Castaway ➳ cth [EDITING/HIATUS]

Chapter 8

*Calum's P.O.V.*

"Stay", she whispers.

I stopped myself, grinning in surprise. "Why do you want to me stay?"

June frowned, without saying anything in particular. After a long hesitation, she answered: "Apparently my mother is not able to stay with me. So, yeah, I hope you do."

Warmth started to spread out across my body, making my heart jump in my chest. Does she like me?

Those feelings were bothering me for months.

"You know when you get released?" I asked, folding my hands on my lap. June shook her head. "No idea to be honest", she answered, "Why don't we just... go?"

She slowly pushed away the heavy white blanket from her body and ripped off the dark blue wristband off her wrist. Tiny letters with her name, her birthdate and the cause of her stay in the hospital were written on the bracelet.

"What are you doing?" I was confused about her determination. How can she pull that out?

"Leaving", she responded, without looking at me but standing up, gathering her clothes together and hesitating.

She stood there for a couple of seconds until she pleaded: "Could you please turn around?"

My eyes landed on the pile of clothes held tightly in her left hand. I stared at her. "What?"

Her giggle sounded sarcastic. "Is it necessary to see me naked although we know each other for barely two weeks?"

I stopped short. Two weeks? We know each other since ninth grade. Although, I knew her for that long. She probably never noticed me until now.

"Oh... okay", I stuttered and turned around, closing my eyes although I knew I couldn't see her anyway.

"Ready", she said after a minute. I turned around, regarding her in tight black skinny jeans and a grey, baggy hoodie. Her dark brown hair was so long it almost reached her hip. Perfect messy waves. I had to stop myself to not run my hands through her long, soft hair.

"Cal?" She asked, waving her hand. "Are you there?"

That pulled me out of my stare. "Present."

She grinned, walking over the window and opening it with a fainted groan. "Damn, those windows are pretty heavy to open."

"Window?" I couldn't believe her.

"Yeah, window", she repeated, "You think we're going to stroll along the hallways waving and winking at the nurses? No honey, we have to play it safe."

"June, it's the second floor."

"So what?" She rolled her eyes. "We can jump, it's only two meters."

"You literally have a bandage around your head, you can't jump. What if something happens and you land on your head?"

She sighed, throwing her hair behind her back. "Come on, Calum. Don't be such a wuss. There is soft grass underneath, nothing's gonna happen."

Her eyes sought for my permission. I sighed annoyed: "Alright, but we have to be careful."

She nodded in agreement, climbing out of the window. "See, it's not that high", she convinced.

As we both jumped, I realized how short the free fall was. We both landed on our feet, safe and sound. "You were right", I laughed, stroking over my hair.

She couldn't keep her face straight. "What?" I asked in confusion.

"You look so worried."

"I don't."