c a l u m:

Gwen stood there stunned as fück and I couldn't help but to chuckle. She obviously wasn't expecting to see me sitting here, especially the way I reacted a while ago. But here I was, lounging on a comfortable rolling chair listening to music while Gwen just stared at me with eyes wide open.

"So are you gonna show me around or what?" I spoke. Gwen didn't vocally respond and instead just took the seat across from me.

"I need you to sign these papers," Gwen informed, pushing a blue folder across the table to me.

I opened up the folder and looked at the stack of documentation that required my signature. I grabbed a pen from the glass mug that sat at the center of the table and started to sign my name across the bottom line on each page.

"Aren't you even going to read those before signing?" Gwen asked me.

I looked up at her with a smirk, "why? I'm not signing away my life, or agreeing to butt sex with a homeless man am I?"

Gwen cringed, dropping her head into the palm of her hand, clearly disapproving of my fuckery. I guessed she didn't feel like joking around. Once all papers were signed, I stuck it back into the folder and pushed it back to the baby dumpling.

"What's next?" I asked.

"You're going to need a shirt," she told me, pushing the chair back and standing up.

"What's wrong with the one I'm wearing?" I questioned.

"As a volunteer, you need to wear an official shirt. Otherwise no one would ever know you belong here," she explained, rounding the desk to the shelves behind me. She tugged on a black box and pulled off its lid. "Size medium?"

"Because I don't look like some Bible-thumping virgin I can't be taken seriously in this fine establishment?" I taunted, turning the chair to face Gwen. "And yes, size medium."

She snapped her head and furrowed her eyebrows, "that's not what I said."

"That's what you insinuated," I accused.

"No I didn't. You're putting words into my mouth!" Gwen defended, throwing her hands to her hips. Even angry and frustrated, her soft-spoken voice still sounded dainty. She turned her head away from me and rummaged through the box on the shelf.

"Tattoos and piercings aren't any different than the lace bows you wear in your hair. Or how one day you wear flat shoes and the next there's a pair of tattered Converse on your feet. It's a form of expression," I denoted confidently. I sat in silence waiting for a reply or even a sassy comment. She was ignoring me and I could sense the frustration radiating off of her skin.

With my ass still planted in the chair, I used my feet to maneuver myself and the rolling office throne closer to Gwen. She was so short, and despite the fact that I was sitting down, I still met her eye to eye. I grabbed ahold of her waist, an action she didn't expect because she jumped at my sudden touch. I pulled her in closer, examining her face and the way she was reacting to me. Her light skin flushed with pink hues, her deep brown eyes slowly dilated, and I swear I could hear her heartbeat fluttering at a rapid pace as I kept my hands on her waist.

"Cal-Calum w-w-what are you d-doing?" she sputtered, and I smiled at her nervousness as she gulped.

"You're kinda cute when you blush," I disclosed.

I wasn't lying; I didn't say that just to kiss ass. Gwen was the epitome of an obedient and well-behaved girl. Her clean-cut, polished look in addition to her makeup, or lack thereof, was a turn-on, especially because her minimalist lifestyle stood out in a crowd to me. Despite her prudish ways, and the overtly annoying principles she chose to live by, Gwen was in no doubt an attractive girl.

Gwen stepped away from me, shoving my hands out of her bubble. She took a moment to regain her senses and I sat there just watching her flustered self. She grabbed one of the shirts that was hanging off of the black box and threw it onto my lap.

"Here's a size medium," she told me, her eyes looking in my direction but never at me. "Change into that. The bathroom is down the hall, on the right side."

Gwen rounded the table, taking a seat across from me. She grabbed the blue folder and began to look at each document inside. I stood up from my own chair, facing my body towards her. I grasped onto my shirt's hemline and pulled it above my torso and over my head.

"Oh my gosh, what are you doing?" Gwen's stunned face said it all-- she obviously had never seen a half-naked man in her life. I laughed at her as she covered her eyes with her hands. "I said there was a bathroom down the hallway!"

"Have you never seen a shirtless guy before?" I chuckled, flinging my school shirt to the side.

"Yes!" she snapped, her eyes still covered tightly by her hands. "I've been to the beach before."

