Life Of The Party × CH

11

I had successfully made it through the very first week of my internship, and can proudly say I was pretty good at the job.

Nothing particularly interesting had happened in the last week. Besides working each day, my friends and I met up for the occasional coffee after work and I had ignored Calum as best I could.

I didn't see him for most of the week, and when I did, I made it my job to avoid him to a point he wouldn't notice me.

Stella had suggested we go see a movie on Friday, to celebrate getting through a week of work. She had suggested it one day, when Lola and I visited her mother's coffee shop, which she had started working at.

Luke and Stella now spent most of their days together, what with Luke already working there.

Lola and I wouldn't let the teasing stop. Luckily, Stella was extremely tolerant.

Lola had taken up a job as a waitress at the diner downtown. Her favorite part of the job, as she would say, was stealing the occasional fry or onion ring.

As decided, on Friday, I met up with the girls at the town movie theater.

Stella and I were waiting for Lola, when she showed up hand in hand with Michael.

"I thought it would be just us girls?" I raised an eyebrow at Lola.

"We never said that," she claimed, raising her hands up in defense.

"Hey guys," Luke greeted, walking up to us. "Have you seen my girlfriend?" he stressed the word, "She's short, adorable, has blond hair and pretty brown eyes?" He placed his arm as if to rest on Stella's head. We could all tell she found this amusing by the childish smile placed on her lips.

"Ehem," she coughed, as if to get his attention.

Luke looked down, "Oh, baby," he exclaimed, "there you are!" He leaned down to kiss her lips.

Stella and Luke are adorable together, don't get me wrong, but sometimes, it's way too sickeningly sweet. The honeymoon phase will end soon, I tried reassuring myself.

"Devin," Michael turned to me, "Where's your date?"

"I'm glad you asked, Micheal," I say, all while glaring at Lola. Stella was too busy with Luke to acknowledge my eyes on her. "I don't have one because somebody didn't inform me we were even bringing dates."

"Oops," Lola smiled sheepishly, trying to act innocent.

"We can go somewhere else if you don't want to watch us uh..." Luke trailed off, not sure on how to finish the next part of his sentence.

"Make out throughout the whole movie?" I finish for him. "No, it's fine. We can still go see the movie."

"Are you sure?" Michael asked before being shoved in the gut by Lola's elbow.

"I'm sure," I nod.

"Shall we then?" Luke gestures with his arm towards the doors of the theater, the other being placed over Stella's shoulders.

We all started walking towards the theater. Lola let go of Michael's hand and came closer to walk with me. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about bringing a date. I just didn't want you to find someone else because I kind of already got you one..." she trailed off as we entered the theater.

As soon as we did, I could already make a guess of who she had in mind as my date.

"Just to be clear," I heard Stella say from behind me, "I had nothing to do with this."

He was standing behind the counter, filling a bucket with popcorn for a customer.

He looked up, noticing us by the door. He smiled, his eyes lingering on me as he took his hat off. He called up his coworker to probably start working at the counter instead of him. I assumed his shift had just ended because he took out his badge and walked over to us.

Calum Hood was my date to the movie and I was already planning Lola's murder in my head.

×××

Half an hour into the movie, Lola's giggling and grunting could be heard from the row above us.

I chose to give her the benefit of a doubt and chose to ignore their noises because this was her first real relationship, after all. She was my best friend and I was determined to let her enjoy herself.

Stella and Luke, despite being all over each other at the café all week, were surprisingly decent at the theater by only holding hands. I was internally grateful that they weren't canoodling in some sort of way. They were sitting right next to us and that would have been extremely awkward to live through.

Speaking of being inappropriate at a movie theater, Calum was constantly commenting on the movie. Small comments that were mainly jokes or harsh criticisms. Nonetheless, he was beginning to annoy me.

Normally, I would have joined him in the commenting, but knowing the fact that he and Lola had set this 'date' between us up, I wasn't particularly enjoying his presence right now. What guy goes up to a girl's best friend in order to set up a date with her? Doesn't he have balls? I didn't even agree to this!?

"Psst," Calum whispered.

I chose to ignore him.

"Psst!" he whispered louder this time, nudging my shoulder with his own, trying to get my attention on him.

"What?!" I whisper-yelled.

"You've been quiet all night," he says, "Are you okay?"

"To be completely honest," I say, "I didn't quite imagine tonight going this way."

"You didn't know I was coming, did you?" he whispered, disappointment in his voice.

"Was I supposed to even know until the very last minute when I can't leave anymore?" I snap, still annoyed with him.

"Well," he started, "I specifically told Lola to tell you I was coming. She said you already knew."

"I didn't," I say.

"I realize that," he silently chuckled. "I'm sorry if you didn't want me here. I wouldn't have agreed if I'd known."

I sigh, "It's not that I didn't want you here."

"Then what?" he asks, "Am I way too good-looking that you won't be able to pay attention to the movie?"

I roll my eyes, trying to hide my smile, "Again with the ego," I say. "No, that isn't why."

"You aren't denying that I'm good-looking," he smiles.

I choose to ignore his comment. "Please don't hate me for this," I say, "but I've kind of been trying to avoid you this past week."

"Ouch," he puts a hand over his heart, pretending to act hurt. I can tell he kind of is. "If you wanted me to stop flirting with you, you could've just said so."

"I've told you countless times," I laugh silently, "You don't listen."

"I'm sorry," he says, sounding genuine, "I'll stop."

"No," I say, a little too quickly. "I mean, that's not why I've been avoiding you."

"Then why?" he asks.

I open my mouth to speak, but just as I do, we hear someone shushing us from the back. "Some of us are trying to watch a movie," someone says.

We both quiet down, not wanting to disrupt the movie anymore.