Meet You There | Calum Hood

10

Calum was flustered. An emotion he hadn't felt in a long time.

What the fuck was he supposed to wear to a, sort of, date with a girl who he'd already messed things up with once.

The LA sun shone through his bedroom window heating up the room and causing him to think about spending the next several hours at least out in the heat.

He pursed his lips as he grabbed out a black sleeveless top and slipped it onto his large frame, stepping into a pair of black mesh athletic shorts and rifling through the bottom of him closet until he found his black high top Converse. He grabbed a plain SnapBack he hadn't worn in ages and pulled it down over his head, hoping it would do enough to keep his appearance at the game under the radar. The last thing he wanted to do was attract unwanted fan attention. Or worse, paparazzi.

He didn't usually have to worry about these things when he was home. LA was full of much bigger names doing much wilder things that interested the paparazzi far more than him getting groceries or walking his dog. Being out in public like this though, amongst the particular demographic that his band was geared towards, caused for a raised level of concern. He didn't want to spook Holland but he also didn't particularly want random people to catch photos of them and set the dating speculations off.

He wanted to actually have a clue on if he stood a chance with Holland before the world got the chance to weigh in.

When he was ready, his wallet shoved deep into his pocket and the keys to his, still damaged, Range Rover in his pocket, he texted Holland to ask where to meet her and headed out to his car.

She texted back quickly, asking him to just park near her dorm building and he set out to meet her.

"Perfect timing!" Holland smiled at him, walking quickly towards him from her building just as he approached the lobby door, her arms outstretched.

He couldn't fight the grin off his own face as she slipped her arms around him in a friendly hug. She looked gorgeous, her long blonde hair thrown easily into a ponytail and her outfit a simple gray UCLA tube top and jean shorts with white converse.

"Hi!"

"Okay so," Her eyes scanned over his outfit. "You look great, but you can't wear all black today and come hang out with us. San Diego State's colors are Red and Black and they're in black uniforms today. I have something you can wear in my car, come on." She grabbed his hand and tugged him along behind her until they reached the lot where her car was parked.

She popped the locks with the button on her key fob and dug around in the back seat before producing a UCLA baby blue jersey.

"It an extra-large. I wear it as a dress but it should fit you." She said extending her hand out towards him.

He smirked and peeled the black shirt he was wearing off his chest. He felt her eyes as they scanned over him, thankful he'd gotten back in the gym recently, he caught her blush when he looked at her before sliding the jersey over his head.

"Do I pass outfit inspection now?" He joked.

"It'll do." She responded with a teasing smile. "Come on, everyone is waiting to meet you. I'm going to go ahead and apologize for my team. They've never known me to do anything interesting so they are dying to meet you."

"Do they know who I am?"

She hesitated before answering, taking her bottom lip between her teeth and nodding nervously. "A few of the girls are fans. I told them they arent allowed to be crazy and that if you get uncomfortable we will leave."

"No, no, it's fine. I'll take pics or whatever they want before we leave. It's not really your friends I'm concerned about." He told her as they walked side by side, her steering them in the right direction as they headed for the tailgate lot.