Fade To Grey

10

I love this story I'm just bad at updating

"Renee?" She was broken from her trance when Calum addressed her softly. His words and gestures were padded as he slowly approached her with wide, worried eyes.

She wondered for a moment why he looked so worried, until she carefully brought her hand to her face and felt the tears on her cheeks. It was funny, she'd become so numb that he hadn't even noticed she was crying.

"I'm okay," she sent Calum a shaky smile, "I'm really happy for you, tell me about her."

He grinned and opened his mouth to speak, but a loud grumble filled the room instead and Renee blushed when she realized it was her stomach rumbling.

"How about over dinner?" Calum chuckled and held up his car keys, "want to go get a bite to eat?"

"Don't you want to eat with your soulmate?" Renee asked. She didn't want to intrude really. It was their first day together, and it would make sense if they wanted to spend it together. The first day she met Ashton, they were inseparable.

"Well yeah," he nodded and then froze up, "no offense!"

"None taken." Renee gestured for him to continue.

"But- okay so you know how she's a waitress? Well the café is understaffed, super crowded, and her boss can't let her off until eight. So I'm really killing time and I really wanted to talk about it with someone but my parents are out of town and most of my friends are either at work, at school, or whatever. But I remembered that you had the day off and yeah. I came here," he rambled and then scratched the side of his head. She clearly wasn't his first choice, not that Renee minded, she hadn't been the most fun person to be around of late.

"Well in that case, I'd love to kill some time with you over dinner." She hadn't eaten all day, not that she told him, and she was really craving a giant cheeseburger. Her mouth watered at just the thought of it.

"Where do you want to go?" Calum zipped up his jacket and turned to Renee who was still daydreaming about that burger. It was strange really, she usually wasn't this into food. Then again, she usually had eaten by 5:00 P.M.

"Errr," she blinked and shook her head as she forced herself to focus, "I could really go for a good burger, so how's about Red Robin?"

"I'm good with that," Calum nodded and pulled open the front door, "you might want to put a jacket on, it's cold out today." Renee nodded and grabbed one off the hooks near the door, and pulled it over her shoulders as the two of them walked out.

Calum waited as she locked the door, and the two of them began on their journey out of the building, to where Calum had parked.

"Burgers huh? When was the last time you ate one of those?" Calum chuckled.

He did have a point in that Renee tended to eat like a bird, a little bit here and there, and while she obviously did have a meal once or twice a day, usually it was something light. A burger seemed to be a little out of character.

"Probably at a family reunion, my dad always cooks at those and he can make a mean burger," she grinned at the memory. Family reunions were always so fun. Renee remembered the last one, when Ashton and her cousin Rob had a pie-eating contest. Ash won, but it felt like she had to practically roll him to the car. Then later, when he discovered he had put on three pounds and started to panic she had to remind him of the sugar content of six and a half cherry pies.

It was a sweet memory, soured slightly as she realized the next reunion she'd go to she'd go alone. No Ashton or eating competitions. It was mostly just bizarre to her as she hadn't been to one on her own in so long... Ashton loved her family and had always been so happy to attend.

She felt her eyes water and she blinked it back, now was not the time for tears. She would cry later, privately.

"M'Lady," Calum opened the door for her, either not noticing the water in her eyes or having decided not to comment on it.

"Thank you kind sir," Renee played along as she stepped outside.

Immediately, she was glad that Calum had told her to grab her jacket because it was waaaay cooler than she imagined. She could see Calum's car across the parking lot, yet still felt the need to reach down and zip her jacket.

Or well, she tried. She got the zipper maybe halfway up, until it was almost to her bellybutton, then it got stuck. Not stuck like something was caught in the tracks, stuck like it wasn't fitting over her stomach.

"What the-" she frowned as she realized for the first time how big she was getting. She probed her stomach, feeling how soft it had become and groaned. She'd really let herself go after Ashton. The two of them used to run all the time, and go on hikes and bike rides. Athleticism was a natural part of Ashton, and while Renee hadn't been particularly interested in exercise before she met him, once they got together he somehow managed to get her out to the gym or racing around the block. She used to be in pretty good shape. Clearly that drive left with Ashton as well.

But really, she doubted that she could even look at the stupid neon green running shoes Ashton bought her without crying. They had a matching set, he had gotten them unprompted one day, marching back into their shared apartment triumphantly with two shoe boxes. She had resisted but of course he had managed to get her to wear them.

"Earth to Reneeeeeeee?" Calum was waving his hand in front of her face, "Are you there?"

"Yeah," she cleared her throat and smiled, "just thinking, ya know?"

Yeah, Calum knew. He thought of Ashton a lot too. One of his fingers played with the band on the watch around his wrist. It was broken, and had been for a long time, but Ashton had given it to him on his sixteenth birthday and he had kept it. Now it was a reminder, a reminder of a great friend who'd never really leave him. Not where it counted.

He nodded and moved forward to pull Renee into a hug. She rested her head on his shoulder and began to cry. Calum held her tight and thought back to that day in the hospital. When they'd first said goodbye.

And they haven't stopped yet.

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LAST UPDATE OF 2017 WOOOO!