mistake || c.h au

|| chapter seventeen ; note cards ||

•

|| january 25, 2014 ||

•

Calum forced himself to open his eyes and drag himself out of bed once he had heard a knock at the door followed by another once he didn't answer. He guessed that it would just be Louis, who had forgotten his keys before he went out the night before.

Still half asleep, Calum didn't bother to look through the peephole to see who it in fact was, he just opened the door anyway. He was only wearing his boxers, and goosebumps rose on his skin when the cool air from the apartment block hallway attacked him.

Expecting to be met by his roommate, Calum had to blink a few times before he registered that it was his girlfriend standing at the door instead.

"Happy birthday!" She cheered, before Calum had a chance to greet her.

"Thanks," Calum said with a lazy smile, his voice still thick with sleep.

He opened the door wider in order to allow Stella inside, and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind once he'd locked the door again.

"Come to bed?" Calum mumbled, resting his chin in Stella's shoulder as he walked them forward. "You woke me up."

Stella turned on her heel to face the tan boy that was taller than her and pouted.

"But what about your present?" She asked, holding up the shiny blue gift bag that she held in her right hand.

"You got me a present?" Calum asked, surprised that she had bothered although they had been together for a year now.

"Obviously, Calum!"

"You didn't have too," Calum shrugged.

"Yes I did," Stella said, pulling Calum towards his bed by his hand. "Now open it!"

Calum groaned playfully, rolling over on his bed and burying his face into the pillows to hide the stupid grin on his face that Stella always seemed to give him.

Stella took her shoes off and placed them neatly beside Calum's nightstand, and hung her scarf up on the drawer handles before joining Calum, but instead of lying down, Stella sat up with her back against the headboard.

"Calum," she whined, desperate for him to comply and open his birthday gift.

"If I open it, can we sleep after?" Calum bargained.

"Nope," Stella shook her head, a smile pulling at her lips. "I have a whole day planned out, so you have to get dressed after."

Calum groaned again, but not ungratefully. He liked that she cared enough to plan out a whole day dedicated to him because of his birthday, even though he didn't think it was a big deal.

"Right, come on then," Calum sat up, crossing his legs and facing his girlfriend.

Stella placed the blue gift bag in front of Calum, and he out pulled the tissue paper from the top and peered inside. There were three individually wrapped gifts in the bag; two boxes, and one that looked like a soft lump that would have been difficult to wrap.

"Which one should I open first?" Calum looked up expectantly.

Stella reached into the bag and pulled out the larger of the two boxes.

"This one."

Calum took it from her, and ripped open the wrapping paper as carefully as he could, smiling at the puppy print on it as he did so.

As he ripped open the paper, a small note card fell out onto his lap with Stella's cursive handwriting on it. He picked it up and smiled as it read; 'now you don't have an excuse to be late x'.