once // calum hood

24

Duke and I are nestled up in bed around midnight. Almost eight hours until the boys' flight leaves. I gave up hope on Calum coming home. All day today I sat outside and played with Duke, but I also watched the front gate. It never opened. I have my laptop open, so I can watch a movie because apparently, Cal was against putting a TV in his room.

There are a couple of new romance movies that just dropped on Netflix, but usually, I save those for Calum and me to watch together. I scroll through for a while, but I don't find anything interesting that I want to watch. I shut my laptop and let out a sigh of frustration. Of course, sleep doesn't look like it's going to be my friend tonight. I'm not surprised, Calum could've come home at any time over the last two days but he hadn't, and it was keeping me awake. 

I roll over onto my side and scroll through my Instagram. There are various pictures of Luke and Ashton out in LA over the past couple days, but everyone is wondering where Calum is. There are a few beautifully drawn pictures of Mali as a tribute. I like some of them and then continue scrolling. Hayden posted a photo of my redecorated room that is now hers. I comment on it and then move on.

The gym had given me the option not to start classes on Monday, but I'd been going in to train over the last couple of weeks, so I thought why not? It beats sitting here and wondering. I bought Duke a new dog bed to sit in the corner of my classes so he wouldn't have to sit at home all day. Plus I didn't think anyone would mind, and he's good at listening when he's told to stay put.

At 1:30 am I heard the door beep and then open. My body freezes, and I feel my blood run cold. I set the alarm to the "stay" setting so when a door is opened, whoever opened it has thirty seconds to enter the code before the alarm goes off. When I hear the familiar beeps of the number being punched in, I only half relax. Calum is home. Duke's ears perk up at the sound of a soft thud on the floor, and I assume it's his bag. Immediately Duke jumps down and hurries out of the room.

"Hi bud, long time no see, huh?" Calum coos quietly. My chest tightens listening to his voice. I pull myself out of my frozen state and stand up, silently walking to the doorway of our room as I lean against the frame I see him. He's crouched down right outside the kitchen, almost to the living room, petting and scratching Duke. He doesn't notice me yet.

When he straightens to his full height, he looks around the house, finally spotting me. His shoulders tense and then relax, but I can't read his facial expression in the dark. He doesn't look like he's going to be running into my arms any time soon.

"I didn't mean to wake you up." He says quietly, picking up his bag and then walking towards me.

"Wasn't asleep," I reply, turning on my heel and going to sit back on the edge of the bed. Calum enters the room seconds after I sit.

My heart drops as I get the first close up view of his face. His eyes looked like they were sunk in slightly; he had dark bags under his eyes. His hair was messy, and he looked exhausted. I want to get up and fall into his arms, just to feel him once more.

"Are we going to talk about this?" I ask, leaning back on my hands. Whatever he answers with will let me know if he thinks it was okay to leave me in the dark for two weeks. 

Calum faces the closet, and I wonder if he notices that a majority of my clothes are gone. He doesn't say anything about it.

"I needed time, but I got that so I'm back," Calum says like there shouldn't be any question about it.

"That doesn't work for me, Calum." I try not to grit my teeth. I figured I would feel sad when he appeared but instead, I'm angry.

"I'm sorry."