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I sit on my bed when a careful knock on my bedroom door carries through the room. I look over to see Michelle peak her head inside.
"Hi," she says.
"Hi." She comes inside and takes a seat on the bed.
"I know you know...about Calum and I at the party."
"Yeah."
"Are you super mad at me?"
"No, just a little."
"Really?" She looks hopeful at the news. "Why not? I heard you berated Calum in the parking lot."
"Although you technically did the same thing, you didn't do what he did."
"You lost me there."
"You slept with your ex-boyfriend, and I'm a bit pissed at it because you know I'm trying to help him get over you, but that's it. He slept with the ex I've been making all these sacrifices for him to get over, and he didn't have my back the one time I needed him. And we have a different relationship than you and I have. We have done and said things that just didn't make it OK from his side."
"So you aren't mad that I slept with him even though you obviously have feelings for him?"
"A bit, but you did bring that up multiple times, and I shut it down. I don't really have the right to get mad because you didn't read subtext. That wouldn't be fair."
"Best friends?"
"Best friends." We smile at each other until Michelle speaks.
"I heard about your parents. That sucks."
"Yeah."
"So you wanna tell me about everything that happened Friday night?"
"Only if you sign my cast."
"Deal."
...
Michelle and I are walking towards the parking lot when Harry catches up with us. "Chandler, hey."
"Hey..."
"Michelle, could I talk to her for a sec?"
"Sure. I'll go find Luke and Michael."
"So...I'm sorry about your arm," he says. "Does it hurt."
"Not really."
"Oh, good. I just wanted to apologize if I was way harsh on you. We never actually said we couldn't be with anyone else and I know you weren't sleeping with Calum."
"I could have, and we were close to once. You were right, I did like him. I'm sorry."
"Liked?"
"He did something. I remembered how you told me you weren't desperate enough to go after someone who like someone else, well, I don't want to be that desperate either."
"He got with Michelle, didn't he?"
"Yup."
"Sorry."
"Yeah..."
I look over Harry's shoulder to see Calum talking to a girl, a girl who stands extremely close to him and touches at his chest, arms, and shoulders every chance she seems to get.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Harry turns to get a glimpse of what I mean and he chuckles. "We sure know how to pick them."
"Harry, I need to go. Glad we're good." I shoot him a smile before heading back to find Michelle. She's with Michael and Luke by their cars.
"Chandler, are you OK?" Michael asks.
"I'm fantastic. Thanks again, Luke, for giving me a ride home."
"Don't mention it," he shrugs and we say goodbye to the siblings before we're off.
"Are your parents home?"
"No, why?"
"Let's go to your house." He looks at me weird for a second.
"Why?"
"I...um...My parents are home and I really don't wanna go home. You know, since they're getting a divorce."
"All right..." We head to Luke's house, and I forgot how much money his family has until I'm reminded by the grandeur of their estate. We barely make it into his room before I plant my lips on his. He lets it go on for longer than I thought he would. "Chandler, what are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" I kiss him again.
"You and Michelle know I'm weak for this shit," he says between kisses.
"You're a boy. Of course you are." My one hand is already working to unbuckle his belt and I'm backing us toward his bed at this point. He holds a hand behind my head and looks down at me.
"You really wanna do this?"
"Yeah."
"It doesn't have something to do with Harry, or Calum maybe?"
"Stop talking." I push at his chest and he falls back to sit on the mattress. I pull my shirt off and watch Luke quirk his head to the side for a second.
"God, Chandler..." He pulls me closer by the waistband of my skirt to have me dip down to kiss him again.
Safe to say I hadn't exactly planned to ever have sex with Luke during my lifetime. With every kiss, and every touch across my body my thoughts still wander to Calum. Whenever I close my eyes and Luke kisses me I imagine the times Calum has kissed me, but I can't find it in me to stop. I'm angry, and I'm hurt, and I want to hurt Calum.
When we're done and Luke gets off me to lie at my side he chuckles. "Well this day certainly took a turn."
"Yeah." I feel an unwelcome tear and quickly wipe it away before Luke sees.
"Are you crying?"
"No," I tell him, but as soon as I say that more tears fight their way through. I wipe again.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He gets on his side with a worried expression. "Did it hurt or something?"
"No," I blubber. "You were great. I just—I'm a bit of a mess right now."
"So a second round is out of the question then?" He succeeds in making me laugh and I'm grateful.
"Shut up."
"You want some juice or something?"
I look at him. "Juice? Are we in middle school?"
"You're never too old for juice, Chandler." Luke rolls over under the covers to reach into the mini fridge which doubles as a beside table. He comes back up holding two juice boxes. "Apple or orange?"
"Orange," I say. We sit in bed sipping on our juice boxes together and I find myself leaning onto Luke's shoulder.
"You ever played Fortnight?" he asks a few minutes later.
"No," I say, absentmindedly biting at my straw.
Luke gets out of bed, finds his underwear on the floor, pulls them up his legs, and then goes to get the gaming consoles over by the TV on the opposite wall.
While he gets the game going I get dressed and he comes skipping over back into bed looking as giddy as he did when he told us all he lost his virginity his sophomore year.
It's nice, because sitting in bed playing games for hours with Luke makes me forget about Calum and the mess that is my family at the moment.
