the bucket list | lrh

04 - calum hood

When Valentine woke up the next morning, she was horribly disoriented from her previous night out and the events that led her to be shifting uncomfortably as Mary's leg swung over her own.

"Mary..." the girl groaned, trying to push her weight away. She had no such luck though, seeing as Mary's deadweight was a battle and a half to remove. It took a certain strength that Valentine just didn't have to wake the girl up.

"Mary!" She tried calling out to her again, much louder this time.

"Mmhm?" The girl mumbled, not even bothering to open her eyes for Valentine.

"Move your leg," she moaned out, still trying to push her friends limb away.

"No."

"What? Mary, move your leg."

"Tell me you love me first."

Valentine scoffed at this, clearly unamused by Mary's attempts to joke around so early in the morning.

"I love you, now move your damn leg." As Mary complied reluctantly, the brunette slipped out of her bed and moved to stand on the opposite side of Mary's room.

"I'm gonna go get some breakfast," she informed the blonde who was too busy being half asleep to care.

So Valentine started down the stairs, through the living room and to the dining room where she had already smelt pancakes being made.

"Good morning, Val! How did you sleep?" Mary's mother is always cheery in the mornings, and that's something Valentine couldn't decide if she missed or not. On one hand, the chirpy attitude is enough to bring her out of her post-sleep grumpy state. On the other hand though, Valentine would love to bask in her hungry anger for a little longer.

"I slept alright. How about you?" She mumbled, going to grab a plate to fill for herself. "Great! Mary still asleep?" She asked, which was only returned with a nod from the brunette girl who didn't really feel like having small talk on this particular morning.

"Here," the woman spoke lowly as she held out a salt shaker for Valentine's eggs, which was responded to with a thankful smile and still no more conversation from the girl.

As Valentine ate, she felt a strange sensation come over her. Something about the memory of falling off of the bull last night had her itching to make more stories just like that. She knew that despite what Luke had to say about it afterwards, Adeline would surely be proud of how long she managed to stay attached to the mechanical animal.

Valentine's mind wandered back to the list, and the rest of the tasks scribbled down had her curious of just how many she could complete.

Writing a song couldn't be that hard, right?

꧙꧙꧙꧙꧙꧙

"Val? What are you doing here?"

The girl wasn't quite sure how to answer that question. As Calum took in her current state—clad by only Mary's oversized clothing that she'd borrowed—it was safe to say that the tanned boy held a confused expression on his face. He certainly didn't expect to see Valentine of all people show up at his job so late in the afternoon, but he wasn't exactly complaining either.

Calum wanted to reach out, he really did. He just wasn't quite sure how to console the girl, or how to even explain the reason he wanted to. See, Calum had a thing for Adeline for as long as the boy could remember. Something about the way she'd let go of her fears just to get a taste of freedom—momentarily or not—fascinated him. It was only freshman year that he really felt he had fallen in love.