Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 36

"I may have a way to fix that!" Michael chimes in we all look at him. "This starts tomorrow though because a couple of us have dates tonight." "Yes, fine tomorrow." I agree. "Tomorrow." Luke agrees holding out his hand I shake it.       

Natalie's POV

"Wait Mikey you have a date?" I question walking over to him when we go inside.  Mikey turns around and shrugs.  "I wouldn't call it a date-" "Who's it with?  Is it with a girl?" I ask getting a little giddy.  Michael blushes and I shriek jumping onto his back before screaming "Michael has a girl!!!!!"

"Woah Clifford finally got someone there?" Calum asks winking.  Michael blushes again and says "Not a girlfriend.....a nice friend who's a girl and who I'd really like to get meet up with!"  I roll my eyes and say "Ok, whatever you say, but I can literally smell the bullshit from here!" 

Everyone laughs while Michael heads upstairs to do what I assume is getting ready.  I turn to Calum and his face suddenly lights up.  "What?" I ask and he comes over and smiles before saying "Nothing.  You're just beautiful."  I blush and then say "I'm gonna go get ready...." Calum lets me go but I can't help but feel butterflies in my stomach again as I walk up the stairs.  It felt like I was falling in love with him all over again.  But this time.....there was something different.  It almost felt.....better.  

I quickly put on a skater dress and slipped on my converse sneakers before touching up my makeup and heading back down the stairs.  Calum turned around and smiled at me before saying "You look amazing."  I sway a little in my dress towards him before going up on my tippy toes to give him a peck.  

"Alrighty now get outta here!" I hear Skyler yell behind us and Calum grins before grabbing my hand and running out of the house.  "So where are we headed?" I asked him and he opened the car door before winking at me and saying "You'll see."  I raise my eyebrow and he sighs and says "Just get in the car babe!"  I laugh a little before getting in.  

As we're driving I then say "Why can't you tell me?" "It's a surprise!" "I hate surprises though!" "Ok I'll give you a hint.  It's somewhere where you loved, well, LOVE to go...." he says and I bite my lip thinking.  I love to go to a lot of places.  My bed, the kitchen, sometimes the restaurants, the beach, the boardwalk.....wait the boardwalk!

"Wait are you taking me to a boardwalk?" I ask Cal and he nods and I squeal giggling a little.  "Wow, you're that excited?" he asks, somewhat shocked.  "I HAVEN'T BEEN TO A BOARDWALK FOR AGES!  The last time I went was....." I then stopped myself.  The last time I went to a boardwalk was when I was with Cal, and it was so long ago.  It was when he was about to go for tour.

Flashback

"God, I can't believe you're going tomorrow." I said aloud as we stand at the railing, looking out at the ocean.  "Yeah, it's kinda scary." Calum said pulling me closer to him.  I sighed, the sea breeze whipping my hair.  "Promise me whenever you come back we get to come back to the boardwalk?" I ask pouting at him.  He smiles at me and says "Of course." "And we'll play pinball until we figure out who's the winner and the loser has to buy cotton candy?" "Obviously." Calum jokes and I then smile at him and nuzzle closer to him.

"I almost don't even want you to go...." I whimper and Calum sighs a little and says "I wish I could take you with me.  But you have things here darling.  I'm not taking you away from this just for the sake of it." "But we won't see each other for months!" I say on the verge of tears.  

"Hey, hey, don't cry." Calum says wiping away a stray tear and I laugh a little blinking a couple times before saying "Not crying...."  Calum pulls me closer before giving the top of my head a kiss.  "I promise, the second I get back it'll all be the same.  We'll pick up where we left off.  And we'll come to the boardwalk to celebrate yeah?" he says and I nod.

"Nat?  Did you hear what I said?" Calum's voice snapped me out of my trance and I immediately blurted "What?"  Calum chuckled a little before saying "I said we're nearly there.  Look outside."

I quickly look out my window to see the boardwalk.  Although it is a lot bigger than the one back home it seemed to have the classic ferris wheel and the spinning tea cups and much more.  I could already feel my mouth water at the thought of funnel cake.  

"Ready?" Calum asked once we pulled into the parking lot.  I smiled at him before saying "Let's go!"

We went on everything together.  The ferris wheel, the teacups absolutely anything and everything.  And of course we went to the carnival games and surprisingly it was me who won the water gun challenge so Calum had it upon himself to buy the cotton candy.

"Did you rig your gun?  Cause last time I remember I was the water gun champ." Calum jokes as we get the cotton candy and I laugh taking a bit before letting the sugar disolve in my mouth.  "Please, I've just been underplaying you up until this moment." I say rolling my eyes before he grins at me.

Suddenly I hear some screams and I can see a group of girls suddenly run up to us.  "Oh my god are you Calum from 5sos?" one of them asks and I feel my stomach drop, and I want to just leave to head back into the comfort of the house.  "Yeah, are you ladies fans of the band?" Calum asks jokingly, a grin on his face.

They all nod excitedly and another one with black hair says "Honestly we can't believe you're HERE of all places!"  Calum smiles and then one of them, slightly small asks "And who's this?"  I blush immediately and Calum smiles before wrapping an arm around my waist and saying "Well this is Natalie a great friend to the band....and a great girlfriend to me." 

I look at him not believing what was going on.  HE HAD JUST CALLED ME HIS GIRLFRIEND IN PUBLIC AND HE WAS HOLDING ME AND HE HAD TOLD THE FANS TOO.  I almost had to pinch myself to tell myself it wasn't a dream.

"Wow you're so pretty!" one of them commented and I blushed again and said "Thank you." "Do you have twitter?" she asked and I nodded before they all said simultaneously "Can we take a picture of you and follow you on twitter?"  I was taken aback and then I finally formed a response saying "Oh sure!"

After I had given out my twitter name and taken the picture with them, Calum entwined his hand his hand with mine before he said "Should we head home?"  I nod rubbing my eyes a little before Calum gave me a quick kiss and we headed back to the car before getting in and going home.

"Hey we're back!" I yell as we walk back in the house and Ashton rounds the corner and says "Hey there!  How was the boardwalk?" "It was good!" I replied as we walked into the kitchen and we sat down. Michael then turned to us and said "Well I was gonna show Nina upstairs….." 

Nina?  Michael stepped aside and revealed a girl.  Yes, a real girl.  She was a couple inches shorter than Mikey, around 5'7 at least.  She had long straight chocolate brown hair and matching warm brown eyes.  She had a small physique, but she looked a lot like a dancer.

However, I barely have a chance to say hello before Nina gets dragged off by Mikey.  "I'm Natalie by the way!" I call and she yells back "Nice to meet you too!"  She seemed really sweet considering I barely got 5 seconds to meet her.  

I then go to Calum squealing a bit.  "Michael has a girl!" "More like Michael's gonna get laid." he responded and I rolled my eyes before I hit him and he raised his hands in surrender and said "Sorry, sorry."