After crying for what felt like forever, I was able to pull myself together. I knew I needed to be around somebody, I couldn't be alone the rest of today or I'd lose it.
So, I decided to call Calum. I asked him to meet me for dinner. I was on my way there now, he texted me that he was already there. I'm glad that I have him because I really need to not think about this Michael situation right now.
It takes me a few more minutes to get there, since I was walking. When I get inside the restaurant I immediately spot Calum and head straight over to him.
"Hey, Kels." He smiles up at me as I take my seat across from him.
"Hey, Cal." I chuckle, smiling back at him.
"You sounded a bit stressed on the phone. I wanted to get right to this, are you okay?" He asks, seeming very worried.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm okay. Just being alone here is a bit tough." I tell him, forcing a smile.
He nods, "I understand. That's what I'm here for. You can talk with me about whatever."
"You know you can come to me too, right? I'm here." I tell him, thinking back to the conversation last night, what Harrison told us.
"I'm good. I'm great. Don't worry about me." He replies.
"Are you sure?"
He gives me a confused look, "Yeah... Do I seem not okay?"
I shrug, "I've just heard some things, that's all."
"Harrison fucking said something about the other night, didn't he?" He asks.
Before I can reply, our waiter is bringing us drinks even though I don't recall ordering.
"I ordered you just a water because I wasn't sure if you'd want something else." Calum tells me, though all I can do is stare at the beer placed in front of him.
I don't say anything, Calum just chuckles, "You want one? You can order one."
I quickly shake my head, snapping back into reality, "No, no I'm good."
"You sure? You can have a sip of mine if you want." He offers.
"No, really, I'm good. Uh, anyways, yeah. He did say something." I tell him, quickly changing the subject back so we didn't have to talk about alcohol much longer.
Calum groans, "I knew he would. Fuck." He pauses for a second, trying to collect his thoughts, "I'm fine. I was just drunk, you know?"
"People tend to say things they're too scared to say sober, you know?"
He rolls his eyes, taking a sip from his beer before continuing our conversation, "I'm perfectly fine. Yeah, I might've cried because no girl will ever love me but like, that's fine. I mean, I don't need validation like that, like, what the fuck. Yeah. I'm fine. Fuck that."
Once Calum is done his rant and begins chugging his beer, I quietly chuckle, "I really don't think you're fine."
He doesn't acknowledge me, he just watches as our waiter walks by, quickly asking for another.
"Cal, hey, it's okay-"
"I mean, Kiana and Harrison are getting married, you have Michael, the only person I'm close to who's as sad about love as me is Luke. But it's all his fault so like- fuck, sorry. I know I'm not supposed to talk about him."
I'm not too sure I still have Michael after this morning, but I don't want to think about that now.
"Were you drinking before I got here?"
"Maybe."
"Are you sure you're okay?" I ask, becoming pretty concerned about him. It seems like Calum's always drinking, he's worrying me.
"Yes." He states, before I notice him staring behind me, looking stunned.
"What are you look-"
"Don't turn around!" He quietly exclaims, reaching across the table to grab my hands.
"What the fuck?"
"The Hemmings family just walked in. Oh my god, how is this happening?" Calum tells me, doing the best he can to go unnoticed.
"What?" I almost yell, starting to panic.
"Kels, just- hold on, we're gonna leave. I just don't want him to catch us." He says, continuing to glance up at them.
I'm the weeks leading up to coming here, all I could think about was 'what if I run into Luke?' I told myself that it wouldn't happen. It's almost impossible for this to happen. Both of us in the same place at the same time? Of course, this had to happen to me.
Calum pulls cash out of his wallet to pay for the beers he's had, leaving it on the table so that at any moment we could get up and leave.
"Oh, thank god, Luke's going to the bathroom. Let's go." Calum says, grabbing my hand and pulling me up.
"Fuck, Cal!" I quietly exclaim, trying to not trip and cause a scene.
Once we're out of the restaurant, we're still waking pretty quickly as we make or way down the street, away from the restaurant.
"We can go to one just down the street. Kels, I'm so sorry, I didn't-"
"Relax, obviously this isn't your fault. There's no way to know they'd show up."
