once // calum hood

27

"What is it? I didn't think deliveries came after 8 pm." Hayden speaks up, her voice slurring a little bit, indicating she's still half asleep.

"We had special instructions to deliver this today, and not to tell you what it was until you see it." 

I take my finger off the call button so he can't hear me anymore. "Should we go get it or let him in?"

"I mean, don't you think it's a little sketchy that theyre delivering it at what... 10:30? Two hours after all the routes are finished? Maybe we should just tell him to come back in the daylight." Hayden shrugs and I sigh.

"I'm not telling him to leave and come back. We'll go get it. There's a bat by the gate anyway, I can hit him in the head if we're in danger."

Hayden rolls her eyes at me but I take her hand and drag her outside anyway. There are two gates, one to drive through and one you can walk through, so we go through the second. A man in a UPS uniform is standing there with a large, wide rectangular box, and he looks like he's struggling to hold it. 

"Hi, sorry about that. We'll take it inside." I smile sheepishly at him and nudge Hayden to help me take it from him. I notice it has a big red bow on the box so it must be a birthday present of some kind. 

"No problem. Sorry for the late delivery, we got it here as fast as possible. Happy birthday." 

I do a double take as he tips his hat at us and walks back to his truck. He's pulling away before I can say thank you so we head inside. Something in the box slides as we turn it to make it fit through the gate and I hope I haven't broken anything. 

"Calum learns about your birthday at 10 am and twelve hours later he has a present shipped to you. Where can I get a partner like this?" Hayden groans as we finally get it inside. It's pretty heavy, and about the width of a doorway but a little less than half as tall. 

"How do you know it's from him?" I question, we slide it onto the high top table and I grab a knife to open it. 

"Who else has your address beside me and him? Your parents sent a card with me." Hayden walks down the hall into her bedroom and emerges again with a card in hand. 

"Oh, then I guess it would be from him." I shrug, using the knife to slit the tape and then pulling the tab so the box opens. 

Inside are two picture frames, just slightly smaller than the box but they're still big. We opened the box the wrong way so I can't see what's in them yet, but a note falls out as we slide them out to set them on top. 

"Wait don't turn them over yet, this note says read first." I hold my hand out to stop Hayden and she halts what she's doing. 

"It says, 'hey T, here is your birthday present. I hope they get it to you on your birthday, but if not, I tried. Anyway, it's the first two parts of a set, and we'll get the other parts eventually. You'll see. I hope you love it. Stop reading here and then pick up after this once you see it.' Oh my god, I'm scared. What if he bought some kind of really fancy artwork and I hate it?"

Hayden laughs, no doubt at my bewildered facial expression. "I think we both know that he knows you well enough to get something you like. Even when it comes to fancy artwork if that's the case."

"Okay okay, turn it over." I cover my eyes so I don't see it right away but I hear her set it back down and she gasps. I hear her turn over the other one. When I open my eyes my jaw drops.

There are two of them. The first picture frame has a heart cut out and inside of the heart is a map of the stretch of beach that is so familiar to me. Outside of the heart in cursive lettering, it says, "Where we met," and at the bottom it has coordinates.