Friends With Benefits [Calum Hood]

Chapter 35.

I wake up to the sun shining in my eyes. I turn over and pull the blankets with me, covering my face and curling into a fetal position. As I bring my knees to my chest, I realize that I'm naked from my waist down, and my eyes shoot open. I stare at the unfamiliar sheets with an unfamiliar smell and suddenly I realize where I am. I close one eyes as I sit up, the sun shining in my face again. I inhale slowly, remembering last night, heat rushing to my cheeks. I blush harder when I see Calum pulling a shirt over his head, his toned abdomen facing me. 

"Hi. You're up." He says. I nod and eye the floor for my clothes.

"Yeah. What time is it?" I question.

"9:30 ish. You-" he starts, but I cut him off.

"I need to leave, yup." I say, spotting my underwear. I flinch a little when I move, as there's a bit of soreness in my lower region. I rub my hips gently, hoping the pain will subside. I pull on my undergarments and look at Calum as he laughs at my pained expression.

"Have you never done this before Maddy?" He says, still laughing. I frown and pull on my jeans.

"No. I have. It's hurt that you're a little, uh..." I trail off as I search for my shirt.

"I'm a little what?" He challenges.

"A little different" I say, strategically ignoring his question as I continuing to search for my shirt. He steps in front of my and holds my shirt high above his head.

"Tell me what you were actually going to say and I'll let you have your shirt back." He smiles and I look at my shirt with a frown.

"You're uhm...is big." I say awkwardly. He laughs and lifts my shirt higher.

"What's an 'uhm' Madison?" He taunts. Just as I'm about to give him a sassy remark, we hear his parents calling for him. I grab my shirt from his hand and slip out the window just as his mother opens the door. I sigh with relief as my feet hit the grass and I take off running towards the street corner. I dial Caci's number as fast as my fingers will let me and ask her to come and get me. 

Fortunately, Caci decided not to drill me as to why I was a block from Calum's house in the same clothes I wore last night. I'm glad she didn't, because I knew Hale would ask as soon as we got back home. And I was right, because as soon as I opened the door, a familiar voice yelled, "And where were you last night Madison?" I sigh and kick off my shoes at the door.

"Give me two minutes, let me shower, breathe, eat, and then I'll tell you where I was. That okay mom?" I yell back.

"Of course babe. Take your time." Hale pokes her head out of the kitchen and smiles.

Their reactions were annoyingly unsurprised. Hale apparently "saw it coming". Caci seemed more annoyed, but I don't blame her. I excused myself after lunch, because honestly, my lower abdomen was still hurting. I finally bother to check my phone and I see five messages from Calum. 

From Calum:
Hey you home?
Can we talk about last night
It's not like it wasn't good dw
Why aren't you replying
Hello?

I sigh and type quickly. 

To: Calum
Yeah I'm home sorry just saw these

From: Calum
That's okay. Can I call?

To: Calum
Yeah sure

My phone rings and I stare at the screen for a moment before answering. "Hello?" I say, my voice obviously tired. 
"Hey Maddy. Are you alright?" Calum says. I am almost surprised by his question.

"Yeah I'm fine. What'd you want to talk about?" There's a pause, and the silence is almost too long before he speaks again.

"I wanted to talk about last night." 

"Okay what about it?" I question.

"I know it was just once but I don't want to do this again unless it's just sex." He says. I don't say anything, as I'm confused by what he's saying. "Wait that was awkward. I meant to say that it's not you or anything, but I really don't want to be in a relationship right now." He explains. "The sex is great though, so I suppose as long as its sex without emotion or commitmen we can keep this going." He says.

"Okay. I'm fine with that." I reply. My response was a little too fast and not exactly thought out, but I figure it can't hurt. 

-

The next day, I'm up bright and early. I spend my morning exercising and studying, which is surprisingly productive for me. Caci and Nick join me around lunch, and sit in front of me on the kitchen table as we plan what were we going to do this weekend. At first we thought would hang out at home as usual, until Nick finally proposed to take us to his friend’s beach house. I personally think it's a good idea. With this whole thing with Calum going on, I would rather be anywhere but here. In the middle of the conversation, Hale burst into the kitchen after being missing the whole day. As hard as she tried to avoid our curious eyes, we knew she was smirking and completely red. Seems like hanging out with Michael was a normal thing after all. "Hey Hale, we're just headed upstairs. See you later." Caci says as she and Nick excuse themselves very obviously. 

"No need to keep it down." I holler. Caci sticks her tongue out at me and I laugh at her childish reaction. I turn my attention back to Hale, looking at her over my shoulder as she walked over the fridge. "So..." I give her a small smile. 

"So what? I just stayed over at his place," She said, which made me raise an eyebrow. "Come on, his family was there." she explains. "And, I mean, I’m not the one that hooks up with her so called friend.” she adds under her breath, trying to hide an obvious giggle. Ever since I told them about what happened back at Calum's, they have been teasing me and fooling around, which only made me remember it and think about him even more. 

"Oh shut up." I say as I dry my hands, having finished washing the dishes. "Did you have lunch?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Yeah I got Subway with Michael on our way home" She said before going into deep detail about her day with Mr. Dye, to which I wasn't paying much attention to, instead my mind was still on what she previously said. "Earth to Madison." I come back to reality and jerk my head backwards as Hale was moving her hands in front of my face to catch my attention.

"Sorry, I was just…thinking"

"Come here" She said signaling me to sit down with her back on the kitchen table. "It’s more than obvious that you like Calum. And this thing that you two are going through, this friends with benefits phase or whatever you would like it to call it, won’t help. You should either tell him about the crush you've got on him or try to pull it away. It won’t make it any better for you to keep this going if it’s not a serious thing-"

“But it's not like I want to be serious with him or anything.” I interject. 

“That’s not the point Madison. You told me that this thing was lasting with no strings attached, just entertainment, whatever you want to call it. If you like him, I think there is a decision you should take. You either go forward and make a relationship out of this, or backwards and figure out how to stop it. I don’t want you to be brokenhearted babe, that’s what I am trying to say."

I nod at her and look down at my hands. I know she's right, but the decision is difficult. It's not that I'm in love with Calum, but I don't think of him as just good sex either. He's more to me than that, whether or not he feels that way about me too. I shake the thought from my head. The more I think about it, the worse I feel. But honestly, there's no reason to feel bad. Sure, being "friends with benefits" with someone isn't the best thing, but it was a mutual agreement so no harn done. At least that's what I'm going to tell myself.

-

An special thank you to ava for helping me out with this chapter and basically for making me keep on writing. sorry for taking so long on updating the story btw :-( You can check more of ava's writings on her acc: socialcalumity