32: what's the hurt in asking?
"So, my house? After school?" Abbie and Sam nodded frantically at my suggestion; apparently, we all had updates and were dying to tell each other as soon as possible. I was ecstatic for us to finally hang out again—it had been ages.
My eyes looked past Abbie as I noticed Luke, Michael, and Calum walking in our direction. Luke put his finger to his lip, telling me to stay quiet, and he snaked his arms around Abbie. She was startled at first, but realized who it was in mere seconds. She smiled and turned in Luke's arms before greeting him with a kiss.
As if it was becoming natural, Calum migrated to me and Michael migrated to Sam. Calum was all smiles as he walked up to me, and I couldn't help but smile in response.
"What?" I asked him, thinking he was cute.
"I missed you," he said quietly, making sure no one else heard. "Do you wanna go to that burger place after school?" I glanced over at the girls and sighed quietly as I looked back at Calum.
"I have plans with Abbie and Sam after school, I'm sorry."
"That's okay," Calum told me, continuing to smile. "I can't steal you away from everyone."
"Maybe tomorrow?"
"Uh—yeah, I think that'll work." Calum smiled and gave me a nod. "This is going to sound very kindergarten, but... do you want to sit with me at lunch? I was thinking about it, and I don't know why I haven't asked you sooner—"
"Yes, Calum. I would love to."
. . .
"I can't believe we're sitting with them," Sam said, hanging her head as we got into the lunch line.
"What do you mean?" I asked her, wondering why that had put her into a funk.
"Look, I'm almost fully over the whole thing, but... I've hated their lunch table since junior high. It's hard to shake my entire being from existence." My eyes rolled and Abbie, who had joined us, laughed at Sam.
"I can't believe we're sitting with them, either. Their table sucks. It really depends on the day if I can tolerate them or not." My stomach started to tie into knots as I became nervous. "I still put up with them all, though, so it's not that bad."
"Maybe we shouldn't sit with them."
"Maya—"
"No, I'm serious. Maybe it'll be weird." Sam and Abbie both looked at me and cocked an eyebrow at me.
"Maya, don't let us get into your head. It'll be fine." I sighed, but agreed that it would probably be fine. We all got our trays and walked toward the table; there were people surrounding it and I was worried we wouldn't even have seats. As we got closer, it was clear that Luke had saved a seat for Abbie, Michael had saved a seat for Sam, but Calum had not done such a good job.
Luke was on one side of him, and some guy I couldn't remember the name of was on the other side of him. They were talking and laughing. I gently tapped Calum on the shoulder and he looked up at me, suddenly getting excited.
"Oh, Maya!" He turned to the seat beside of him and then frowned. "I saved this for you, but Owens sat down. Uh—" Calum started talking to the guy again, trying to get him to move. I looked over at Abbie and she was looking at me, sending me a reassuring smile. "Owens, get up, man."
"Oh—Maya Jacobson?" Owens asked, looking up at me. "Good job, bud. She could just sit in your lap, couldn't she?" The guy winked and I felt my blood run cold.
"Shut the fuck up, Owens. Get lost now." My eyes widened at Calum's sudden change in tone.
"Bro, I'm kidding. It's not that deep—I don't give a shit who you're boning." The guy stood up from the seat and Calum stood up as well, clearly becoming more upset. "Get away from me, Hood."
"Calum, stop—"
"Yeah, listen to the princess, Cal." I clenched my teeth to hold back from saying anything, and I grabbed Calum's arm before he could do anything. We simply watched the guy leave and I sat down as soon as I could, feeling embarrassed. Calum stayed standing, watching after the guy, but I tugged on his arm.
"Maya, I am so sorry."
"You didn't do anything, Calum. Can we just not talk about it? It's fine." I started to busy myself by eating and I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I glanced up to see Sam looking over at me, and she was mad. Michael was whispering something to her, and I could tell he looked concerned—he was probably apologizing for the guy's behavior as well.
Calum placed his hand on my knee, trying to console me. I breathed in deeply and tried not to think about it because I didn't want it to bother me. I reached down and placed my hand on top of Calum's, wanting him to know I appreciated the action.
"Um—all in favor of cancelling Mitchell Owens... say I." I looked across the table at Michael, and I smiled to myself—I knew he was trying to make me feel better. Everyone at the table immediately responded with I and I felt my cheeks become hot. "As for the rest of you—pull a stunt like that, and you'll get yourselves in trouble. Everyone here is to be respected, and if you can't do that: go fuck yourself. Now... how about enjoying a nice peaceful lunch?"
"Thank you, Michael." As everyone else returned to what they had been doing, I locked eye contact with Michael, wanting to thank him. He sent me a smile, one that I found to be charmingly genuine.
"We protect our own; don't mention it." Calum nudged my shoulder with his, and I looked over at him to see him looking at me intently.
"Come with me a sec, yeah?" I nodded at him and we both excused ourselves for a moment. He led me through the cafeteria and out the back doors.
