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talkfastromance4 · 5 years

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Cross Her (C.H part II)

Summary: With a new album and tour soon to be on the rise, 5SOS’s management has decided to put Calum into a public relationship.

Warnings: none, light fluff

Words: 2.5k

Author’s note: this is a small one, sort of a filler I guess, but the next one will be longer! I hope you enjoy, Grace and Calum are very near and dear to my heart. Any feedback is appreciated!♥♥♥♥

Masterlist

Part I

Their first public appearance is going to be subtle, according to Francesca. Something simple but noteworthy that will get the fans’ (and the paparazzi) attention. Calum thinks they should just go get coffee, its innocent enough and it won’t be totally overbearing on Grace.

When he picks her up at the hotel, they both take each other in quickly before busting out in laughter. Their outfits are totally matching. They both have on the new merch for the album; he’s in a hoodie while she’s wearing a t-shirt with some jean shorts and her white converse. Calum has on his black ones.

“What are the odds of that?” Grace laughs.

“Great minds think alike,” he nudges her shoulder playfully.

They decide to go to the coffee shop where he and Ashton frequent, that’s where the paps are at least. While they’re waiting in line to order Calum sees her twisting her fingers while she looks up at the menu.

Without even thinking, he takes one of her hands in his, he notices how soft and small they are and gives her a gentle squeeze.

“Okay?”

She looks up at him and she nearly forgets how to breathe. His hair is the perfect amount of messy, his lips look extra plump and his eyes are full of concern. For her. She still can’t believe this is happening. Grace knows he’s asking if she’s okay with what’s going on around them, some girls have taken out their phones and snapped pictures while paps are outside up against the glass.

But she’s also wondering if he’s asking if it’s okay that he took hold of her hand.

“I’m okay,” she breathes holding onto his hand more tightly, her thumb draws a circle on his skin.

“D’you want to sit inside or go out walking at the shops?” he asks her once they have their drinks.

“Um,” she chews on her lip peeking outside. More photographers have arrived but they’ve scattered further from the building trying to get the perfect shot.

If they stay inside it’ll be more headline if it shows they’re trying to be more private. If they go outside she’ll be swarmed by cameras in her face and she doesn’t think she’s quite ready for that yet.

“Stay inside, please.”

“No problem,” he smiles leading them to the back of the shop. He makes sure her back is facing the front windows to give her a little breather and to feel more relaxed. “How’re you doing?”

“Good, good,” she nods, “I’m just suddenly very self-conscious of every little thing that I do.”

“Don’t be,” he reaches for her hand again which she gladly takes. It’s his turn to rub circles on her skin. “It’s just us having coffee and talking.”

“Right.”

After a few moments, Calum takes his phone from his hoodie pocket and angles it to their hands on the table. He snaps a photo then turns it to show her. She stares at the photo fondly, loving how delicate and small her hand looks in his.

“I like that,” she smiles giving his hand a squeeze.

“Is it okay if I post it to Instagram? I can make it my story so it’ll disappear in 24 hours,” he suggests. “I won’t tag you in it either if you’re not ready.”

“Yeah post it, and you can tag me. Might as well get used to people commenting on it now, right?”

He nods and shifts to Instagram where he goes to his story, he adds the photo and the black heart emoji followed by her handle. He does all this while still holding her hand.

“Done,” he says pocketing his phone once more.

She feels her phone vibrate and makes a mental note to screenshot that photo later. Like the photo, she’ll disappear from his life, but unlike the photo it won’t be in 24 hours but still. Grace pushes those thoughts from her mind and focuses on the right now, right here with Calum. Right now their hands are still locked and he’s looking at her like she’s all he sees.

Grace takes it as him playing his part so she wants to do the same. She’s used to being the one that has more feelings than the other person anyway, so it’s not that hard for her to play along.

»»»

When they finally leave the coffee shop it’s about 4 in the afternoon and only a few stragglers of the paps are around. Still hand in hand, the ‘couple’ walk down the sidewalk to Calum’s car. He’s promising her Chinese takeout and any Netflix show or movie she wants to watch back at his place. He comments that the size of her hand in his is another 5 points of adorableness on their point system and she laughs, which a photographer caught.

“I’m at 100 points and you have how many?” she asks while she slides in the passenger seat. She already misses the warmth of his hand in hers.

