Infatuated⎜Calum Hood

Chapter 1

Recrudescence

(adj) becoming raw again, breaking out afresh or into renewed activity

I could feel my heart beating in my chest the first time I stepped through the door, and into my new apartment. Okay, our new apartment. Parker would be living there as well.

It hasn't been easy to make enough money to buy the place, and even getting my parents permission to move had been rough, but I wasn't a child anymore and I couldn't stand living at home any longer. My parents always fought, and everyone else but them could see that they should've had a divorce long ago. Eventually I'd just had enough, so I packed my bags, grabbed my best friend, Parker, and got the hell out of there. Parker had needed a bit of convincing, but eventually he agreed to it. "I'd do anything for you, El." That's what he'd said and it meant the world to me. I wasn't sure that I would've been able to leave all on my own, without the support of by best friend. Now we'd just have to start over in a completely new place, far away from what I used to call my home.

The first long while of living in the apartment contained of unpacking and getting settled, trying to make it all work. The apartment wasn't huge, but it truly was a nice place. Me and Parker had a bedroom each, and other than that there was a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen.

I'd also managed to get a job at a local coffee shop further down the street whilst Parker was still searching. We had to make our economy work as well, or else we would be terribly screwed. "Not being a child anymore" definitely wasn't that easy, but we had each other to lean on.

It was Saturday morning, about two weeks after we'd moved in. It was about 6AM, way too early to even be alive if you asked me, but I had a job to take care of. Parker, as nice as he was, had gotten out of bed as well to make me breakfast. That's just how he was as a person. Incredibly kind and genuinely amazing.

"So, for how long will you be at work today?" He asked as we ate breakfast at the small dinner table in the kitchen.

"Just a couple of hours. You could drop by at some point if you want to?" I answered with a sleepy smile on my lips.

"I think you need a cup of coffee more than me. You look like you haven't slept in days." He said, followed by a chuckle. I just rolled my eyes at him.

"Thanks, I kinda feel like it too." I knew he didn't mean anything by it, waking up early just really wasn't my thing.

It was quite a boring shift, really. Most people were probably sleeping in, or sleeping through their hangovers at this point, so the streets were pretty empty. Tomorrow's shift would probably be like that too. Nobody else wanted these early morning shifts, so I'd taken most of them, which I regretted every time I had to get up at an inhumane hour in the morning.

It was now about 9AM, and I was cleaning up behind the counter as the soft music from the speakers in the ceiling filled the room. Suddenly the bell by the door rang, indicating that a costumer had walked in, but I just kept doing whatever I was doing.

"I'll just have a cup of coffee. Black." I finally looked up and for a second it felt like the world had stopped turning. The customer was dressed in all black. Black skinny jeans, black leather jacket. His skin was the color of caramel and his dark hair was slightly curly. His eyes were covered by the sunglasses he was wearing, but I didn't have to see them to know that they were a deep brown, almost black color. I also didn't have to see them to feel his gaze on me. There was no doubt about it, it was Calum Hood.