Broken (AU Calum Hood Fanfiction)

XXXVI

Jackie's POV:

The next few weeks pass quickly and without excitement. Most of what I see of Calum is at school between classes. He's seemed preoccupied with something. I don't know what. I haven't worked up the nerve to ask him.

But one day after work he brings up moving in together again. My breath gets short at the mention of the topic.

"So I talked with my parents - " he starts, pulling out of the driveway at my work.

"Uh-huh." I mumble, picking at my cuticles. When situations get uncomfortable or tense my hands suddenly seem to become the most interesting thing that ever existed on planet earth.

"They're trying to get me to move into the beach house." he adds.

"Trying?" I ask him with raised brows, "Like, as in you don't want to move there?" I scoff. It's Malibu, he'd be crazy not to.

"Yeah, trying. I don't want to live off of their money. I have my own. I don't want them having that kind of control over me." he says sternly.

"I don't think they intend to control you, Cal." I say quietly, still focusing on my hands.

"I guess I don't mean control... monitor, I don't want them monitoring me like that."

"What're you gonna be doing that they shouldn't know about?" I ask him with a giggle, looking at him sideways.

"I don't know." he sighs, "So, Jacqueline Madson, would you like to move to Malibu with me?" he rests his hand on my thigh, keeping his left one fixed on the steering wheel.

I want to hug him and kiss him and tell him yes, but I also want to jump out of this moving car. Point being - I really don't know how to feel about him asking me this. I haven't thought about what I would say when the topic was inevitably brought up again. But I should've thought about it.

I fixate on the tattoo on his inner forearm. The horseshoe. It can either represent luck or the inverse, depending on how you look at it. When his arm is at his side it's lucky. When he waves at you it's unlucky. Right now I choose to look at it as a sign of luck despite it laying horizontally, bordering the two ideas.

I don't know if I believe in luck. I don't know if I disbelieve in it either.

"Jackie?" Calum asks and I break my eyes from the ink marking his skin.

"Oh, um, well, - " I mutter stupidly.

"You don't have to. At all. I just thought - " he stops himself and shakes his head dramatically, "I don't know what I thought. I'm sorry."

I realize that my mouth's hanging open, words poised to fall but failing miserably.

We pull into his driveway and sit there, looking at one another.

"Yeah," I say quietly, fixing my eyes on his brown ones, "Yeah, let's do it."

"Really?" he asks, his eyes lightening ever so slightly.

I nod in response.

"But are you sure? I don't want to force you into anything." he says, grabbing my hand.

"YOLO, Cal." I laugh, remembering how Luke told me that when I wasn't sure about moving in with Ashton.

"I like you." he smiles, leaning in to kiss me.

"I'd hope so, you just asked me to move in with you." I laugh, touching my forehead to his.

"Yeah, I did. Then you said yes. Then I kissed you." he says, pressing his lips to mine gently.