Aftershocks | Calum Hood

18

13 Weeks

Calum felt the rhythm of his heartbeat hasten as he stepped off the plane and the heat of the California air surrounded him. She would be here. He was sure of it.

He rushed towards the luggage carousel, grabbing his bags as soon as they fell onto the conveyor and offering only a wave to his band mates as he hurried towards the pickup area.

She was there. He could sense it. It was like his body responded to her being near. His head swiveled from left to right as he searched the waiting cars, finally settling upon her blue Jeep Renegade amongst the mass of vehicles. He couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face as he shoved his cases into the trunk and climbed in the passenger seat shutting the door behind him.

"Hi." He smiled over to her, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "You came?"

"I knew you'd need a ride. I wasn't busy. It's no big deal." She said, but her cheeks flushed with color as she spoke causing his heart to flutter within his rib cage.

"It's a big deal to me, thanks Mack." He said, boldly reaching across the console to squeeze her hand, she didn't pull away.

He could have sworn he saw a hint of a smile as she pulled off from the curb and began the short drive home to Calum's house.

"How's your day been?" He asked her.

"It's been good. My nausea seems to have ended with my first trimester as did the total exhaustion."

"Well that's good." He chimed.

"Yeah. How are the boys?" She asked, trying to keep their conversation light and friendly.

"They're good." Cal responded. "They know something's up, they've been on me for weeks to know what's going on with us and why you didn't come out to visit like the rest of the girls did."

"What'd you tell them?" She asked, tightening her grip on the steering wheel.

"Just said we were going through some shit and you'd asked me not to share." He sighed.

"Guess now that I'm out of the first trimester we can tell them too."

"You're ready for that?" He questioned, surprised by her sudden willingness to share.

"Yeah, I mean. They're my friends too, Cal. Besides, we still live together and it's going to be obvious here soon and there are going to be questions. I don't want them finding out on the cover of some tabloid."

"Okay, well they had planned to all get together tonight anyhow, I can just ask them to come round to ours?" He asked and she nodded. 

Her stomach bubbled with nervous energy. She considered all of his band mates friends but she knew how they were about the band. The band always came first. In the past she'd been okay with that, she was just a friend after all but now things were different. Now there was a child involved and everything was up in the air. She was sure they would have a lot of questions, but she didn't have very many answers and that worried her. 

"Don't worry about them, okay?" He whispered, taking her hand in his and leaving them entangled. "We made our decisions and I'm confident in them. You, me, and the baby. That's all that matters to me, Mack." 

She nodded and sniffled as she tried to regain control of her emotions. 

"I know I did a bad job of handling things. i just, I didn't know how to deal with how I was feeling and I took that out on you. I love you, Mackenzie." He said, his eyes finding hers for brief moment before she returned her attention to the road. 

"I love you too, Calum."

•

"Babe. Babe, stop. It's just the boys and their girls. You don't have to clean." Calum said, swiping the duster and furniture polish that she'd been using.