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"So, we're running a contest where four lucky winners will be treated like the girlfriend of one of the guys for a day!" Ryan announced.
Michael, Ashton, Luke, and Calum all clapped.
"Let's take some calls, yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"I'm ready," Michael said, hunkering down over his microphone.
"Alright," Ryan pressed a button. "Hello! You're on with 5 seconds of summer!"
"Hello!"
"Hi!" Calum and Michael exclaim.
"How are you?” Luke asks.
"I’m good," she responds lightly.
"So, you’ve won a day with one of us. Who are you going to choose?" Ashton spoke up, pushing his glasses back up on his nose.
"Oh gosh. I feel kind of bad choosing."
"It's cool. There's not going to be any hard feelings," Luke reassured.
"Okay... Well, I'd like to have a day with Calum."
"Me?!" Calum pointed at himself, smile wide.
"Yes," the girl's laughter sounded in their headphones.
Calum meets her at the cafe on Main Street a week later. She stands from the table when she sees him. Her auburn hair is long and elegantly draped over her shoulder. Her small frame is covered by a black Nirvana shirt and jean shorts.
"It's so nice to finally meet you," she holds out her hand. Her smile is wide and inviting as her caramel eyes meet his.
"Formalities aren't necessary. According to the contest you're my girlfriend for the day so…" he pulls her in for a hug. She smells lightly of flowers and something that reminds him of home.
They pull away, a light giggle escapes the girl’s lips, and they place their orders. Coffee and bagels are placed on the table in front of them. They look at each other, both cracking a small smile at their inability to start a conversation.
“What would you like to do today?” Calum decides to ask. “It is your day, after all.”
She finishes a bite of her bagel and sets it down. She delicately wipes the tips of her fingers on her shorts. “I think it should be our day. I know I won the contest and I’m incredibly grateful to spend time with you, but I want you to enjoy yourself too.”
Calum smiles at this. He’s pleased that she didn’t just want to drag him around all day doing materialistic tasks. “Alright, then we’ll decide together.”
“I will say that I’m always up for just being lazy and watching movies with tons of snacks all day. But I’m up for an adventure too.”
Calum prefers adventures, but he’s always willing to participate in a relaxing day. So, they decide to stay out for a bit before returning to Calum’s hotel for a movie and snacks.
Casual conversation takes place over their breakfast. Calum learns that she lives on her own just a few blocks away in a small neighborhood. She’s in her first year of college and is considering being an English major. He finds her accomplished, even if she’s just starting out. She speaks with eloquence and it catches him off guard. He feels as though he needs to be speaking as gracefully as her.
They make their way to a little park down the street. There’s a big slide, monkey bars and swings.
“I love the park,” she exclaims and runs to the swings. Calum sits in the seat next to her and they start pumping their legs to gain height.
They’re silent as they enjoy the breeze and view—until Calum decides to be daring and turns his swing mid pump. He almost runs into her and her head falls back as she laughs. It's a beautiful sound. Each time he comes close to her, she laughs harder and his smile gets larger. In the small moments of proximity he can see the dozens of freckles scattered over her cheeks.
Their swings slow and Calum grabs her hand and drags her to the slide.
"Let's go down together," he says. She slips into the tube, gripping the outside as he places his legs on either side of hers.
"Ready?" He whispers in her ear.
She nods and they both let go. His arms wrap around her torso. She screams as they swirl down and when they make it to the bottom, she's laughing again. Bent over with her hair in her face.
She stands up straight after a moment and looks at him with daring eyes. "Let's go again."
They stay at the park for a while longer. Calum helps her do the monkey bars by holding her up at the waist. Then he shows off his strength by doing them himself, biceps rippling and tattoos prominent.
She watches him, her heart thumping a little harder in her chest.
"W-would you like to head back now?" She asks as he gets down.
"Sure." Her stuttering shocks him, but he's oblivious as to the cause of it and ignores it for that reason.
