What I like about you. || Calum Hood

Chapter 6

Alika pov

Calum picks up Cole and talks while turning around to face me "Thanks for....Al?" "Hi, Calum." I say my mood changing drastically. "You know Cal? How?" Cole asks me. "Al and I attend the same school, Cole." Calum answers. Cole whispers in Calum's ear, loud enough for me to hear "Is that the girl you call a prude? She's really pretty. Why don't you ask her out?" This just got awkward. "Al, here you are. Come, let's go." Madison says and pulls me with her hiding the pregnancy test. "Al, can we meet tomorrow?" Calum shouts. I stop and ask "Why and where?" "For the assignment and at my house. I can't go to Malmesbury tomorrow." "Fine, see you then."

It was a Sunday afternoon and Eric just messaged me the address to Calum's house. He offered me a lift, but I said its fine and told him about Madison instead. I look in the mirror. My straightened brown hair just reached the end of my small boobs. I pair my long grey high low t-shirt that reached just the back of my knees and my black skinny jeans creased as always and my dirty black converse. I walk downstairs. My parents were out, at some family elders' reunion. I lock my house door and walk my way to Calum's, which is surprisingly not too far. A few more steps and I'm there. I knock on the door, hoping his family isn't like him. His mother, I'm assuming opens the door "And you must be Alika?" I look at her and she pulls me in for a hug. What a joyful lady, I think. "Hello, yes I'm Alika. Nice to meet you Mrs. Hood." I say. "Oh please, call me Joy" Well, what do you know? "Okay, Joy it is." "Well, come on in. I hope you're hungry. I made chicken pie for lunch" she states. I like her already. Calum makes his way downstairs, sees me and says "Hey Al, let's go upstairs." "And where do you think you're going?" Joy asks. "I didn't make all this food for nothing. Calum call your father and Mali to come eat please?" I sit at the table so long, waiting for the family of Hoods to come. "And who is this young lady?" I stand up and say "Hi Mr. Hood, I'm Alika, nice to meet you." "No, please call me David." I smile and sit down with them. I hear Calum and laughter coming from a girl. I look up at Calum and see how he laughs with someone who looks exactly like him, but is a girl, whoa. "Hi Alika, I'm Mali. Calum's sister. She goes all the way around the table and hugs me. "Nice to meet you, Mali." I say hugging her back. The Hoods are quite a friendly bunch, just like my dad said. We all start digging into the food. "So Alika, tell us about yourself?" David asks. "Please David, call me Al." I don't know why, but the whole table is filled with chuckles. "Okay, Al. Tell us about yourself? Any boyfriends?" Joy asks. "Well, I liked this guy once." "And what happened?" Mali asks. "He was a total di----ass----let's just say he wasn't a nice guy" I say, trying not to show my true emotions towards that asshole, Christian. "Well, this guy doesn't really seem all that then" David says, probably trying to ignore the fact that I said some really bad words. Shit, I'm making a really bad impression.

We finished eating and I offered to help clean, but Joy said its fine. I'm in Calum's room, sitting on his bed and waiting for him to start with the assignment. There is a guitar leaning against his walls, which are filled with posters of punk rock looking bands. Some I easily recognize, while others I don't. I don't know how he manages to sleep at night. Don't get me wrong, but I feel uncomfortable dressing or sleeping with posters on my wall. It's like the eyes on the poster are watching me. "Hey Al" Calum says walking into his bedroom. "So are we going to start?" I ask looking at him. "Yes, we're so far behind. I heard the others are already finishing up with their assignments" Calum states. The room was filled with awkwardness. "So I think we should start with the basics, like what's your favorite color or what's your favorite food or something." I say. I always bring up food in awkward times. "Yeah, so what is your favorite food?" Calum asks sitting on his bed next to me. "Well, I really love pasta, but at the same time I love lamb roast. I can't choose. It constantly changes. What about you?" "I like roast too." "Okay, so we should write that down and make a list of stuff about each other." I say. Calum goes to his schoolbag, which is next to his guitar and takes out a pen and notepad. "Do you play guitar?" I ask him. "Oh, yes. I love it." Calum starts getting excited about how he loves playing guitar and goes on and on about all the songs he can play. He smile's so big that his eyes go crinkly and he makes eye contact. "So play a song or strum a tune. Whatever words you use for a guitar" I say, giggling. "Okay, but I'm not that good and—" "Stop lying and play" I interrupt him. "Okay. Which song? Oh." He slowly starts to play a very familiar tune. It's that song in that movie Identity Thief. "I know this song. "I start to sing "When I wake up, well, I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you... What? What's so funny?" I ask Calum, who's laughing at me. "You're so cute when you sing." he laughs. "Well, why don't you sing then." I tell him avoiding the, what I am assuming was a compliment. "Okay, I would walk five hundred miles and I would walk five hundred more..." I start laughing and Calum looks up asking me what's wrong? "You suck, Calum" I say laughing. Calum starts blushing "No, I don't" he says and stops playing the guitar. "Yes, you do" I say back. He leans closer to me "No, I don't" he says again and pushes me down on his bed, hovers over and starts tickling me. "Calum, ss—st—op, pleeeeaassseee" I say laughing and slowly starting to cry from laughter. "No!" he says and continues tickling me. I laugh till my brown skin could probably turn blue and start pushing him back. We start tackling and hover on each other. I try getting up and then bump my head against Calum's head. "Ow!" I say still kind of laughing. I look up and see Calum's eyes staring directly into mine as he slowly starts to move closer to me. I turn my head to the side and say "I should probably get going." "Oh, yeah." he says and gently gets off of me.