Beginnings • c.h

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

"If you aren't going to come down and talk to me, I am gonna come to you."

The small phrase makes me giggle; with my dirty mind I can't help it. I attempt to control my laughter but he hears it before I can silence myself.

"Oh real mature, Anni, real mature."

Anni POV

I watch as he continues in his attempt at climbing the tree. Several times he almost falls, but manages to catch a branch before he does. I try to watch him without making it obvious; I don't want to seem creepy. He is almost to the bottom of the treehouse and I almost commend him on his effort. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would be able to climb trees, but I think too soon because seconds after my thought the branch that holds his left foot crunches and falls to the ground, taking him with it.

He lets out a 'manly' scream and he lands on the ground with a tremendous thud. He lies on the ground for several seconds, and I expect him to get up; but he doesn't. My panic rises until I can't take it anymore, and I begin to scramble my way down the tree.

Almost falling several times in my haste I finally reach the bottom of the tree and I run over to where he lies motionless on the ground. Crouching down I shake him, and call his name, trying to gain a reaction,

"Calum! Oh my god, Calum! Please don't be dead!" I begin to panic, and I am unable to control the rambling that comes out of my mouth, "Please don't be dead! Wait, if you're dead does that make me a murderer? Oh shit, I am going to go to jail all because I was a selfish twat and wouldn't come down!"

Tears threaten to choke me and I move closer to Calum, removing my hand that was shaking him to place it on his face. He continued to lie there motionless and I breathe in a rattly breath. Then, I start crying.

As I am crying, I feel my hand moving, surely I wasn't crying so hard that my entire arm was moving around. Blindly looking down through my tears, I see Calum on the ground, crying, but the tears were not of sadness. He was crying because he was fucking laughing too hard.

"Calum! You prick, how could you let me think you were dead!" I growl, angrily swiping away my tears. He finally looks at me, and notices my anger. He immediately sits up and puts his arms around me, still chuckling he tries to soothe me,

"Hey, it's alright. I'm fine, see?"

He removes his arm from around me and quickly shows me that he was fine. Once I see that he is fine, I just look at him, and I swear; if looks could kill, he would be dead ten times over now. Calum looks at my reaction and I can tell he is immediately confused by it.

Almost like a puppy, he tilts his head and looks at me , with his eyes wide open and his mouth set in an adorable pout. Don't get me wrong, I love puppies, but he was a thousand times cuter than any puppy ever born.

"Don't you ever scare me like that ever again, Calum Thomas Hood!" I manage to scold him through my tears. Calum just looks at me and I swear I see a flash of adoration pass across it, but I couldn't be sure.

"I won't, even if it was funny as hell." He chuckles, wiping away my tears trails with the pads of his thumbs. Suddenly, I am feeling a lot hotter than I was a few minutes ago, and it definitely had to do with the fact that I was in the arms of a handsome boy, and that he was comforting me- woah, when did I ever think Calum was handsome!

Before he could notice my silence, I unravel myself from his grip, and stand up.

"I need to get in the shade now, or I am seriously going to die of heat exhaustion." I exclaim, dramatically wiping my forehead of sweat. Calum lets out a small snicker and rises as well,