Be Your Everything

t h i r t y t w o

You Never Know: Are You Happy Know?

"Elle," Calum whispers from behind me, "can I talk to you for a minute?"

I nod and follow him into the dressing room, which he locks behind him. I'm terrified of how this conversation is going to go.

Is he mad at me for last night? Or does he just want to forgive and forget like I do? We stand in silence for a moment until I finally decide to speak up.

"Calum-"

"Please, let me apologize." Calum runs the back of his neck and sighs. "I can't change what I did, but I would do anything to make it up to you. I am so so sorry, and if you give me another chance, I promise to be the person you deserve."

I fling myself into his arms without another word on the subject. I don't want to dwell on the past anymore, I just want to focus on finding a future with him in it. We've both made mistakes recently, but everything is going to be fine now. It has to be.

"Is that a yes?" Calum chuckles and wraps his arms around my shoulders. I nod into his chest and tilt my head up to kiss him. The instant that I find his soft lips, it's as if the past twenty-four hours have been erased. "Nice try with last night, by the way."

"What are you talking about?" I pull back to look at him, and Calum just stands there with an amused grin.

"Faking having sex with Luke," he says with a wink. "It was a little obvious though."

I take in a sharp breath when I realize what his thought process is. Calum thinks that Luke and I only pretending to hook up last night.

I begin to panic as the realization hits me. No wonder he's not mad at me. I'm the one who should be asking for forgiveness right now, not him. I slept with his best friend not even twenty-four hours ago, and here I am, getting back together with him. There's no way I can tell him the truth now.

"Don't worry," Calum reassures me by placing a kiss on my nose. "It was a cute effort, but jealousy looks better on you."

"Oh," I giggle nervously and look at the floor, "jokes on me then." I want desperately for this conversation to end before I blurt out the truth.

"The only flaw in your plan was I knew you'd never actually hook up with him," Calum whispers against my cheek. "He doesn't know that amazing body the way that I do."

My breathing quickens when Calum slips his hands under my shirt and grips my bare waist. I'm pressed against the wall before I can even think twice, and my legs wrap around his wait in a desperate attempt to pull him closer.

"Jesus," Calum gasp as I tighten my legs around him. "You drive me wild. You know that?"

I can't even respond, so he takes my heavy breathing as a sign to move down my neck. He chuckles to himself and stops when he reaches the mark that Luke made the night before, and I panicked for a second.

"Nice touch," he smirks up at me and kisses my neck. "But I know he can never make you scream for him like you do for me."

I thread my fingers into his hair without another word and pull him back up to my lips. Calum keeps his hands under my thighs as he lifts me from the wall and walks us over to the couch. His lips find a spot on my neck and he goes to work to form a dark bruise there, but the memory of Luke from last night causes my breath to catch in my throat.

I can't do this. It's not fair.

"Calum-" I try to ask him to stop, but it comes out more like a whimper.

"Such a good girl," he whispers against my skin, and I shiver at the petname. As much as I want to keep this going, I can't get the image of Luke out of my head.

"We can't..." I gently push him back, and Calum gives me a puzzled expression. "I just-"

"No, it's okay," he chuckles nervously and slowly sits up straight. "Now's not the time. I just missed you."

"I missed you too," I smile at him reassuringly and slowly sit up. "Last night was insane."

"And I had no idea it would go that way. I'm sorry for not telling you about Heather, but I was going to say something before Ashton beat me to it," Calum explains, and I find myself thinking back to my conversation earlier.

"Ashton told me to stop seeing you." I play with my thumbs in my lap, but Calum places his hands over mine to stop my movements.

"He knows?" Calum furrows his brow at me.

"Kind of," I take a deep breath and look back up at him. "He thinks I'm cheating on Luke with you."

"But you're not," Calum insists. "You can't let him get inside of your head. You're not really cheating on Luke, so you don't have to feel bad."

"But I am!" I almost shout, but quickly catch myself. My head snaps down in fear of accidentally telling Calum what really happened when I got back to my hotel room last night.

"Elle, baby, it's not like you have feelings for him or something." Calum tilts my chin back up to face him, but his words cause me to freeze.

What if I do have feelings for Luke? Last night, however unplanned it was, wouldn't have happened if I didn't feel some connection to Luke.

"You're right," I say instead. I don't need to make Calum worry about me and Luke's relationship, especially when I know Luke only sees me as a friend.