Double Or Nothing // C.T.H

30 ~ Calum

With the hours set back for winter, the sun was already beginning to set on our walk home, splattering dark orange and deep pink across the blue horizon, the colors reflecting beautifully against the dying trees and chipped paint peeling off the houses. Like someone had finally colored in this blank page of a neighborhood.

"So.... Winter formal is in just a few weeks," Thomas says pointedly, watching me with a smirk that I still haven't quite gotten used to.

"Yeah, so?" I shrug, stepping over a crack in the sidewalk that had a few small flowers struggling through the cement.

"So, when are you going to ask Valerie?" His smirk grows as I choke on the cold December air.

"What? Who said I was even going?" My voice, a bit louder than intended, echoed against the molding houses

Thomas stopped walking, his shoes scrapping the sidewalk as he grabbed my arm to also stop me. "Come on, Cal, you're totally obsessed with her,"

I scrunch my face up, causing wrinkles to form on the bridge of my nose, "pfffffffft, I'm not obsessed with her,"

Thomas looks as me for a second before deep chuckles escape from his throat. " Good one, mate."

I narrow my eyes at him as he wipes his own in laughter.

"No, but when are you going to ask her? I need to know that way I can secretly record it for your wedding,"

I roll my eyes as he chuckles again, and we begin to walk once more.

"You're really annoying, ya' know?" I eyed him and he just shrugs, "But I...I don't know if I'm going to go at all," my voice comes out soft, and my hands burrow their way into my pockets.

Thomas looks over to me, his chocolate eyes that mirror my own, scrutinize my facial expression, his lips set in a thought full line. The multicolored light emitting from the setting sun catching his face so purely, it almost covered up the yellow bruise resting on his jaw.

"Why? You two...you guys have something, it's prevalent against all your claims otherwise," His breath formed small clouds, a visual of just how cold everything seems to be getting.

I sigh, the chilled air refreshing my lungs and sending shivers down my arms and legs. "I just don't want to- I-," I shake my head, my thoughts jumbled like scribbles on paper. "I guess I'm scared of being rejected," my cheeks heat against the wind.

Although, that's not the complete truth.

"Calum," Thomas says, his voice a confusing tone of amusement and thoughtfulness. "Valerie, she doesn't do things like most people do, she's very ....reserved. But the one thing I know about her, for sure, is that you have a strange effect on her,"

I look over to him, his dark hair tossed back by the wind and his eyes squinted. "What do you mean, strange effect?"

He closes his eyes for a moment, and it is just then the colors streaked across the sky began to lose their vibrancy. "The simple way of putting this is you make her rapturous. Her face lights up when she sees you and her smile stretches much wider at your jokes, even the ones that aren't funny," He muses, sending me a smug smile, " You should have seen her when she told me what Seth did, she can get pretty protective. Trust me, she cares about you."

The blood that had already heated my cheeks pressed harder against my skin in a desperate attempt to be seen. I look the other way, letting Thomas see me blush is not on my to-do list.

"And you, man you're whipped. Anyone, a complete stranger could tell that you'd follow her to the end of he word,"  He says, with only the slightest hint of teasing.