Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 40

Calum gently pulls the pillow away from my face and whispers "I'd rather see your gorgeous face."  I blush.  His words always seemed to get the best of me and there never seemed to be a time when I didn't get butterflies or felt my heart swell.  I adjust myself and Calum begins to strum, before clearing his throat and starting.

Life's a tangled web

Of cell phone calls and hashtag I-don't-knows

And you you're so caught up

In all the blinking lights and dial tones

I admit I'm a bit of a victim in the worldwide system too

But I've found my sweet escape when I'm alone with you

I grin and Calum has a bit of relief on his face as he continues.  

Tune out the static sound of the city that never sleeps

Here in the moment on the dark side of the screen

I like the summer rain

I like the sounds you make

We put the world away

We get so disconnected

You are my getaway

You are my favorite place

We put the world away

Yeah we're so disconnected

I love when he sings.  It's something pretty much any fan would say, hell any person, but I just loved the way he focused and how he gave it his all, and the way his lips moved and sometimes he would furrow his eyebrows just a bit, or he'd tilt his head.  It was amazing to watch him, whether it was on stage in front of thousands or even right here in front of me.

When he gave one final strum and I gently clapped my hands.  "I loved it!" I said, as I leaned over to give him a kiss.  When I pulled away he ran a hand through his hair, which had gotten ruffled since he still hadn't styled it.  "Was it that good?" he asked biting his lip.  I rolled my eyes and say "Darling I thought it was amazing.  I can't wait for you guys to record it."

Calum grins and he comes over and sits beside me and then says "Do wanna try and not be shit at guitar?"  I roll my eyes and say "What?  You're gonna try and teach me?"  Calum nods his head and I giggle a little as he hands me the guitar and as I adjust myself I turn to him and ask "Since when were you an expert at guitar?"  Calum chuckled before coming behind me and said "Well I know the basics, and I think that would be a good place to start." 

He wrapped his arms from behind, as he positioned my hands.  "Alright, so you know where to put your hands....sort of." Calum joked and I pouted and he chuckled before adjusting my fingers and nodding for me to strum.  I gave a quick strum with the worn down black pick, and a chord sounded out.  "So that's your G chord.  It's pretty simple you just gotta make sure you got that finger down...there we go."  Calum said gently.

For the next couple hours all we did was go over basic guitar chords.  It was relaxing to be honest.  I had learnt piano my entire life, and although I loved it, I had desperately wanted to play guitar for years.  And now I finally got that chance.  "I'll get Mikey to help you out." Calum said once he took the guitar out of my hands, my arms now feeling empty without it.

"Well if you don't mind, I'm gonna go do some homework...." I say as I get off the bed and pull out a couple textbooks before opening up my laptop and binder and setting down to work.  Calum doesn't say anything and he's silent for a moment and then asks "Are you gonna stick with school?" "Hm?" I ask, completely oblivious to what Calum had asked.

Calum is still, before he then asks again, "I asked if you're gonna stick with school.  Especially since you've been going viral..." I snorted, replying "I have not been GOING viral.  It's just that people started commenting and noticing." "Well considering the amount of people that have been tweeting at me....you've gone viral." Calum says and I sigh, trying to copy some of my notes to put into my essay.  "Alright so what?  It doesn't matter even matter if a record deal was handed to me a silver platter- my mom won't let me." 

Calum's silent before he suddenly says "You're mom.  That's what's stopping you?" "More like forbbiding me!  But stopping is a nicer word..... maybe I should use that in my essay...." I say biting my lip as I continue to bullshit my essay. 

"I'm serious Nat!" Calum explains, shutting my laptop.  I glare at him and open it back up and say "Listen, I'm not up for this discussion but if you want to help me out in my Philosphy assignment discussing which religion is closest to being correct of our existence please be my guest." 

Calum rolls his eyes and says "Remember?  I'm a highschool drop out!" "You're also a bassist and that didn't stop you from trying to teach me guitar." I point out.  Calum pauses for a moment before sitting beside me and peering at my essay.  "What even is all this shit?" Calum asks me and I laugh flicking my hair to the side and saying "Well, considering I wanna take Law, I figured I should take Philosophy as well."

Calum is silent before getting off the bed as he begins to walk around the room, not doing too much of anything.  I ignore him, as I continue to outline my points, trying to pick good word choice.  It was meant to be a 2000-2200 word paper, and based on what I had done, I knew I might not even hit the minimum wordcount.  I continued to type however because, after all, Philosophy was a lot of opinion based matters.

Calum suddenly sits on the floor by the foot of the bed, looking up at me.  I knew he was trying to do his focused laser puppy dog eyes but I ignored him, focusing instead on my paper.  How should I outline my thesis....

"Hey Nat?" Calum asks and I look over my computer to see Calum immediately grin.  I give him a small smile back before returning to my paper.  I quickly resumed my typing, an idea popping into my head as I tapped away at the keys.  

"Nat?" Calum asked again.  I didn't bother this time, especially considering I was on a roll with what was going through my head.  "Although many religions have their different views of the age of existence there are some that are more scientifically correct than others.  This includes...."

"Nat?" Calum says, this time leaning against the bed.  I ignore him again as I ponder my thoughts.  What religions was I going to include?  There's Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism....

"Nat?" Calum pokes me this time.  I look at him and say "Listen Cal I really have to work on this paper.  What is it?" Calum grins at me before saying, "Hi."  I fumed and I look back to my essay before furiously typing away, as Calum smirked to himself.  I could see him out of the corner of my eye and I could see the smug look on his face.  "Oh shut up." I mutter as I continue writing before Calum, a mischievious grin on his face, leaned in and whispered "Make me." 

I stopped typing, my fingers frozen over the keys.  "I swear to God Cal...." I say through gritted teeth but I then can't seem to stay angry before I then ask, "When do you have to head out with the boys?" "In a couple hours.  Why?" 

"Oh fuck this!" I say, as I slam my laptop shut before pressing my lips against his.  Calum's smirking into the kiss, knowing he got his way.  "Are you gonna do it when I'm not around to distract you?" Calum asks as he moves beside me onto the bed, before kissing me again. "Of course." I say as Calum pulls me closer to him and says "Well we don't have all the time in the world now do we?"