“Still at 70,” he sighs closing his door and starting the car.

“You get another ten for Chinese takeout.”

“How is that adorable?” he laughs.

“Because I say so,” she sticks her tongue out at him.

He laughs at her impertinence but inside he’s thinking of what it’d feel like to kiss her.

»»»

It’s only a few hours before their new single is about to be released and management has rented a yacht for them to all party on before it happens. The music is blaring, drinks are flowing and fire is flaming as the chefs create hibachi—Calum put in a special request for Grace. Crystal, Sierra and KayKay are all aboard as well and have welcomed Grace with open arms.

She’s still on the shy side being surrounded by all these people, her bottle of Mike’s is held in a death grip between her fingers. She’s wearing a pretty baby blue dress with spaghetti straps and a cold shoulder cut. Her hair is sea blown but she doesn’t care, she loves the ocean and breathes in the salty sea air with her eyes closed. A warm body sidles up next to her, with one whiff she already knows its Calum.

“Hey, are you doing okay?” he asks lowly.

The warm skin of his arm touches hers and she gets a chill from the contact. Calum notices and begins to pull away.

“Are you cold? I can get you my jacket, it’s downstairs.”

“No, I’m okay,” she promises stepping closer to him. “But thank you.”

“I bet you’ve been wanting to jump in the water all day,” he grins taking his spot next to her again. A small spark ignites between them.

“You have no idea,” she shakes her head and takes a big swig of her drink.

“How about we go to the beach tomorrow?”

“Really? But wait, don’t you have to do promo for the song tomorrow?”

“Only in the morning,” he shrugs. He leans his right arm on the railing of the yacht, angling his body towards hers. He’s tempted to place his left hand on the skin of her back that’s exposed, curl her hair away so he can admire the smoothness of her flesh. He averts his eyes to hers, “we’ll be done by two.”

Grace purses her lips, a thing she does when she’s thinking about something and also a thing that Calum has taken notice to. Just like when she’s nervous she’ll twist her fingers. In a short span of only a few days he already knows what her small quirks are and what they mean.

“Two sounds good, I’ll pack some snacks,” she smiles then nudges him in the chest, “I’ll make sure to have avocadoes.”

“You’re too kind, and that’s another twenty points by the way.” He’s leaning in closer to her.

It’s as if they’re in their own little bubble. The chaos of the party around them is long forgotten, but that always seems to happen when he’s with Grace. The outside world tends to fade away.

“Twenty?! How do avocadoes give me twenty points?” she exclaims eyes wide in shock.

“You remembered I like avocadoes,” he shrugs, “avocadoes are very important to me.”

She laughs and shakes her head switching the bottle to her other hand. Her small hand rests on top of his large one, her fingertips barely grazing the initials of his father.

“Then you get twenty points because you remembered I love the water. So now you’re at a hundred points there, buttercup.”

“Buttercup?” he chortles.

Being this close to him she can feel the rumble in his chest, it shakes his hand under hers so now they’re practically holding hands.

“That’s—“

“If you add more points—“

“Five points, sweetheart,” he finishes and notices her blush.

“Then you get five more because of what you called me.”

“Have we decided on what the final number to win is?”

“I don’t think so,” she giggles.

“You’re going to win anyway.”

“I dunno, you’re only twenty points behind,” she smirks leaning into him more, “I’m sure you’ll pass me up.”

“I highly doubt that, sweetheart.”

She peers up at him, a smirk playing on her lips. They’re so close Calum could just bend his neck a little and—

“Can we take a selfie?” she asks pulling him from his thoughts.

“Uh, um yeah,” he clears his throat as she pulls out her phone from her pocket. A fact that she gushed at him when he picked her up for the occasion putting her hands in both pockets and doing a little spin. It was horribly adorable.

He shifts his weight on his feet and stands behind her, his arms encircle around her. She holds up her phone with the rear facing camera and he sees it’s snapchat already set to her favorite filter. He’s so tall that he has to bend down. His cheek rests against hers. He can smell her floral lotion, it’s called Beautiful something or other and he gets a little dizzy.

Grace can feel his breath on her cheek and ear, it creates goosebumps on the back of her neck. She angles her phone a bit more for the perfect angle then takes the photo. She’s doing a slight purse of her lips with a cute smile and he’s got his soft grin showing.

She saves the photo and shows it to him.

