If I Really Knew You || Calum Hood (completed)

Chapter 28

About half way through the flight, I decided to search through my bag again. It was dark outside the plane and most people, including my friends, were fast asleep. I would have been alongside them, however no phone meant no music-unless I wanted to listen to the planes’ built in radio services, but they never had the stuff I liked. Without bumping into Ashton, I shuffled into the isle and opened the overhead compartment. Searching, as quite as possible, I looked through every pocket, zipper and section of my bag, but found nothing.

When’s the last time you had it, I thought to myself. I thought back to before I boarded the plane. I definitely had it out when I said goodbye to Macie, but then what? Where had I put it? My mind dug and dug, looking for answers but I came up empty every time. I sighed and closed up my backpack, pushing it further into the compartment. Just as I was about to scoot past Ash again, one of the flight attendants-one of the nicer ones- hurried by with a tray of plane sized alcohol bottles.

 “Oh sorry,” I began, but it was too late. My foot had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and she toppled over, spilling the contents of the bottles all over me and Ashton, waking him up.

 “Wait…wha?” He mumbled, stretching his arms out, wiping the liquid off him.

 “I’m sorry,” the woman frowned, “I’ll bring you some towels.”

 “It was my fault,” I called to her before she was out of earshot. A few people in the rows in front of me were watching with disgust as they slowly wiped off the two drops that had splashed on them. I rolled my eyes and moved back into the row. As I waited for the attendant to return, the smell of alcohol flooded my nose and something in my memory was triggered. I froze and thought hard, despite my lack of sleep, trying to piece everything together. What did alcohol have to do with this? I wondered to myself.

Suddenly it clicked. The man who had run into me took my phone. Right after I said goodbye to Macie, I had slipped it into the pocket of my jacket. And right as I had turned around, I had run into that man on the same side. He had pick pocketed me. I let my face fall into my hands.

 “Calum, are you okay?” Ashton asked, a tint of worry creeping into his voice. “It’s just vodka,” he added, trying to lighten up the situation.

 “Someone stole my phone,” I told him, admitting it to myself.

 “What? Really? Who?”

I smirked at his numerous questions. “Just as I was coming onto the plane, I ran into a man with alcohol on his breath and that triggered my memory. He must’ve just slipped his hand into my jacket pocket and taken it.” I couldn’t believe I had been so naïve. I ran my hands through my hair. 

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out when we land," Ashton replied, drifting back to sleep already. The woman came back holding a few towels and handed them to me. I felt weird patting Ashton dry, so I just sorta threw the towel onto him and hoped it would work. I took my own and started cleaning up the seat and then wringing out my shirt into it. This would be a fun one to explain to the parents when I got home. 

- - - - - - 

*MACIE'S POV*

A few days later, two days into winter break, I woke up to the text message tone of my phone going off like crazy. Sweet good morning messages from Calum flooded onto my screen as I giggled to myslef. I scrolled through them and typed out a quick response. Surely he had already gone to sleep but a reply wouldn't hurt. After Christmas I knew he was going on his holiday so we made a point to talk as often as possible, mostly on kik but sometimes on skype chats because his camera had recently broken, for real this time.