Choices | calum hood & luke hemmings ✔️

twenty-seven

luke

Alex's eyes look up and peer over the top edge when my voice was heard.

"Yeah, come on in." She opens the door wider for me to walk in her neat bedroom with the summer sunset shining through from where her gray curtains didn't cover. I awkwardly stand by her dresser as she places a random piece of paper in between the pages she was reading.

"Can we first talk about how Calum caught you crying?" Light seems to reflect off her pearly white teeth when Alex smiles and hops on her bed, only to put one of her pillows in her lap.

"There's people out there!" I shush her about our tourmates in the living room down the hall and slide over to close the door.

"Hah! So it's true, you were crying!" Alex squeezes the life out of the poor pillow to her chest as she bursts with excitement.

"I got tricked." I smack my palm against my forehead and lean on the wall in defeat. "I hate your tricky questions, because there is never a right answer."

"There is, but everyone decides to respond to my questions in their own way." She corrects me with a cheeky grin.

"And you use it against them."

"Basically," Alex shrugs in confirmation. "but don't worry, I won't tell anyone you cried." She winks and pats the spot on the bed beside her. "Enough about me, you came here to talk so I will let you talk."

"Actually, this is about you." I stand up from the wall to sit on the bed across from the dark-haired girl I have come to admire. When her eyes widen, I hurry to add in hopes for her to relax, "Well, it is about what we were talking earlier before we got interrupted." I notice that she is still tense and I start to worry. Maybe this is going to be harder than I thought.

"Look," I decided to speak when Alex stays silent and no word passed through her lips. "I-uh-I asked Madi if she knew about how you knew the gender of our little munchkin," I smile a little after I use the nickname. "and she recommended that I talk to you about it so it must be really serious." My fingers fidget with each other as I become nervous with the conversation we are going to have.

"I didn't want to tell you this early..." Her lids close over the familiar light brown irises.

"So you lied." I state bluntly and it came out with more anger than I intended.

"No, no." Alex's hands slip into mine and my flesh literally turns into jelly as it calms down. "That is not what I wanted."

"I am not that dumb, Alex. I know things about you that I could probably never forget." I rub small, soothing circles on her knuckles. "Whatever it is that you are willing to tell me, I'm sure that we will get through this together." With that said, she visibly relaxes but I could still feel the shakiness of her palms. Wait, is that me shaking?

"A little bit of both, I'm guessing." She answers my thoughts and I start to redden when I realize that I spoke them out loud. We then had a laughing fit because of how I just embarrassed myself. I love that even in tense scenes, like what is occurring before us, Alex can still make me laugh.

I return to reality when she places her cold hands on my warming cheeks. "Please don't run away when I tell you." The statement seems more to make her feel better than a demand to me. I hold her wrists, just below her hands, and reassure her.

"I won't." Doubt speckles in Alex's eyes and I take a deep breath before saying, "I promise. Nothing will ever make me run away from you." Tears soon replace the uncertain thoughts in the area around her pupils as she nods and her fingers slide slowly down my face to fall in her lap. I only can hope that those waterworks are happy tears.