“I’m going to screenshot that later,” the tenor of his voice vibrates on her skin.

Grace wants to close her eyes and revel in the smoothness of his voice, he could talk to her for hours about who knows what and she’d be perfectly content.

“Or I could just send it to you,” she laughs. She tries to keep herself busy by opening up Instagram so she can post the photo. She tries to distract herself from how close his lips are to hers, or the way his arms are trapping her against him in a safe space.

“Yeah I guess that could work, too,” he hums and Grace feels her legs go weak. He watches her type away quickly for the picture. “’Yachts of fun waiting for Falling All into You xx.’ I like that, that’s clever. Put the yacht emoji and the wave one and the music one.”

“Ten more points for your emoji knowledge,” she giggles inputting the ones he suggested. She tagged him then posted it.

“Hey, guys! The single’s about to drop in two minutes!” Luke hollers from behind them.

To her dismay, Calum removes his cheek from hers and she feels slightly cold when his arms aren’t around her anymore. She pockets her phone then turns around to face him.

He takes her hand in his, intertwining their fingers then gives her a soft smile.

“I can’t wait for you to hear it,” he says then pulls her along to join the rest of the group.

When the song begins playing Grace closes her eyes while she listens to it. Calum watches her absorb herself in the slow build-up of the guitar, then the soft beat of the drums and finally Calum’s voice coming through. She smiles hearing him sing, her head nodding slightly to the beat.

So far away but I feel you near,

Your voice is music to my ears,

How’d we end up this way?

Two strangers adrift so far?

Falling all into you,

Your eyes, your smile everything you do

Makes me weak at the knees

I bow down for you

Anything you want

I’ll give it to you cause I’m

Falling all into you…

Grace wants to think it really is about her, that Calum wrote these lyrics specifically for her but her rational side knows this has been finished long before they met. He probably wrote it for some other girl and her heart sinks. But she loves the song, it’s so raw and the music is beautiful.

Everyone else cheers and claps when the song finishes, Michael chanting ��again, again!’ when Calum nudges her gently. She opens her eyes to see his brown ones already staring at her.

“What’d you think?” he asks quietly. They’re the only ones left seated on the couch while everyone else disperses for more drinks and food.

“It’s amazing,” she breathes. “I love how it’s slow but still kind of upbeat, you know? The harmonies are great but I like how it’s mainly you singing.” She smiles brightly and takes his hand in hers.

“You really like it?” he tries to keep his excitement to a minimum but he can’t really hold it. He didn’t realize how much he wanted Grace to like it until he watched her listen with her eyes closed. Like she was immersing herself into the song and into his voice.

“I love it, I’m probably going to have it on repeat for days. When’s the album drop again?” she giggles.

“Nice try, but I can’t tell you that, sweetheart,” he grins.

“Damn, not even to your fake girlfriend?” she teases.

The rest of the night is spent with the party slowly dwindling down until they dock at the marina. Calum drives Grace to her hotel, he still wants to speak with Francesca about renting a small town house for her, and she’s asleep as soon as the car starts moving.

The song was written by Ashton and Calum helped a little bit here and there with the lyrics. But when he sang it, he put his heart and soul into it. He wanted it to sound like he was singing it to someone, so he imagined that whoever that special someone was, it would send them to him.

Under the traffic lights Calum glances to Grace, her lips are lightly puckered as she sleeps and his heart lurches. When he heard the song again tonight, moving his lips to himself singing it, he looked at her the whole time. Like he was singing it to her, for her.

It’s only been two weeks but he can tell he’s already falling fast for Grace. He enjoys spending time with her, he enjoys her presence and after holding her hand tonight he never wanted to let go. He wasn’t expecting to actually be falling all into her, as if the song predetermined this moment.

#calum hood #calum hood fluff #calum 5sos #calum hood imagine #calum hood fic #calum fic #calum imagine #5sos writings #luke hemmings #michael clifford #aston irwin

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angelbabylu · 5 years

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1,000 Photos // CH

pairing: reader x calum

summary: you and cal are both digital media majors at a university in LA, and for your first assignment after the summer break, a professor tasks you with taking 1,000 photos. naturally, you and calum make a day out of it

notes: for jasmine ( @calumsssparkle ) my baby, my child, my twin. I’m so sorry it took me so long to get this to you. I hope you like it ❤️❤️

warnings: just pure fluff, angst if you squint

word count: 3.8k

(prelude)

Hey I’ll be waiting for you in the parking lot just come find me when you get here

Calum’s thumb hovered over the letters on his screen as he considered responding to your message. The parking lot was packed full of beachgoers trying to squeeze in some sun before summer gave way to overcast skies; so, he had a hard time moving, much less finding anybody. He ducked by large groups of people, trying to avoid getting hit by errant surfboards or coolers and tapped away at his phone screen.

