Taken // Calum Hood

Yearning for you.

"He wasn't afraid because he thought  she wasn't the one. He was absolutely terrified because he knew she was."
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Half an hour later, things could not be more awkward. Zach went upstairs, and now they all want to know why he's here, but they don't want to ask because of Calum. Luke stays firmly by my side which I'm very grateful for. We settle for a catching up conversation in the meantime.
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"Hayley?" Zach calls from upstairs. "Could you come here a minute, babe?" He yells, knowing I could hear him, but more importantly, knowing Calum could hear him call me that. I cringed at every mistake I'd made that year. Was it me who ruined everything? I stood promptly and made my way upstairs. I knew I should never go against he orders. Unless I had a serious death wish.
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I enter the room nervously, shutting the door firmly behind me once I see his fuming expression. I didn't want anyone to hear what I knew was coming next.
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"What is this?" He asked, his voice on a strange edge which made me take a small step backwards. In his hand he dangled a stripy, crumpled up t-shirt I had quite honestly, never seen in my life.
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"I don't know." I mumbled carefully. "Someone's T-shirt?"
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He stared at me. His green eyes laced with anger. With hatred. He didn't want me either. I didn't blame him. His hand snatched up my wrist like a reflex action and yanked me to where he was standing. "This is my favourite shirt, and I asked you to wash it yesterday! It's filthy!" He bellowed, I wished so badly that he'd keep his voice down.
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"You don't live here." I whispered to try and get the point across that he shouldn't yell. "And even if you did why would I have to do your laundry?" I asked harshly, wincing as the grip on my wrist became immensely strong.
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"How dare you talk to me like that you, you, you . . ." He stumbled on his words before backing me up into the far corner of the room. His face was inches from mine as he yelled. "Jesus, you're such a waste of space, you know that? You a disappointment to bloody everyone. You're ugly, you're worthless, you're-"
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Suddenly a hand reached out and pulled me away from Zach, and behind them. I became speechless as I saw Calum standing before me, steam almost propelling out of his ears as he stared down Zach.
"I think you need to shut up." He growled. "Don't treat her like that, do you understand me?" He asked, looking over from a very pale Zach to me.
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I don't know why, but Zach had always known not to mess with Calum too much. Maybe he'd heard rumours about what he's done in the past. Maybe it was because he was so giant. Who knows, all I understand of the situation is that Zach, is scared to the bone of Cal . . . Or at least, that's what I thought.
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Something's switched inside of him as he let out an evil laugh. "Don't tell me, how to treat my girlfriend." He sneered. "You left her remember? How does that feel? Knowing she's mine now? Knowing I'm the one she cuddles up to at night, can you picture it? My hands all over her, us being together, me pleasing her in ways you never could." 
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I was about to tell him to shut the hell up when Calum stormed over and punched him straight in the mouth.
"You're a fucking idiot." He stated through gritted teeth. "And that's all I'm thinking about."
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I open my mouth to thank him but he's already leaving. Why is he leaving? I sprint out of the room but I only catch a glimpse of his back escaping through my front door. I hurry down the stairs as fast as my legs would carry me, I run and run out of the house and all the way round the next corner.
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"Calum!" I yell, unable to hold myself back from speaking to him anymore. "Calum, please!" I cry out, wishing for him to turn around.
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Finally, his body jerks back at the last moment as he switches direction and glares at me. "Just tell me one thing." He sighs, his face seemingly in pain. "Are you happy with him?" He eventually asked, his expression softening drastically.
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My face mirrors his as I shake my head limply. "I thought you knew me better than that, Calum." I sighed out, unsure of what to tell him.
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His bushy eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, or was it annoyance? "Then why are you with him? Him of all people?"
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All words seemed to have escaped me briefly as I just stood in awe of him, actually having a conversation with me. Why were we only just talking again? Why did we ever stop? Why did he shut me out like that? "I don't know." I repeated to him, what I had told Luke.
