17 Nights {c.h.}

+five+

The Fifth Day

I shot up from where I had been slouched in my chair, Looking For Alaska half in my bag, half on the floor from where I must have dropped it after falling asleep. I couldn’t remember what made me wake up, until I jumped with a shriek escaping my mouth.

“Nice to see you too.” Luke grinned, pulling me into a hug whilst I attempted to steady my rapid heartbeat.

“Damn it, Luke,” I gasped, knotting the back of his t-shirt in my hands.

“Wow, such a warm welcome for someone who hasn’t seen you in what, four months?” He teased, sobering when he looked to Calum. “How long has he been in here?”

“Today marks day five.” I shrugged, stretching my arms over my head as I yawned, a post-sleep ritual I had acquired somewhere.

“Wait… Aren’t you supposed to be in California?” His eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“Kind of.” I shrugged, stifling a yawn behind my palm.

“Kind of?” He echoed.

“I might have left college when Mali called me.” I sheepishly smiled, rubbing the back of my neck.

“I don’t know if I should be, like, proud or scared.” He teased before questioning, “Don’t you have exams next week?”

“Yeah, I’m waiting for my roommate to call, but my textbook is somewhere here.” I waved my arms, doing some sort of gesture to backup my words.

I was about to speak again, but the ringing escaping from my pocket cut me off. I jerked my head to the hallway as I pressed answer, notifying Luke I would be just outside the door.

“Hello?”

“Bella? It’s Cynthia-”

“Oh God, you have no idea how grateful I am to be talking to you.” I sighed, leaning my back against the cool wall.

“I’m not sure about that,” she nervously chuckled. “If you don’t get back here in two days you’re going to miss the exams. I tried talking to the teachers to see if you could take it at the University of Maryland or something, but they said no. I’m sorry, Bella.”

“Oh… Um, it-it’s okay. I’ll call you back in a bit, okay?” I hung up before she could respond, angry tears escaping from my eyes. Normally it wouldn’t be frustrating, but I was in the midst of switching colleges. Stanford was amazing but it just wasn’t where I belonged, and if I didn’t complete the exams none of the credits I had received would transfer. If they didn’t transfer I would have to start from scratch, something I absolutely despised.

I slumped to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees and burying my face in the open space between the two. I couldn’t believe it was between my hard work and Calum, something I never wanted to do. My parents raised me to believe it was school above everything else, when they were actually home that is. It was going against my head, or going against my heart, habit versus instinct.

Calum would have obviously told me to go to California because he wasn’t worth losing every single thing I had been working on for four months. Except, it wasn’t Calum’s decision. It was mine.

“Bella?” Luke broke me out of my careful consideration as I planned how to attack this new obstacle.

“Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“No.”

+|+|+

“Wait, slow down… You’re leaving?” Mali questioned, cocking her head to the left.