Afraid // Calum Hood

Chapter 23 // Exhale

Adelaide's Point of View

My jaw dropped instantly, my mouth lingering in a wide open position. I frantically scanned his face for some kind of proof that this was a joke. I had to be being Punk'd. Ashton Kutcher was going to be coming through the door at any minute. I spun around on my heel swiftly, but Lucy just nodded, assuring me that this information.

"I'm sorry," Michael said sadly, his hands reaching out to grab mine.

I swatted them away. "No," I stated firmly, shaking my head rapidly. "No. No. No. No he didn't. He couldn't do that. No."

Tears were forming in my eyes and they burned as I blinked, doing my best to supress them from falling. I was beyond overwhelmed. Calum was not capable of killing someone. He was my baby. He couldn't.

"Yes he did, Addy! I'm not lying!" Michael shouted, gripping onto my wrist so I was prevented from jerking away. "Why do you think I hate him so much? He's a jealous, cunning, murderer."

"Tell me the story," I demanded, now full on sobbing. I collapsed onto the concrete floor, curling my knees into my chest into the fetal position.

"Oh, Addy," Lucy cooed, kneeling down next to me. Her soft fingers stroked through my hair in an attempt to comfort me. Nothing was working. My stomach was tied into nervous knots that would never be broken.

Michael crouched down across from us. He swallowed before porceeding. "Ellie and Calum dated for, like ever. Her parents always tolerated Calum, but they didn't like their daughter being so serious at a young age. Calum was caught drinking at a party so they didn't like him very much because they thought he was a bad influence. Then her parents found out they were having sex, and Ellie got in a lot of trouble. She broke up with him because her parents were more important to her than Calum, and she was sick of getting in trouble because of him.

"Calum was furious because of this. Anytime Ellie was even around another boy he would get extremely jealous and got in a fight with a guy because of it once. He was always glaring at Ellie in school and everyone knew how much he hated her for breaking up with him. Then one night he kidnapped her out of her bedroom, forced her into his car, then purposely crashed the passenger side into a tree. Ellie died instantly and he had the nerve to cry about it. Then he was in jail for a long time until Mali, Ashton, and Luke all bailed him out. And now he has the possibility of doing this to you."

I sat there in silence for awhile, digesting his words. None of it added up. Calum looked at me with such love and pain in his eyes. There was no chance that he would ever do that to me, or to Ellie. Right?

I scrambled to my feet, dusting my clothes off and wiping away the tears that were clouding my vision. "I need to go talk to him."

Michael gripped my elbow tightly. "What? Don't you see how dangerous he is? You can't go near him anymore!"

"I have to hear it from him. I need to hear him tell me firsthand," I declared, shaking out of his grasp.

"Do you not believe me?" He shouted angrily, his eyebrows knitting together with his accusations.