Taken // Calum Hood

Birthday boy!

I allowed myself one last look at him. His current sleeping state, making him seem so innocent in the early morning. I watched his toned chest rise and fall in perfect rhythm, his lips slightly parted and his breathing rugged and heavy. He made every inch of me tingle.
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Snapping myself out of my thoughts I very carefully placed one leg over his waist, straddling him without any actual contact. I hovered there, taking a deep breath.
I loved waking Calum up on his birthday.
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I wished more than anything my other best friends could accompany me again this year, last year we had epically succeeded in giving him the best birthday wake up in the history of birthday wake ups.
Even if we did create a lot of mess.
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I slowly began applying a ginormous mountain of shaving foam onto his open palm, trying desperately hard to contain any giggles. Once it was simply not possible to add anymore before it all toppled over, I gently brought my hand to his soft face, drawing light lines up and down his cheeks to bring him an unbearable tickling sensation.
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His subconscious mind wasted no time in reacting to the itch, slapping his hand to his face, white foam splattering absolutely everywhere. He jolted upright in shock, causing me to fall onto his lap. I was laughing like a mad women by now, my stomach aching, alongside my mouth and chest.
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He groaned in realisation, slamming his body back down into lying position, only resulting in me laughing even harder. "Hayley Rose!" He looked up slightly, narrowing his sleepy eyes at me. "You are going to wish you never did that." He warned, his tone threatening.
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I lept up immediately, legging it into his bathroom and slamming the door shut, firmly behind me. I only just escaped his grip and I was still not over my hysteria.
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I could feel jolts of the door as Calum tried to break his way in. Eventually, I watched in terror as the lock span around, him bursting in through the white doorway. He smirked devilishly, sweeping me up in his arms and carrying me back to his bed.
"Calum!" I squealed, sudden fear coursing through my veins.
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He threw me onto the mattress with a bounce, pinning both of my arms above my head with one of his palms, gripping both my wrists. He pulled out the shaving foam bottle with his other hand and totally covered my body, it was his turn to laugh like a crazy person.
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The moment he released me, I jumped up onto him, pushing him back to lie on the mattress and hugging him tightly, causing all the foam to squish between us. "Happy birthday, loser." I grinned, pulling away.
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"Thank you." He beamed. "We better clean up before my parents come in." He advised, taking the lead back into his bathroom.
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~~~
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"So how does it feel to be eighteen?" I teased, watching him in the bathroom mirror as I wiped down my pyjamas with a flannel.
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"Oh, I feel like a changed man." He joked, his gaze meeting mine in the reflective glass. His twinkling brown eyes made my heart puddle. "May even take up the fiddle."
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I snorted. My focus switching to the tap which was now gushing water over my cloth in attempt to make it clean again.
"I might join you, we can make a fiddle band."
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"Brilliant! The fiddlers, bringing pleasurable music to you, wherever, whenever." He carried on in a dramatic tone.
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"I was thinking more the fiddle sticks, but whatever floats your boat." I shrugged.
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He broke into a fit of giggles at this. I loved making him laugh, it filled me with this raging sense of pride.
"Yes! The fiddle sticks." He was still chuckling as I turned around to face him properly, now cleaned up. Just soaking wet instead. We dried ourself out as best as we could, chattering away happily as we did so.
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"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Calum, happy birthday to you!" Calum's parents burst through his bedroom door, singing loudly with glee.
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We darted out of his en-suite, Calum's grin widening as he saw they had made us both waffles on a tray, complimented with a small jug of maple syrup and orange juice.
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"Thanks guys." He strode over to them, hugging his mother first whilst his father placed the two trays carefully onto his bed.
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"Eighteen." Joy sighed, her eyes glazing over with pride and adoration. "I can't believe how grown up you are. Both of you." She smiled over at me.
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Calum moved on to his father, David wrapped his arms around him, giving him a quick squeeze. He ruffled Cal's hair as they faced each other again.
"Come down after breakfast for presents." He informed, the two of them giving us final grins before vacating the room once more.
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~~~
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"Okay, now this one is from us." Joy pushed a giant cardboard box over in Calum's direction after he'd opened all his family's presents.
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He looked at the box in awe before looking back up at his parents. "You didn't . . ." He had this biggest toothy grin on his face as he began ripping apart the cardboard revealing a shiny new guitar.
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"Ohmygodguys" He gushed out, his everything gleaming with happiness. Calum was amazing at the guitar, completely breath taking. It made him at least ten times hotter to me.
"Thank you so much!" His eyes wondered over every last detail thoroughly as he fell completely in love with his new instrument.
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"Hayley, could you do your present now love?" David asked, and I knew exactly why. Calum's final present was the show stopper. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face. I gave the kind hearted man a nod, pulling out a few badly wrapped presents from beside me.
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"Not that I can amount to that guitar!" I teased, only half joking. "Happy birthday Calum." I grinned, passing him over my gifts; two medium sized ones and an envelope. "Open this one last." I instructed as I handed him the card.
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He nodded, getting straight to work at his two other gifts, a football shirt and some band posters and merchandise. I was worried he wouldn't be impressed after his fancy new guitar but he seemed to love it all the same.
He was so kind.
. . . She was so mean.
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It got to the envelope and my heart rate quickened with excitement.
Please love it, please love it!
I watched him open it slowly and carefully. He opened the birthday card as two tickets to the nearest Green Day concert flew out.
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His eyes widened with glee. My heart swelled. This was exactly the reaction I had wanted. "Hayley . . ." He grinned at me. "How did you get these? They sold out in minutes!" He looked so happy. It made the money spent so worth it.
