Be Your Everything

s i x

"So Elle," Calum clears his throat as he speaks, "what brings you here tonight?"

"My friend Jo. She's an intern with Modest, but I guess you already knew that."

"Yeah I saw you talking with her sister, Jaclyn. How come I haven't seen you around before?" Calum turns to angle his body towards me and reclines in his seat.

"I just got here this morning. I'm originally from South Carolina." I explain, assuming he knows relatively where that is. Calum nods as if he suddenly has a vast realization.

"An aspiring actress trying to make it in the big city?" He gives me an expression that almost says 'that's cute', but I shake my head.

"YouTuber," I correct him. "Most of my work stuff is out here in California and traveling back and forth all of the time was becoming a bit of a hassle." Calum seems almost pleased with my answer, nodding his head in interest.

"I might just have to watch these videos of yours."

"Well it's all makeup related, so I doubt you'd find them very entertaining." Calum shrugs at my answer, as if the topic of my videos didn't deter him from watching them.

"I'll probably still watch them." His face holds this smile that was somewhere between a smirk and a shy smile that matches the mixture of emotions in his eyes. He's such a flirt, but the fact that his nervousness is still peeking through makes him even more charming, and I can't help but love every second of it.

"Well I guess it's only fair, seeing as I've watched your videos from back in the day." I give him a wink before reaching for one of the complementary water bottles that is sitting on a table next to us. Calum looks confused for about half a second until his eyes grow wide as he realizes what videos I'm talking about.

"Oh God, you've seen those?" I let out a small laugh at his reaction. He and his friends had uploaded some embarrassing content on YouTube when they were teenagers, and most of them could still be found on the internet. About a year ago, I'd gotten the flu and was put on bed rest with nothing to do but waste hours on my laptop at a time. After I'd caught up on other YouTubers' videos that I normally watched, I found one of the 5 Seconds of Summer cover videos from a couple years earlier and somehow ended up spending almost an entire day watched four of my favorite people act like complete idiots.

"If it makes you feel any better, you've only gotten cuter with time." As soon as I say this, his adorable nervous smirk reappears and the muscles in his shoulders relax again.

"I'm sure the same is true for you." He smiles wider as he pulls his phone from his pocket. "Not to be too forward or anything, but can I get your number before you manage to run off with someone else?" He chuckles nervously as he holds the phone in his hand.

"Oh, now you're worried about being forward?" I tease, reaching out for his phone to let him know that I was perfectly okay with his advances. I reach into my purse to retrieve my own phone and we hand each other our devices. Calum takes my neon pink phone in his hand and smiles, shaking his head at the girly device while I put my information into his plain black one.

"Now that I know how to spell your name, I can stalk your YouTube channel." Calum gives a devilish grin as he begins to type on his phone. I protest and try to reach for his phone to keep him from looking at it, but Calum's arms are far longer than mine, keeping the phone far out of my reach. I knew I had openly stated that I had a crush on Calum's friend in one of my latest videos, and that is not something I want him to find. He laughs at my attempt to snatch the phone, and I giggle despite myself at the childish situation.

"Come on! I will sit through one of our old videos with you if you'll do the same for me!" He pouts his full lower lip while simultaneously batting his chocolate-colored eyes at me. I know it would be suspicious if I refused to let him watch the videos, and he would probably just watch them later once I wasn't around to stop him, so I sigh dramatically and agree to his terms.