Maybe just share your location with me? it’ll be impossible finding you in this crowd

As soon as he hits send on the message a small ding! draws his attention up from the phone straight to where you stood leaning against the trunk of your car. As always, when Calum caught sight of you, he smiled. It was a soft smile that caused his cheeks to rise and his eyes to crinkle at the corners. Anyone who knew Calum and you knew this smile. It was often the subject of the teasing Calum got from his friends.

You tapped away at your phone, no doubt trying to share your location or perhaps responding to him with more detailed notes on how to get to you. Instead of getting your attention and letting you know that a response was not necessary, Calum reached for his camera.

You and Cal were both studying digital media at a university in Los Angeles. For the weekend, a professor had tasked your class with going out and taking 1,000 photos of anything, paying special attention to subjects and lighting, as a way to spend some time getting reacquainted with your cameras after the summer break.

When you accepted Calum’s invitations to spend the day at the beach collecting the 1,000 pictures, he knew that the subject of all his photographs would be you.

He snapped a couple more pictures of you leaning there as he walked closer. Eventually, the sound of the camera clicks got close enough to you that you were glancing up from your phone, eyes catching sight of the camera lens. Calum was mostly taking images in jest now, to get your attention, but when you tilted your head towards the lens and gave him the widest smile you could muster, he had to snap one more for his collection.

(photos taken: 7)

He was lining up a shot of two seagulls as they danced together over the water. With the sky so clear and the water so blue, their white created a perfect contrast to everything else around them. Just as he was about to snap the picture, you jumped up and slipped your hand in front of the lens. He moved the camera from in front of his face so you could see his look of mock annoyance, but with you smiling up at him it was only seconds before he was smiling back as well.

“Let’s go shoot on the pier,” you suggested, cheerily. “There’s so much up there. And we can do portraits of people!”

At the mention of portraits, he scrunched his nose in disgust. “Portraits?”

Last year, in one of your courses, there was a section that focused specifically on portrait photography. Calum had hated it. Most of the assignments involved going up to random people in and around campus and asking if they would mind having their picture taken. While Calum disliked those conversations, you loved it. You had always enjoyed meeting and talking to new people.

Remembering how he had complained about that section of the course throughout the entirety of it, you rolled your eyes. Grabbing one of his wrists, you turn and drag him towards the pier. “Come on!” you insisted. “You can’t just take pictures of me the entire day.”

Instead of a response, you heard the camera click, as he snapped a picture of you from behind. “But I like taking pictures of you.”

You could hear the pout in his voice, but you elected to ignore it, rolling your eyes again and pulling harder. Instead of resisting, he slipped his wrist out of yours and moved his hand down to entwine your fingers. You bit your lip to control the smile on your face, but it did nothing to stop the warmth spreading in your chest.

Looking back, you saw him trying to control a smile as well. “What?” he teased playfully. “This is infinitely more comfortable.”

There was no arguing with that; so instead of responding, you relaxed your pull and allowed him to fall in step next to you.

(photos taken: 141)

You were on the pier for half an hour before ever snapping a photo. Calum had distracted you both by pointing out a small ice cream stand just as you were entering.

“Ice Cream?” he suggested, and that was a question you rarely, if ever, said no to.

When you nodded your head in agreement, he tugged where your fingers were still loosely joined, directing you to the ice cream stand.

“Pistachio right?”

Your brows furrowed and your eyes snapped up to meet his. You tried to rack your brain for a moment when you would have told him your favorite flavor of ice cream but found none.

“How do you know what my favorite flavor of ice cream is?”

For a moment, when his eyes met yours, your heart stopped. He was looking at you so earnestly, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear and saying, “I know a lot of things about you. I remember everything that you tell me.”

Your brows furrowed even more as you subconsciously took a half step closer, chasing the hand that was just in your hair. “But I don’t even remember telling you that.”