"Then what's the difference between now and at a beach?" I pointed out, smirking at Gwen's innocence.

"A big difference," Gwen began, her voice raising in decibels but still dainty as ever, "at a beach, it's normal for guys to be shirtless. This is a workplace. It's not appropriate."

I let out another chuckle, shaking my head at her logic. Personally, I saw no difference, but to each his own. I put on the collared shirt that Gwen had given me, realizing that she and I were wearing identical outreach shirts.

"You can uncover your eyes now Gwen. I'm all covered up," I said, a sing-song essence to my tone. I was teasing.

Gwen peeked an eye through the gap of her fingers and sighed in relief upon seeing myself completely dressed. She dropped her hands from her face as I stood smirking at her.

"I'm sorry, my elbows aren't covered. Is that okay baby dumpling?" I joked. Gwen shot me a haphazard expression, unamused with my attempt to make her laugh.

"Come on Gwen, take a joke. Laugh with me," I pleaded, "loosen up a little."

"Let's go down to the music room," she sighed, ignoring my statement. She grasped the door handle and swung it open, filtering out into the hall and I followed suit.

"Princess, I'm sorry," I apologized, from behind her. She was a few steps ahead of me. "Are you going to forgive me? I promise I won't take my shirt off in front of you anymore... Gwen, come on!"

I sped up my pace, catching up to her. I held onto her shoulder and promptly she turned around to face me with an agitated look.

"Calum, please work with me. You're in my turf now and this place means more to me than you will ever understand. I'm a goody-good, I get it, okay? But can you please stop making me feel horrible every time you decide to mock me?" her words struck me, and I could see the hurt in her eyes as she spoke. I thought it was all fun and games, I never meant to really hurt her feelings.

"And I'm a dick, I get it," I started, mimiking the words that came out of her mouth, "I'll try harder to be less dick-ish. I promise."

"That's all I ask Calum," Gwen smiled softly.

"At least I'm getting better with the whole cursing thing," I mentioned, "I haven't said fuck in a while!"

Gwen rolled her eyes and face palmed herself. She let out a giggle as she dragged her hand down her face.

"What am I gonna do with you baby dingo?" Gwen uttered, finally meeting me half-way and joining in on our inside joke.

I honestly felt much better seeing her scowl disappear and it turning into a smile. I don't know what it is, but an angry Gwen is a little scary. You don't fücking expect it coming from a girl like her who's always happy. The second she's upset or angry, you know you've screwed up. It's like a clusterfuck the way she looks up at me with her brown eyes when she's upset with me-- it latches onto my brain and keeps eating it until I do something to make her smile.

I followed Gwen out of the office area of the outreach center and down another set of stairs that led to more rooms. In the distance I could hear squeaking shoes and what sounded like bouncing balls. The sound grew louder and louder until we passed by an open, indoor basketball court where several kids played the game. We continued pass the basketball court to a closed door at the very end. The walls were decorated with several hand painted drawings.

Gwen caught me looking at the artwork and stopped walking. With a smile she told me, "we have a lot of artistic kids here. We noticed that kids are more likely to draw out their issues and feelings than verbally talk about it."

"And a picture is worth a thousand words," I finished. Impressed, Gwen looked up at me with a grin.

"Exactly," she agreed, "come on, you're about to meet some artsy kids."

Gwen pushed open a set of double doors and the moment her foot stepped inside, loud cheering erupted. It was like a crescendo from silence, to ultimate raging happiness.

"Miss Gwen! I missed you!"

"You look pretty Miss Gwen!"

"My mommy made you cookies Miss Gwen!"

A shitload of kids about 8 or 9 crowded around Gwen, each giving her hugs. They wrapped their tiny arms around her waist and every single hug was met with an event tighter one from Gwen.

"Who's this mister?" a little girl in pigtails was tugging at the hemline of my shirt when every eye in the room looked at my direction.

"Kids, this is Calum," Gwen announced, her voice becoming very high-pitched and excited, "he's a new here and I want you all to give him a very warm welcome okay?"

"Isn't he a little too old to be in this class?" a little boy asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

Gwen chuckled, dropping down to her knees to meet the boy eye to eye, "no Camden, he's not in the class. He's a worker here too. Like me."

