It was hard to walk over to him. I wanted to hug him so bad but I wasn't sure if he was okay with that. Instead he hugged me. I then wrapped my arms around his neck and took in his deep scent of cologne that he always wore to special occasions. He wore the same tie he wore for Homecoming and I thought it was cute.
"Where's Kasey?" I asked, hoping she wasn't here.
"She had her own party to go to and I told her it was a tradition to come here.." He said. Behind him, Calum's parents and sister walked in. I never really formally met them, surprisingly.
"Mom, this is Ester Murphy" Calum said. "Ester, this is my mom."
"Hi Mrs. Hood" I smiled. I pushed my hand out for a shake but she went in for a hug.
"Hello there sweetheart" She said, "You can call me Joy"
"It's nice to meet you" I giggled.
"Hi, i'm David" his dad said and pulled out his hand. "And this is our daughter Mali-koa"
"It's nice to meet you." I smiled and shook both their hands.
"I've heard a lot about you!" Joy assured me. "You are a good impression on my son"
"I'm glad" I laughed and looked at Calum who was blushing. Mali-koa seemed really nice to me and she was beautiful too.
"Well we need to go say hi to Liz, it was nice to meet you dear." She smiled.
"A pleasure" David said. "Merry Christmas"
"Oh, the pleasures all mine." i shrugged and smiled. "And merry Christmas" They wandered off and it was just us two again.
"Sorry about that" Calum laughed.
"It's okay" I giggled.
"You look.. uh good." Calum said.
"Thanks you look uh good too." I mocked him.
"Jerk" He chuckled. It was back to the way things were for a second before Michael came over and put his arm around me.
"Hey babe" Michael smiled at me and kissed me on the cheek.
"Are you two...?" Calum began to ask but didn't finish the sentence.
"yes." Michael smiled. "couldn't you tell"
I normally went along with this game but Calum and I were on normal terms for a second and That was ruined by Michael.
"Hey guys" Luke said with an unenthusiastic tone.
"Hey" I looked over and his hair was slicked back and he wore a suit. I began to laugh at how miserable he looked.
"My mom made me wear this." He sighed.
"Hey guys" Sariah came over and smiled at us. She looked absolutely stunning to me.
"You both look incredible." I assured them.
"Thank you" They both said in unison.
"Hey, as soon as Brealin and Ash get here, can we go in the other room? I have some gifts for you all." I said and everyone cheered.
It didn't take long for them to come. Before I knew it everyone was sitting around and opening their gifts.
Sariah was the first to see it.
"Ester! This is beautiful" she smiled at me. "Thank you" She got up, pushed through the trash and gave me a hug.
"Sick, i'm excited to hear your music Est" Ashton said to me. "Thanks" he smiled.
"Oh my god" Braelin smiled. She unfolded the blanket and then looked it over. "I love this Est!" She smiled. "Thank you"
"Woah" Luke smiled and looked at his scrapbook. "This is sick" He went through it and laughed at all of his pictures and captions.
Michael saw his next and smiled. "This is so cool" He smiled. "Thank you Ester" He looked at me and winked. I just smirked but as soon as he looked away it was gone. He looked through it and laughed as well, clearly enjoying the gift.
Calum smiled as he opened his. He looked it over and laughed at everything. He looked like he loved his the most, taking the time to look over each page before turning to the next. He looked at the pictures and then would look up at me and laugh.
"This is the best Ester, thank you." He smield.
"What made you make a scrap book?" Luke asked.
"Well, you see... I want to be a photographer for like some kind of company and most photographers have books of their work. I want to do something like that but whatever i'm taking pictures of, I want to be able to put it in a personal scrapbook as well. Just so I can see how I've improved over time." I explained.
"What kind of photographer do you want to be?" Sariah asked.
"Probably a model photographer or a band photographer." I explained.
"A band photographer?" Ashton asked.
"yeah, like a band that hires you to take pictures for them while they might be on tour or something like that." I explained to them.
"we'll let you know when our band gets famous. We'll hire you." Michael laughed.
"I was thinking the same thing" Calum said.
"Lets go take some pictures right now" Braelin suggested. We walked out to where all the people were. We walked over to the tree and snapped pictures for what seemed like an hour. We were having a good time and I was really enjoying myself. It was the typical group that I truly loved. I didn't want this night to be any other way.
We ate and we drank a lot too. We even snuck some alcohal, something I never thought I would do. I stopped by Liz to talk with her and thank her for inviting my family who was around here somewhere.
Everything was going perfectly unil Kasey showed up.
"Hey babe." She smiled at Calum. Calum was surprised to see her.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Calum asked.
"Well, I had to find out through someone else that there was a party tonight." She sounded irritated. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"
"You didn't tell her about the party?" I asked. I had to do everything in my power to not laugh. I could tell by Michael's expression that he was thinking the same thing.
"I thought you told me that your family was having dinner tonight?" He asked her.
"Nope." She shook her head. She was clearly annoyed and I loved that she was excluded.
"I'm sorry..." He said. He didn't really sound sorry to me but this wasn't my fight. I was actually enjoying this.
"Calum, can I talk to you outside." She said and looked directly at me. She looked me up and down and then scrunched up her nose in a disgusted way.
"Sure" he sighed.
She turned to walk out the door and Calum turned to us and rolled his eyes. I scoffed a bit and tried not to be to loud to where she could hear us.
"Hey, Ester.. by the way.. can I asked you something?" Michael said to me.
