Fading (A Calum Hood Fan Fiction; Sequel to Pretending)

Chapter 5: Her

1 week after

My phone started buzzing somewhere under my sheets, automatically waking me up from the slumber I've been dying to get for the past week. It's been getting hard for me to sleep, and I don't even know why. The five hour time difference isn't quite hard to deal with, but even though I'm sleeping in my own bed, I still don't feel at home. I sat up on my bed slowly as my hands started rummaging for my phone. I didn't have to wonder who was calling me, because I know who exactly it is. My eyes squinted as I faced my phone screen, a smile automatically forming in my mouth as a familiar face appeared on it.

"Good morning to you, too." Calum stated with a giggle, making me chuckle with embarrassment after yawning unattractively in front of the camera.

"Hey," I replied with a morning raspy voice, lying back again in my bed.

"Why do you wake up so late?" He asked, pulling his phone closer to his face, basically trying to make himself cute. I giggled.

"It's eleven in the morning, stupid."

And then here was silence. We just looked at each other, making it seem to be real as we give each other warm smiles through the phone. I held my sheets closer to me, pulling it up right to my chin. If I can only make something happen to make him closer to me right now, I swear I would.

"So how's today going for you so far?" I started talking again, somehow feeling the need to ask that.

"Well," He paused for a bit. "I kind of you know, felt the need to go out and uhm yeah, I got into a little trouble at the mall. But it's no big deal. Nothing happened, pretty much."

"Why? What happened?" I asked, kind of feeling interested about what happened, and kind of not.

"Some crazy girl tried to pick a fight for the same thing I was trying to buy."

My eyebrows furrowed, feeling myself smiling at his statement. "So you're saying...?"

"Yeah, I got into a fight. With a girl." We both laughed.

"Dude, you got no chill." I stated and he rolled his eyes on me, making me laugh again. I wanted to know more about what happened, but I guess it's just some another fan who's trying to get his attention, or maybe just a random girl who wanted the same stuff that Calum wanted. I still want to ask him what was that thing that they were fighting about, but I am somehow lacking of interest to talk about it anymore. This has never happened to me and Calum before, but I think this is normal. Maybe I just want to talk to him about some other stuff. I don't know, I don't understand.

"How about you? What's for today?" He asked, making me refresh my mind for what would be up for me today.

"I need to go get some groceries." I replied, sighing.

"Maybe you've got to get moving now." He suggested, and it quite surprised me but I brushed away whatever thought would cross my head.

"I won't be out until 3 pm. You have something to do?" I asked.

"Band rehearsals."

"Oh." Was all I could say in return.

"I uhm- I need to go now. I'll try to call you when I get the chance, okay?"

I sighed. "Yeah, okay."

"Bye."

"B-"

And that's just how the shortest video call from him for the first time ended. My heart sank at when he said he'll "try", even though there's nothing really sad about it. At least he will try, right? But he always do it. He doesn't just try.