The Maine Attraction

14. Pizza

4 years ago. 

I sat on the couch, a blanket covering my legs and a hood covering my head. My notebook sat on my lap, my pen sitting between my teeth as I wracked my brain trying to think of where I wanted to go next with the story I'd been working on. I'd been staring at the piece of paper in front of me for so long that the words didn't even make sense anymore. At this point, I was just frustrated. I knew I needed to walk away from it, but I couldn't seem to put the pen down. I'd written down a bunch of different ideas, but as soon as I wrote them down to get them out of my head, I immediately hated them. My laptop had turned off a while ago, it was sitting next to me on the couch waiting for me to pick it back up and continue where I had left off.

The front door opened, startling me to no end. "Fucks sake." I muttered, turning my attention away from the notebook and to the front door where my brother and Sawyer were walking in, both with bags in their hands. 

"I thought you'd be asleep by now." Was the first thing that Callum had said to me. 

Sawyer kicked the door shut behind him and immediately walked to the kitchen, not saying anything to me. I watched him as he walked by me. He didn't even say hi. He'd been acting really weird since they'd gotten home from school for Winter break. He was barely talking to me, when I'd seen him for the first time it wasn't like it normally was. He didn't hug me, he barely said hi. We talked about school for maybe 5 minutes before he ended the conversation. I'd been trying to figure out what I had done to upset him, but I couldn't think of anything. I hadn't even seen him since the school year started for all of us, so I really had no idea what I had done wrong.

"What time is it?" I asked. 

Callum started laughing as he walked over to the couch. When he saw the notebook in my hand, he immediately knew that I had lost track of time. "It's like 10:30." 

I shut the notebook and then my laptop before standing up from the couch. "I'm not an old lady, Callum. I don't go to bed when the sun goes down." I joked. I followed him into the kitchen where he set the grocery bags down. Sawyer had already taken the groceries he'd brought in out of the bag and I immediately noticed snacks and alcohol. "It's a little late for a party, don't you think?" 

Callum eyed me and laughed. "Not an old lady, huh?" 

I rolled my eyes, even though his joke was totally valid.

"We are having a couple friends over, but nothing crazy. Ran into a couple guys from high school while we were out and I told them to come over. Hope that's okay?" Callum said as he pulled different items out of the bags. 

I sat on one of the stools by the island, watching the two of them. "I don't mind, I can go upstairs. Don't wanna interrupt or anything." 

Callum shrugged, opening up the fridge and putting some beer in it. "You're not a bother, but it's up to you." He put a couple other things away before he walked over to the oven to preheat it. "I'm going to hop in the shower, can one of you put the pizzas in the oven when it goes off? I'll be back down in like 10." He didn't wait for either of us to answer him, he just ran upstairs to shower before whoever was coming over got here. 

Who the hell had friends over this late? Didn't people normally leave to go back home at this time? People really came over to start hanging out at 10:30? Was I really that lame that the thought of this sounded absolutely wild? 

Sawyer opened the fridge and pulled a beer out for himself. "Want one?" He asked without turning to look at me. 

I almost asked him if he was talking to me before I remembered I was the only one downstairs. I sat up a little straighter, my nerves suddenly all over the place. "Uhh, yeah sure."