"I know, but I feel bad. They shouldn't have even been out! I swear they just had their monthly family dinner like two weeks ago!"
"What?"
"Oh, it's the only way their parents can see all three of their sons at once. They go out for dinner once a month. They're all pretty busy."
I lightly chuckle, not remembering that family, especially those boys, ever being like that. "Really?"
"Well, Jack and his girlfriend live in Olympia now, they don't really enjoy making the hour drive here all the time. I don't even know what Ben does, but he's never around. Luke pretty much runs his parents company on his own at this point, so he's got a lot going on too."
"He does? Oh, that's- that's great for him." I reply, thinking back to all the times Luke would talk about taking over. He was always looking forward to that, I wonder how he feels about it now.
"Yeah, it is. He's loving it." Calum tells me as we arrive at a new restaurant, holding the door open for me.
I guess that answers my questions.
"Well, I'm glad he's doing well." I mutter, as the two of us are being seated in a booth.
Calum scoffs, "Luke's only doing well in his work life. But, anyways, he doesn't matter right now. What did you get up to today?"
I sigh, "I don't know if I want to talk about today. Michael and I just weren't getting along this morning. It's fine though."
"Shit, I'm sorry." He frowns.
I shake my head, weakly smiling, "It's okay, don't worry about it."
"Okay, enough of our relationships, we're clearly not great at them at the moment." Calum laughs, before the two of us order our drinks.
"How are your classes going?" I ask, needing a new topic.
"They're okay, I went to class drunk this morning and almost puked everywhere but it's fine."
"Cal, you may wanna slow down." I tell him, really worried about him now.
"What? I'm not an addict, I'm fine." He laughs.
"I thought the same thing." I mumble, not even thinking about what I was saying.
"What?"
"Nothing." I quickly say, before the waiter comes to take our order.
-
Our dinner was spent talking about things that weren't so emotional and stressful. It was really nice to just have a great dinner with Cal.
We decided to walk back to my hotel, he's a pretty drunk, he said he wanted to talk. I just want to help him out, but I know at some point he'll end up talking about Luke.
Calum's phone begins to ring, once he looks down at it, he looks up at me, "It's Luke."
"You can answer, Cal." I tell him, though I was a bit worried, considering he did drink quite a bit.
Calum answers, and I just watch him have his conversation.
"Your mom saw me tonight? With a girl?" Calum questions, clearly repeating what Luke is saying.
I sigh, but I know that Liz wouldn't recognize me, my new hair throws people off.
"She thought she looked similar to Kelsey? I don't see it."
I quietly chuckle to myself, shaking my head at this conversation.
"Yeah, obviously I'd tell you if Kels was in Seattle. We both know she probably won't ever be and if she ever is, I definitely wouldn't be the first one to know."
I roll my eyes, just thinking about what Luke's saying to Calum. Who does he think he is? Telling Calum he had to tell him if he knows I'm here? I just wish he'd sign the divorce papers.
"Luke, calm down. I know, you love her, you miss her, whatever. I've heard it all a million times. I have to go, okay?"
Moments later Calum is hanging up and looks over at me with a sad smile.
"You won't actually tell him I'm here, right? If I decide to talk to him it won't be until after all the wedding stuff is done."
"Obviously I won't. I wouldn't do that to you." Calum says, as we arrive at the hotel.
We make it up to my room, and Calum sits on the edge of my bed, "I need more alcohol."
"No, you don't." I chuckle, putting down my purse and my phone.
"Isn't there supposed to be a minibar here? I want the alcohol."
"Is there? Uh, I don't know about that."
"I swear there is, but whatever. Can we watch a movie?"
I chuckle, "Sure, Cal."
Calum ended up staying until about two in the morning. He ended up crying, though it didn't last long. I was fine to help him though, he really kept my mind off everything most of the time we were together.
Finally, I'm in bed, needing to get some sleep for the bridal shower tomorrow. I'm nervous to meet a whole bunch of new people, but I'll be okay. Tomorrow really will be a great day.
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luv y'all.