Golden

fourteen

When Ian returned to his room later that day he felt one too many pair of eyes on him, and he pulled a face.

"Finn, there's trash in our room."

"Shut up, Reyes," Franny said from his bed. Tegan was next to her and Noah sat on Ian's desk, leaving no space left to be invaded.

"I was bored and invited them over," Finn explained before walking over to Ian. "I'm sorry for leaving you alone last night. I knew I fucked up when you didn't come back here. Where have you been?"

Ian averted his gaze. "I slept at Nora's house."

"Who the fuck is Nora?"

The blonde smiled at Finn having the exact same reaction as him. "The host of the party, dumbass. What happened with you and that girl?"

Finn refused to let him change the topic so quickly. "You just slept at her house? Did you fuck her?"

"God, no. Nora knows better than that." Noah grinned which earned him a glare from Ian.

"Then your standards are pretty fucking low."

Thankfully, nobody picked up on it. "On her couch, then?" Finn asked. Ian loved him but in that moment he wished his best friend would just shut up. There were things even Finn didn't need to know.

"Yeah. Her brother drove me here this morning, I spent the day with my dad and ate some really good Merguez. Anything else you wanna know?"

Finn rolled his eyes and went back to his bed, and since Ian's bed was already occupied, Ian sat down next to Finn.

"Tell me about Holly."

"Yeah, tell him about Holly," Franny repeated with a sharp grin.

Ian raised a brow as he noticed his friend slowly blushing. "Nothing happened with her."

"Finn's whipped," Tegan stated.

"I'm not."

"You literally went to buy her McDonalds at two in the morning, then walked her home and left."

"You never bought me McDonalds at two in the morning," Ian said, frowning.

Finn tossed a pillow at Tegan. "I don't expect anything in return just because I'm nice to her. It's okay that nothing happened."

"Such a gentleman," Noah mumbled, resting the back of his head against the wall behind him.

"Was Hazel at the party, too?" Finn asked Ian. "I refuse to believe that you just slept there for no reason."

Ian groaned in annoyance. "I was too drunk to walk home, there you have it."

Finn's expression darkened. "I should have been there for you."

"And pass up on the opportunity of being the world's best simp? No way." Ian smiled at his best friend. "It's fine, Finn, you're not my babysitter."

The others eventually left and granted Ian access to his own bed, allowing him to take a nap and catch up on the sleep he had missed. He slept through dinner and decided to just stay in bed as night fell. When he woke up on Sunday, Finn was gone, and Ian checked his phone to see that Finn had left him a message.

Ian smiled once he was done reading it. Holly had asked Finn if he wanted to spend the day with her, and Finn had agreed immediately.

Ian showered and got dressed before walking to the dining hall for breakfast. He got bored eating alone; none of his friends were around, and he passed the time scrolling through Instagram.