noted → calum hood | #Wattys2015

twenty one

"She said that I was obsessing, but I just don't see it, ya know?" Mackenzie looks behind her, as she awaits a response. "Babe?"

Calum breaks his attention from his phone to look at the girl behind him, "What? Yeah, sure," only to look look away within a second.

"Is everything alright? Is it that Mayley girl?" Mackenzie pouts and rubs her boyfriend's arm. "You need to get over her, Cal-Pal."

Calum groans. "First of all, her name is Melanie. Second, I am over her," Without thinking, Calum deletes the message he had been composing to send to Mel, and pulls up her last text message to him. "I just don't think she's over me. Look at this," Mackenzie reads over the text on his screen. "'Take a break'? I never even dated this girl, who does she think she is?"

Mackenzie sighs and slaps her hands to her thighs as she plops down onto her bed. "I think she's a girl who misses her best friend."

The Kiwi rolls his eyes. "Her best friend is Luke Hemmings, mind you."

"I thought she was dating Luke?"

Calum shakes his head as he places his phone on the desk. "Nah, he's dating Aries Marlin," As he's already dug himself a lie, why not continue? "But knowing Melanie, she's probably trying to convince him to leave Aries for herself."

Mackenzie raises an eyebrow. "That doesn't seem like Melanie."

Calum shakes his head. "You don't even know the half of it. Remember when Ashton got a detention and the coach freaked out about it?"

Mackenzie shrugged. "Vaguely. I wasn't there to see it, obviously."

"Melanie convinced Ash to skip with him, and almost cost him his spot on the team."

Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "Wow, so terrible."

Calum exhaled heavily. He didn't know what caused him to say what he did next. It had several routes to coming back at him, but nonetheless, nothing was there to stop him. "She was dating Ashton at the same time he was dating Alexis-"

"The cheerleader?"

Calum nods, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. "Yeah, that's why they broke up. Melanie told Ashton to pick, and he chose her."

Mackenzie is shocked to say the least. Ashton never seemed to be the type to do such a thing. From what she heard, Alexis broke up with him, not the other way around.

Ashton had been fully committed to Alexis, heck, he would've married her if he could. Alexis didn't love him as much as he loved her, and it eventually got to the point of which Alexis had gotten tired of pretending. At least, that's what everyone had been told.

"Is that why Melanie would constantly visit Ashton at practice?"

Calum knew very well that Melanie was there to ask for advice on himself, never to visit Ashton because they had been dating. What a ludicrous idea!

Still though, he was in too deep to quit now.

"Yeah," he begins. "They don't like to talk about it tough, which is why Alexis said that she dumped him rather than vice versa. It'd just be best not to tell anyone that."

Mackenzie nods. "I have no reason to tell anyone, nor anything to gain."

Calum smiles. "Good. Besides, Ash is my friend, I wouldn't want word getting out, especially now that he's not with either of them anymore."

"And Melanie's not your friend?" A smirk works onto Mackenzie's pretty little face, which Calum returns.

"I wish it was that easy for her to understand."

»

an: a short, dialogue-filled chapter because I suck at writing!!!
Thanks for 4k ilysm guys
and don't forget the character ask! See the last authors note for details.