Meet You There | Calum Hood

40

All Holland wanted to do was cry.

Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath but she was immediately overwhelmed with another round of sobs. She had locked herself away in her room directly after her return from practice and Lexi had given up on being let into her room over an hour ago.

Her phone buzzed on the bedside table and she wiped at her eyes before rolling over and grabbing it. The sight of Calum's name and the screensaver photo of him, one she'd taken during the time she had spent with him on tour, where he was dressed in his current favorite Nine Inch Nails shirt, only brought about a new wave of sadness.

She declined the call, not ready to face him or what she had to do yet. A good night sleep was supposed to make things better right? She certainly had to hope so. She buried her tear track covered cheeks deep into the satin case of her pillow and hoped that in the morning things would be clearer.

Her heart broke knowing that hours away Calum would be confused and hurt by her ignoring his call, she always talked to him after he came off stage, but she just couldn't face him at the moment, even through her phone screen.

•

"You alright?" Ashton asked as he brushed past Calum who held the door to his hotel room open.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Calum said scratching at his scalp, though his words were unconvincing to the man who was practically a brother to him.

Ash scoffed, and crossed his arms, leaning his weight against a small desk that was in Calum's suite. His gaze pointed as he stared at Calum.

"Okay so, it's not fine." Calum finally admitted with a quick roll of his eyes.

"Holls had practice tonight and I called her after we got offstage to see how it went and she didn't pick up. It's probably no big deal, she had a long day and most likely she just fell asleep but I don't know." He shrugged.

"I'm sure that's all it is is, mate." Ashton told him, his hand reaching out to squeeze Cal's shoulder in reassurance for a brief moment. "I've seen how the two of you are together, I don't think she'd just ignore you for the hell of it and if she had practice it makes sense she was just tired, or maybe she hasn't seen her roommates in like a week, so maybe she's with them and forgot her phone. From what I've seen of her I have faith in her."

Ashton's words helped to calm Calum's most pressing worries but there still lingered something in the back of his mind that said that something between them wasn't quite right.

He had a hard time getting to sleep that night, his mind wandering off to his beautiful girlfriend and wondering if she was okay. He just wanted to tell her about his show and hear about her day. He hadn't realized how much he had come to depend on their daily talks. No matter how busy his day was he always ended it with a quick chat with Holland and the absence of her presence from his nightly routine left him feeling out of sync as he tossed amidst the hotel sheets.

Calum had expected that he'd wake up the next morning to some kind of message or call from Holland, her practice beginning at six am, hours before he had woken up and yet his phone sat, filled with notifications but none from the girl he was desperate to hear from.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and hopped in the shower, the warm water needed to help him wake up and to get his mind thinking clearly.

He tried to come up with more plausible answers but nothing seemed to fit and he wanted real answers not possible theories so as he stepped from the shower, a fluffy white towel draped around his waist he grabbed his phone off the charger and dialed her number. His heart raced in his chest as he waited for her voice to fill his ears but he was only greeted with her voicemail and a gut wrenching feeling that something was really, really wrong.