Even If You Don't // Calum Hood

Chapter 27: I Guess I Was Running from Something

Michael's POV

"Can we just have one day where you're not moping around and feeling sorry for yourself?" Ashton huffed in the middle of another one of Calum's tangents about how he didn't want to go out for the fifth weekend in a row.

"I'm allowed to mope, Ashton," Calum reminded him.

Luke snorted softly, "Mari has more of a reason to mope than you do but she's not."

"How do you know that?" he replied.

"They've been in the studio pretty much since they got home," he answered harshly, "But I wouldn't expect you to know that since you spend all your time in bed bitching about how sad you are." Not wanting to hear another one of Calum's excuses, Luke stood up abruptly and left the room. Unfortunately for him, however, he wasn't able to get away that easily.

"You would be sad if you broke up with your girlfriend too, Luke!" Calum called after him.

"At least Luke doesn't break up with people without a damn reason," Ashton spat, leaving as well. Calum grumbled under his breath, looking at me.

"You gonna get pissy with me too?" he asked.

I was silent for a moment, trying to think of what I wanted to say. Well... Actually, I knew what I wanted to say – I just knew it wouldn't be helpful to any of us to say it. It hurt to know how much Mari was still hurting over the breakup – we still texted every day, of course – and as much as I wanted to cuss Calum out for everything he was putting her through, it wasn't going to help the situation at all.

"Cal," I sighed, "The distance thing... It was temporary. That girl could be your forever. And you're willing to just throw it all away because she lives in another country? This might be the stupidest thing you've ever done. For someone claiming to be in love with the girl, you're pretty shit at showing it." I walked away before he had the chance to respond, letting him make the decision on his own.

~

Calum's POV

Three days later; London

I knew the boys weren't going to be pleased to find out I'd left without any warning – though, I did leave a note telling them I'd be back soon – but I knew I had to go find Mari. I knew everyone meant well in their lectures with me about what I did – and I knew they were right as well – I guess I just didn't want to admit it. But I knew that I had to make it right with Mari – I had to do it because I loved her.

My sister picked me up from the airport and took me straight to the recording studio – Kaylynn had tweeted about being there today. She didn't say anything to me the whole ride, which I wasn't too surprised about – both her and my parents hadn't really wanted to speak to me since they found out what happened through the boys.

Mali parked out front and we both went in – she finally told me she needed to talk to someone whose name I didn't catch. She went her own way after waving to a girl at the front desk while I went up to the girl sitting beside her.

"Where can I find Lost and Found?" I asked her, earning myself a dirty look – and I instantly knew she was a friend of Mari's. When I realized she wasn't going to tell me anything, my jaw tightened. "Listen," I grumbled, "I don't know you and you don't know me and my business is not with you, so I need you to do your job and tell me where the band is so I can apologize to the people I need to apologize to." She looked at me again for a moment before muttered a 'B' to me. I snapped back with a harsh 'thank you' before heading in the direction of studio B.