once // calum hood

7

"I know he seems angry, but he's been angry for the last six months. I think he's angry at himself. Anyway, the main reason why I asked you to come here is to show you this." Luke pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Oh, Ash and Michael texted and asked if they could join us." He looks up at me, and I nod, I don't see why not.

After a few more seconds of tapping on his phone, he sets it on the table and slides it over to me. It's another TMZ article, and groan before I even read the title.

Calum Hood started bar fight moments after his ex-girlfriend leaves the place, banned for life.

"Oh my god, who did he hit?" I scroll down to see if there are any pictures, but most of them are of Cal leaving with a red face and bruised knuckles. The rest of the band follows his lead, looking pissed off.

"A guy that said his name was Bryan. I walked back inside just in time to see Calum throw the first punch." Luke watched my face as he spoke to see if I had any reaction to the name Bryan. Of course, he hit Bryan, why were they even talking to each other? Bryan was across the room when I left.

The bell to the front door rang as someone else entered the shop and Luke waved Ashton and Michael over. They stopped at the counter to order first, but I stood to hug them both when they got over to us.

"Seems like everyone got to see you last night except me." Michael laughs as he sits down next to Luke. Ash slides into the booth next to me.

Michael looked down at Lukes phone and sighed. "So you showed her that already?"

Luke nodded and looked back at me.

"Ashton was still trying to convince Calum not to leave when I came after you, but I guess the guy walked up right after I stepped outside." Luke looked from me to Ash and Ashton nodded.

"He came up, and I don't know if he asked how we knew you or if we had been bothering you, but Calum immediately got defensive and was like,'What the fuck does it matter to you?' He didn't even get angry at Cal he was just like,'look, my name is Bryan,' but before he could finish Calum socked him. He acted as he knew him, and Bryan acted like he knew you. I don't know, it was super weird." Ashton explained.

I want to slam my head against the window just as our food arrives. I'm starving, but suddenly I don't want to eat anymore.

"That's because I was there with Bryan," I sigh, and all three of them almost snap their necks to look at me.

"Don't look at me like that, I can go anywhere I want with whoever. I don't owe anyone an explanation, but I guess I'll tell you. Bryan was my first and only boyfriend before Calum. We dated starting in eighth grade and broke up with one semester of high school left. After we broke up, I was literally lost. I didn't think I could be Teagan without Bryan and a lot of bad things happened. Calum knows all of this, and that's why I hesitated to get involved with Calum. Bryan goes to college out of state, and he's leaving today until June, all he wanted to do was catch up."

For a moment they all look like they're thinking and I sigh. "It doesn't give Calum an excuse, he shouldn't have hit Bryan. If he won't even look at me, then he obviously doesn't care and shouldn't have done what he did."

Michael is the first to take a bite, and I settle for a spoonful of my soup.

"I don't think it's fair to say that he doesn't still care about you. It wasn't a good way to show he still cares, but it does kind of confirm that." Ashton holds up his hands and makes a motion like he's balancing out the situation. If they're right and Calum does still care about me, why hadn't he tried to contact me? Why was he waiting for me?