𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 | luke hemmings

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 : pretty boy

Thirty minutes later, Ashton sits in the back of my Landie and Calum connects his phone to my car's Bluetooth from the passenger seat. "You sure you're okay being the DD?" Ashton pipes up, hope in his eyes. I nod my head and look up at him in my rear view mirror. "I'm sure; this headache still hasn't fucken left." The Kooks' 'Bad Habit' begins to play through the speakers, and one look at the screen on my dashboard tells me Calum's playing his "getting pumped" playlist.

We drive down to the campus, music low as we try to keep an even lower profile. Yes it's Friday night, but technically—there's still an eleven pm curfew for the dorm rooms. Parking in an empty spot between two smaller cars, I shut mine off and turn to Calum. "Okay mate, what's your plan?" I ask him, and Ashton nods from the back seat. Calum looks between us, mouth open slightly. "Dude, you've gotta have a plan!" Ashton shoves his shoulder.

"P-plan? What do you mean? We're just hanging out with—" I roll my eyes and Ashton pinches the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "Jess. We're hanging out with Jess," And Vivienne, but I decide to leave that out for now. "You can't get all weird and clam up in there okay, she's obviously been drinking." Ashton then adds, "You gotta be cool, play it aloof." Calum looks over to Ashton and gives him a look that says how-do-you-even-know-the-word-aloof. "Just be cool." I tell my best friend, slapping his knee.

"Easier said than done." Calum mumbles as we get out the car, closing the doors as quietly as possible and then all but jog across the damp grass on the quad. "Dude, why is this so hard for you?" I hear Ashton ask Calum in the dark as we slow down to a walk. Off-campus students shouldn't be here after eight, we're off-campus students and it's nearly 9:30pm. I shouldn't have napped so late in the afternoon; I'm going to be up all night. "Jess always makes me hard," Calum teases back and I hold in my laugh. "Wanker." I feel Ashton push Calum into me.

"Seriously though," I give him a side glance, "You were never this nervous to be around her before." Calum suddenly looks down to the floor, our wet shoes leaving behind evidence of our footprints on the brick paving. Calum shrugs nonchalantly, "When we ended things last year, it wasn't exactly on good terms—she had said certain things that I couldn't say back, I wasn't ready for the next step and she was. End of story. Now I'm just so scared of fucking it up further, so I'm giving her space, time—whatever she needs."

I nodded at his words, remembering that their break-up had been kind of sudden. One look at his pouting, guilt stricken face and I knew I had to distract him. "What floor again?" I ask Calum once we're inside, rubbing my hands together, it's beginning to get chilly and I think I can actually see my breath come out in a puff of smoke in front of me.

"Three—no, four. Four. It's definitely four." Ashton and I share a look and I shake my head and smile. Calum had been banging this girl for nearly a year and he still struggles with what floor she lives on. We bound up the stairs, and my muscles scream at me in agony, still not over me pushing them at the gym this week. My black t-shirt tightens around the top of my bicep when I reach forward to open the stairwell door on floor 4.

We walk into the hallway, and although you can't physically hear any music or laughing or chatting of any kind, the hint of a party runs through my body and down my spine. Maybe I've just become accustomed to parties, I can feel when they're near; I can sense the excitement of someone dancing, smell the alcohol being spilled, feel that rush of sensation when you're about to hook up with someone for the first time.

Or maybe I'm just nervous as fuck to see Vivienne.

We walk down the hall as Calum looks at all of the doors, or rather, the numbers on them. "Twenty one, twenty three...There it is, twenty five." He stops just outside a dark wooden door and takes a deep breath in. His shoulders rise and then sag. "You can do this, you can do this. You have a plan. You're a man with a plan You. Are. The. Man." I shift my eyes to Ashton, who looks like he's about to roll onto the floor with laughter, but holds it in for Calum's sake.