He chucked a bit. “Well, technically you didn’t tell me so much as announce it to the group our Freshman year when the art department went to LACMA.”

You knew the shock from that statement must be present on your face because he grimaced and tried to pull away from you. “Sorry if that’s -”

But before he can even finish, your shaking your head and pulling him back to you. “No, don’t apologize. I’m just not used to people paying attention to me like that.”

“Are you kidding? I’m always paying attention to you. It doesn’t matter where I am if you’re close by I-” He paused and took a moment to collect his thoughts, end his rambling. “It’s distracting.”

You were about to respond, about to tell him how he distracts you too, when the ice cream vendor cleared his throat causing you both to spring apart from one another. The look of embarrassment on Calum’s face told you that you were not the only one who forgot where you were.

“You guys are cute,” He remarked, but there was a distinct lack of emotion in his voice that clued you to the fact that it was sarcasm. “But are you guys going to buy ice cream or. . .”

“Oh, my bad!” Cal exclaimed apologetically, patting his pockets in search of his wallet. “One pistachio and uh -”

He trailed off, looking up at the menu. He hadn’t given any thought to what ice cream he had wanted - you felt a little bad for distracting him from that.

“The mint chocolate chip looks good,” you suggested, and he looked at you with grateful eyes before turning and ordering one mint chip for himself and one pistachio for you.

As soon as you both received your cups of ice cream, he entwined his fingers with yours once more and drew you towards an empty bench on the pier.

“Want a taste?” You asked, offering him your first spoonful. He leaned forward at the same time you moved the spoons to his lips, both of you misjudging the distance. He ended up with a bit of ice cream smeared on his cheeks before the spoon made it between his lips.

“Oh!” you gasped as you pulled the spoon from his face. “Sorry! I’m so clumsy.” And without thinking, you reached your thumb up, wiped the ice cream off his face, then stuck it in your mouth. It was not until you were licking the ice cream off your thumb that you realized what you had done, glancing up at him with wide eyes.

He was not looking at your eyes. Instead, his focus was concentrated much lower, on your lips, as you sucked the cream from your finger. Flushing, you pulled the thumb from between your lips and muttered, “Sorry again.”

His eyes were so trained on your lips, you were sure he was going to kiss you. You leaned forward, subtly inviting his lips on yours. He was leaning forward too, but at the last minute, a seagull squawked from the railing behind you, causing both of you to flush and pull away.

It had been like this between the two of you for a while now. Over the years, subtle flirtation was slowly turning into more poignant moments. There were times when you thought about just kissing him and getting it over with. Your friends all assured you that, with the way that he behaved, there was no way he was not into you. Despite their encouragements to go for it, there was always a small voice at the back of your mind that told you that just because he liked holding your hand didn’t mean that he wanted to kiss you. Sometimes you felt dumb for getting your hopes up.

You shook yourself out of your thoughts. Both of you glanced at each other at the same time, and when your eyes met, the blush that had all but subsided flared up again.

“Let me take a photo of you with that ice cream,” he insisted, obviously trying to defuse the tension a bit. He didn’t wait for your answer. He sat his ice cream in his place on the bench and stepped out into the crowd. You dipped the spoon into ice cream and brought it up, smiling as the camera captured the moment it touched your lips.

“Cute,” he remarked.

You stayed quiet, mind still dreaming of the almost kiss.

(photos taken: 142)

“So, why’d you choose photography?”

Thoughts of the almost kiss had retreated to the far corners of your minds. It helped that you both took a minute away from each other to snap pictures of the people and seagulls that roamed the busy pier. You had been at it for about an hour before you reconvened, both of you leaning against the railing, staring off at the people playing in the water down below.

The question he asked was a difficult one to answer. There were a lot of reasons why you felt photography was your calling, but it was hard sometimes for words to do those emotions justice.

“I’ve always been a fangirl,” you began. “Since I was little. I guess, I really enjoy appreciating the work that other people do. Art as a medium, to me, has always felt like a good way to pay homage to others. I especially like photography because sometimes I feel like I’m capturing someone in a way that they’ve never seen themselves before. . .”

You trailed off, trying to organize your thoughts. Calum was so earnest in how he watched and listened, you wanted your ramblings to make sense.

