Pretending (C. H)

Chapter 2: The First Try.

Nia and her sister,Rena were casually having a movie marathon on the couch of their band apartment the next day. They lost track of how many movies and seasons they have watched on Netflix but when Nia turned to check the time, it was already 7:45 which meant that Calum was gonna pick her up in fifteen minutes. She stood up, walked back to her room and got ready. She was in the middle of doing her eyeliner when Rena yelled for her, causing her to mess up and smudge the make-up on her eye.

"NIAAAAA! CALUM'S HERE!!" Rena yelled.
"SHUT UP AND GIVE ME MORE TIME!" Nia shot back.

She frantically looked for makeup remover and restarted her left eye makeup all over again,patting powder around it. She grabbed her bag and rushed down the stairs. She put on a pair of converse and met Calum outside their door.

"Hey." He said,smiling at her. "What took you so long?" He asked.
"I messed up my make up. I hope it's not obvious." She said,blushing.
"Don't worry about it, you still look really great." He said, shooting her a wink.
"Thanks." She smiled. "Not so bad yourself." She complimented.
He nodded. "You ready to go?" He asked.
"Yeah." She replied.

Calum reached out for her hand and Nia interlocked her fingers with Calum's. They awkwardly walked together back to Calum's car. Calum opened the door for her and she got inside the passenger seat. He closed the door and went inside the driver's seat. They both fastened their seat belts and Calum drove away, his right hand still holding her left. She slowly pryed her hand away from his. He looked at her with a suspicious look on his face.

"Um,why'd you do that?" He asked.
"Look, I know we're on this PR stunt thing but, there's no one around to see that and it'll probably just feed me false hope." She said.
"Okay but,what do you mean by false hope? Do you have a crush on me?" He asked cockily.
"Calum, you're insanely handsome, don't get me wrong but I don't have a crush on you." She deffended.
"Okay,no need to get all defensive but thanks for the compliment and clarification." He said.
"You never really told me where we were going." Nia said.
"We're going to the Olive Garden." He announced, she nodded.

The rest of the drive going to the Olive Garden was mostly silent, the only thing that could be heard was the quoet music coming from the radio and the soft sound of air coming from the air vents.

Calum found a spot in the parking lot and took the space. He went outside and opened the door for Nia, closing the door once she got out. She mumbled a quiet "thank you" before they walked close to each other going to the restaurant. As expected, some fans managed to find us and stopped by to take photos, mostly with Calum. Nia stood near the entrance as she watched him take photos with a small group of fans. One of them looked at her in disgust.

"Why is she with Calum? Didn't she and her bandmates kick out their former vocalist?" She snickered to her friend.

Things like that set Nia off. Even if it wasn't true and that Julia Pierce, their former lead singer, actually left because she wanted to go solo,other fans chose to believe that they kicked her out and gave the vocalist position to Rena. Nia inhaled sharply before stomping over to them.

"Hi so, I hope you realize that I'm not deaf and I heard you. Before you say something, make sure your facts are straight because that is not what happened." She said. The fan got pissed and shoved her to the ground. They all laughed at Nia as she tried to stop tears coming down. Calum has had it too and decided to speak up.

"If you girls wanted a photo, that's fine with me but what's not is that you say something about my friend when she was literally standing right there and even got the guts to shove her down. What kind of people are you?" He spat. The girls rolled their eyes and left. Calum sighed as he gently lifted Nia back up to her feet as she brushed dust off her leather skirt.
"Thanks." She said,smiling at him.
"It's no problem. Hey, are you okay?" He asked, Nia nodded.
"I'm fine, let's just get inside so we could get this over with." Nia said.

Calum put his arm around Nia firmly. "I know what I'm doing.", he explained. They walked inside, Calum pushing the chair back for Nia before sitting down himself. A waiter came by to give them menus. Nia wanted to order pizza and pesto since it was the only thing she could recognize.

"Have you never eaten Italian food before?" Calum asked her.
"Only on rare occasions,though." He said.

When the waiter came by again to take their orders, Calum got the same thing as Nia to make her feel better. The food ended up taking longer than expected which didn't bother the both of them since they kept talking like good old friends.

"I finally met someone who understands my love for dogs!" Calum said and Nia giggled.
"Yeah. You haven't met Edgar and Sarabella yet, now have you?" She asked, Calum shook her head no.
"They did bark at me when I came to pick you up a while ago,though." He said.
The waiter came and dropped off their food.
"Would you like to come over again tomorrow so you could meet them?" She asked, twirling her fork on the plate to get some pasta.
"Sure but,don't we have to go out in public?" Calum asked.
"Right. We'll walk them then." She said.
"Okay." Calum said and smiled at her.

Time flashed by quickly for them while they enjoyed each other's company at the restaurant. It was going better than expected. When the bill came, Calum offered to pay. He drove Nia back home and walked her to her porch.

"I had a great time tonight." Nia said,blushing.
"So did I." Calum said.
"So,I'll see you tomorrow?" Nia asked.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Calum clarified before kissing her cheek tenderly and winked at her.

Nia walked inside the house and saw that her bandmates were peeping out the window. She jokingly rolled her eyes as she surprisingly grabbed Casey's back to surprise him. He ended up screaming and whacking her in the face.

"Oh my god,why?!" Nia yelped.
"I'm sorry but,this is why you guys don't sneak up on me!" Casey said.
"Whatever." Nia said. "You guys weren't just watching me and Calum, right?" She asked.
"We were. Oh god, we were fangirling so hard when he kissed you." Miranda said and she and the others bursted into laughter.
"So,what's the plan tomorrow?" Rena said,wiggling her eyebrows and playfully shoving her sister.
"Well, I wanted to properly introduce him to the dogs and take them out for a walk in the park." Nia said.