"Calum, it's honestly okay—"
"No, it's not." Calum shook his head as he spoke over top of me and I sighed quietly, wishing Calum weren't so upset about the whole thing. Obviously I was glad that it had upset him—I'd be more concerned if it hadn't—but I also wanted to let it go. "I just want you to know that I am not okay with anyone treating you like that—I don't want you to think that's how I talk to my friends. Because it's not. Mitchell Owens is a disgusting prick and I've barely tolerated him for the past year and a half. He's funny sometimes, but I have absolutely no respect for him because he has no respect for anyone else. I don't want you to not spend time with me or my friends because you're worried about that kind of thing."
"Calum," I said, wanting him to take a minute to breathe. "Having one guy make a comment about us is not the end of the world... okay? A week ago I would have been mortified, but it's okay. I don't want you to think I'm going to worry over every little thing... I'm not as fragile as you might think."
"I wasn't trying to say you weren't capable of dealing with—"
"I'm not accusing you of that," I told him, laughing quietly as I brought my hands up to his chest and patted the soft material of his shirt. "I know I've talked a lot about wanting you to show me that I'm not wasting my time, but some guy saying some stupid thing does not reflect on you. I promise. I don't want you to be worrying about every little thing, either, okay? I know I've been big on the trust thing... and I want you to know that I have a lot more faith in all of this than I did at the very beginning."
"Okay," Calum said, nodding his head slowly as he finally let himself stop stressing over it so much. He placed his hands on my hips and I began to smile. "God, that guy is such a prick." Calum's eyes shut in irritation and I laughed quietly, letting my head fall forward to lay against his chest. "Can I have a kiss?" Calum asked, which caused my heart to flutter. I looked up at him and slowly brought my hand to his cheek. I leaned up, but let him close the space between us as he placed his lips on mine. The kiss wasn't long, but was exactly what I needed.
"I can't believe I'm sneaking around kissing Calum Hood." My eyebrows wiggled as I spoke and Calum laughed gently, the skin around his eyes creasing as he looked down at me. "I think I'll keep you around a little while longer, so don't you fret. You're too cute."
"Thank god I'm cute, otherwise you would've gotten rid of me by now."
. . .
"Jesus, today was insanity." I let out a sigh as I slid into the backseat of Sam's car. Abbie was sitting in the passenger seat.
"I'm still so fucking mad about what happened at lunch. I oughta find that fucking idiot and kill him." I couldn't help but laugh at Sam's words, but she didn't become any less stern.
"Stuff like that never happens. I mean, the guys crack crude jokes every now and again, but none of them are ever that way. I'm really sorry, My." I sent Abbie a sad smile.
"It's okay. It was annoying, of course... but worse could have happened." We all agreed that I was right, and Sam started to drive out of the student lot. "Plus—there's no need for anyone to apologize. Except that guy, of course. He's the only one who should be apologizing."
"I really appreciated Mikey's little speech," Abbie said, which had me nodding in agreement. "I personally think Michael has the biggest heart out of all of them, he just gets the most shit because he doesn't care about what people think. He says stupid shit sometimes, but most times he's genuinely just really sweet."
"You couldn't have told me that sooner?" Sam asked, which caused us all to laugh.
"If I did, you would've told me that I had been brainwashed." Sam couldn't argue with Abbie's words, so she didn't even try. "I'm sorry it's taken so long for us to get together... I really miss you guys, and I should try harder to make plans."
"Hey, don't worry about it," I told Abbie as I shook my head. "We could've done better to reach out—it's no one person's fault that this is long overdue."
"I'm just glad we're all together now," Sam said, which I found to be very sweet. It wasn't that Sam wasn't a sweet person, but I did think that she had recently balanced herself out. She loved to be bitter—just because it kept outsiders at bay—but recently, she had let her guard down a little, which I believed was a good thing.
Someone's phone began ringing, and Abbie immediately groaned as she realized it was hers.
"Luke knows I'm with you all—I swear, he's constantly texting or calling these days."
"If I were Luke Hemmings, I'd be worried about losing you again... he's just doing what any smart fella would do," Sam said, which I had to agree with. Abbie rolled her eyes playfully before answering the call, after telling us that she was sorry and that it shouldn't take long.
"Hey, what's up?" Abbie asked as she brought the phone up to her ear. "What? Why?" I listened as Abbie started to laugh quietly. She took her phone from her ear and put Luke on speaker. "Okay—you're on speaker."
"So," Luke said—clearly preparing to say something he believed to be important. "I was thinking."
"We were thinking—" I laughed to myself as I heard Calum's voice.
"Me included!" I rolled my eyes as I heard Michael chip in, and soon enough the car had filled with laughter.
"Okay, we were thinking that you three could change your plans and come see us three... and we could all go on some sort of triple date."
"What makes you think that we should change our plans for you?" Sam asked, not surprisingly. "You guys can't be alone for one evening?"
"Sam," I heard Michael start, which caused me to smile. "It should be a compliment that I want to see you so often, don't you think?"
