Rule Two// c.h

Complicated Pt Two

Calum

"Hey where have you been?" Jake asked as I entered our room. With a sigh I flopped down onto his bed. "What the fuck get off me." Jake complained shoving me off. I started laughing as I stood up and headed to my own bed.

"I was studying with Andrea and her friends. We have another big test coming up."

"I don't know why you took math. You tested out of it Calum. That means you didn't have to take it anymore. You were done. Finished."

"Well I still don't know what I want to do and math is something I'm good at so I might as well take a course and not loose that ability." Jake groaned as I unpacked my backpack.

"Don't tell me you want to go into a math related field please. You'll make me barf."

"It's not that bad Jake. You're overreacting." I replied with a roll of my eyes.

"You're talking to the guy who is currently bombing his algebra 2 class. I'm not over exaggerating, math sucks."

"Let me help you. It's not that bad. Do you want to take the class over?" I asked him. Jake made a face but I wasn't sure if it was because I offered to help him or because of the thought of taking math over again. "Math isn't an easy subject. You should take your moms advice and go to the tutors on campus." Jake scoffed.

"My mom also suggested I ask Lily for help so.." I shook my head at him.

"She's gotten better at math thanks to me."

"Whatever. Don't pretend like my sister is some great success story. Math is probably the only thing she is better at than me." I started to laugh a little.

"Can you say that gain so I can I record that for her? She'd get a kick out of you admitting she's better at you in something." Jake flipped me off, typing with one hand on his laptop.

"Fuck off Calum." I laughed again as I laid down on my bed, putting my hands behind my bed. "So you said you were with Andrea?" I licked my lips slowly.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"She does knew you're taken right?" I sighed, not this again.

"Jake..."

"I know, I know. We've been over this before. Andrea and you are just friends. Nothing is going on between you two. She met Lily, said you guys looked real swell together and everything is perfectly normal between you two." I snorted as he tried mimicking my voice.

"Who says swell anymore? You're so old." Jake sighed.

"Point being, she's not just going to get over you in the short time that you've known each other, especially if you guys keep hanging out. It'll get weird between the two of you. Or at least it will feel weird for you but for her.. It will feel like you like her in some minuscule way."

"Thank you Dr. Phil." Jake rolled his eyes at me.

"I'm serious. Don't be friends with her. It won't end well."

"What am I supposed to say to her Jake? Sorry, but my roommate, who is also the brother of the girl I'm dating, thinks that being friends with you might ruin my relationship with my girlfriend? That sounds a little crazy and a whole lot paranoid."

"Okay, admittedly, that sounds stupid but.." He paused. "I don't know Calum. It's just not a good idea."

"Do you not trust me or something? Because I can assure you I'm in love with your sister and..."

"Ew gross. Shut up. Don't say you love her." Jake said making a face. I sighed, rolling my eyes at him.

"It's the truth okay? Be serious for ten seconds." Jake nodded.

"It's not that I don't trust you man. I don't trust her."

"If things get weird between the two of us, I'll stop being friends with her okay?" Jake nodded.

"Yeah, alright. I can't really tell you what to do anyways."

"Thank you." I said, lying back down. "I hope you haven't been telling Lily to stop being friends with Lance too." Jake didn't say anything. "You have haven't you?"

"You two are so alike it's scary okay? You're both a pain in my ass, your favorite bands are the same, you both put ketchup on your eggs."

"I don't know why you think that's weird." I interrupted but Jake acted as if I hadn't said anything.

"And you both think you can be friends with someone after they confessed to liking you."

"Lance and Andrea can move past this." I argued in their defense.

"Maybe but by the laws of romantic comedy's, this isn't going to end well."

"We're not in a romcom and you watch too many movies." Jake shook his head at me.

"This can only two ways, Andrea and Lance cause you and my sister to break up or.. By some magical happening, Andrea and Lance meet and fall in love and have two kids and a dog." I laughed a little as he continued to work on whatever homework he had for his classes. I knew I loved Lily and I knew that Lily loved me but I also know how jealous I can get. Could Jake be right? Could something as simple as Lily and Lance being friends make me mad enough to break up with her?

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I tapped my pencil against my desk as I stared down at the final equation. I knew how to answer it but I was mainly stalling for time. When we finish our tests, our teacher lets us go for the day and since I usually finish in twenty minutes or less, I'm always the first to exit the classroom. But this time, I wanted to wait a little bit so I could walk out with Andrea, talk to her alone and try to get a feel for her to see if she really did still like me.

Papers were rustled and I could hear the sounds of someone getting up out of their seat. Making a small slide glance up, I noticed that it was Andrea. Putting my pencil to the paper, I finished the problem with ease and stood up with her, grabbing my backpack. She handed our test in to our teacher and smiled at me as I did the same. We didn't speak until we exited the room.

"So how was that?" I asked, she breathed out slowly.

"Tough. I'm surprised you didn't finish sooner. Sort of thought you had last your groove."

"Eh, the last problem was a bit of a stumper."

"Yeah.. That's why I didn't do it."

"Seriously?" Andrea shrugged, looking at the ground.

"I'm really not that good at math." She said lightly. "I was back in high school but I don't know... I guess college level math is a little harder."

"Well you tested out didn't you? You're taking calculus just for.. Fun I guess." She nodded.

"Yeah but it's not really that fun anymore. I don't know." She sighed. "I thought I wanted to go into a field with math but if I suck at it this bad.. Then there's no point I guess."

"Don't give up Andrea. It's not always going to be easy. You just have to tough it out. I can help you some more too if you want." She slowly smiled looking up at me.

"Really?"

"Yeah of course. What are friends for?" She nodded slightly and stopped walking.

"Thanks Calum but I'll um.. See you later. I have another class I should prepare for."

"Yeah, sure." I said as she began to head in the opposite direction from me. "See you later!"

"Bye Calum!" She waved goodbye before turning around fully. See, not a problem. I told her we were friends and she didn't even flinch. There was nothing to worry about.