Chapter One
“Aunt Elena, a striped pink button up is not going to help me make friends!”
“Aww, just give it a try Calum.”
I groaned at my aunts relentless efforts to try help me fit in. She nearly had a heart attack when she saw that my suitcase was overflowing with skin tight jeans, I guess I just didn’t get the ‘florida’ memo. Kind of hard to think things through when one day you’re confessing one of the most difficult things in your life to your picture perfect parents and the next you’re being shipped across the country. I don’t say I blame them though. How could the public every find out that Mr. and Mrs. Hood’s only son was gay? I still remember the look on their faces, shocked and disgusted. Claiming I needed an ‘environmental change’ because of my ‘issue’. I don’t mind it much though, I didn’t have many friends anyway, and my parents weren’t the most loving… you could say this was for the better.
So here I am, standing in the middle of a crowded mall as my aunt grabs every horrific looking shirt in sight.
“Calum, remember Liz and her son are coming over tonight. He’s goes to Lakewood and I thought it would be good if he introduced you to some people.”
This made me anxious. I was never really good at making friends, especially not like this.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I just made my own friends? Besides, what would we even talk about?”
“He’s a nice kid! I heard he plays some sort of instrument, so you can talk about that.”
I rolled my eyes. Probably some kid who picked up a guitar and now plays amateur pop songs. Typical.
“Fine. I’ll talk to him.”
We got home after some more shopping, and I immediately went to my room and opened up my laptop.I messed around on it for a while, hearing the noise from downstairs. This was something new to me.
Back in Seattle I’d spend days, maybe weeks, by myself. My parents always being in the office or on a business trip. Here, even though I was the only kid in the house, there was always noise. Whether it was
humming from my aunt, or the sound from Uncle Paul’s games on TV, I always felt secure. My thoughts got interrupted by a call from my Aunt.
“Calum, please come down!”
I quickly made my way to the bathroom and checked my appearance. That’ll have to do. I exited the bathroom and made my way to the head of the stairs and looked ahead of me, when I saw him.
I gasped at what I saw in front of me. A tall, lean blonde wearing tight jeans and a leather jacket and whose hair was styled in a quif.
I nearly fainted.
Jesus Christ, was he attractive.
I guess they heard my hyperventilating and looked up expectantly at me.
“Well come on down, Calum.” I nodded and gulped as I tried to think of the best way to walk down the stairs without seeming that much of an idiot. I guess I was trying way too hard because one thing led to another and boom- I tripped over my own awkwardness.
I was now, a 6 foot teenager, rolling down the stairs. Just fucking great.
When I had finally stabilized myself enough, I shamefully looked up.
“Oh my god, Calum! Are you okay?!” My aunt rushed over to me looking for non-existent bruises, when I heard a snicker come from him.
I lifted myself off the last step and sighed, searching for some bit of confidence.
“I’m fine, Aunt Elena.
She looked me in the eyes, knowing I was embarrassed enough and not wanting to push it.
“Oh alright, I’ll just introduce you.”
We walked to the door where Liz and her son were standing.
“You’ve of course met Liz,” she gestures toward Liz and I give her a small smile, “and this is her son, Lucas.”
I peer over and give him the friendliest, I-didn’t-just-fall-down-the-stairs look.
“Calum.”
He stares at me like I just punched him in the face and doesn’t say anything. Now this is really awkward. Liz jabs Lucas with her elbow, signaling him to do something. He rolls his eyes and finally looks into mine.
“Luke.”
Great, I think. I’ve known him for like two minutes and I’ve already embarrassed myself in front of him and he hates me.
I shift around my feet for a moment not knowing what to say.
“Let’s go eat?” My aunt suggests and I basically run to the dining room, wanting to do anything to leave his presence.
Uncle Paul’s setting things up in the room and greets the guests as they enter the room. We all sit down and I take the only seat left, which just so happens to be across from the blondie himself. Perfect.
We pass around the bowl of pasta, helping ourselves to the meal Aunt Elena spent hours making. Still extremely confused on how or why her and my mother are sisters. When I’ve finished serving myself I look in front of me, waiting to give Lucas the bowl. But no, of course the universe has made things difficult for me again. He’s on his phone. I look around to see if anyone will notice I’m waiting for him to grab it but the adults are all just busy small talking.
“Uhh… Lucas?”
He looks up from his phone and gives me an intense glare.
“It’s Luke.”
Shit.
“Oh, I’m sorry Luke. I was just done with the pasta and was wondering if you wanted to um- have it?”
He smirked at my words, the first time I’ve seen him look at me with an expression other than judgment.
“Okay.”
He reached for my hands underneath the bowl and lifted it from them.
The entire meal consisted of his stares, ranging from death stares to more intrigued stares. Whenever I tried to talk to him he’d just look up, roll his eyes, and look back at his phone. I seriously don’t know what the hell his problem is. I’ve done nothing to bother him.
I just decided to tune out most of the conversation going on around me, until someone had mentioned my name.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, I was just telling Liz how starting on Monday you’ll be going to the same school as Lucas and I thought it’d be a good idea if you two did something. So you could get to know each other.”
I immediately turn down the thought. Luke hates me, and I don’t think he would even consider hanging out with me. Before I could even bring up an excuse of how I couldn’t go, a deep voice interrupts me.
“That sounds great.”
My eyes widen as I look up to at the now smirking Luke Hemmings.
“Um, what?”
He ignores my comment and continues talking. “Yeah, we could hang out and stuff. I’ll show him around.”
What the fuck? You ignore me the whole night and now you decide you want to show me around?My aunt claps a little and smiles like she just won a billion dollars.
“This is great! See Calum, you had nothing to worry about. You and Luke are going to be good friends.” I give the best smile I can offer to my Aunt.
“Yeah… sounds fun.”