New Beginnings || Calum Hood

two

two

The next periods went by as usual. The same people fell asleep in English class and the same people tried too hard to prove their point in Debate. I was relieved to see Stacey, Mere, and Kelly walking towards me in the lunch line.

I sat down with only an apple in hand. Still anxious about a boy that probably thought of me as nothing other than a nerd in his science class.

"Aren't you hungry?" asked Meredith.

"Not. At. All." I said staring out the window.

"Are you sick or something?" Kelly chimed in.

"Something like that..." I couldn't admit to myself, that after years of kindly dismissing any boy to even attempt to flirt with me, not wanting a distraction, I had given in. Unfortunately for me, he might as well have been One Direction's Harry Styles because I didn't stand a chance.

"You guys are idiots. She's obvious in love." Stacey said, holding out the 'v.'

"What? No! What are you guys talking about? You know me! Have I ever had a crush... On anyone?" I spit the words out all too quickly. If they didn't know before they definitely knew now.

"Oh. My. God. You do have a crush. What the hell?! What's gotten into you?" Meredith said jokingly.

"Nothing has gotten into me. And so what if I have a crush. What's the big deal. You guys have had plenty of crushes." I talked back to them defensively but I wasn't scary in the slightest.

"Yea, but none of us have a chance of ever getting the guy." Kelly said acknowledging the crew.

I dismissed her comment and took a large bite of my apple. When a piece got stuck in my teeth I didn't hesitate to try and dig it out with my fingernail. That is until Calum Hood himself walked smoothly through the double doors of the cafeteria.

"Hmmmmm" I groaned nervously and removed my fingers from my mouth after failing to get the apple out of my teeth.

"Hey Elizabeth," Calum said to me, not failing to smile. I smiled back nervously and awkwardly without showing and teeth. He chuckled to himself and walked towards the food line.

"No. Way." My friends began their pestering.

"You are totally crushing on Calum Hood!"

"I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner, you guys are so cute!"

"I can't believe this! I never thought I never thought I would see the day when Elizabeth of all people would get nervous around a guy."

"Stop! So what! I have a little crush on him." They were all silent and grinning. "I'm going to go throw this away." I told them indicating my apple I had only taken three bites of. I got up and tossed the apple into the garbage bin. I pivoted on my heels and headed back to my friends but before I could reach them I lost my footing when walking over some spilled soda on the floor.

I felt myself begin to fall when no one other than Calum Hood himself caught me by my shoulders. Of course this isn't before the tray of food that was previously in his hands came plummeting down onto my shirt and pants and then crashed loudly on the ground.

We stood there for less than five seconds speechless. It felt like an eternity. He could probably here how fast my heart was beating. The eyes of the entire lunch room were locked on us.

"I'm so sorry." He said genuinely and concerned.

"Why? It was completely my fault. My parents don't call me crazy feet for no reason." I have ways been quite the klutz, but I had found that I was usually able to hide it behind ironed clothes and shiny shoes. "Are you okay?" I asked him with guilt in my voice.

"Never been better." He said gladly.

I bent down to help him clean up the mess of food on the floor. We tried to clean it up to the best of our abilities. When we stood up the lunch room erupted in applause. "I'm going to go clean up." I told him as kindly and calmly as possible. I walked out of the lunch room hastily, Stacey following behind me.

I walked into the girls restroom and a minute later Stacey appeared with an old gym shirt, a school sweatshirt, and a pair of black skinny jeans. Not my usual look, but at this point it was perfect.

"That was amazing!" She said to me, giddy with excitement.

"What?! Did you not just witness the absolute catastrophe that just occurred out there? I'm wearing his lunch!"

"Yeah, but you definitely got his attention."

"Along with the attention of every Junior in our school."

"Don't worry about that! Here, get cleaned up." She handed me the clothes and I step into the stall to change.

"Thanks Stace." I was honestly really lucky to have a friend like her.

We walked out together. Both Kelly and Meredith were waiting for us.

"You okay Liz?" Kelly asked concerned.

"I'll be fine." I told them and we walked around the corner Calum was there standing with his hands in his pockets.

"Well... We better get to class." Meredith said grabbing the other girls rushing off and waving.

"Liz, again I just wanted to apologize."

"Stop it, Cal it's all my fault. I should be the one apologizing." He giggled to himself. "What are you laughing at?"

"Oh nothing's it's just no one had called me 'Cal' in years."

"Oh! Sorry I guess I just did it by accident. I won't-" I was embarrassed I didn't even think about it.

"No, no. I like when you say it." I smiled at my feet. "Here." he handed me a crinkled piece of paper with a phone number scribbled on. "I wan't to pay to get that cleaned."

"What? No! I'm sure I can get it out at home." I told him pushing the paper back into his hands. I wasn't quite sure, but I wasn't about to take his pity money.

"Well, take it anyways. It's almost time for midterms. Maybe we can get together to study for biology or something."

"Uh um" I couldn't form full words. "Sure! Yeah, okay thanks." I finally spit out the words. He placed the paper back in my hands. We stood there for a second in a silence that wasn't as awkward as one would think. "Well I better get going."

"Me too. Bye Liz"

"Bye Cal." I grinned and headed off to my locker. I was skipping in my head. Now all I need to do is build up the confidence to text the kid.

(SORRY ABOUT TYPOS)