“If I were Callum, where would I be?” I mumbled to myself, glancing around the hall for any sign of that sexy boy.
“I’d be right there!” I said, spotting him.
I hurried over to him and poked his arm. He turned to face me and raised an eyebrow, shutting his locker and slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
“Yes Tate?” He asked.
“Want to go…get food and…stuff?” I asked.
Callum bit his lip, trying not to laugh. “Tate, are you trying to ask me on a date?”
“Hey! Tate and date rhyme!” I cried in excitement. But I frowned, remembering how Brandon always used to laugh whenever he said “I’m going on a date with Tate.” Ewww Brandon.
I nodded at Callum, grinning and reaching my hand towards his ass. Callum, having caught onto my perversion by now, grabbed my wrist and rolled his eyes at me.
“As long as you promise not to grab my ass, yes. A friendly date,” he said, suddenly looking awkward and nervous. Friendly date? Eh, it was still a date. I’d take it.
“Fine, fine, fine,” I said, knowing full well that I was lying. “I won’t grab your ass on the date. The friendly date.” I tried not to laugh as I said it.
“Alright. Come on; I’ll drive us.”
“You drive?” I asked as I followed him down the hallway.
Callum stared at me like I was stupid. “Tate, you saw me driving my sister to practice. When we ran into each other at the gas station the other day.”
“Oh right. I did,” I said, scratching my head curiously. “Huh. Well, whatever! Don’t be mean when I say stupid things. I kind of had my head bashed against a wall.” I gestured to the back of my head, where the gash was safely covered by my beanie.
“How is your head, by the way?” He asked, sounding concerned.
I shrugged at him. “It’ll be fine Callum.”
We walked down to the parking lot in comfortable silence. Callum led me over to his car and I climbed into it as Callum started it up.
“So, where do you want to go to get food and stuff?” Callum asked, smirking a little.
I pouted at him. “Do not make fun of me Callum Cook! Jeez, I still can’t get over the fact that that’s your name. Cook. How boring. Anyways, how about Taco Bell?”
“Sure,” Callum said, pulling out of the parking lot and taking off down the street in the direction of Taco Bell.
I pulled out my wallet and checked to make sure I even had money, nodding to myself after counting out $32. Well, at least I had enough money to go to Taco Bell and somewhere else.
“So you know my brother. Do you have any siblings Callum?” I asked. Hey, the whole point of this date was to get to know more about the guy!
“I have two sisters,” he said, glancing at me before returning his gaze to the road. “And again, you saw me with one of them at the gas station.”
I nodded. “Interesting, interesting. So…what’s your blood type?”
He stared at me in confusion, the car coming to a stop at a red light. I sighed and nodded in agreement with him.
“You’re right. Too creepy. Okay, forget I asked that,” I said.
“You’re…interesting, Tate.” Callum chuckled and pulled into the parking lot of Taco Bell. He parked the car and we got out together.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” I said and pouted. “Better interesting than boring!”
“I guess so,” Callum said, holding the door open for me.
“Like your last name.” I snickered under my breath. Woo! He didn’t hear. My stealth skills are increasing.
I stepped into Taco Bell and he followed after me. We ordered and paid, grabbing our drinks and heading over to fill them while we waited for our food.
“Callum, how old are you?” I asked, realizing that I didn’t actually know.
“I’m 18 years old. Aren’t you 18?”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m 17. Oh, Callum Cook is going for a younger man!” I winked at him and slapped his booty.
“Tate! You said you weren’t going to do that!”
“No, I said I wasn’t going to grab your ass. And I didn’t grab it,” I pointed out.
“How about you just keep your hands to yourself?” He suggested, casting me a dry look.
“No can do,” I replied, winking at him.
We grabbed our food and I followed Callum over to a random table in the corner. We sat down and I unwrapped a taco, trying and failing to eat it without making a mess.
Callum sighed. “I’ll get you napkins Tate. Honestly, could you be any messier?”
“I’m trying to keep it in my mouth!” I whined. My eyes widened and I blushed at what I had said. Oh, dirty thoughts.
Callum got up and grabbed a bunch of napkins before sitting back down and handing them to me. I wiped my face and hands, resisting the urge to growl at my taco. No need to make Callum think I was completely mentally insane.
We ate in comfortable silence. I would talk to him and question him more, but I was too busy trying to eat my taco without making an even bigger mess.
I looked up and my face paled as my eyes landed on the entrance. I sank down in my seat a little, praying that he wouldn’t see me.
Brandon stepped into Taco Bell, swinging his car keys around his finger. He had his headphones in, and was distracted as he looked at the menu above the counter.
“Uh…hey Callum, want to go get ice cream or something? You know, go somewhere that’s not here?” I asked nervously.
Callum gave me a confused look. “But you’re not done eating yet Tate. You still have food,” he said, gesturing at it.
“I’m full,” I lied. Man, I must really hate being around Brandon if I was prepared to give up my Taco Bell to get away from him. “Now come on! Let’s go!”
