Rule Two// c.h

Between A Rock

Calum

"God damnit Lily." I cursed, tossing my phone down.

"Can you shut up please. Take your mellow drama elsewhere." Came a murmured reply from Jake who had his face buried in his pillows. I glared over at him, not that he could see. "You're glaring. I can feel it. Stop." I continued to stare at him as he sat up. "Fine, what's with the angry face? I heard most of your end of the conversation, not cool by the way dude."

"Shut up. Stay out of this." I snapped at him. I wasn't angry at him but I needed another outlet for my anger since Lily wasn't answering my calls or texts.

"You're the one who accused my sister of cheating." He replied, standing. "Now stop being a dick and tell me what happened or I'll be forced to beat you senseless. I'm her big brother before I'm your best friend." I scoffed. Jake would never actually hurt me but he might just stop being my friend or stop approving of mine and Lily's relationship.

"Did you see her Snaps yesterday?" He thought about it for a minute, scratching his head.

"Maybe.. She was fucking around with some dude." I clenched my fists. She had said the same exact thing. I just about punched a hole in my desk. "Jesus Calum not like that. Poor choice of words. Why does that have you twisted all up?"

"That was Lance and they were in her room." Jake sat down, frowning.

"Jesus Christ.. I told you guys this would be a problem." He said slowly, running a hand down his face in an exaggerated movement. "Guys and girls can't be friends unless one or the other plays for the other team." I rolled my eyes at him.

"I still think that's stupid as hell Jake. That doesn't exist."

"Oh really? Lance ended up liking my sister, Andrea ended up liking you. Is it really that stupid?" He asked.

"Guys and girls can be friends with each other! There doesn't have to be any sort of physical or sexual attraction involved." I grumbled.

"Think of one guy and girl relationship, that you know of where there wasn't some form of attraction." I did think about it for a minute but came up with nothing. "Exactly!"

"Oh shut up. Just because I can't think of something.. This isn't even the point Jake!" I exclaimed.

"Right, right. Keep going with your story." I glared at him again, unclenching my fists a little bit.

"He was over at your house, in her room when your parents wouldn't be home and.. And it pissed me off." Jake just stared at me like I was an idiot.

"That's it?"

"No that's not it! But that was one of the main points of our argument."

"Calum.. I really don't see anything wrong with that." Jake said slowly.

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" I demanded lowly. Jake shook his head at me.

"Do you trust my sister? You should because even the mention of someone cheating on a TV show makes her fake gag." Yeah.. I remember watching her do that one time.. "She would never cheat on you. She said her and Lance are friends. She's made it clear to him that she's not interested and that she has a boyfriend. So what if they were in her room. She's had other friends up there, other guys..." I glared at him. "It's the truth. You're not her first boyfriend. Don't be so damn possessive."

"I'm not being possessive! She didn't even tell me they were hanging out."

"So she has to tell you every time she hangs out with her friends?"

"No that's not.. Lance is a guy, its different."

"It's really not Calum." He was only taking her side because she's his sister.

"Whatever, you're biased." I muttered.

"I'm really not." Jake said with a scowl as he went to his dresser to get a change of clothes. "You're being a dick. Did she bring up your snapchat stories?" I didn't reply. "See, you shouldn't have accused her of cheating. You were looking pretty suspicious last night. Especially with what you told me." I should have never mentioned Andrea bailing me out of jail but how else was I going to explain myself? I should have at least left out the part about me almost kissing her.

"Nothing happened."

"No, something almost happened." Jake corrected. "Now apologize to her or something."

"How can I do that when she's not answering my calls or texts."

"Give her time. She'll come around." I sighed, slumping my shoulders.

"What if she doesn't like what she hears? Or she doesn't accept my apology." Jake took off his shirt, grabbing up a new one and shrugging.

"Then I guess you guys won't be celebrating your one year anniversary."

----

All of Saturday, she didn't look at my texts or return my calls. On Sunday, her read receipt popped up around eight.

Calum😜💋
Lily, answer the damn phone
You can't just ignore me. We should talk about this.
You didn't even let me explain.
I don't know what you want from me.
Even Jake thinks I'm being a dick

I guess I didn't mention anything about apologizing.. Because I didn't really think I was in the wrong, with Lance anyways. But she never replied to my texts. She just read them or opened them so the notification would go away.

Lily, I know you looked at this.
Just answer me.

Still nothing so I tried calling her again. It didn't go straight to voicemail but she didn't pick up either. Instead, I listened to her cheery voice say, "This is Lily's phone! You know what to do." I didn't leave a message. I hung up instead. As I tried to call her again, a message notification came in from her. It read,

Lily🌺
Stop trying.