XXVIII

Calum's POV:

Why does my mum want to know about Jackie?

"She's good, she's better. Back to school and work." I tell her.

"What are you two? You freaked out when I called her your girlfriend but you two sure as hell act like it."

Seriously, mum?

"We're unofficially official. It's a thing. But we're not boyfriend and girlfriend. I don't know. Remind me why we're talking about this again?"

"Because, Cal. You've never been this way about a girl before."

She's right. I've never been with a girl for this long, I've never felt this way about a girl before, I've never introduced a girl to my parents, I've never invested this much time and overall emotion in a girl.

"Yeah, I know." I reply, milling information around in my head.

"She's a nice girl. Treat her well. You've done good so far, m'love, keep it up." she says as she pats my shoulder and kisses my cheek.

"I'm scared I'm gonna screw it up." I blurt out.

"You won't." she says, narrowing her eyes at me.

"I almost already did, mum." I sigh.

"Well, what'd you do?"

"I, uh, tested her." I admit and she raises her eyebrows again so I start to explain the party.

"But in light of everything that happened with her dad and all, I think it's okay, right?" I ask her.

"I don't know, is it? Only you know that." she answers.

"That's the thing," I laugh, "I don't know."

"What do you want, Calum? Decide and go for it, don't wait for someone to hand it to you because whatever it is, it'll never come that way. You need to work for it."

"Okay." I say in understanding.

"Besides she's too sassy, she'll leave your arse if you misbehave." my mum remarks with a smirk and I groan in response just as my phone rings.

"Speak of the devil." my mum laughs.

"Hey babe." I call into the phone as I walk away from my laughing mum.

"Hi." Jackie answers with a giggle.

"What?"

"Ashton's mum's flipping out at him." she laughs.

"Why?"

"She told him to get butter on his way home today but he didn't. It's pretty damn funny, actually." she giggles.

"Well, I mean, butter's pretty fucking important."

"Indeed 'tis. Especially if your making toast."

"No, Vegemite's for toast, not butter."

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry." she's laughing now and I find myself wanting to make stupid jokes just to keep it up.

She breaks out laughing like a maniac and I ask her what's so funny.

"His mom just slapped the back of his head like he's ten years old or something. He looks furious." she says, gasping for air.

"Can't they hear you?"

"Nope, I'm on the balcony watching through the sliding glass door." she says and I hear her tap the glass with her fingertips.

"Oh."

"What's up?" she asks.

"My mum." I laugh.

"Did she slap you like Ash's just did?" she laughs lightly.

"Nah, just some shit we talked about today."

"What kind of shit?" she asks.

"Us." I say quietly as I fall onto my bed.

"Oh, us." she says in understanding.

"This is new to me." I admit and screw my eyes shut with embarrassment the second the words fall from my mouth.

"What is?"

"Us." I repeat.

"It is to me, too." she says and I relax, "We can figure it out together, though, yeah?"

"Yeah. I just don't want to fuck it up."

"Ditto." she says and I smile.

Jackie's POV:

"Goodnight." Calum says into the phone.

"Night." I tell him with a stupid grin on my face.

"I like you, Madson." he whispers through the phone. He's never called me by my last name before.

"I like you, too, Hood." I say back and hear the line go dead.

"I might even love you." I say to myself, looking down at the phone in my hands.

I shake my head to clear it. Did I just say that out loud? This is way too soon to admit that, even only to myself.

I take a deep breath and walk inside, sitting next to a sulking Ashton on the couch.

"She's pretty pissed, isn't she?" I ask him as I gesture to his mom.

"Yeah." he huffs, changing the TV channel.

"Let's go get the damn butter, then." I say, sitting up and pulling my car keys from my jean pocket.

"Always ready to run, aren't you?" Ashton says wryly, pointing to my keys.

I don't respond to that. He's right. It's a habit that I've yet to break. But I just nod and pull the sweatshirt I'm wearing tighter around my body as we walk to the front door.

When we return with the butter I force Ashton to give it to her himself. He stalks into the kitchen and holds out the small grocery sac. Apparently she hadn't noticed that we were gone. Her face is priceless. Her eyes filled with appreciation of such a simple act. An expression I'll never see my dad give me again. He never looked at you like that, my subconscious scolds but it still burns.

"Thank you, honey." she tells him, pulling him down to kiss his forehead.

"Welcome, mum." he says before plopping down into a dining chair.

"Thank you, Jackie." she tells me as I sit down, too.

By her expression I can tell that she knows I made him go get it.

"How's Calum doing?" she asks out of the blue and I choke on air.

"Uh, he's good." I force a smile.

"Yeah?" Ashton asks with a smirk.

"Yeah." I tell him, narrowing my eyes in warning but he just laughs.

"You should invite him over for dinner tomorrow." Anne smiles.

"Um - " I start but Ashton interrupts me with "Why, mother, that sounds delightful."

