Neighbor Calum

Chapter 9

I turn on my back with a huff of breath, annoyed that I can't for the life of me get to sleep. It honestly shouldn't be this hard. It's not like I haven't slept in a bed alone, I've gone 18 years perfectly fine sleeping on my own in fact and suddenly because one week of having someone there my body decides it doesn't know how to relax long enough to sleep without that body next to me.

The worst part of it all is that I shouldn't be craving him. Not this much. Not at all. Not only was he an ass but what he'd said? Screw Calum. Screw Calum for saying what he said and in turn making me sleep - or at least try to sleep - alone. Screw Calum because now I'm wide awake and kicking the stupid blankets off as I sit up in my stupid bed.

I tried cuddling the pillow he's been using and I had his shirt on but it wasn't nearly enough. I needed him. I needed the warmth of him, the steadiness of his beating heart, the feel of his fingers intertwined with mine, the feel of him pressed against me with our limbs tangled together.

I glare out the window because I can't exactly glare at him so it's close enough. His lights off. It was on briefly after I watched him walk through his front door but that only lasted about 10 minutes. Which honestly only irked me further. He just went inside and went to bed? He's perfectly asleep in that stupid bed of his - that I'm sure doesn't feel nearly as nice as mine, in his stupid bedroom that isn't mine, in a completely stupid different place than me.

How could he possibly be sleeping!? I groan to myself, dropping down on my window seat.

His words and actions have been eating away at me. From what he said and the way he acted with Michael I can put together that the situation probably made him uncomfortable but I honestly couldn't see why. I clicked with Michael, yes, but it wasn't like that it wasn't like with Calum. It was like best friends. And because I feel that way and know I feel that way I couldn't see the problem with Mikey offering to walk me home especially when Calum was the one who brushed me off in the first place.

Boys are stupid.

Calum is stupid.

I cross my legs, facing Calum's window and trying to think of a way to wake him up that didn't involve waking the entire block and getting in trouble. I briefly think about throwing something at his window but I really didn't have anything that wouldn't potentially break or crack his window so I settle for knocking on mine like he'd done. Obviously that doesn't work because I wasn't asleep when he'd done it. I groan again, wondering why I'm even trying in the first place.

Then I remember the not being able to sleep without him thing, so I walk over to my light switch and start flipping it on and off in the hopes that he wasn't asleep or that he was turning over just in time to somehow see it. I watch - maybe a bit too eagerly - andI'm desperate, really, to get him to wake up because I just want to sleep and I'm all out of ideas to wake him up although I save the loud music for my absolute last resort.

Luckily, a very sleepy, very confused looking Calum comes into view, earphones hanging from his ears. I sigh a breath of relief and walk back over to my window, opening it up. He follows suit, taking one earbud out.

"Back door," I don't bother letting him ask the millions of questions I can all but see swarming his mind. He nods and I meet him at the back door.

"I don't want to talk. We are not talking. I am still very much mad at you." I grab his hand and pull him up the stairs dying to get some sleep now that I've got my solution.

I don't waste time shutting the door behind us and dragging him into bed with me, shoving his pillow at him and cuddling myself into his side. It's amazing really how I literally feel myself relax with just the touch of him.