meant to be

31

— Calum's POV —

"You're never going to believe who I ran into today." I said the second I walked through the door. I kicked off my shoes and walked over to the music room where Roy was seated with a guitar on his lap.

"I'm waiting until you tell me who you ran into." He said impatiently while I sat down on the couch beside him.

"Valerie moved back to LA." I replied without looking at him, I leaned back and closed my eyes, a smile forming on my lips as I thought back of today's encounter.

"Dude are you high or something?" He asked and I let out a laugh before shaking my head. "Wait are you serious?"

"Yeah, she moved here 3 days ago. I ran into her at that old bookshop and we had coffee until Luke called me to say I was late at the meeting. I got her phone number and she said we could go for dinner sometime, as a date."

"I'd say you're high and seeing ghosts but I know you haven't used since she left." He replied with a small smile, I finally turned my head to look at him and he looked happy for me.

"I hadn't seen her in 4 years but I heard her laugh and my heart started to flutter and I felt like I finally found my last missing puzzle piece. I thought I had moved on but I saw her and I was ready to give her my all again in a matter of seconds."

"Didn't she have a boyfriend?" He asked, suddenly remembering it.

"They broke up 6 months ago, she still wanted to see the world, he wanted to settle down." I explained and his smile became brighter. "I finally found her."

"I didn't expect her to ever move back to LA, you said she finally found herself in San Diego."

"Her mom died, about a year ago. Her dad moved to LA for her stepmom's job and she followed to be closer to her family." I explained and he gave me a nod before leaning back on the couch too. "She's back."

"She is and you're going to take her on a date."

"Would it be okay to already call her to arrange a date? Or is it too soon?"

"Just call her up Calum, what's the worst that could happen?" He asked and we both laughed softly.

She could disappear again.

I reached in my pocket to get my phone and quickly went to her contact name. It had been standing there -empty- for years but finally it had a number again, a way for me to reach her. I pressed down on the number and brought the phone up to my ear, I waited 3 rings until the phone got picked up.

"Hello, who is this?" A girl on the other side of the line asked. This was not her, this was not Valerie. "Hello?" She asked again when it took me a while to say something.

"I'm sorry, someone gave me the wrong number." I said before ending the call quickly, I didn't want to hear another word from the girl on the phone. This wasn't the first time. "She could have given me the wrong number." I said to Roy to reply to his earlier question. This was the worst that could have happened.

My whole world was crashing down.

— Valerie's POV —