Sarcastic prick. I should slap him right now like his mom did earlier.

"It's settled then." she smiles and I force myself to return it but when she turns away I shoot daggers at Ashton.

"What the fuck?" I mouth silently to him but he just shrugs his shoulders and stands up with a grin.

I just sink further into the chair and pull my phone from my jean pocket.

Jackie (20:07):

*Me and Ash bought his mom butter and now she wants you to come over for dinner tomorrow. Things escalated quickly when she seen the butter.*

Calum (20:09):

*You don't want me to come? Only Ashton's mum? :( Break my heart, Madson.*

Jackie (20:10):

*Oh, quit being such an asshole. Of course I do. Please be here at 6:00 tomorrow, Mr. Hood. ;)*

Calum (20:12):

*Yes, ma'am. :)*

...

It's the weekend and I'm way behind with my coursework. Despite vicious procrastination I decided to spend today trying to catch up.

Halfway through my essay on Pride and Prejudice, Ashton comes walking into my room with a smirk.

"What?" I ask as he falls onto the bed.

"Your boyfriend's super nervous about tonight." he singsongs.

"I told you he's not my boyfriend." I glower.

"Yeah, okay." he laughs.

"We're unofficially official."

"What the fuck does that mean?" he squeals.

"I don't know." I shrug my shoulders. "How do you know he's nervous?" I ask curiously.

"I talked to Michael today. He's driving him fucking mad." he laughs as my phone vibrates on the bed. Ashton gets to it before I can and breaks out laughing.

"What?" I whine, grabbing the phone from him.

Calum (16:47):*Should I bring something?*

"Are you going to act like this the whole time? Quit being mean." I say with a grin as I walk out of the room to ask Anne Calum's question.

I shoo Ashton out of my room so I can change out of my sweatpants into jeans.

Calum's POV:

I'm far more nervous about this than I should be. It's only Ashton, his mum, and Jackie but if feels formal and important.

I take a deep breath and push the doorbell, picking at the buttons of my flannel shirt while I wait.

Jackie opens the door, lips crimson and eyes bright as ever.

"Hi." she smiles up at me.

"Hey." I answer as she opens the door wider.

Ashton's mum fabricates from the living room "Oh, uh, my mum said to give this to you." I say nervously, handing her a bottle of red wine.

"I said you didn't need to bring anything." she smiles, "Your mum must be a millionaire, this is expensive stuff."

"She's a lawyer."

"Would you like some?" she asks, holding up the bottle.

"Oh, no thanks, I have to drive." and she just nods as she turns to Jackie.

"You Jackie?" she offers.

"Sure." Jackie answers.

"You're underage. Shame." I whisper into her ear. I've seen her drink before, it's not a big deal, especially in this setting but it's fun to tease her about it.

"If Ashton's gonna act like he was earlier I'm gonna need more than wine." she laughs and pulls her hair to one side.

I look down at her, focusing on her blue eyes, lined with black. And her lips, God, her lips, crimson and practically begging to be kissed.

"What?" she asks.

"You."

"What about me?"

"I'm pretty smitten with you." I answer with a grin and she breaks out laughing.

"Smitten, huh? Nice vocab, Cal." she pauses, "But I'd say I'm pretty damn smitten with you, too."

"I really wanna kiss you right now." I chuckle.

"You can kiss me later." she says with a wink, pulling me into the kitchen by my flannel shirt.

I wore this shirt last week and she told me she liked it on me, so after being a total girl and trying on almost everything in my wardrobe I ultimately chose this one. I put way too much thought into this whole thing.

Jackie and I haven't been official, or unofficially official, or whatever we are for that long, let alone known each other for that long but I can't imagine being without her. After feeling how I feel when I'm around her, I can't imagine going back to the way it was, the way I was - alone in the truest sense of the word. I think she's helped me more than I've helped her but she doesn't seem to realize that.

I still don't think she knows how bad I made things last year. How many people I fucked over, but maybe she doesn't need to know that. No need to revisit the past, right?

"Calum?" Ashton waves his hand dramatically in front of my face.

"Oh, yeah, what?" I snap back into the present as everyone sits down at the table to eat.

"I was just telling Jackie about the time you stole that car." he laughs like it's the funniest thing in the world.

Why is he telling her this?

When I look over to Jackie she has a face full of expectancy, but she doesn't look upset or like she's judging me. She just looks like she wants to hear the story.

"Oh, yeah. That." I say, turning my attention back to Ashton.

"That was a fun night." he says with a smirk, picking at his green beans.

"Not really. I got picked up by the cops, not you."

"Well yeah, but - " he starts but I interrupt him.

"Why are you bringing that up?" I ask.

"Why does it bother you?" he counters.

I see what Jackie meant about Ashton's mood. Maybe my nerves about tonight weren't entirely unwarranted.

A/N: Hello, there :) how're you?

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