Deals (Calum Hood)

Chapter 2

I sat on my wooden bedroom floor and cut out letters from cardstock, spelling out the words that formed my favorite quote. We hadn't been in this home for long yet so my walls were pretty bland.

Just three months ago my mom, brother and I moved from our cozy Manhattan apartment to a small one story home in Sydney, Australia. Conveniently, our new home was only twenty minutes away from my grandparents, the prime reason of our move. It was a large change but once my dad died we all knew mom was anxious to get out of the city and out of the apartment complex that was just across the street from the hospital that brought back horrid memories.

I stood up and studied the wall over my bed, mentally placing the letters on the grey shaded area. 

I grabbed the letters and the adhesive and climbed onto my bed, carefully placing each letter on the wall.

I heard a knock on the door and replied "come in" without even thinking.

"Whatcha doing?" I heard a strong, familiar Australian accent say.

I nearly fell off my bed when I turned around and saw Calum Hood standing in the middle of my room. "God you scared the shit out of me."

He laughed a little, closing the door behind him. "Sorry. What's up?"
"What are you doing here?" I immediately asked as I turned around and kept placing letters on the wall.

"I dropped Dylan off and I couldn't leave without at least saying hi to you." 
I felt the bed move a bit as he sat down on it.

I put the last letter up on the wall and jumped off the bed, admiring my work and making sure everything was straight.

"If this is to end in fire, then we will all burn together." Calum recited the quote on the wall. "Isn't that from that new Ed Sheeran song?" He quizzed.
I sat with him on the bed but kept my distance. "Well it's actually originally a quote from the actual book The Hobbit, Ed just took the movie quote and put it in his song since he wrote the song for that movie. 

"I see." He raised his eyebrow and I watched his vision travel to my large bookshelf on the opposite wall. "So you're a reader, I see."

I chuckled. "Just a bit."

"How many books does that shelf hold?" 

"Probably around 200 but I only have about 100 on it right now. That's why it looks so empty." 

"Wow." He replied. "Have you read all those books?" 

"Yeah, some of them I've read a few times but I've read all of those at least once."

His eyes widened as he laughed quietly. "I could probably only read five of those. I hate reading."

"How could you hate reading?" I exclaimed. 

"I just don't have the attention span to read. Books don't interest me unless they're about sports. I like sports better, I constantly need to be active and moving."

"Oh, I don't like sports. I've never been good at that and I'm not fast at all. That's why I love reading. It just takes me to such a calm place. But I still don't understand how you don't like to read."

He shrugged, walking over to my bookshelf. "I just don't. I don't know. I'm just not that type of guy. I'd rather wait for them to make a movie out of it."

"I guess."

I followed him over to the bookshelf and noticed when he picked a book off of the shelf, studying it's cover. "That's such a good book." 

"The Giver." He read the title and flipped through the pages. "What's it about?"

"Well, it's set in the future where peoples lives are basically completely controlled by the government and this boy named Jonas is chosen to be the next giver and he has to go through all these lessons and everything from the current giver."

"Sounds weird," he said, flipping to the back cover and reading the summary.

"That would never happen in real life, though."

"That's the beauty of books Calum, anything you want can happen." I smiled slightly.

"I guess." He replied, still seeming to be invested in the book.

"Would you like to borrow it?" I suddenly blurted out. I immediately regretted my words. He hates reading, he would never want to borrow a book from me. 

"Oh uh, no. It's fine." He pushed the book back onto its place on the shelf.

"Are you sure?" I pulled it back off the shelf. "It's really good, Calum." 

"Are you trying to tempt me and pull me into some unground satanic book club society you're apart of where all I'll do is eat, sleep and breathe books?" He laughed at his own joke.

"There is no such thing, Calum. Anyways, eating books would be gross."
He laughed, shaking his head. He whispered under his breath, "Smart-ass." 
I giggled, "You just seemed unsure when you put the book back."

"Well..." He took the book from me, admiring the cover once again. "Do you think I'd be able to finish it?"

"Maybe." I replied, smirking slightly at him.

"Maybe? You don't believe in me?" He laughed, a smirk curling onto his lips.

"It all depends Calum. How dedicated would you be to reading?" I asked.

"I'd be more dedicated if I had a motive for reading." 

"Like what kind of motive?" I was anxious to help.

"Well," he said. "It's 5pm right now. If I finish The Giver by 5pm tomorrow can I take you on a date?"

He caught me off guard. My body froze and I looked over at him, a surprised look on my face. "That's your chosen motive? A date with me?" 

"A date with you, Allison." He confirmed. "You can quiz me on the book too. I'll come over once I finish it and if I ace that quiz I get to take you out to dinner." 

I felt my cheeks gain heat as his half smirk turned into a full smirk, his eyes pinned right on me.

"Deal?" He asked, as I didn't reply. He held out his hand.

I grabbed his hand, shaking it and nodding my head once. "Deal."