chasing love ;; cth

Chapter 24

The same confused expression appears on his face from my response, "Didn't Calum go to talk to you yesterday?"

"No I went to talk to him," I correct him. I mean Calum did come to my dorm yesterday morning but that wasn't cause he wanted to talk, he just wanted to see if I could hang out.

"Oh well then I must of heard Calum wrong," He mumbles as he stares off into space, and it appears as if he is trying to remember exactly what Calum had said. I decide to let that drop because Michael probably just heard him wrong, but I was still slightly annoyed by the fact that he's talking about our personal conversations to other people.

"So for the..." I begin but am interrupted by my phone when a message pops up on the screen. The message is from Cal saying, 'Hey where are you?' I look to the top of the screen to see that it's already 9:05. "Hey I gotta go," I tell Michael as I get up to throw out my garbage, "But this was fun,"

"Yeah," Michael nods in agreement as he gets up to throw out his garbage as well, "We should do this again,"

"Definitely" I assure him with a smile as I head to the door. He returns the the smile and waves goodbye as I make my way outside.

I run to the parking lot on the west side of campus which really isn't that far from the coffee shop. When I arrive I see Calum leaned against the back of his car, typing rapidly on his phone, dressed in his old jersey and black shorts.

"Hey," I greet him as I walk up to the car.

"Did you run here?" He asks as he fully turns to face me, an amused smirk playing on his face.

"Maybe," I reply, trying to catch my breath back, "Anyway, what's this surprise you have in store for me?"

"You'll find out when we get there," He answers with a cheeky grin. His eyes travel towards my chest, so I instinctively turn away from him and climb into the passenger seat. I know Calum said he is trying to change, but something's just don't change, clearly.

He climbs into the drivers seat and puts his keys in the ignition. He quickly turns the radio on as he pulls out of campus and onto the main road. I faintly hear 'Yellow' by Coldplay playing, which is one of my favourite songs. The car ride is silent but peaceful as I listen to the music and the sweet sound of Calum humming along. After driving for about 10 minutes we arrive at a huge park. He turns off the engine and we both climb out of the car.

"Can you please tell me the surprise now?" I ask for about the 50th time. He pulls a big black travel bag out of the back seat before answering.

"Follow me, and I'l show you," He said slamming the car door shut and walking over to me and I was beginning to become very impatient about this whole thing. Calum lightly grasps my hand pulling me along with him across the park. My brain is telling me the that this is wrong and weird, but I can't deny that I liked the feeling of my hand in his. Resisting the temptation to pull my hand away, I let him lead me to our destination. After walking hand in hand for a couple more minutes we finally arrive at an empty field at the opposite end of the park, not one person in sight. He finally let's go of my hand placing his travel bag down on the floor and zipping it open.

"Okay so what are we doing here?" I ask, this time expecting an answer.

"Well a month ago we were at a party," He begins, his chocolate brown eyes meeting mind. Oh no, he's bringing up high school this is not going to go well, "And you said you suck at soccer and I said I would teach you," he bends over and pulls a soccer ball out of his bag, "So that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

"Calum," I can't help but laugh at the fact he thinks he will actually be able to teach me, possibly the most uncoordinated person on earth, to play soccer, "I didn't think you were being serious,"

"I love soccer though, and I haven't been able to play since college started so please just let this be my excuse to play," He pouts, and I obviously couldn't say no to that face.

"Fine," I oblige reaching behind my head to tighten my ponytail, "What do I have to do?"

"You're telling me you don't know how to play soccer?" He questions as he juggles the ball with his feet.

"Well I know you have to kick the ball," I explain. I know what soccer is, but I don't know much about it. Calum stares at me blankly, waiting for me to continue, "Into the goal," I finish.

"Well yeah but there's so much more to it," He states as he traps the ball with his feet, "Let's just start by playing one on one."

"Calum I don't know about this," I warn him, but he didn't listen cause he was soon dribbling past me towards the goal at the opposite end of the field. I run after him easily catching up as I can tell he's not really trying. I attempt to quick the ball away from him but end up kicking it with my toe. I seize from running grabbing my foot as my toe aches in pain. Calum retrieves the ball, looking back briefly with an amused smile on his face, before turning towards the goal and shooting the ball right into the top right corner.