She's quiet for most of the walk back to his hotel. He pulls open the door and allows her to walk in. The ceilings are tall with intricate columns holding them up. To the right is the front desk crafted from cherry wood, and to the left is an expansive lobby filled with red velvet chairs and couches, a fireplace at the very end. The columns continue down a large hallway in front of them. They reach two rounded entryways on opposite sides of each other. The left one contains a set of marble stairs leading up to a ballroom and the diner. The right also contains a set of marble stairs, but these lead to the hotel rooms.
A sign pointing to the ballroom advertises an art gallery and she asks if they can go look. Over half of the pieces are of surrealism, the others a combination of landscapes, and various oil paint and watercolor pieces. She goes from surrealist painting to surrealist painting, studying them for minutes at a time. She tells him about some of the artists. Salvador Dali is her favorite although only one of his paintings is here. He watches her as she glows with admiration for the art.
She tells him of how she used to paint in high school, but her mom would never hear of her being an artist. Somehow she managed to talk her into the English major claiming it could be used for a multitude of career paths.
When they finish circling the room, they head back to the opposite entryway.
At the top of the stairs, an elevator stands before them. Rooms continue down a much smaller hallway on their right but his hotel room is on the fifth floor.
"This place is so beautiful," she says in the elevator.
He nods. "We were told it's from the early 1920’s, but they've remodeled it recently."
"I wish I could live here. It's absolutely magical." She runs a finger over the old fashioned elevator keys.
All he can do is smile at her breathtaking wonder.
In his room there are two beds and a small living room with a couch and TV.
"Michael's rooming with me, but he said he'd hang out with the guys all day so we wouldn't be disturbed."
"Oh. That wouldn't have been a problem at all, but that's very kind of him." She's composed herself from earlier, her stuttering gone.
"Do you think we could just talk first?" Calum asks, tossing off his shoes and sitting on the couch.
"Of course. If that's what you would like to do." She follows his lead and takes off her shoes, neatly placing them next to the couch before sitting down. She faces him, crossing her legs on the cool leather.
"Why did you choose me?" His chocolate eyes meet hers. He feels safe. It's strange to him. Of course he's felt safe before-- with his family, with the band-- but he's only just met this girl. He doesn’t feel shy or afraid to be himself.
"From the moment I heard you four, something welled in my heart. Something unexplainable. You all have done incredible things for me that I can't even begin to return. But something special would click when it came to you. I won't get into it. But that's why. I wanted to get to know you a bit better today as a person. Not from behind the lens of a camera or from hundreds of feet away at a concert."
She doesn’t tell him that she thinks she could love him. Or that she only wishes he could feel the same even though she knows that's asking too much. That's a ridiculous thing to think and wish and she knows it. He’s done so much for her, she shouldn’t be asking for more.
He grabs her hand and runs his thumb over it. Her eyes are trained on the tattoo of his mom's initials. "How come I didn't meet you sooner?" He's perplexed at how wonderful she is. How much she cares.
And his words should come as a compliment but she shrugs them off. "I'm sure there are many more fans like me. Someone else could have won this day with you and said something similar. It's no big deal."
She can't get her hopes up. She can't let herself feel like she did at the park. She can’t let her heart take over.
He scoots a little closer. Until a second form of skin to skin contact takes places between her left knee and the exposed right knee of his skinny jeans.
"D-don't you want to watch a movie?" She stares at the black TV, the back of the couch, the coffee table in the middle of the floor.
"I'm really enjoying spending this day with you."
She looks at him then. His highlighted hair messy across his forehead, the two prominent freckles on his right cheek, his heartwarming deep brown eyes. "Well, I-I'm glad."
"You did that earlier," he says.
"Did what?"
"The stuttering. Why is that?"
She shakes her head and pulls away from him, placing her feet in front of her. She cannot confess how she truly feels. She cannot let herself be heartbroken by this amazing boy.
"I'm sorry I pushed. You don't have to tell me," he gazes at her, worry on his face.
He wants her to laugh again and watch her face light up. So, he decides to try something and grabs at her side, using his long fingers to tickle her. And it works. She forgets her worries for a moment as she focuses on getting out of Calum's grip. There's twisting and turning and she winds up curled into a ball on her back with Calum hovering over her, doing his best to reach around her legs and find ticklish points.