"Yeah, sure." I smiled and looked at him.
"Look, I think that maybe.. I don't know. I'm feeling kind of crazy at the moment..." He smiled. I could tell he was fighting something. "I want to tell you how i'm feeling at the moment."
"Okay...." I squinted my eyes, not knowing where this was going.
"Ester, I think I may be falling for you and I'm so confused because you're sending mixed signals. I don't know how you feel and I want to take you out or something but I don't know if you feel the same way.." he said in one breath only.
I stayed silent for a second. What was I supposed to say?
"Michael... I honestly did feel that way just a little bit..." I told him. He looked up at me after messing with his thumbs.
"But?" He asked.
"But, you know my feelings for Calum" I whispered to him. "They aren't going away. When I held your hand today, they went away for a second but once I saw him...."
"It's like it never happened." He finished for me.
"Yeah.." I sighed. "i'm sorry..."
"It's okay. That's what I needed to hear because I wasn't sure how I felt either and I was holding myself back for this reason. But if you ever look that good again and then bite your fucking lip, I swear to god i'll make out with you on the spot." He told me.
I laughed because the same old Michael was back to his purvey self and I was happy about it.
"You should go out there..." Michael suggested.
"What?" I looked at him like he was crazy.
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-Calum's POV-
"What's wrong with you?" Kasey asked me.
"What do you mean?" I looked at her. It was colder than usual out here. I was actually getting a bit cold so I shivered.
"You're so distracted and I don't know what your problem is. You wont answer your phone, you are lost when I talk to you and you're staring at god knows what." She bickered.
I knew exactly what I was staring at: Ester.
"Kasey..." I sighed. Once I let out a breath of air I could see my breath.
"What" She looked worried.
"Look, I need to tell you something."
"You're cheating on me aren't you?" She asked.
"Worse.." He said.
-Ester's Point of View-
Michael finally made me give in. I was gonna go talk to both of them and tell them that I felt something for Calum and as long as I felt this way I wasn't going to be their friend because I didn't want watch them anymore and kill myself every time. Michael told me it wasn't fair to me or them so I stood up and quietly opened the door.
"You got a girl pregnant?" I heard Kasey
"No, it's a very very long story..."
"It's about her isn't it." She sighed.
"It's not just about her...." Calum's voice seemed desperate "It's about me too... I tried so hard... Like, so hard to get over her. I thought that I liked you and I did but it wasn't enough to push those feelings away and she was just so enclosed that I couldn't tell what she was thinking. It was driving me insane. She drives me insane and I can't get her out of my head. That's why i space out, that's why I am lost and that's why I feel so distant from you... is because my mind is still chasing after her. I don't know what it is about that girl but she drives me insane and I can't help but feel the way I do. I'm head over heals for her... I want to just want to tell her I love her."
- Calum's Point of View -
"Ow, shit" A voice said. I turned to see Ester just as she was falling. It looked at though she collapsed because of her heals.
"I think you just did..." Kasey said to me. She walked away and left Ester and I alone out in the cold air.
I ran up the steps to the house and helped her up.
"Are you okay?" I asked her. She blushed, obviously embarrassed that she fell. I found it so cute.
"I'm fine" She chuckled. She looked into my eyes for a second and then looked away.
You make me nervous Ester's voice ran through my head and I smiled.
"Let's go for a walk, yeah?" I suggested. "There's a park down the street."
She nodded and we began walking.
"So, wanna tell me what you were doing?" I smiled at her.
"I came out to talk to you..." She admitted.
"What were you going to say?" I asked.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking questions since you just recited a monologue about me." She giggled and I blushed.
"Yeah... look about that... you weren't supposed to hear that..." I scratched the back of my head. I felt embarrassed myself because I didn't want her to feel weird around me now.
"Well, what I was going to say to you was..." Ester smiled. We reached the park and there were bridges over the little streams that continued the walkway through the park. They were covered in Christmas lights and there was a gazebo at the corner of the park that we started to head towards. "Oh, I wish I brought my camera" She sighed, looking at the lights.
"Continue" I said desperately. We were now on a bridge and she stopped.
"I don't know if I should tell you now.. you seem to be pushy." She teased. She put her finger to her lip and I rolled my eyes.
"You little shit." I tried to hide my smile.
We walked over to the gazebo and before we sat down at a bench, she stopped.
"What I was coming out to say.. was the exact same thing you said... to Kasey.." She finally admitted.
It took my a minute to respond. I didn't know what to say to that.. I was too happy. I looked up as though this wasn't really happening and it took me a double take but there was a mistletoe at the top of the gazebo.
"Does this mean you're going to kiss me?" She asked, looking up at the same thing.
I got closer to her, my hear beating like crazy. My palms felt as though they were sweating too. I grabbed her waist and got less than an inch away from her face. I looked into her beautiful eyes and then down at her lips. She was biting back a smile and it drove me insane.
"I'm not gonna get lipstick all over my face am I?" i whispered.
"No" She laughed and I gently but passionately kissed her like i've been waiting for this moment my whole life. It felt so right and I felt so alive. She put her arms around my neck and pulled me closer, closing the small gap between us. As we both pulled away, our expressions could clearly agree that it was perfect. The whole moment was perfect.
"Congrats Calum Hood." She smiled and put her forehead to mine. "You are now my first kiss." She whispered and kissed me once more.
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I'M CRYIN BC OF THIS IT FINALLY HAPPENED
this story's almost over hehehoaoaoahshhshsoeoeh