"Sitting there and staring at her isn't going to make her wanna talk to you, Cal," Luke told him as he settled into the spot next to him on the couch.
Calum cleared his throat and readjusted himself casually. "I, uh," he stuttered, running a hand over his face. "I wasn't staring."
Kassi rolled her eyes, plopping herself onto Luke's lap. She exchanged a look with him and sighed defeatedly, turning towards Calum.
"Listen," she started, drawing his attention. "I don't know what's going on with you, but if you don't confront her now, you'll lose her for good."
Eyebrows furrowed, Calum glanced over at Alyssa again, who was sitting across the room conversing with Michael and Ashton. He noticed that they've been glued to each other all night and Alyssa hadn't even bothered to do as much as look in his direction. He didn't know what hurt worse: the fact that she seemed to be avoiding him, or the idea that she just didn't really care at all.
For Calum, he's never cared this much about anyone and the feeling terrified him so much that he had to go back to his old ways. It was dumb of him, but it was what he knew, something he could control. With Alyssa, she always seemed to have the upper hand.
She made him nervous. Always keeping him on his toes, but never failing to make sure his head was in the right place. She had him wrapped around her finger, and he wasn't used to that, so he fled. And now look at where it's gotten him: he was hurting not only her, but himself as well.
Suddenly, Calum sat up. If this was all he could think about, clearly she was worth it. Glancing over at both Luke and Kassi, he nodded at them before pushing himself off the couch.
"I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna make things right," he concluded.
Right then, Alyssa separated herself from the group and made her way over to the food table. Using this as a chance to go and talk to her, Luke quickly sent Calum an encouraging smile before walking towards her, hands in pockets. Thankfully, with her back turned, Alyssa wasn't able to see him.
"Hi, Alyssa," Calum greeted shyly, standing next to her.
She avoided his gaze as she pretended to inspect the food in front of her.
"Hello," she replied without looking up.
He cleared his throat. "How are you?"
Alyssa's face doesn't falter. "I'm fine."
Her curt responses made him slightly uncomfortable, but he was so determined on fixing things, that interacting with her at all gave him hope.
"I'm glad to hear that," he sputtered, trying to find his words. "Look, Alyssa, is it okay if I talk to you for a sec - "
"Hey, Lys!" Ashton suddenly called out. "Check out this keek I just recorded of Mikey. He's such a fucking idiot!"
Alyssa glanced over at them and smiled. "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute."
She turned to Calum again, who was looking nervously at his feet.
"I'm sorry, what were you going to say?"
"May I speak with you for a moment?" He asked, looking directly into her eyes.
He was slowly starting to get annoyed with his bandmates. He clenched his jaw, hoping the small gesture would ease his temper.
Alyssa bit her lip as she contemplated her answer. After a few moments, she nodded in agreement and was just about to follow him out into the hall when Ashton and Michael called out to her again.
"Fuck off, Ash!" Calum finally snapped, managing to shut them up, but drawing a scowl from Alyssa.
"Hey, don't talk to him like that," she chastised once they were alone.
Calum couldn't help but scoff. "Well, excuse me for wanting to have some alone time with you. It's the least you could do considering you've been avoiding me all night. By the looks of things, you've already replaced me with my bandmates."
He hadn't meant for those words to come out as harshly as they did and he immediately regretted them once he saw Alyssa's face burn with anger.
"Excuse me?!" She spat angrily. "Me avoiding you? I wasn't the one canoodling with two random chicks earlier and completely disregarding my arrival."
Calum squinted his eyes at her.
"Yeah, thanks for the invite by the way!" She exclaimed sarcastically. "Glad to know I still cross your mind."
"Why are you acting like this?" He questioned incredulously.
"Oh, I don't know," Alyssa sighed, feigning thought with her chin in her hand. "Maybe because instead of explaining yourself and telling me why you've been ignoring me all week, you stand there, like the jerk you are, and make it seem like I'm the one in the wrong!"
Calum clenched his jaw but said nothing. This wasn't exactly how he planned for this to go.
Alyssa sighed in defeat. "I don't need this. If we're just going to argue, I am more than willing to leave."
Just before she could turn away from him, Calum quickly came to his senses and grabbed her arm, stopping her. "No, wait."
. . .
"I hope things are going well," Kassi wondered out loud as she played with the stray hairs of Luke's quiff.
Luke, too entranced by her touch to come up with a coherent answer, only hummed. Kassi noticed this and lightly smacked him on the chest.
"Oh, sorry," he said, sitting up. "I'm sure it is."
"Don't be too sure about that, mate," Ashton chimed in as he joined them on the couch. "Alyssa might be telling him off as we speak."
"It's about damn time too," Michael added. "Calum doesn't know a thing about treating a girl right. He shouldn't be surprised if Alyssa doesn't give him another chance."
"If he didn't know anything about girls, he wouldn't be trying to make amends with her," Luke defended, shooting them a glare. "Have some faith in your friend guys."
"Luke's right," Kassi agreed apprehensively. "Even if he did mess up, it takes a real man to step up and own up to it. I'm no fan of him at the moment either, but I don't shy away from giving someone the benefit of the doubt."
"That may be true," Ashton said. "But if they do make up, it's gonna take a lot more than an 'I'm sorry' to fix what Alyssa has gone through."
Kassi nodded solemnly right as both Calum and Alyssa returned from the hall; their facial expressions unreadable.
