Be Your Everything

s e v e n t y

"I should go talk to him," I say quietly. I've been sliding my pasta salad around my plate for the past 20 minutes, but I can't seem to find my appetite. My stomach has been in knots all day, and watching Calum walk out of that meeting earlier certainly didn't help.

"And say what?" Luke quirks an eyebrow at me from across the table. I know he has a point, but I can't just not talk to Calum about this.

"I don't know," I tell Luke, "but I have to say something. He looked so disappointed this morning."

"He's not allowed to be disappointed in you," Luke insists.

"Yes, he is. This..." I trail off and glance at my stomach, "you know, it's his too."

"He's not the one carrying it inside of him." He glances over his shoulder and waves our waiter over. "You want to take that to go?"

"No," I shake my head and drop the fork on the plate. "It tastes funny."

"So what do you want to eat?" He asks as he signs the check and stands from his chair. I follow his actions and walk hand-in-hand with him as we walk outside into the cool October breeze. It's still about 70 degrees in Los Angeles, but by Southern California standards, it's pretty cold.

I can't stop thinking about Calum. All I want to do right now is go talk to him, to try and make him understand my perspective.

"Sorry what?" I look up at Luke when I realize he's waiting for me to say something.

"You need to eat something," he says as the valet brings the car to the curb. He opens my door for me and helps me inside before walking around to the driver door and heading towards his house.

"In-N-Out," I say without even considering my options.

"You hate In-N-Out." Luke looks at me in surprise, but sets a course for the drive-thru anyway.

"I don't know, it just sounds really good right now," I explain simply.

A few minutes later, we pull up to the window at In-N-Out and Luke gets me two burgers and animal style fries. He chuckles to himself as I devour my meal, but I ignore his judgment while I enjoy my greasy food.

"Wait," I mumble with my mouth full of fries as I notice our surroundings. The houses passing by are all too familiar. "You brought me to Calum's house?"

"You said you need to talk to him, and I agree." He puts the car in park and looks over at me in the passenger seat as if waiting for me to get out.

"Fine," I groan in annoyance as I unbuckle my seatbelt and toss my food trash into the paper bag it came in. "Don't go far in case this ends badly."

"I'm coming with you," he says matter-of-factly. "Don't worry, I'm going to hang out with Ashton, but I can't exactly drop you off at Calum's house when someone could see."

Luke and I hop out of the car and walk inside the house to find Ashton cooking pasta in the kitchen, but no sign of Calum.

"Hey guys," Ashton smiles when he notices us. "Didn't know you were coming, or I would have made extra."

"No worries, we came unannounced." Luke looks around the room, probably wondering where Calum is just like I am.

"We ate before we came," I assure Ashton, and he nods. "Is Calum home?"

"Yeah, he's upstairs." Ashton turns the stove off and looks at me with concern. "Did something happen with you two? When he came home earlier, he looked like he'd been kicked in the balls. I've never seen him so beat up."