But Could We?

Chapter 6 - Her

"Calum and Skyler, since you are the only two left, I guess you are now partners!"

Oh no.

I didn't know much about this Calum boy, but what I do know is that he is quite popular, is a bit of douche, and once tried to punch me in the face.

This is going to be fun.

As he began to walk towards me I braced myself for more rudeness and obnoxiousness. Surprisingly however, that's not what I got.

As his warm, brown eyes met mine he embraced me in a hug so comforting I almost enjoyed it.

As his perfectly balanced between skinny and muscly arms wrapped around my small body I closed my eyes, feeling safe and happy for the first time in a long time but, of course, it couldn't last.

As I snapped back into my boring, inaudacious senses I realised this was a very taboo thing to do, and despite the weird stares Calum just did not seem to care.

When he finally pulled away he immediately began rambling some unexpected apology for earlier, taking me slightly aback with his, what sounded to be, extremely rehearsed speech.

"- and I'm sorry for when I almost hit you, I swear I wasn't trying to hurt you and I just get angry sometimes and-" I cut him off before he could embarrass himself any more.

"Calum, I have no idea what you are talking about. What do you mean you almost hit me?" I asked him with a small smirk, praying to God he would get what I was doing and not think I was some crazy girl with short term memory loss.

As he furrowed his eyebrows, I raised mine in an expecting way hoping he would understand.

Thankfully after a few seconds of awkward silence he gasped in realisation as he tapped the side of his nose, confirming he understood.

***

As soon as the bell went I began packing my books away as fast as possible. It wasn't that I didn't like this class, I hated this class, and when everybody started excusing themselves I did the same.

It was lunch next and seeing as I don't really have any friends I decided to sit alone at a table for two.

I did used to have friends. Loads in fact, but it wasn't until just earlier this year I realised what douches they all were.

One, Millie, was obsessed with being noticed - you could even go as far as to say she was an attention whore, in fact do, she was but we were still friends. She made me happy and I her but unfortunately for me our prolonged friendship did not stop her from rumouring. Remember that boy? Who hit me because of some rumour that went round about me and his brother? I bet you can't guess who spread it.

Millie.

And ever since then I have hated her guts.

There was one other, Morgan but she didn't do anything wrong. We just kind of drifted away. It happens I mean she wore high cut tops I wore band tees, she wore short skirts I wore black skinnies, she wore jimmy choo's I didn't give a shit what was on my feet. It was a mutual feeling and neither of us are that hard done by it.

I looked up searching for either one in the canteen, seeing what they were up to nowadays, however instead of meeting theirs my eyes met another pair of familiar pupils, and what's more they had met mine too. It was Calum.

After staring in silence from either ends of the canteen he began to approach me. I was nervous and excited at the same time. I mean we had just met but it already felt like I had known him for years. Is that weird?

I had no time to think about an answer as he sat down before me, doing nothing but stare.

"Umm...yes?" I asked him, cautious not to offend.

He blinked several times surfacing from the ocean of deep thoughts he was currently having. I wonder what he was thinking about?

"Oh...yeah sorry I just um came over to uh see if you were you know lonely - not that you looked lonely I just thought um-" He stopped as to compose himself and got up to leave.  Presuming he wanted to be alone I got back to my staring and thinking, however he didn't leave. And not only that I didn't even notice he was still there until I felt a pair of confused, impatient eyes on me.

Looking down at me he held out his hand and gestured me to follow him. At first I was very against going however after some quick thinking I decided to go. Why not I mean what could go wrong right? Well...

It was a beautiful day so Calum led us outside to a more private part of the school. We were in the cool shadow of the school and it felt amazing. The wind was in my hair and I could smell the fresh odour of food arising from the canteen. It was brilliant.

Calum hadn't said anything so far so I decided to ask him where exactly it was we were going.

"So uh...Calum where are we going?"

Nothing. Just a small smirk and a head nod in the direction of a small hill.

I began to get excited. It was a pretty hill with flowers and benches and no one else. Just me and Calum, however my excitement dropped the moment we stepped out of the sunlight.

Pain spread through my body like nothing I had ever felt before. Every part of my body felt like it was burning and I don't know - oh shit yes I do. I do know why I felt like my body was burning - because it was. I looked down at my bare arms and they were covered in burns of the richest red.

I looked up at Calum who was trying to calm me down. I began panicking, the pain was unbearable. The last thing I felt was the cold ground below me before the lights went out.