When we got to school the next day I said goodbye to Kendall and walked to my first hour class. As I was walking down the crowded hallway I heard someone behind me yell, "Hey! New girl!" I turned around flushing red to see Calum rushing toward me. I turned around to keep walking, ignoring him, but he grabbed for my wrist as I stopped to turn back toward him again and he fell into my knocking me down with the impact. I glared up at him as he said, "sorry new girl". I started getting all my stuff together off the floor and said, " my name's Marlee, not new girl". I cringed at the attitude in my voice, but didn't apologize. "I'm sorry" he said bending down to help me, "really". I stood up and starting walking towards my class but Calum followed me. "I just wanted to say I made a really bad first impression yesterday and I just wanted to say that I'm really not that bad" he said looking down at his feet. I looked at him for a second and nodded my head at him while walking into my class. When I walked in I caught Luke's eye and walked to my seat next to him. Once I sat down Luke turned toward me and said " Look, I think you're a really nice person so I'm telling you now, stay away from Calum Hood, he'll just hurt you. And I'm saying this as a friend, okay?" I narrowed my eyes, because I trusted Luke, I really did, but Calum didn't seem like he'd hurt me, even if he and Luke did hate each other. "And you think this why?" I asked. "He used to be my best friend".
"Excuse me?" I stuttered and Luke chuckles slightly at my stammered reply. "Sorry, that just really surprised me" I said feeling my cheeks flush bright red. He smiled and shrugged, "what happened?" I asked just as the bell rang and class began. After class Luke walked with me most of the way to my class and told me the story of the falling outing or his and Calum's friendship. Once I was in my next class I walked to my spot looking at where Calum would be sitting soon, thinking about how he left Luke to become "cool". Calum walked in and smiled at me as he sat in his spot. I started to nervously tap my fingers on my desk, glancing at him every five seconds hoping he wouldn't notice. After about five minutes of this Calum reached over and to stop them from tapping. Butterflies formed in my stomach and heat rose to my face as my heart beat skipped. He raised an eyebrow at me and mouthed "you okay?" So the teacher wouldn't notice us. I nodded trying not to think about the story Luke told or pay attention to his warm hands in my ice cold ones. He smiled at me and dropped my hands, then class continued as normal. Finally, the bell rang and I rushed out before Calum could catch up to me. I was finally starting to calm down from the hand holding incident when something, or should I say someone, ran into me and knocked me to the floor. It was only my second day of school here and I just fell flat on my face in front of everyone. The girl who ran into me looked down at me and said " could you please not be in my way next time?" I was staring at my feet and cheeks stung and I knew tears were about to fall. "Hey, leave her alone" I looked up to Calum hovering over me, "you okay?" He asked for the second time that day before pulling me up to my feet. The rude girl huffed and walked away, clearly annoyed to see him helping me. "You really need to stop falling on these floors, I don't know the last time they were cleaned" he joked, trying to cheer me up. Before I could stop myself or think better of it I embraced him and felt a single tear roll down my cheek. Suddenly his arms were wrapped around my waist pulling my closer to him. I breathed out a shaky "thank you" trying to hide my embarrassment at the situation. "No problem, Marlee" he whispered into my ear. I hope he couldn't feel my starting to smile into his chest.