End Up Here

woke up in the morning wearing someone else's clothes

Sometime around 9am, my phone begins to buzz underneath my pillow. What the hell? I don't have my early class today, so it can't be my alarm. I open my eyes and see that it's a call from... Calum. Groggily, I accept the call and put it to my ear. "Hello?" I mumble.

"Nova, oh my God! You won't believe it! We did it, we got signed!"

I rub my eyes. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Remember that girl from the show who was starting a record label? Bella? Well we just found out that she decided to sign us! We get to record in a studio up in San Francisco this summer and then release our album. And if our singles do good, we get to tour!" 

My eyes widen. I notice that Maisy and Evie are awake now since Calum was being so loud, even through the phone. 

"Holy shit Cal!" I exclaim. I look at the girls with excitement, but they just look confused. 

"The guys just got signed to a record label and are going to record their album this summer!" I tell them. They both gasp at the news but right then it hits me that this means that Calum is going to be far away from me for the summer. 

"Why San Francisco, and not LA?" I ask him.

"Well since Bella is so new to this, her friend is letting her clients work in his studio for a really low price. I know it's far, but at least it's in the same state. Were you gonna take classes here over the summer?"

There were butterflies in my stomach. I hadn't thought about it until now, but I guess I had to, to stay close to him. Otherwise it was back to Virginia for me. 

"I think so." I say. 

"Please do. So I have a reason to drive 12 hours every weekend with the others. I don't want to stay in San Francisco alone."

Blushing, I turn away from the girls, who could hear everything he was saying.

"I'm so happy for you Cal! I'm gonna go now and get ready for class. But after our classes today do you wanna meet up again so we can talk about this? And maybe finish that interview?"

"Of course! I'll text you later, Nova."

We hang up and I look back at Maisy and Evie. That was... crazy. Evie speaks up first, "Are they gonna be... famous?" 

We laugh. "Who knows," I say. "They have so much talent. Like this could be for real!"

With excitement in the air, we start getting ready for class. Maisy is more quiet than usual. She must not be a morning person. I take off the pajamas that I borrowed from Maisy and put back on my outfit from the day before. Thankfully, the girls let me use some of their makeup so I could look half decent for class. I didn't know how I was going to face Lia when I ultimately had to go back to my own dorm later. 

Once 11:30 rolled around, I grabbed my wallet and phone and went out the door to my freshman class. Of course I didn't have any of my textbooks or notebooks so today was going to be difficult. And just to top everything off, this was the one class Lia and I had together. This should be an interesting day. 

When I get to the lecture hall, Lia isn't sitting in our usual spot. Instead, I see her all the way across the room. I sigh and take my usual seat. 

The rest of my classes go by uneventfully. I dread having to go back to my dorm to get ready for the night, because I know Lia's schedule, and I know she will be there. On my walk from my second class back to my dorm, I think of what I should say to Lia. All I want is for her to hear me out. She didn't let me speak last night, and that really hurt me. I wondered if there was something else going on with her, and that's why she was so irritated. I guess I would find out soon. 

Once I get to my room, I raise my hand timidly, and knock on the door. After a few seconds, Lia opens it. Her face is unreadable, but thankfully she doesn't seem as mad as last night.

"Look, we need to talk," she says.

"Definitely."

We both sit own on our couch and Lia starts to talk. "So... about last night. I wanna say that I shouldn't have been so intense and I'm sorry. I'm really happy for you guys."

"And I'm so sorry for missing girls night. I don't ever want a boy to get in the way of our friendship. You know that this is the first time someone has been interested in me so I'm not used to how to handle things."

We hug each other and Lia asks, "Wanna do girls night tomorrow? We can watch all three High School Musical movies!"

I smile. "Perfect. Oh!" I exclaim, remembering the news Calum told me this morning. "Guess what happened with 5SOS?" 

I explain everything to Lia and she seems just as thrilled. Then I tell her that I decided to take classes over the summer so I could stay closer to the boys than if I were in Virginia. I ask her if she wants to do summer classes too. 

"Well I would. But... this kinda has to do with why I was so irritated. I feel like Luke doesn't like me as much as Calum likes you. So if I were to stay over the summer, I would want to know for sure that he actually has feelings for me. Otherwise I'd feel like such a third wheel." 

It all makes sense now. I would have to talk some sense into Luke because there was no was I was spending the summer without Lia.