"I'll think what I want, Clifford... don't test your luck." Although Sam was acting tough, she was all smiles. "We were going to shit talk you guys for the rest of the day. What if we don't want to give that opportunity up?"
"Well, that's what we were thinking you'd do—so we'd like to prevent that from happening," Calum responded which amused me. "We could do anything."
"Well... why don't you guys just meet us at Maya's?"
"Whoa," I said, laughing nervously as I started to shake my head.
"So you all didn't leave my girl at school—she speaks at last," Calum said which earned him an eye roll, even if he couldn't see it.
"First of all—don't offer up my house like it is yours, Samantha. Second of all—my dad would kill me, so that is not happening."
"I think your dad would love seeing all of our familiar faces," Michael said, in reference to the party my dad had sort of attended.
"You really think he'd be opposed, Maya?" This time Luke was asking, and I suddenly found myself sighing.
"My dad doesn't get home until six, and I don't think he'd feel comfortable unless he was home... I really hate to be a buzzkill, but I just don't see it happening at my house. We could go literally anywhere else."
"But what if we wanna see Mr. Jacobson?" Luke asked, nearly pouting, which caused my eyebrows to furrow as I let out a bogus laugh.
"I've never had a guy over before—so inviting three guys over all at once might be too much of a shock for him, honestly..."
"Maya, you're stalling," Sam said, which earned her a glare.
"Look—you only live once, your house is super fucking dope looking, your dad is cool... I think you should ask him, and if he says no, that's okay! But what's the hurt in asking?" Normally, I'd probably feel angry by this point, but I knew that the boys were just wanting to carry out a plan, with good intentions.
"Fine! I'll call him. But none of you get your hopes up." I pulled my phone out and dialed my dad's number before bringing the phone to my ear. Abbie told the boys to be quiet, which I found funny, but I was also thankful for.
"Hey, sweetie," My dad answered, sounding happy. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's great!" I promised as I nodded my head. "How's work?" I asked, stalling slightly as I felt myself nervous to ask him.
"It's fine..." My dad laughed as he spoke, clearly suspicious of something. "Are you and the girls home yet?" he asked, knowing that I had plans with Abbie and Sam.
"Uh, not yet... I actually sort of had a question about that," I said before taking my lower lip between my teeth, biting it nervously.
"I'm listening," he said, seeming amused by my hesitance.
"Okay, here goes: uhm—so basically... we have a group project with a couple of guy friends that we need to work on, and we were hoping that you'd be okay with them just stopping by?" I didn't like the feeling of lying to my dad, but I also didn't know how else to phrase it. I heard Michael say something smart and mouthed a thank you to Abbie as she turned speaker phone off.
"My... if you want to have some guy friends over, that's fine. I think I'd prefer if they didn't come to the house until I was there, if that's okay with you? But you're welcome to invite whoever—as long as you stay downstairs."
"Are you serious?" I asked my dad, furrowing my brows in a state of confused surprise. "I'm talking boys, Dad. Gross teenaged boys."
"Did you want me to say no?" My dad asked, seeming confused.
"No, of course not! I just wasn't expecting you to be so... chill about it."
"You're a good kid, Maya—I don't have much to worry about with you around. I'm not going to keep you from spending sometime with some friends. Who are the boys?"
"Some of Noah's friends..."
"Will Calum be there?" My dad asked which caused my cheeks to heat up. I swore he already had me figured out, somehow.
"Uh, yeah..." I bit my lip gently and hoped he wouldn't go back on his word.
"Good—I like that one. What about Peter?"
"Dad, don't be silly! I'd be way too embarrassed," I lied, hoping he wouldn't be able to see through me again.
"Just tell them they can come over at six, okay? I won't bother you guys, just wanna be around if you get any ideas." My eyes rolled and I was thankful that I hadn't put my phone on speaker. "I can order some pizzas or something?"
"Um—I'll see what they want. Thanks, Dad! You're the best. I love you."
"I love you, too, baby—bye bye."
"Bye." I ended the call, slightly bewildered and shook my head slowly to regain my composure. "Boys—be at my house at six, and no earlier."
"Right on, Mr. J!"
a/n:
omg
um
it's been a MINUTE
this chapter was not v fun but !!! it sets me up for a fun chapter !!!!! sooo !! hopefully that'll mean that i will get another one cranked out for u all soon !!:))))
i am seriously so sorry for taking so long to update. i know it's annoying to get so into a story just to have it be on hold/discontinued but i promise that i am still looking to update this story (as well as most of my others !!!) i just get into a habit of favoring one of my stories over all my others
i simply have started WAAYYY too many
and i apologize for being mia and possibly letting any of u down 🥺
i rlly do hope to get another chapter out v soon!! so be on the lookout !!
i am expecting maybe 5 of u to still be here, reading this ... and to those 5 of u: THANK U FOR STICKING AROUND !!! I ADORE YOUUU!!! <333
thank you so much for reading !! pls leave a comment or two!! :)
much love
jill