close as strangers | calum hood

thirteen

Calum

I walked out of my house, on my way to meet up with someone. The morning sun was warm, and I was starting to second guess my decision in wearing a long sleeve top. I was already running late to my meeting, so I proceeded forward.

As I began walking down the street, I saw that Jaden's garage door was open. Looking inside, I could see the girl sitting on her stool and painting on the large canvas in front of her. The painting was of two hands reaching out and interlocking fingers. She was painting the background, which was very colourful and bold. However, the bright background didn't take away from the hands. It was beautiful.

I smiled lightly and continued my walk down. I was excited about the meeting. It wasn't about my music, or anything like that, but it was still a very important meeting. Everything that we would discuss today had to be perfect.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I took out the hand-held device and checked my texts.

ash: are you here yet? we're all waiting.

cal: running a little late, i'll be there in 5

I put my phone back in my pocket and began walking faster down the sidewalk. I was the one who organized this meeting, and I was gonna be the last one there. Nice going, Calum. The small cafe was in sight, and I began jogging up. I should have just jogged the whole way, since the place wasn't very far.

I walked past the large windows of the building to get to the door. The entire establishment was empty except for the four boys and two girls waiting inside. I had to make sure that no one was around to see us, since we're famous, and all.

"There he is, finally!" Luke exclaimed as I walked in.

"You're actually Calum Hood." Matthew, the boy I kept seeing Jaden with, exclaimed.

"Yes, in the flesh." I said and took a seat.

"So why did you ask me to close up shop, today? Why are we meeting?" Matthew asked. The rest of the group looked around at me with the same confused expression.

"It's about Jaden." I said.

"How do you guys know Jaden?" One of the girls asked.

"By the way," Matthew interrupted. "These girls are Delaney and Cassidy." He introduced. I didn't know them, but when I asked Matthew to meet up, I asked him to bring his other co-workers because I needed all the input I could get. So at this meeting was Ashton, Michael, Luke, and Jaden's co-workers.

"Great, thanks for coming." I smiled at them. "So, I'm sure you guys know that Jaden paints."

Matthew frowned, "Look, we all want to help Jaden and her art career take off. But she said that she doesn't want anyone helping her get her name out there. I know she was specifically referring to you guys using your fame to help her."

"I know," I said. "But something has to kick start her career. Here's my suggestion, we rent a space, set up her art work and also display some smaller artists, promote it but mention that we won't be there, and see what happens. We could also auction off her pieces."

"If she even wants to sell her work." Mikey commented.

"If you want to do a pop-up, admission has to be free. So in order to make money, she has to be fine with selling her art." Matthew said.

I nodded, "So let's ask if she's okay selling her art."

"But this is a surprise, no? So try not to be suspicious." Luke said.

"I'll call her now," Ashton said as he took out his phone. As he was dialing, Matthew took out his laptop.

"While he's doing that, we should look for places available for rent." He said and began typing.

"Hey Jaden, I was just curious about something." Ash said into the phone. "Would you ever be down to auction off your art?"

The room was dead silent, and we could hear Jaden laugh on the other end of his phone.

She replied, "Of course. How else would I make money?"

Ash nodded, "What about your current paintings?"

"Yeah," She said. "I would auction these off."

"That's really cool, making money off of your artwork." Ash said, trying to make the conversation sound as normal as possible.

"You guys do the same thing with your music." She said.

"Yeah you're right. Anyway, thanks for answering my question. Gotta go!" He said, then hung up immediately.

"I think the heart of downtown would be the perfect place to have it. It's always busy, so people passing by could walk in if they please. That would give it a ton of attention!" Matthew said as he scrolled through places for rent.

As he scrolled, I saw a beautiful open shop that was listed for rent by the hour. It was near Park St and York St, close to some main attractions. The building was quite expensive, but I could afford the rent.

"That one," I said to Matthew, indicating to him to stop scrolling.

"That one is pretty pricey, Cal." He said, looking through the photos. "But it's the heart of downtown, and a beautiful space. If we all pitch in, we can do it."

"I can cover it all." I said, causing all the eyes to fall on me.

"For how many hours are we doing this?" Luke asked.

I shrugged, "Maybe 14 to 20."

"Cal, that's a lot of money you're spending on rent alone." Ash commented.

"I will be worth it," I started saying. "For Jaden. So book the place. Next week, Friday. Make sure she isn't working." With my orders, one of the girls went to the back to check her schedule. Once confirming, Matthew and I booked the venue, and we all began planning the event.

-

After the meeting, I walked home. We had spent almost the entire day planning. As I walked, I watched the sunset before me. I always loved the sunsets in Australia.

I passed Jaden's house before entering mine. Through her open garage door, I saw that she was almost finished the painting that I saw her working on this morning. It was beautiful. I then glanced at her other pieces which were scattered around her garage. I couldn't wait to display her work for everyone to see. I wanted everyone to know how talented she was.

I entered my house, closing the door behind me and slipping off my shoes. I dragged my feet to the living room, and plopped down on the couch with a loud sigh.

My plan was happening, and I was so happy about it.

I took my phone out of my pocket and opened twitter. Ignoring all the notifications, I tweeted.

@Calum5SOS there's gonna be a sick art gallery, downtown Sydney next Friday! i won't be there, but if you like art then you should definitely check it out. i'll post more details later.

Satisfied with the composed tweet, I posted. As I scrolled down my timeline, I saw that the other boys had already posted about it, too.

@Luke5SOS not gonna be there, but if you think art is cool then you should look at cool art, downtown Sydney next Friday. ends at 8pm, I'll post an address for anyone interested

@Michael5SOS YOU LIKE ART? BE HERE NEXT FRIDAY (I WON'T THO) [address]

@Ashton5SOS ya like art? check out this gallery next friday :) for me, cause I can't go :( [address]

I smiled at the support the boys were giving. I really hope this turns out the way we planned. I really hope Jaden likes it.