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He rolled his eyes, dragging a hand through his hair. "That's not a reason, Hayley." He sighed slowly. He was uncomfortable. I never used to make him uncomfortable.
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My voice was microscopic as I finally answered him weakly. I couldn't look him in the eye out of sheer humiliation. "I was so lost without all of you. And then you were ignoring me and I felt like I had done something awful to make you want to do that, I just couldn't figure out exactly what it was I had done. I had nobody here." I pushed out, my glistening chestnut eyes glazing over slightly.
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His face was drowning in guilt as I continued. "I saw all these pictures of you and those girls on Twitter and in magazines and I just felt so stupid. Here I was, still thinking about you all the time and there you were, happy and over me. I just," I choked, the tears flooding my cheeks. "I just wanted to move on too." I sniffed, attempting to dry my eyes and failing awfully.
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He let out a long, deep exhale of breath. "I really fucked this up, didn't I?" He asked, half to himself, half to me.
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I shook my head, rubbing my arm awkwardly. "You did what you wanted." I shrugged. "I just couldn't get over it."
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I looked up to find his cheeks puffing red, he was slowly getting more and more infuriated. I knew that look all too well "What?" He hissed. "You think I wanted to break up with you? Jesus, Hayley. Are you delusional?"
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Something switched inside of me as my blood began to boil and my expression matched his. "Then why the hell did you?" I yelled, not caring about the by-passers who stared. I needed to speak my mind. I needed answers to the questions I never had a chance to ask.
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He seemed lost for words, and had chosen now to turn quiet. His silky brown eyes filled with sadness as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I was so in love with you that it genuinely terrified me, Hayley."
I tried to pretended like his use of past tense didn't feel like a stab in the gut as he continued.
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"I mean, Jesus, we'd only been together, what? Three, four months? And to feel what I felt for you? That was scary. I didn't want us to grow apart or be over. In my head I thought that if I broke up with you before I left then I wouldn't be holding you back, and when I returned, everything would go back to normal and be fine. I didn't want to loose you."
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"But, did you really have to ignore me?" I asked with a pained tone.
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He grimaced at what he'd done. "You have to believe me that I never planned to ignore you. That wasn't part of it. Trust me, I was going to call, skype, text, hell I would have sent letters if I got the time, but I was hurting so badly that I knew the moment I heard your voice I'd loose it and be begging for you to take me back. Those girls were just fans, Hayley. I haven't so much as looked at another girl apart from you."
He sighed, biting his lip. "But now you're with Zach." He added as if I should feel guilty.
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"Don't you dare do this." I grumbled, narrowing my eyes at him. I took a small step towards him, ridding the distance between us and jabbing his chest with my finger. "Don't you dare come back here and tell me I can't date somebody else when you broke up with me. You ignored me, not the other way round."
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I wasn't sure if the tears that were flowing so heavily were because of anger or sadness. Probably a mixture of both. I look back up at him to see he's crying now too.
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"I know, okay?" He shouted, sniffing a little. "You don't think that I didn't think about you every damn day?
That I didn't find it impossible to do pretty much anything? Fuck, Hayley. It's been the hardest year of my life without you."
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I stared at him. Our heavy breathing slowly calmed down as we just watched each-other.
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"Do you, d-do you remember what I told you that last night? When you stayed over?" He asked softly, I swallowed harshly, calming myself down.
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I gave a small nod because, how could I have forgotten?
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He seems silent too as he just stared at me again. His eyes drinking me in as though he was still in shock that I was actually here, before him, after all this time.
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He shakes his head a little, a delicate chuckle escaping his lips. "I still mean every last word." He whispers, and it's only now that I realised how close we actually are.
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He's about to talk some more, but I don't care. I crash my lips onto his and I can feel as he smiles into it. He pulls away a little, our foreheads still joined. both of us breathless, our chests heaving dramatically. "I'll always mean every last word." He grinned, wrapping his hands around my waist, as my fingers knot in his hair as we kiss again and again and again.