College [c. hood]

31

Calum packed up his belongings to head back to the dorms after class. Alyssa didn't acknowledge him, as usual, and vice versa.

The past month they've barely talked to each other. Maybe a couple times in class. At parties they've both been at they've talked in groups, never one on one.

So much for being friends was all Calum could think every single time they had an awkward interaction like that.

They were definitely getting better than what they were when they first stopped talking, but it was still bad.

Calum fucking hated it. But he didn't know what to do. She's the one that called it off, and he wanted to respect her. Yeah, she said she wanted to be friends, but Calum couldn't just jump back into regular friendship from the beginning of the school year just like that.

One issue was that Calum was definitely still talking to Danielle. They were almost like friends at this point. They didn't see each other often, but they texted and FaceTimed enough. Calum knew that Alyssa knew he was doing that, which probably made things hard on her.

The thing for Calum was no matter what he did, it wouldn't be perfect for anybody.

Arriving back at the residence building, Calum flashes his ID card to the worker at the desk, allowing him across to the building. He didn't take the elevator, he knew Alyssa wasn't far behind him and he didn't want to be stuck on the elevator with her.

Once he enters his room, he heads right to bed, just wanting to curl up and relax for now.

"Dude?" Michael calls, walking into Calum's bedroom.

"What's up?" Calum asks, looking up at Michael through the news of blankets he's curled up in.

"Do you want to go out and do something? You've been in your room all week."

Calum sighs, "I don't know, Michael."

"Dude, you need it. Let's just go get drunk in Marcus and Cody's room with everybody until we head out to a house party. Go eat, get ready, and let's get drunk!"

-

Calum was glad Michael harassed him all evening to get him to join them. As they walked to the house party, Calum felt so great. Mostly because of the alcohol, but he was fine with that.

When they arrive at the house, the music was so loud they could barely hear each other. Everybody was drunk, or high, the scent of both substances filling the house.

He loses most of his friends pretty quickly, only Cody it's standing with him in the living room currently.

Calum sees Alyssa flirting to some guy, and it makes him so sad, but also mad. He knew that he shouldn't be, because she doesn't owe him anything. It just sucks when she says she's not ready but here she is flirting with other guys.

Cody excuses himself, going to speak to one of his friends. When Calum is left alone, he looks around the room. He sees one of Erin's friends, Bria. staring at him from across the room, he smirks at her, and she smiles back at him.

He needs a distraction, so he smiles when she makes her way towards him.

"Hey, Cal." She smiles, their arms brushing against each other since so many people are packed in this house.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Calum asks, looking down at her.

"Drunk, but, I know everybody else can say the same." She giggles.

"True." Calum laughs, knowing there's not a single sober person in this crammed house.

"Here, let's go into the kitchen." She says, grabbing Calum's hand and dragging him through the crowd.