Close As Strangers // Calum Hood

Chapter 10 - A night of mistakes

Ivy's Point of View

The "birthday" drink that our bartender had made for me was really good. He was really good at his job. It tasted fresh of strawberries and had a hint of lemon. I also got a sparkler which was sticking up out of my drink. Leah made me try to blow it out and wish for something but I couldn't blow it out so no wish for me, which maybe was good, I don't know what I would have wished for either way. If it had been over a month ago I would definitely have wished for Calum to come home to me, but now I didn't have that need anymore. In some way I felt free without Calum to think about, and tipsy and I had fun, very fun. And did I say that I felt free? I did, didn't I? Maybe I'm more tipsy than I thought. How much alcohol was it in my drink? I giggled at my own thoughts.

After Leah had finished her Frozen Margarita and I had finished my special birthday drink, we went on to doing shots.

"Happy eighteenth birthday to you," Leah held her glass in her left hand and pointed with her index finger at me. "my best friend. Hope you live a long and happy life with me beside you through all of your adventures!"

I laughed when our shots glass collided with each other and we toasted in honor of my birthday.

I put my glass against my lips, tipped my head back and swallowed the liquid. It burned all the way down my throat.

When our bartender came with our third couple of shots, he stopped by us and did not continue away to other customers like he had done before. He put both of his hands on the bar desk and leaned closer to me and Leah.

"Since I've served you two a couple of times now, I think it's time that we introduce ourselves." The sexy bartender held out his hand and I slowly shook it.

"I'm Theodore." He said and smiled. "But just call me Theo."

"Nice to meet you Theo. I'm Ivy." I smiled at Theodore.

"And I'm her best friend Leah." Leah took a frim grip around my wrist and dragged me up on my feet. "And we're going to dance now."

I waved slightly at Theo when Leah dragged me away from the bar. "See you later!" I yelled and Theo smiled.

The music was loud and the base was beating along with my heartbeat. I started to get sweaty among all the people who were dancing. Leah and I jumped around and tossed with our hair back and forth. This felt so good, I had the best time of my life.

Then suddenly Leah squealed and fell backwards. I knew it wasn't smart to wear high heels to the club, but what could I do, Leah loved high heels. I put my hands over my mouth in surprise when she fell towards the floor with her arms waving all over the place.

But just when she was going to crash together with the floor, someone caught her. I looked up from Leah's terrified face to the guy who had caught her. Oh my god I thought. The guy wasn't just any guy, it was Oliver from Leah's parallel class. She have had a crush on him for years.

"Oliver..." Leah said surprised when she was standing on her feet again and looked into Oliver's eyes. "Thank you."

"No problem." Oliver said and smiled at Leah. "So what are you doing here?" He continued.

"I'm here with Ivy, it's her birthday." Leah pointed towards me and I waved slightly back at Oliver.

"Oh, then maybe I should leave you guys to your celebrations. Happy birthday Ivy." I saw how sad Leah looked when he turned around and was about to go.

"Wait!" I yelled and Oliver turned around. "Thank you by the way. And it's okay, keep her company, I'll leave you two alone." I continued and Oliver took one step closer to Leah when I had given him approval to "steal" her away from me.