Life Of The Party × CH

30

"Do you want to go inside?" Calum whispered against my hair, waiting to get any sort of reaction from me.

I was still sobbing loudly, trying to somehow calm myself down only made the tears more prominent and my breathing quicker.

I was hugging Calum so tightly I felt his heartbeat against my ear. He hadn't said anything in the last few minutes, just held me in his arms as I cried against his shirt, balling the back of it with my fists.

I finally managed to calm down enough to answer his question. But I didn't say anything. I just nodded instead, hoping he'd take that as enough of an answer and not force me to talk.

I moved my head up and down against his chest, I felt him lower his head to kiss the top of mine once more. "Do you want me to carry you in?"

I answered in the same exact way I had before, by nodding.

Calum lowered his hands and grabbed my thighs, instructing me to jump. Once I did, he caught me, placing my legs around his waist, still holding firmly onto my thighs. I wrapped my arms tighter around his shoulders and buried my head into his right shoulder, silently sobbing still.

If it hadn't been for what had just gone down between Cole and me, I could have probably gone the whole night without shedding a tear, but Cole's actions had really shaken me up and brought me back to a darker time.

Calum pushed the front door closed with his foot before carrying me up the stairs and walking to my room at the end of the hall.

He sat me down on my bed, sitting down next to me and hugging me. "I'm so sorry I didn't get there sooner," he said. "I didn't hear the car pull up in the driveway."

I nodded, still trying to compose myself as I held on to the sleeve of his shirt tighter. Calum rested his chin on the top of my head. "Thank you," I managed to mutter out.

I felt Calum smile. "Of course," I heard him say.

What would have happened if he hadn't been there? The plan wasn't for him to be at my house when Cole dropped me off from our 'date'. Calum was simply at the right place at the right time and I couldn't help but take my mind down a darker path to what could have happened if Calum hadn't been at my house, uninvited.

After about half an hour, I finally managed to calm down from crying. I pushed Calum away, wanting to get a good look at his face I'd been thinking about all night. He looked at me, still holding onto my hand and thigh. A small smile appeared on his lips and I couldn't resist the urge to kiss him. So I did.

"Thank you for being here," I told him in a gentle yet groggy voice.

"Stop thanking me," he smiled wider. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm sorry I dragged you into my mess," I lower my gaze, looking at our intertwined fingers.

Calum sighs. "Are you serious right now?" he says in an annoyed tone of voice. "Don't fucking apologize. Just because this situation is messy, that doesn't mean I don't love spending time with you." He paused, pushing my chin up to look at him. "Devin, I love spending time with you."

His words made me smile involuntarily. "I love spending time with you, too."

I stared into his eyes as he examined my face. I was probably a mess at that point. My mascara was probably running down my cheeks in stray lines from all the crying. My eyes were probably red and puffy, and so were my cheeks. My hair probably had strands flying out in every direction. My nose was probably pink. My make-up was smudged for sure.

"You look beautiful," he said as he looked back into my eyes. And somewhere in all my mess, I believed him, because I knew he wasn't just saying this to make me feel better, he was saying this because that's what he saw me for in this moment. Somehow my mess was 'beautiful' to him, and I would be lying if I said I didn't want to hear him say those words every day for the rest of my life.

"I don't," I laughed, looking into his eyes and sniffling, wiping my nose with my sleeve.

"You do," he said. "Now even more with your smile."

His comment made me smile wider. "Shut up," I hit his shoulder.

Calum didn't seem to budge, he just continued on looking at me with even more adoration in his eyes. "I can't really tell if you're blushing right now because your cheeks have been pink since I first saw your face tonight," he said, making us both smile, "but you're so fucking gorgeous right now. I just want to give you all the good in the world, you seriously deserve way more than all this shit. God, you're beautiful."

He actually did make me blush with that comment. "At least let me get my face cleaned up first," I let out a small laugh, making him chuckle as well.

"Can I stare at you for a little longer?" he asked, taking my hand and pulling me back down on the bed.

"Fine," I rolled my eyes playfully, "If you must."

That's when he leaned in and kissed me. I wasn't paying enough attention to his movements at the moment, making the kiss feel like a total surprise to me. He pulled away, whispering against my lips, "You're freaking amazing." He kissed me once more, this time with more passion.

Nothing about this kiss screamed sex, and none of the energy was remotely sexual. It was a simple kiss shared by the two of us, exchanging our positive energies between each other through a single kiss.

Calum had made my night ten times better. Kissing him helped me move the bad moments to the back of my mind and solely focus on his full pink lips moving against my own with such passion.

I felt him smile against my lips as he kissed me, making me smile in return. He was such a special thing to me, I could never imagine losing him, which is why I worried what would happen to us come September.

We pulled away shortly after. Calum let go of my hand and I walked into my bathroom to clean my face and change into pajamas.

I sat back down on my bed, cross-legged, next to him. "I don't know what I'm going to do about those pictures he still has on me.

"Shit," Calum jumped, "I almost forgot." He stood up, walking over to my desk drawer and opening it, taking out a MacBook pro and an iPad. He held one in each hand as he looked back at me with a smile.

"Calum, what are those?" I asked, looking at the unfamiliar devices in his hands.

I noticed his change in stance as he walked over to me, sitting back down on the bed. "I uh, might've broke into Cole's house and stole the only two electronic devices he had in his room."

"You're kidding?" I asked, jumping up in excitement. "How?!"

"I went in through his window and took them," Calum confessed. "It was open and they were just left lying around so I figured instead of erasing the content I'd take them instead."

I watched him with so much excitement. "Did you plan this?"

"Maybe," he shrugged, a smile already on his face. "I also may have went through every device in his house and found nothing like this, which would mean unless he has those photos on his phone, the only copies are here."

"Cole deleted those pictures from his phone," I say. "I watched him do it myself. It was because he had no more storage space." I smiled wider.

"So what do you suggest we do with these?" Calum looked down at the two devices.

"First," I say with a devilish grin, "I want to erase the content."

So we do.

"Now what?" Calum asks. "We could keep them? Or sell them?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of smashing them with a hammer so that there's no evidence we stole them," I tell him.

"Your idea works," Calum agrees as we both get up and head downstairs to find a hammer.

As much as I wanted a new laptop, my old one was working just fine. I also figured it would be the best kind of therapy for both Calum and I to destroy something of Cole's.

That night, up until thirty minutes before my dad got home, all I could remember was drinking endless amounts of Mountain Dew whilst taking turns smashing the laptop and tablet to smithereens, laughing our heads off in the process, and giving Calum endless kisses for practically being the best person in my life.