I've Got This Friend ( c.h )

Chapter 25

(Calum's P.O.V)

"Why shouldn't I avoid you?" I was furious at her. Who did she think she was? She can't just come in here at 3 in the morning and demand that we talk. Maybe she should've talked to me weeks ago when I asked her if she liked me or not. Instead, she just left me clueless and an emotional wreck. Then again, I guess Peyton was probably good at that.

I mean, I knew I wasn't the first guy to show an interest in Peyton. There had been plenty of guys who had liked Peyton at school back home in Australia. Despite the fact that Ashton was a well known senior who protected Pey, a lot of guys had asked her out and she had always politely declined their advances. I guess it was different with me being her best guy friend. Probably best friend in general.

"Because we are supposed to be best friends." She whimpered, even though I could tell that she meant for it to come out more confidently.

"Supposed to be." I emphasized just loud enough for her to hear me, but soft enough for it to not come across insanely rude.

"Cal." Damn I hated the way that my name rolled off her lips, reminding me about how much I hated that I loved her. It was sweet and smooth, but it also had a little burn to it because I knew she wasn't mine; it was almost like a strong liquor.

"Pey." I cut her off before she could say anything else, but Peyton wasn't going to have it because she started to talk again.

"You can't keep avoiding things for the rest of your life." She yawned, rubbing her eyes like a little puppy dog.

Fuck you for being so cute Peyton.

Fuck this.

"Why can't I? You do." I snapped back.

"What does that mean?" Her eyes widened as if she didn't know what I was talking about.

You know what, it's 3am and I'm tired of this shit. If there was any time to let emotions out, I guess now would be the time. Everyone else was asleep and couldn't interrupt that us and Peyton wasn't going to hold back. Worse comes to worse, she'll just run away, like always.

"You still haven't told me if you loved me. I bet you haven't even thought about it and you probably still don't know, which doesn't even make sense."

"It makes sense if you're me."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, I'm not you so it doesn't make sense."

"You want an answer?" She was getting angrier. I could tell by the way her face scrunched up and she balled her hands up at her sides. It was actually cute because a mad Peyton was like a mad puppy: you know it's mad, but you can't take it seriously. If I wasn't in the midst of a heated argument with her, I guarantee you that I would be laughing.

I stared her directly in the eyes and made sure that my voice had a bit of sarcasm in it as I cleared my throat, "an answer from you is almost impossible, but if you can get to a decision in a matter of a few hours, I'd love a decision from you."

"I can make a decision in a few seconds." I was shocked. This was new to me and I made sure that Peyton knew that I was shocked towards her statement.

"I'm waiting." I crossed my arms and tapped my foot impatiently.

"I don't love you. You've been an asshole about the whole situation and why would I want to love an asshole who treats me like shit when he doesn't get what he wants?" I had never seen Peyton have so much confidence when saying something that wasn't, well, the nicest thing to say to someone.

"Oh." I blinked a few times, trying to gather the thoughts that were running around in my head. .

"Fuck this. You can clean this up. I'm tired. I'm going back to bed." Peyton stormed off to her bedroom without even looking back at me. No surprise really.

"Oh." I muttered, going back to cleaning up the mess I had made and just thinking.

All I said back to that was "oh." There were so many better things that I could've said back to her about how she had done the same exact thing to me only a month or so ago. Plus, she's been avoiding me just as much as I've been avoiding her so I don't think it was exactly her place to talk.

It killed me to know that she was right though. She had just wanted to help me and talk to me and I had to be a rude little shit about the whole thing. I know I wanted an answer, but I didn't want an answer like that. I didn't want her screaming at me at 3am and then storming off to her room without another word.

After I cleaned up the mess that I had made in the kitchen, I couldn't fall back asleep. All I could think about was the fact that she said that she didn't love me and if she actually meant it. She was mad and people always say the wrong things or things they don't mean when they're mad. I've been a victim of it. Never to that extreme extent nor to Peyton, but still, I knew exactly where she was coming from.

I walked out of my bedroom and slumped down on the couch, turning on the television and watching a repeat of a soccer game that had been on earlier, which sucks because I already knew what happened which meant it wasn't holding my attention.

Due to the fact that it was almost 4am, nothing was on television except the home shopping channel and I wasn't trying to buy every other commercialized product that probably doesn't work and couldn't work to save its life.

It's ok. I'm glad I was watching something irrelevant because that gave me more time to think about what Peyton has said and what she had meant when she said it.

She couldn't mean it.

She wouldn't mean it.

I couldn't let her mean it, I told myself as my eyelids shut and I drifted off to sleep.

"Calum?" I felt hands on my shoulders shaking me awake slowly.

The sunlight shined through the house because most of the area that I was win was windowed. Yes, windowed meaning that most of it was windows.

I rubbed the back of my hand over my eyes slowly, starting to wake up so that I could completely open my eyes and see Ashton towering above me. I tried to close my eyes again, but the light wasn't going to let that happen so I just sat up and held my head in my hands, resting my elbows on my knees.

"Why are you on the couch? I thought you went to bed last night."

"I did. I just-" I yawned, remembering last night clearly and vividly. "I got hungry and came to make a snack but then I got lazy and I ended up trying to watch TV to distract myself from everything and I guess I fell asleep." I shrugged.

"Oh."

"Is Peyton awake?"

"Wait, what?" Ashton squinted his eyes a bit.

"Is Pey up? You know. You're kinda sister and my almost kinda but not really best friend."

"You guys really need to stop with that whole thing."

I was tired of Ashton's constant lectures about the situation. He had no idea what we were going through and he shouldn't tell us what to do about the whole thing. Yes, I understand he is her "older brother", but it still doesn't give him the right. "Is she up?"

"I don't know."

"Ugh." I moaned, standing up slowly.

"Where are you going?"

"To see if Peyton's awake..."

"Why?" He's so fucking nosey.

"I need to talk to her."

"Since when?"

I don't know whether it was the fact I was exhausted, the number of questions that Ashton has asked me, or the fact that I just told him I was going to talk to Pey and I didn't know what I was going to even say to her, but I lost it. "Holy shit Ash, just leave me alone."

"Sorry." He apologized, knowing that I really didn't mean it.

"Whatever." I told him, signaling that it was alright.

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what do u guys think??