Bunking With Boys

Chapter 20: Wise Advice and Butterflies

Avery's POV

The front door slams roughly making the black nail polish I was steadily applying to my finger nails end up everywhere but my nails.

"Fucking hell." I curse under my breath at the small dots of black that splattered on not only my skin but my desk as well.

I was gonna kill whoever was throwing a sissy fit and thought it'd be a good idea do slam the door.

Leaving the nail polish to dry and clean up later I rush out of my room and find Callum about to slam his own door but I yell out at him before he can follow through with it.

"CALLUM EUGENE WELLS." He promptly stops and blows out a loud and obvious puff of air in annoyance at my use of his oh so embarrassing middle name.

"Don't you dare slam a second door."

He turns to look at me and smiles rudely. Callum goes to slowly shut the door behind him and right when it's close to closing, he slams it shut, making me flinch and yell out. Again.

"Son of a bitch-" I mutter annoyed as I rush over to his room.

Obviously something was wrong and even though he was being hella rude and pissy, I wasn't just gonna leave him to stay angry with no one to talk to.

Even if a part of me really really really wanted to. I loved him or whatever.

I knock softly before opening the door and peeking my head in. He was laying face down on his bed, limbs spread out like an angry starfish.

Lovely sight.

I slowly approach him and say his name softly.
"Callum...are you okay?"

I knew I wasn't a big fan of being confronted or annoyed when I was sad or angry and I'd most likely blow up at the person so I wanted to approach the situation with caution.

I'd also never seen Callum mad before so I wasn't sure what he wanted or needed. And I figured this would be a safe way to confront him.

His head pops up and he looks exhausted.

"Life is awful and I want to die." His head then plops back down on the pillow and he almost looks dead.

Sadly for him, he's not though.

I walk back to the doorway and shut it so we weren't disturbed. Then I take a seat on the edge of Callum's bed after scooting his heavy ass feet over.

"Is this about the other night?" I ask him referring to the whole Jensen and English teacher scenario. I didn't know why it'd make him mad but who knew, could be a possibility still.

He just shook his head no and I nodded.

"Okay well what's wrong then?" I question him with raised eyebrows and a small pout. It was weird seeing him so...sad and busy not his usual self. I didn't like it much. But I suppose we did all have our bad days and we'd be in a better mood eventually.

He turns from his stomach to his back dramatically and tosses an arm across his for head with a heavy sigh.

"Things are stupid and people are stupid. Specifically Jake. He's a bitch."

"Would you like to elaborate?" I ask shaking my head at his vague response. Who knew being emotional support for someone could be this much work? Usually Mona just opened right up and we cried together for a couple hours then got drunk. It was a good routine proven to work these past couple years so we stuck to it.

He looks to me with wide eyes and then sits up and gets comfortable on the bed. So obviously this would take a while.

"I went to his work like 15 minutes before his shift ended right? Thought I'd show up so we could hang out afterwards and so I could get some free alcohol, but that was just a bonus." He admits nodding.

"So we hung around for a bit, talked and all that stuff, then he asked for me to come over and obviously I said yes. Not gonna pass up a good dick appointment."

"Jesus Christ..." I say rubbing at my temples. "I did not need to know that Callum."

"Oh please, you wanna know all the details about my sex life, don't lie."

"Just shut up and continue please."

He nods. "We were making out on his couch and he was-" he stops to not let out too many details and looks to me. "Doing stuff. Anyways we started talking a bit and he asked why he's never met my friends other than you since I've met his college buddies."

He leans back and sighs. "And this is where I felt like drowning myself in his fish tank."

"I told him I just wasn't comfortable with coming out yet when I was still so confused about so many things. And he was understanding at first. But I guess he just got insecure as I had to run my big mouth and go on and on about all the reasons I wanted to keep us a secret." Callum tosses his arms up in despair.

"So the conclusion is that I'm stupid and he's stupid and life's a hoe."

"It was your first fight wasn't it?" I ask knowing he seemed a bit too distraught for something that could easily be worked out with time and better communication.

He nods at me and waits for any advice I have.

"Well..." I start, "I think he just feels like maybe your relationship doesn't mean as much to you as it does to him." Before he can cut me off I continue. "Which obviously isn't true, but that's the thing about insecurities, they don't have to be true for you to worry about them. They're there no matter what and you just need people to reassure you otherwise."

He nodded slowly, like he was processing the information.

"I'd say give him time. Go to his place after school tomorrow and talk about it. And be calm. And explain things as well as you did to me."

"Thank you Avery." Callum tells me sincerely with a small smile.

"Of course. Now, I'm gonna go and give you time to think. If you need anything I'll be like 20 feet away from you." And with that I exit his room and shut the door behind me.

When I turn to head down the hall and do my room I see Dawson somehow managed to sneak up on me.

"Holy shit." I say as my heart pounds. I hold my hand up to my chest and close my eyes. "Don't do that you asshole!" I yell and punch his chest.

As you can probably tell, I get scared quite easily.

He laughs and backs up a bit.

"Sorry Aves." Suddenly his face leans close to mine in the dim hallway and he lifts his hand to gently swipe at my cheek.

My lips part as sparks erupt in my entire body.

You're not a fucking firework Avery, calm down

He pulls his hand away and leans back with a small smile after a couple seconds.

"Eyelash." Dawson whispers before clearing his throat roughly with a small shake of his head, and walking away down the hall leaving me to deal with the weird ache in my chest all by myself.
***
Kind of a filler chapter, kind of important for later though.

ALSO I entered the Wattys cause seemed like a cool thing to do.

So like if any one wants to comment or leave a vote that'd be pretty cool too.