Meteor Shower ✯ calum hood

✯eleven✯

Calum woke me up the next morning.

Despite being woken up so early, it was sweet.

He had attempted to make breakfast for me; he handed me a plate with burnt eggs and a half cooked pancake.

I nudged the doughy pancake with my fork.

"This is incredible, Calum, thank you so much--but can we go get some real breakfast?"

He pouted for a second before laughing at his failure.

"Hey," he defended himself, "At least I tried."

I took a quick shower and threw on some decent clothes before meeting Calum downstairs.

Grabbing my keys, I followed Calum to my car.

"Let's play a game," Calum asked suddenly.

I quirked an eyebrow. "What do you have in mind?"

"Twenty questions."

"That's so basic," I laughed. "But go for it. I can't let a stranger live in my house forever."

Calum beamed, "You can ask first."

I hesitated.

What do I ask him? There are so many options, but at the same time so little. What could I ask without being invasive?

I settled on this: "What's it like being famous?"

Calum rolled his eyes and I wasn't sure if it was at me or the question. "Overrated."

I raised an eyebrow, urging him to continue.

"At first, it's a dream come true. You wake up one day and you realize that your dream is now your reality and it's exhilarating. Going on stage with your best friends every night? It's the life. Getting recognized on the streets and having girls throw themselves at your feet? Crazy.

But it's exhausting. Sometimes--sometimes you just need a break from it all. But you can't have that--once you're in the limelight, there's no escape. It's like one of those religions that look super cool because all they do is chill and be nice to each other but in reality it's a cult."

I let out a bark of laughter at his analogy.

"I'm serious," he said, twisting his fingers in his lap.

Daring to glance away from the road, I looked over at Calum's face. He was dead serious.

"What happened?"

Calum laughed, a bitter undertone. "It's my turn now," he said, changing the subject.

I made a note to find a better way to word my next question.

"Ask away."

Calum made a humming noise. "Why are you helping me?"

My breath caught. That was a good questions--one I couldn't even answer.

I thought about it for a couple of seconds.

Calum took that as a bad sign.

"Really? You're not gonna answer? That's not even an intruding question, geez. Just answer it," he rambled, sounding a little irritated.

I shushed him. "Chill--I really don't know why I'm helping you. It'd definitely be a lot easier to just drop you on the side of the road right now."

Calum scowled. "Then do it--just get rid of me if I'm such a burden." His glare was burning into me.

"Okay," I told him simply.

Although he was the one to suggest the idea, he seemed surprised that I actually rolled to a stop.