"Stop! Stop!" She yells, laughing.
He stops, but he doesn't move. "Couples really do this, you know."
"I'm sure you've done this with your band mates before," she plays it off with a joke, ignoring what he's implying.
"I like it when you laugh," he states. And her knees relax, slipping underneath him. "I want to know so much more about you."
"Like what?" She's breathless, and she needs to move, but she can't.
"Like what we helped you through. And your favorite things."
"Calum," she starts. "I don't know if I'm ever even going to see you again after today. Up close like this, at least."
He realizes then how she's an open book in the most mysterious of ways. She'll go on about art and college, but more intrusive questions of her past clam her up. And he only wants to know why. Only wants to help. He lowers himself onto his elbows, getting closer. "I want to see you again."
"But this is just for a day."
"It doesn't have to be."
She's silent and he thinks this could be an improvement, because she's not fighting him.
"Didn’t you say you wanted to get to know me? Well, I'll tell you about me. And you can tell me about you."
She's thought about it before; that if she were to open up to anyone in the world, it would be Calum. But she doesn't want to seem weak.
"You don't have to hide from me," he says.
And her wall falls, just like that. She wraps her arms around his waist and holds him tight. He shifts a tad, so they're laying side by side and returns her embrace.
"You have no idea how much this means to me. How much you mean to me." Her whispers are thick with emotion. And he realizes how important this is for her.
They stay like that for the next couple of hours, talking intently about their childhoods. It's a start. It hurts him to hear of her alcoholic father and unsupportive mother. And even more so of her brother that was heavily abused by her dad. But as much as it pains him, he's grateful that she was exempt from that kind of treatment. She mentions he's been in jail for the past couple years.
She became stuck; always trying to do what she had to do so she wouldn't get in trouble with her mom or her dad.
College was her only way out. She manages to afford it by working heavily as a waitress at a diner and utilizing the money she saved when she worked back home.
When she’s done all he can manage is: "Thank you for telling me."
Eventually, they both grow quiet. It's a comforting silence and neither realizes the darkening of the room as the sun sets. He plays with her hair and she draws circles over his protruding collarbones.
He can't believe how far she's come. Can’t imagine how hard it must be for her to be living on her own at such a young age and then trying to focus on college and work at the same time, consistently wondering if the bills will be paid. And yet she seems so happy despite everything that's happened. He feels something special in his heart. He wants to protect. Wants to make her life better even more so than she claims he has.
Her eyes close and she feels the heat of his body pressed firmly against her. Her face nestled in his neck and their legs intertwined. That feeling she always got when she watched him preform or talk in an interview welling up as she feels comforted for one of the first times in her life. She let her guard drop and he didn’t judge her. And just as she starts to doze, his hand moves to her cheek and her eyes re-open.
"Can I kiss you?" He asks.
"Yes."
Their lips meet and it's a wonderful feeling. Her heart swells and she lets herself love. She lets the poised individual her mom strived for her to be fall. She stops thinking and does what she feels. Her hands tangle in his hair. Her teeth pull at his bottom lip and he groans. She needs him. She's needed him for quite a while.
They fight to get as close as they can to one another, gripping at clothes and searching for skin. But he stops her when her delicate fingers reach his belt. She means something to him and he wants to take things slow.
"Maybe we can watch that movie now." He says. They'd had yet to do anything she requested.
"Well, the days not over and I'm still your girlfriend, right?"
"I hope you'll be my girlfriend tomorrow too," he confesses.
"And the day after that?" She questions.
"And even the day after that," he says and kisses her again.
Eventually, he'll learn all of her secrets, her misguided ghosts, and he'll heal them. One by one by her side rather than through a recorded laugh in a keek or an 'I love you' meant for all the adoring fans. He'll hold her close when she's happy and even closer when she's falling apart. He’ll teach her to follow her dreams and support her in all of them. And he'll finally be there, in the way she's always needed somebody to be but always felt she wasn't good enough for.
He will love her for everything she is. Just the way she loves him.