“I imagine myself being a runway photographer sometimes.” You admit, something about his attention pulling confessions from you. “A lot of those girls have insecurities about their bodies, so it would be nice to take pictures of them in a way that reminds them of their beauty. And, I would get a chance to honor the work of the fashion designers too. It’s a dream job quite honestly.”

“You’ll be amazing at it,” he assured with the soft smile that he saves for you.

“You think so?”

“Without a doubt,” and there was no pause, no hesitation from him. “I’ve seen what you can do with portraits of random students on campus. There’s no doubt in my mind that you’d be great as a runway photographer.”

You turned your head away from him to smile. That day had been a constant battle of you trying to hide how soft you were for him. But, with him saying things so lovely and reassuring, it was hard for you to keep those emotions off your face.

“What about you?” You asked over bright smiles and brighter eyes. “Why are you doing photography?”

He shrugged. “Oh, I just became a photographer so I invite gorgeous girls to the beach with me and take photos of them.”

To punctuate his point, he brought his camera up to snap a picture of you.

You’re laughing in the picture, eyes vowing to ask him more about his interest in photography at a later date.

(photos taken: 396)

Neither of you could contain your laughter as Calum attempted to snap the picture. You were finding the most hilarious novelty items on the shelves of the pier stores. This one was a hat that said “Feeling Nauti” with an anchor accompanying the word. Cal thought it was hilarious, his hands barely able to hold on to the camera as his whole body shook with laughter.

“Oh my god,” he gasped, trying to settle himself. “Holy fuck, I won’t be able to use any of these photos, I was laughing so hard.”

Your laughter started dying down a little bit too as you took the hat off your head. Before you could place it back on the shelf, Calum reached out and grabbed it from you.

“What are you doing?” You asked as he stepped around you to the cash register.

You grabbed his hand, trying to pull him to a stop, but he was so much stronger than you, he just kept walking away. “I’m buying this hat,” he announced, waving it at the girl behind the register.

“What?” You exclaimed, immediately reaching out to grab the hat from him. When he held it out of your reach, you stepped closer, the camera on your chest bumping his. As you’re leaning and stretching your arm out to grab the hat, he winds his other arm around you, trapping you to his side.

One glance up into his deep brown eyes had you realizing your mistake. For the second time that day, he was close enough to kiss.

“What?” he asked, cheeks rising with his small smile. “It’s cute on you. I want you to have it.”

You stepped back out of his hold, not trusting yourself to be that close to his lips and unable to do anything about it.

“I will never wear that,” you admitted with a laugh.

He shrugged, “Okay, then let’s find you something that you will wear.”

You were about to complain, to let him know that you didn’t need him to buy you anything, when he suggested, “What if we get matching necklaces?”

You follow his line of sight to the shop’s display rack of novelty accessories. When a cute starfish necklace caught your eyes, all protests to his idea died in your throat. Maybe matching necklaces could be a good idea.

Just a few minutes later, he opted for the camera on his phone over the one around his neck, knowing that it would do a better job of taking a selfie showing off your new matching necklaces.

(photos taken: 640)

Silence settled between you both, as you walked hand in hand down the now mostly empty pier. You had just finished dinner - burgers and fries, of course, the quintessential pier diner dinner choice. Now you were both stuffed, combatting the feeling you got after a good meal at the end of a long day.

You had been at the beach for several hours now. You had chosen intentionally to visit mid-afternoon because, while early mornings at the beach were pretty, night time was even more breathtaking. Images of sunsets on the pier and bonfires after dark remained unmatched in your opinion. And, this would allow you to follow the instructions your professor had given - to pay special attention to the lighting of the photos you were taking.

It was sunset now. You had snapped a couple of pictures of it inside the diner and off the side of the pier. Now, you were climbing down steps, going back to the beach for the first time since earlier that afternoon. You wanted an image of the full pier with the sun setting behind it. Calum had other ideas.

He brought you both to a stop on the stairs and pointed over to where a man stood busking, guitar in hand, case opened before him.

“What?” you asked softly. Instead of responding, he just drew you closer to the music.

When your ears tuned into the music, you released a soft gasp. “I love this song.”

“Me too,” Calum mumbled.

It was Self Control by Frank Ocean. You thought it was fitting - a song about two people who ideally would be great together but were never on the same page about it. You wondered if that was you and Calum. If, unbeknownst to you, there was someone else on his mind, and all this had meant nothing to him.

