"What are you doing here Poppy?" I asked confused once the door was open and she was standing right in front of it.
"You know I'm seeing Jack so don't act surprised that I'm in the house." She replied, she looked ten times more awake than I was but it had been a shitty night.
"No what are you doing here? In front of my door?" I asked again and she let out a sigh.
"I wanted to say something."
"Couldn't you have done that at any other time? It's 7am and I'd like to still be asleep right now." I told her but she just shook her head.
"I know, Jack warned me about that but I have to be on campus in 30 minutes." She explained and I looked at her, waiting for her to come to the point. "She's a wildflower Calum."
"What are you talking about now?" I asked her, tilting my head slightly.
"Lia. She's a wildflower, she came from nothing and became someone with an independent mind and a wild heart." She said, but honestly it still sounded like a bunch of words that didn't make sense together, and that's not because I just woke up. "When she joined our sorority, it was a pure act of rebellion against her parents. She was homeschooled, always lived by the rules of her parents even though they weren't there and she had no life to be honest. She had some friends but they were the rich kids that lived nextdoor. But she joined us and she became someone, her own person. She's independent and wild and I don't even know where I'm going with this." She explained with a soft chuckle, "All I was trying to say was, she's someone now Calum. Don't try to change her and don't hurt her. If she says she doesn't do relationships, don't force her into one. You knew that from the start. She hasn't slept with anyone else if that's any comfort. Just don't force her into something she doesn't want or try to guilt talk her by throwing her out at 11pm because we are the ones that have to pick up the pieces if you end up breaking her."
"I'm not trying to force her into one, all I was trying was to have a decent conversation about it. We tried that last night and she told me she didn't feel the same by leaving."
"By saying you're falling for her, you're giving her two choices. Never see you again or force herself to fall too, you made her choose and you never even let her talk last night, she told me what happened. You knew she didn't want a relationship the first time you hooked up. How did you react when a girl you were hooking up with asked for more?"
"That's different." I immediately replied but she just laughed in my face.
"It's not Calum. It's exactly the same except you are the girl this time, you're the one asking for more and Lia is trying to say no." She said and I let out a sigh, I knew she was right, I knew every word she said was the truth. "Lia is a wildflower Calum, so let her be herself."
"It's over anyway, why are you still here? I let her be herself and run away from this, so why are you here?" I asked while I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
"Because I wish I could have given you this talk after the first time, and I've been you on many occasions, you'll end up trying to get back with her just to have her close again. You will try to force her into one again and talk with her because you like her a lot more than you want to admit. If you didn't, you would have slammed the door in my face the second you saw it was me. But instead there was a spark of hope in your eyes because I'm one of her friends." She said and I looked down at my feet, unable to deny what she just said. "So let her be herself Calum, let her be her amazing wildflower self today, tomorrow and every day. Get her out of your mind or be fine with it never becoming a relationship." She said before turning around and starting to walk away.
"Wait Poppy," I said without really moving, I waited until she turned back to me, "Is she okay?"
"She will be, you were still some kind of friend to her, so she lost a friend. And she also lost Sam because she was the one that walked away and you ended up hurt. Sam was like a sister to her, she put that at risk by sleeping with you. But she'll be okay, just don't call her up again." She replied before walking down the stairs and I could hear her talking to Jack once she was one level down. I went back in my room and slammed the door closed before laying back down in bed.
I reached for my phone to send a text to Sam but as I opened my messages, Lia's conversation was still open. I scrolled through the texts for a while before leaving the conversation and opening a new text to Sam.
Calum: can we talk Sam: did lia leave you yet Sam: are you texting me now to pick up the pieces? Calum: how can you say that if you and Lia were practically sisters before? You treat her like trash even though you used to be closer to her than to me. We've known each other longer but you saw her like your little sister and taught her everything about college. I was just your boyfriend's friend. Calum: can you just talk to Lia again and be her friend again, I knew I'd get hurt in the end so the blame is on me, not her. Sam: alright I'll talk to her.
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CalumHood: can we rewind back to summer
208 likes MichaelClifford: I know I was on this trip too but I do not remember this CalumHood: @MichaelClifford you and Luke were sleeping off your hangovers AshtonIrwin: @CalumHood that means I was with you but I don't remember this either CalumHood: @AshtonIrwin we weren't sleeping off our hangovers because we were still drunk from the night before SamEvans: why am I even okay with you guys going on these trips? They're just trips of bad decisions from start to finish AshtonIrwin: @samevans because we do it in the woods were we can't run into any other girls and our only bad decisions are harmless SamEvans: @ashtonirwin do I have to remind you of the time you all gave each other tattoos?
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It's a short chapter but the start is one of my fav parts and I rewrote the ending of the chapter 6 times and hated all so I decided to just leave it at this.