Can't believe this little fücker thought I was a student here. I'm wearing this stupid shirt aren't I?

"Miss Gwen is he your boyfriend?" the boy, apparently named Camden, questioned. Ah, I see, he has a crush on my baby dumpling. Wait-- my?

"No, he's not my boyfriend. We're classmates," Gwen explained, looking at me with a smile.

Not even friends? Ouch, Gwen Guzman.

Gwen stood up, clasping her hands together, "okay kids! Everyone please take a seat! I have exciting news"

The entire class immediately sat down on small plastic chairs, as Gwen and I stood at the front of the room. We stood on an elevated portion of the room that acted like a small stage.

"I'm sure you've noticed all the new guitars in the corner," Gwen continued, and that's when I noticed several shiny acoustic guitars sitting nicely at the corner of the room. "A wonderful company likes what we're doing here in the center and decided to donate ten new guitars for you guys to use. Who here likes music?"

Every single hand flew up in the air, waving frantically.

"My daddy likes to sing Journey songs in the shower," the little girl with the pigtails said. "I like Journey too."

Good taste in music, kid.

"Me too," Gwen smiled, "so since our normal guitar instructor isn't here, today we'll just all get a feel for the guitars. Play around with them and next week when the teacher comes in, you all can--"

"Um Gwen?" I interrupted.

She turned to me, "yes Calum?"

"I know how to play the guitar," I informed. She looked at me with her lips slightly parted, surprised by my fun fact of the day.

"You do?" she asked and I nodded.

"I can teach the kids a very easy song. Only three chords," I offered. Gwen's face lit up again-- the same kind when those kids hugged her.

"That's okay with you?" Gwen questioned, caution to her tone. I could tell that she didn't want to be let down-- well, she didn't want to let down these kids. It was adorable how attached she was to them. They weren't even hers.

"Yea, it's cool with me," I promised.

Gwen turned to the kids with a smile, "it looks like Calum is going to teach you all a song! Carefully grab a guitar and take a seat!"

Every kid shouted happily-- they were all jubilant as fück and I had to cover my ears to keep from going deaf. Gwen noticed and she laughed at my expense.

"I don't know how you deal with this," I scoffed, "this is horrible."

"Would you rather have them cry?" Gwen raised a brow with a quizzical smile.

"Touche baby girl," I quipped, shrugging in defeat.

I walked passed Gwen to a lone guitar that sat on the other end of the carpeted stage. I grabbed it and slung the strap around my body before I took a seat on the chair. Every kid sat with smaller versions of the guitar I held, and with excited smiles they looked up at me, patiently waiting for me to start.

"Okay little fückers--"

"OOO! He said a bad word!" the kids all pointed their tiny fingers in my direction, their jaws dropped. I looked over to Gwen who was sitting in the chair next to me. She had her hand rested on her forehead, her eyes closed, as she shook her head in displeasure.

"Caaalum," she carped, opening her eyes.

"Sorry," I shrugged and smiled, hoping she'd forget my little flub.

"Just teach them the song. And no more cursing!" Gwen sternly said, her eyebrows furrowed.

With one hand still on the neck of the guitar, I reached my other hand to cup the side of Gwen's face, "I got you princess."

Once again, Gwen blushed at my words and my touch. She turned her face away, forcing my hand to drop. I turned back to the kids, who had mischievous smiles on their faces-- a few girls in the corner giggling. Camden however, scowled at me, sending me the scariest glare a little boy could muster.

Oops.

"Alright kiddos," I started, looking over to Gwen. She nodded in approval before I continued, "this first chord I'm going to teach you is a C-chord..."

//

Calum and kids. Could that be anymore adorable? And he knows how to play with Gwen's emotions a little. But inadvertently, she knows how to play with her. He's scared of making her upset which is so cute, but he's doing a horrible job though haha.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Please VOTE, COMMENT, and SHARE with all your friends if ya do!! Also, I started two new stories called MICHAEL'S MELODY & SLAPSHOT. Only the synopsis are up, but please check it out if you have the chance and let me know what you think about the idea! :)

THANKS! <33