best of friends || m.c.

01

"I still can't believe you're making me drive your pickup truck," I tell my brother, Ashton, as he taps his drumsticks against the dashboard.

We're driving back to campus to move in, and there has got to be 50,000 pounds of crap in the bed of his car. It's stressful driving with that at all, let alone in a ten year old, beat up truck for 2 hours.

"I told you, Mae," he lets out his very own, obnoxious giggle, "I have a gig in two days! I have to practice."

"Sure you do," I say, pushing my sunglasses up the bridge of my nose before moving to skip the track on the CD player. He turns to pout at me. "You've practiced the same song for the past hour."

He shrugs, starting to practice the song that I skipped to. Once it ends, he begins repeating that one, of course.

As we get off the highway and start to near the school, he drops his drumsticks into his lap and pops the CD out of the player. A song on his default rock and roll station is in the middle of playing.

"So are you excited to see Calum?" He asks, nudging me with his elbow as he puts his band's CD back in its case.

"Don't talk to me," I say with a small smile and he giggles once again.

We pull into our dorm's lot and I immediately start to feel jittery. The small campus is buzzing with people already, and I'm only looking out for one person as I park.

Unbuckling our seat belts, Ashton calls his roommate and I pull my phone out to text my group chat. Hopefully, Calum is on campus and moved in already.

Anyone here yet?

Luke answers first, of course. You know it!! Need help moving in?

Yes please :)

Cal and I will be down in a second!!

My heart skips a beat at the mention of his name, and I immediately turn to the nearest rearview mirror to make sure I look okay. Ashton continues to laugh at me until his roommate and bandmate, Jace, comes to help him.

Jace is his band's lead singer, and no matter how much I try to tell Ashton or anyone else, no one will believe that he's actually the biggest asshole there is.

I get out of the truck and ignore his presence, starting to unload the bed before the boys come down from their dorm. My brother and Jace have their own little reunion, which only annoys me until I hear two very familiar voices talking amongst themselves.

I perk up when I see them.

"Mae-flower!" Calum yells, lifting me up in the air and causing me to drop the bag that I'm holding. I can feel my cheeks turn crimson as he spins me around before placing me down on the edge of the truck's bed.

"Hey, please don't hurt my truck, thanks," I hear Ashton say. He and Jace are headed to the dorm, carrying as much as they can. He doesn't look back as he says it, but he's as serious as he'll ever be.

I ignore my brother, though, grabbing Calum's snapback from his head and putting it on my own. Behind him, Luke waves to me. I giggle and wave back, kicking my legs and returning my gaze to my best friend.

The frat boy is a lot tanner than he was when I last saw him, but I can't imagine him doing much more than reading outside.

"Let me guess, you packed ten times more than Ash," he smirks at me.

"How'd you know?" I jump down from the truck and nearly run into him, but he steadies me. Then, he pulls me into another hug.

"Missed you, Mae," he mumurs into my ear.