"This is fun so far," He laughs as he jogs back to me,

"Yeah, for you," I reply, laughing along with him. For the remainder of the time we play against each other one-on-one. And Calum is destroying me. I think score by now is about 27 to 1. And that one goal wasn't even scored by me, but when Calum forgot which direction he was going in, and accidentally kicked the ball into the wrong goal.

After about three hours of non-stop playing, except for a few small breaks here and there, I was dead tired. Calum, on the other hand, only seemed to have more and more energy bubbling up inside him as time passed on. I was standing near my goal at the other side of the field when Calum came dribbling towards me. He dribbles the ball a little to hard, and it rolls a little too far ahead of him. Far enough for me to bend down, pick up the ball and start running towards the other end of the field.

"Hey you're not the goalie. You can't use hands," He's calls after me, but I keep running. I should have known that I would not be fast enough for him, because he soon catches up to me before I can reach his goal. I feel his hands tightly grip around my waist pulling my body into his. I try to stifle my laughing, but I hear him laughing along with me to. He attempts to pry the ball out of my hands without letting me slip from his grasp, "Valerie if you don't let go of the ball, I'm gonna have to tickle you," He warns, a bit of amusement in his voice.

"No, don't you dare," I shoot back between giggles. I try to slide out of his arms, but it only makes him tighten his grip more. And I wasn't going to deny that I liked the warm and protective feeling of his arms around me, but I wasn't going to just give him the ball back so that we could play for another 3 torturous hours.

"Too late," He laughs as he lets go of the ball that is still and my hands and move his hands to my stomach. I am very ticklish and try to avoid being tickled at all costs. I start laughing hysterically as he continues to tickle me, as he laughs along in my offense. I try to move away from his touch but I just end up falling back into him, as both of us go plummeting towards the ground. I roll off of his chest, onto the ground beside him. I look up at the clear sky trying to wipe the tears out of my eyes as we both continue to laugh hysterically. Finally calming down after laughing for another 5 minutes, everything is peaceful and calm as we lay alone together. The park is completely, with not another person in sight. We stare into the sky and point out the clouds and the random things they reminded us of. We were acting like little kids, but I didn't mind because it was peaceful and I enjoyed lying next to him on the grass. I enjoyed his company.

"And that one looks like Michael," He says pointing to a cloud in the sky.

"How?" I chuckle looking in the direction that he is pointing in.

"Well it's covering the sun a bit so it looks sorta pink on the top," He explains his reasoning.

"Oh I see...kind of," I laugh slightly, him joining in.

There is a moment of peaceful silence before he speaks again, "Thank you for being honest,"

"About what?" I ask, turning to face him completely, propping myself up with my elbow, my head rested against my hand.

"Well," he says propping himself up on his hands, turning his head to face me. His big brown eyes meeting mine, "You said you suck at soccer. Which is true,"

"Hey," I chuckle, pushing him hard enough that he falls over onto the ground. However my last minute idea didn't go as well as I had hoped, because he pulls me down with him, wrapping his hands around my waist as my head rests against his chest, the tickling soon picking up again.

"CALUM, S-STOP, I C-CAN'T BREATHE" I manage to say between laughs, as I continue to flail around in his arms, looking like a complete idiot. He says nothing. He just continues to attack me, laughing at my huge giggle fit.

I finally roll out of his arms, my back against the bare ground. I stare into the calming blue sky, trying desperately to catch my breath back. However, Calum clearly doesn't realize I'm done being tickled for the day, because he moves on top of me, hovering over, placing one hand on either side of my head.

Except, when he finally positions himself above me, he doesn't begin to tickle me again. He just stares. Stares right into my eyes. And I stare into his. His big, beautiful brown ones. At the moment I can't seem to read his expression, so I don't even bother trying. I just continue to stare, as does he, and I find myself easily getting lost in his eyes. We seem to be in this position forever. And his face, which is only inches away from mine, seems to be moving closer and closer by the second.