Callum shrugged and we gathered the food wrappers, piling them onto our tray. I had to get out of here before Brandon noticed me and-
“Hey Tate.”
Dammit. Damn him. Damn everything.
I gulped and slowly looked up at Brandon. He was smirking at me, still swinging his keys around his finger. He had pulled his headphones out.
“Bye Brandon,” I said flatly, standing up and grabbing the tray. I dumped the wrappers into the garbage and set the tray down before going over to Callum and motioning at him to get up.
I began to walk away and froze when I felt Brandon grab my arm. He forced me to face him, that stupid smirk still on his face.
“Come on Tate. Don’t walk away from me,” he said. He reached out and wiped my bottom lip. I glared and slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch me!” I snapped.
“You had food on your face. You always were a messy eater. Although, you were never messy when you were eating me.” He winked and I felt myself blushing furiously.
I smacked his hand off of my arm. “Do you not remember that we broke up Brandon? Because I specifically remember telling you that we were through and I wanted you to leave me alone,” I snarled.
“Aw, come on Tate! You were fun. One of the best virgins I ever had.” His smirk grew and reached out towards me again.
Callum caught his arm and stood up, towering over Brandon. Brandon glanced up at him, looking nervous now. Callum was a big guy.
“Tate, come on. We’re leaving,” he said, releasing Brandon’s arm. The look on his face was stony as he stared Brandon down.
“Thank god,” I said in relief, backing away from Brandon.
“You’ll come crawling back to me Tate!” Brandon called as Callum and I hurried out of Taco Bell together.
We got in Callum’s car and he started it up and pulled out of the parking lot. He took off down the street.
“So, that guy was your ex?” he asked.
“Don’t remind me,” I groaned. “He’s such a freaking perverted asshole.”
“You lost your virginity to him?”
I sighed and nodded miserably. “Dark times. We won’t talk about it,” I said. I was still slightly blushing, having had all that revealed to Callum. How mortifying.
Callum nodded and reached over, turning on the radio. I relaxed back against the seat, watching Callum out of the corner of my eye as he concentrated on his driving.
He pulled into the parking lot of an ice cream place and we got out of the car together. We went up to the menu posted outside and began to look it over.
“I’m paying for this,” he said, offering me a small smile and pulling out his wallet.
“No way! I invited you on this date. Put your wallet away right now Callum!” I said sternly.
He shook his head and laughed softly. “Nope, I offered to pay. So suck it up Tate.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. I opened it and dug around for a $5 bill to pay for the ice cream with. I felt the wallet being yanked out of my hands and let out a whine.
Callum stuffed my wallet into his back pocket. “You can have this back when we get in the car,” he said. “Now, what do you want?”
I sighed. “Fine, fine, fine. You win. For now. I’ll have a twist.”
We went up to the window and ordered. We took our ice cream and Callum led me over to a bench swing. We sat down next to each other and ate our ice cream in comfortable silence.
“I like it here,” I said, slowly resting my head on Callum’s shoulder. He stiffened up, but didn’t shake me off. That brought a smile to my face.
“Me too,” Callum said, slowly relaxing. “I remember when Mike and I used to come here. One time, he went to get up off of this bench and he tripped and face-planted into his own ice cream. We couldn’t stop laughing about that for the rest of the day.” He laughed at the memory.
But then his eyes widened a little and his laughter stopped. He snapped his mouth shut and his body stiffened again. He shifted so that his shoulder was away from me.
I straightened up and frowned at him. “Natalie mentioned that name today, Callum. Who is Mike?” I asked.
“He’s no one, Tate.” His tone told me that this subject was off-limits.
“Don’t be so stiff,” I said, trying to lighten the mood a little. I put an arm around his waist, ignoring him as his body tensed up again. “I’m not going to hurt you Callum!”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he mumbled under his breath.
We finished eating and got back in Callum’s car. He sighed as he pulled out onto the road. He shot me an apologetic glance.
“Tate, I’m sorry. I have to go bring my sister to her game tonight. But we can go on another friendly date some other time,” he said.
I fought back laughter at that term. “Sure Callum, I understand,” I said with a shrug.
He drove to my house and pulled into my driveway. He looked at my house with disgust in his eyes, probably thinking of my parents.
“Thanks for today Callum,” I said, reaching over and wrapping my arms around him.
His body froze at my touch. He gently hugged me back, and I pulled away, smiling at him. I got out of the car and waved to him.
“Another time. We can hang out longer,” he promised.
“Good!” I said, shutting the door and waving to him one more time before heading into my house. I went up to my bedroom and sat down after shutting and locking my door.
I had to find out who that Mike guy was. Whoever he was, I had a feeling that he was the reason Callum was so nervous when it came to physical contact. Had Mike abused Callum?
Something had happened between Callum and Mike. But like the subject of me and Brandon, the subject of Callum and Mike was an off-limits one.
I grinned to myself. I had my ways. I would find out what had happened between Callum and Mike. Then maybe I could help Callum get over his apparent fear of physical contact, and move us on in our strange relationship. Because I was definitely getting “more than friends” feelings about Callum Cook.