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"My dad's friend knows Tré Cool's brothers wife's cousin, or something like that."I shrugged as if it was easy, which it most certainly was not.
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He crawled over across the plush carpet we were all sat on to give me a bone crushing hug. "I love you so much, I love you all so much." He smiled happily. "I'm paying for my ticket by the way." He said seriously.
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"Are you kidding? It's a present!" I shook my head, declining his offer.
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"But these aren't cheap, and you payed for yours too. Just getting them was more than enough, Hayley." He continued as I carried on shaking my head.
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"Nope, I'm not having it. My parents helped pay anyway, they said they wanted it to be from all of us." I told him truthfully. He watched me carefully before eventually nodding his head, slowly.
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"Okay then . . . Give them a massive thanks from me when you see them later." He instructed happily.
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"Hayley dear, will you do the honours?" Joy asked, breaking mine and Calum's fixed gaze at each other, and passing me a scarf.
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I nodded, breaking into yet another toothy grin. Calum looked extremely confused, his bushy eyebrows furrowed together and his lips pursed.
"Why the scarf? What's going on?" He asked, baffled.
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"Just ssh." I instructed, wrapping the material around his eyes, tying it neatly at the back of his head. "Okay, now you need to stand up." I laughed. He struggled, but eventually was stood before me, he had now successfully gone back to towering over me. I loved how much taller he was than me.
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"Can you lead him to it honey?" Joy questioned, causing Calum to hold out a large hand.
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I nodded, gently intertwining our fingers, savouring every moment. I prayed to god that he couldn't feel my pulse.
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We arrived in their garage all too soon, I never wanted to drop Calum's hand. They fitted so nicely.
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I unraveled the knot at the back of his head and swooped off the scarf dramatically as me and his parents gestured to his brand new car, over-excitedly. "Tadah!" I giggled as he lowered his jaw in shock, his mouth forming a small 'o'.
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"No way." He murmured. I thought he was going to cry for a moment, his eyes definitely watered as he bounded into his parents arms. "No freaking way!" He yelled, turning back around to admire every part. "This is the best birthday ever, seriously. Thank all of you so much." He smiled in adoration. "You three mean everything to me." He said warmly.
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Joy wrapped an arm around me, rubbing my arm gently as we watched him admire his gift. "I'm so glad you're here." She whispered in my ear. "He was really worried you wouldn't come this year."
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I snapped my head up at her confused, why would he think that? I always attended his birthday days, he always attended mine. It was like a tradition. The doorbell rang, preventing me from getting any extra information from her.
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They gave Calum one final hug.
"I'm so glad you love it son." David said, the two of them rushing off to answer the door.
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He grinned at me, giving me an extra hug as well. "Thank you. For everything." He whispered, burying his head into the crook of my neck.
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"Happy birthday, Calum." I replied as we faced each other again. We were still unbearably close. Our breathing getting mixed together mid-way. "I'm glad you lik-"
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"Baby!" Megan squealed, rushing over to him and shoving me out the way. I stumbled backwards slightly as she pulled him into a quick hug.
"Happy birthday!" She winked, giving him a card with a teeny gift stuck on.
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He eyed it carefully, sticking on a small smile. "Thank you." He said quietly.
He looked so startled.
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"Well open it then!" She pushed him playfully in the shoulder. I stood there like a lemon. Had she even noticed me here?
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Calum gave me a quick look, and I wondered what was going through his head. "Let's do it in the kitchen, come on. There's drinks and stuff." He nodded towards the door.
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She span around and her eyes darted to me for the first time since she arrived. She gave me the most vile glare before turning back to Calum.
"Why is she here?" Her red lips spat.
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Calum gulped, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"I invited her here." He said quietly. "Can we please do this later? Let's just go and open this." He sighed, heading towards the door.
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We followed through without a word.
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We all sat around the table with glasses of squash. Me, David and Joy one side, Calum and Megan the other. The awkward tension in the air was unbearable. Everyone here was far from comfortable, everyone except Megan. She sat poised as ever and grinning over-excitedly at Calum.
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He opened the card first, his cheeks blushing furiously at whatever dirty thing she had written.
I felt Joy tense beside me. She knew it too.
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He moved swiftly onto the present, making sure he had closed the card shut. Away from our gaze.
He opened the wrapping paper as a picture of Megan on a keychain fell out . . . and a condom.
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I choked on my squash. Joy tensed further. David cleared his throat awkwardly. Calum looked as though he wanted to die.
Megan was smiling.
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"This is so you'll always have me, wherever you go." She picked up the key ring, waggling it about. He wasn't even in the picture. It was literally just her. "And this is for later." She winked.
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This time, I choked back tears. I'm not even sure why. I knew they slept together, I knew it happened on a weekly bases. But seeing this, hurt like hell, and she knew it.
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"Oops, sorry about the awkwardness mummy and daddy Hood!" She giggled, not phased at all.
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They both shot her a pair of daggers, equally disgusted, equally furious.
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Calum still looked pained, his entire face was glowing red. He stared at it for a few minutes, refusing to look up to any of us, before shoving it awkwardly in his pocket, alongside the keyring.
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At that moment Joy reached out under the table, and took my hand in hers. She squeezed it gently, and I wasn't sure if this was for her or me.
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Did Joy know too? Or did she just need some comfort? This must be so hard for her as well. He's her little boy. Her sweet, innocent, little boy.
I squeezed back a little tighter. I hoped to god it brought her a bit of comfort.
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