“Dance with me?” He offered, removing the camera from around his neck.

You immediately shook your head no “Absolutely not.”

“Why?” He asked softly, reaching for your camera. Reluctantly, you allowed him to remove that as well. “There’s no one around.”

You looked around. While that was not entirely true (there were still a few people milling around here and there), you thought back to how packed it had been earlier that day. Now, it felt like you and Calum were the only two people on the beach.

He placed both your cameras down on a nearby bench, then reached out for your hand. “Come on, dance with me. Just until the end of the song.”

You had never been able to say no to him; this time was no different. You sighed and wound your arms around his neck, his arms coming to rest on your waist. How did you always end up in these positions, you wondered, his face close enough to yours that you could kiss?

You looked away from him, laying your head against his chest, swaying gently in time with him and the music.

Softly, he said, “Today’s been nice.”

You nodded against his chest. “Good pictures, good food, and good company. We should do it again sometime.”

You didn’t expect him to ask eagerly, “Next weekend?”

You tried to control your heart; it was so filled with hope - it wanted all this to mean something. Calum had been so sweet on you all day, and now he wanted to do it again the following weekend. You hoped something would happen between you soon, that a dynamic in your relationship would change or that he would give you a hint as to where all this was going. You weren’t sure how long you could stay in emotional limbo with him like this. On the other hand, you knew that you’d wait on a guy like Calum.

“Yeah, of course,” you accepted. Then, testing the waters, you added, “It’s a date.”

Nothing in the motion of his body - the way he swayed with you and softly rubbed circles on your back - suggested he was surprised by you calling it a date. You couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Softly, Calum sang along with the busker, “I, I, I know you gotta leave, leave, leave take down some summertime.”

This would have been a great picture - both of you just swaying silhouettes against the setting of the sun.

(photos taken: 859)

You were back where they started, but this time the parking lot was empty save your cars and a few others scattered here and there. You couldn’t believe the day had come to an end so quickly. After dancing to the busker, you had taken a few more photos of the smattering of people on the beach silhouetted by the light of the setting sun. You had also crashed a few bonfires. It was unfair how pretty Calum looked in their light. Eventually though, it started to get late, and you both had editing to do for other classes.

“Think we got a thousand photos?” Calum asked when you reached your car.

Already in the process of removing your camera and placing it back into its carrying case, you stopped to check.

“1,025,” you beamed.

“Then I must be over too,” he amended, not even checking his camera.

When you let out a big yawn, he asked, “Tired? Are you drive all the way home?”

You nodded, “I’ll just get some coffee on the way there.”

“‘Kay,” he said, pulling you in for a slight hug. “Be safe.” He pressed a kiss softly to the top of your hair. “Text me when you get home.”

He released you but did not step away. There you were again close enough to kiss for the fourth time that day. Your eyes flicked down to his lips, knowing you were being obvious, but unable to stop yourself. You considered just going for it, making the first move. Four times in one day couldn’t be a coincidence, he had to want it too. As you were getting on your tiptoes, he stopped you with a hand on your chin, tipping your head down, and placing a small chaste kiss on your forehead. “See you later, love.”

You sighed in disappointment as soon as he was far enough away.

(photos taken: 1,011)

When you were sure all your camera equipment was securely in your trunk, you closed it and made your way to the car door.

Before you could open it, you heard Calum calling your name. When you turned around, he was right there. His hands gripped your chin as he brought your lips up to meet his. You had to take a moment to overcome your surprise before your eyelids were fluttering closed and you were sighing into the kiss.

“I can’t believe I was about to leave without kissing you,” he breathed out, lips barely parted from yours. “The plan was to do that much earlier if you couldn’t tell.”

You smiled. “Oh?” and giggled. The kiss had left you giddy. “This was all a part of some master plan?”

“Yeah,” he said, leaning down to place another two quick pecks on your lips. “Part one actually.”

“What else are you gonna do?”

“Gonna kiss you more,” he punctuated his point with kisses on both cheeks. “Gonna take you that date next weekend.” One more kiss to the tip of your nose. “Gonna make you my girlfriend.”

Finally, as his lips met yours once more, you couldn’t help thinking that his plan didn’t sound half bad.

end notes: come tell me what you thought of this fic especially if you find any mistakes also, send some love to jasmine. Love you all 💖

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