Meet You There | Calum Hood

24

The downtown bar was packed wall to wall with sweaty college kids. The girls were predominantly clad in barely there excuses for costumes while it seemed most of the boys had gone for the less is more approach.

Holland felt like her costume fell a little somewhere in the middle, she'd borrowed a pair of Lexi's black shorts and paired it with a thin black long sleeve and black boots. Really the only costume part of her outfit was the makeup that Keri had done for her.

She wrung her hands as she glanced around the bar, her team having dispersed as soon as they'd arrived. Lexi had gone to the bar to get a drink and promised to come back to her but she was still nowhere in sight. Standing by herself had Holland frantically searching for familiar faces amongst those swarmed around her. For once in her life, she wished she could have a drink to calm her nerves.

Crowds always made her feel like this and it was one of the reasons she had always avoided nights like this with her friends before.

Calum had changed a lot of things for her. He'd shown her that she didn't always have to be a recluse and his being in her life has inspired her to try so many new things. He was incredibly adventurous and he brought it out of her too.

"The line at the bar is fucking ridiculous." Holland exhaled at the sound of Lexi's voice and turned to her best friend.

"Thank God. Don't leave me like that again please, I was freaking."

"Sorry, I didn't know it was going to take so long." Lexi replied, taking a moment to readjust the devil horns on the top of her head that completed her outfit of red shorts paired with a red tube top and heels.

"No worries."

"Hey, isn't that that Camden guy? The TA?" Lexi asked, nodding her head behind Holland.

Holland tried to play it cool, she didn't want to jerk her head around and alert him to the fact that they were talking about him. Instead she grabbed Lexi's arm and spun back in the direction Lexi had indicated, heading for the dance floor while being able to subtly confirm her suspicions.

"Yep, that's him."

"He's cute." Lexi said, shamelessly looking at him now as they reached the dance floor and began to sway along to the beat of the dance remix pumping through the clubs stereo system.

"I thought you had a—" Holland stopped herself unsure of what Lexi and Drew, her fuck buddy, were exactly.

"It's over. He didn't want to be anything more than a hookup and I did, so it's done."

Holland was surprised at how breezy Lexi was being about this but it wasn't her place to say anything.

"You think Camden would be down?" Lexi asked, her head tilted at Holland.

"I don't know, I don't know much about him honestly, I literally only talk to him about math, Cal is already crazy jealous that I have a male tutor and I never wanted to give him any reason to be upset. I can try to introduce you though." She offered.

"You'd do that?"

"Of course, Lex. You're my best friend."

Lexi gave her an encouraging smile and made her eyes big to indicate she hoped her best friend would do exactly as she just stated.

"You owe me though." Holland teased as she turned on her heel and approached Camden.

Camden Rollins was twenty three, the same age as Calum, but unlike Calum,  Camden had still retained the boyish looks that had no doubt made him the star of the frat he'd been apart of during his undergraduate studies. His blonde curls were side swept over his forehead and he offered a large, drunken grin as Holland approached.