ⓒⓞⓛⓞⓤⓡⓢ |c.h + l.h|

Chapter 13.

"Calum, I thought I told you to stop leaving like that without telling anyone," his mother said, tone oozing with so much fake sincerity that it made Calum cringe.

"Um, you never told me that," Calum mumbled offhandedly as he hung up his jacket, tidied his shoes and then resumed to texting Ashton on his phone.

His mother frowned, staring at Calum in disapproval.
"Well, where did you go?"

Calum rolled his eyes, but still kept them focused on the screen. "I was out with friends."

His mother looked shocked. "You have fr-- Oh um, what friends? Was it that nice boy from down the road?" She asked, pretending to know something about her son's life. Honestly "down the road" could be anywhere.

"Yes, I know this may be surprising, so you may want to sit down before you fall down in shock...But," Calum whispered the last part very quietly as if was a very important secret, "I'm actually a giraffe, and you know nothing about me, nor will you ever."

Don't ask Calum why he even said that, he just really likes to irritate his parents.

"Young man! You do not sass your mother like that! I only wanted to know about your social life."

"What social life?"

"Right! I've had enough of your snarky remarks. I'm taking away your laptop and your phone, and...um, oh... you can't watch TV anymore! And once you start behaving properly you'll get them back."

Did Calum mention how much he dislikes his mother? She's such a bi...scuit. Yeah, a biscuit.

Calum gave up on conversing with her, and sighed.

She snatched his phone out of his hands and he didn't get a chance to lock it. Well someone's going to be busy snooping later.

Calum has basically nothing to do now. He doesn't play an instrument--well, he can play the bass really badly if that counts for anything. He doesn't like to read. He's really bad at art, and doesn't enjoy it anyways. He can't use the internet now, or watch TV. All in all, Calum Hood is a very ordinary boring person.

Well, he could go and meet up with Ashton again, even though he only hung out with him an hour ago...

He can't text Ashton now though. And he can't just arrive unannounced at his house either. Okay maybe he won't hang out with Ashton again.

Maybe Calum could just walk around the town, which was only twenty minutes away.

He peeked into the kitchen to see his mother going through his text messages, as expected. He shook his head and turned away in case she noticed his presence and wanted to talk again.

He then looked into the living room to see his father reading a book with a really tiny pair of reading glasses perched on his nose. He thinks he's so sophisticated with those little glasses. He doesn't even need glasses, his eyesight is perfectly fine.

Yeah, he's going to go walk for a while. It's not like his parent's will notice anyway.

~~~

Which is why, almost an hour later, Calum is talking to Luke in the middle of a Hot Topic store.

"Calum, which merch should I get? I'm torn between that Nirvana t-shirt and the Green Day one."

"Oh, Green Day. Nothing against Nirvana, but I'm in a Green Day kind of mood today."

Luke nodded and smiled, even though he couldn't understand how you could "be in a Green Day mood", but he just went with it. "Alright, thanks."

Calum turned away and started looking around the shop. There was a group of teenage girls in one corner that looked scandalized because whatever boy band they liked didn't have merchandise here.