough to look into her eyes without looking away out of shame and fear.

"don't you usually ride the bus?" Flossy guessed. she honestly never paid attention but he seemed like the type to take the bus instead of drive. though his parents had money - just like Mr. and Mrs. Black did - he most likely never even used for anything other than what he really needed.

"n-no," he told her, looking down the right of the street, down the left, and then down at his shoes. "my three friends usually drive me because our-our school is on the way to theirs. Luke, who usually drives, li-lives half an hour away from here - half an hour from London - b-but he doesn't mind picking me up, unless he's running late like he is today. Michael and Ashton, the other two he drives, are on the way too so - uh yeah."

Flossy noticed the look in his eyes before he looked away from her. he was embarrassed for rambling. it seemed to him that she was bothered by talking about these things but she found them fascinating. she loved hearing about everything going on in other people's lives besides what they convey - the deep stuff, everything else other than the tip of the iceberg.

"we could always walk to school, you know," Flossy suggested with a shrug.

"b-but we'd miss at least three periods."

"not if we have a doctors note."

he looked down with furrowed eyebrows. "th-that would take even more time to walk to."