Meet You There | Calum Hood

6

"What do you want to know?"Calum asked her.

"Where are you from?"

"Sydney."

"Wait, like Australia? You don't sound Australian."

"What, would you like me to tell you about the first time I saw a kangaroo and ask if you'd like some shrimp on the barbie?" He asked, laughter filling his words as he purposefully made his voice overly Australian sounding.

"Geez, Sorry."

"Just teasing you, love. But yeah, I moved over here like five years ago with a couple of my mates. We travel a lot and I guess over time my accent had just lost its potency. It comes out a lot when I'm drunk or when I visit home."

"You get drunk a lot?" Holland asked him.

"I mean, I drink pretty often, yeah, but I don't get drunk much anymore. I've kind of grown out of that phase of my life." She nodded.

"Sorry, I don't mean to come off as such a prude. That's what my friends say I am anyways. I just, I've always been training so I haven't done a lot of the typical teenager and new adult things."

" 's not a big deal." Calum said easily, separating their hands and instead throwing his arm around her shoulder.

Holland expected it to feel wrong or at least awkward as she worried the start of their date had been but instead she felt herself relaxing, enjoying the subtle way his cologne, something woodsy, drifted through her nostrils.

"It's embarrassing." She admitted sheepishly.

"You've got nothing to be embarrassed by, Holland. Trust me, I've made all of the opposite mistakes."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Like, partying too much and entertaining too many girls."

"Yeah, but you were young and that's pretty much what the world expects from teenagers, right?"

They were quiet for a moment and Holland would have worried she had said something wrong if it were not for the weight of his arm still wrapped around her shoulder.

"You took that information surprisingly well."

"You didn't judge me for how I've lived my life so far, I can't judge you for living your life differently than me."

He was quiet again but Holland could feel the weight of his stare on her.

"You don't seem to know much about me or my life." Calum said, peering down at her, carefully selecting his words.

"Should I?" She asked, growing a bit confused.

"I don't know if I would say that you should know about my life. I just find it a bit surprising that you don't is all. I feel like this town knows everything about everyone and it's kind of refreshing to find someone where I get to be the one to tell them my stories and not some shitty gossip website or social media."

"I feel like I'm missing something here."

"I'm in a band." Calum laughed. "We're uh, we're I'd say decently popular. I mean, we've had some number one albums and some hits but radio hosts and such seem to always joke that we are the biggest band no one has ever heard of."

"Give me a hint and lets see if I can guess the band. Music is one thing I actually do make time for." She laughed and Calum took a moment to think.

"Um, well we toured with One Direction-"

"Seriously?" Holland asked with raised eyebrows and Calum nodded. "What tour?"

"Like everything they did for twenty thirteen and fourteen."