waste the night [c.h.]

twenty-six

I watched as Jessie took shots after shots from the bottle of the liquor she stored in her dresser.

It was two in the afternoon, we both got out of class early and she was spending the rest of her day getting drunk. She sighed and took a seat on her bed, careful not to spill the drink in her hand.

I huffed and sat up, leaning on my elbow to look at her. "What's wrong?"

She looked at me, a soft smile spreading across her face. "How'd you know?"

I gestured to the bottle in her hand. "It's not hard to tell when something's wrong, especially with you Jess."

She chuckled, sitting up, taking another swig from the bottle. "It's Luke."

I raised my eyebrows. "How's that going?"

"It's not," she shrugged. "I don't really understand out relationship. I think we fucked once but I was too drunk to remember and now every time I get wasted at the party, he always brings me back."

I furrowed my eyebrows, cocking my head. "Where's the problem?"

"Well, you know we've been on a couple dates and he invited me to the band thing," she said as I nodded. "He's acting like if he touches me I'm going to shatter into a million pieces. And he won't make any moves."

"When has a boy ever had to make moves on you? You're the one with the moves."

"True, but I kind of wanted this to be different with Luke, I've known him since I was a freshmen and we've been through a lot together, especially with Amber and Mi-" She topped mid-sentence and looked at me, her eyes wide.

"What?" I asked, leaning forward. "Finish what you were saying."

She shook her head. "It was nothing."

"Who's Amber?" I pressed.

"No one."

"Was she your roommate?"

"Drop it, Alex." She said harshly, drinking from the bottle.

"I thought we talked about the heavy drinking."

"Suck it."

***

Business class was weird and kind of awkward, Calum wasn't there and Michael wouldn't even look in my general direction.

After class, I took a trip to the frat house in search of Calum.

I knocked on the door, waiting for one of the boys to answer. Luke appeared, a small smile spreading across his lips. "Alex, hey."

"Is Calum here?" I asked.

He nodded and let me in, gesturing up the stairs. I quickly went up them, knocking softly on the door, waiting for Calum to yell, "come in," before entering.

He was tossing random pieces of clothing into a large suitcase on his bed, his back facing me. "I told you that I wasn't going to see her, Luke, I also asked you to leave-"

He stopped his sentence as his eyes landed on me, worry flashing across his face. "What's going on?"

"Alex." He pulled a tight smile, leaning down to kiss me. 

I flinched away, snatching my arm away. "What's going on?"

"Oh, that?" he gestured to his suitcase. "It's nothing, reall-"

"Calum, cut the bullshit," I said to him. "What is going on?"

He sighed. "My parents are making me come home for the week."

"What?" I gaped. "What about classes?"

"The dean said it was fine," he shrugged. "I'm more worried about us."

"What does that mean?"

"They're making me stay the week with them back home because I've seemed to be distracted," he said to me. "They want me to remember my place."

"You're going back to Australia?" I frowned.

"It's only for the week, but I can't tell them about us, if they knew I had a girlfriend, my ass would be grass."

"I'm really your girlfriend?"

"I just kind of figured, I don't know what else to call you, friends with benefits?"

My face fell as I looked down at my feet. "I guess."

"We don't have to label what we are," he assured me, making me frown. "We can just be us, right?"

"You're the one that labelled it, Cal."

"You're the one questioning it."

I looked up, meeting his brown eyes. We stood there, staring at each other, a challenging look in our eyes.

"Right," I said, spinning on my heel to leave. "Have fun back home, I'll keep my notes from Business for you."

I slammed the door behind me, quickly going down the stairs and out the house, tears falling down my cheeks. Stupid Calum Hood.

It was the literally the perfect opportunity to ask me to be his girlfriend. Like officially tell us where we stood. What we were.

I guess he did.