More Than Friends | Cody Herbinko

1000

"So, Amber," Luke starts, glancing at me in the mirror. "Tell us a little about yourself."

"Well, there's not much to tell, but I'm 16, I guess that's a start," I laugh. "I don't have a lot of friends other than Cody and my internet best friend, Reb. I love music, like, highkey love."

"We're all 19 besides Ashton, who's 21, and we're a tight knit group," Calum laughs.

"We love music, too," Luke says. "What kind of music do you like?"

"All kinds, to be honest."

"What about Halsey?" Calum pulls out his phone.

"I love her!" I say, and Calum streams Badlands to the car audio, and "Castle" starts playing.

"Who else do you like?"

"Twenty One Pilots, Black Veil Brides, Bring Me The Horizon, Demi Lovato, and too many to list," I laugh.

"Same here," Luke says, making a left turn.

"Sounds about right," Calum agrees with a grin.

"Music just makes everything better, you feel?"

"I so get that." Luke nods. We keep talking about music for a while before Calum speaks up.

"Amber, what are we going to do from here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean about your boyfriend," he says, chewing his lip.

"I don't know," I sigh, pulling out my phone and checking to see if I have anything from him. I see I have a bunch of things from Arden and chose to ignore them.

"Try calling him again," Luke suggests, and I do. Calum watches me as I bite my lip nervously, the phone ringing once, twice, three times. I count the rings, and when they get to ten, it goes to voicemail. I decide to leave one, since I hadn't tried up until now.

"Hey, this is Cody. I can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message after the beep." Cody's voice sounds from my phone, and I look down, my hair shielding my face.

"Hey, Cody? It's me. I'm sorry. Please call me back. I," my breath catches in my throat. "I need you," I say, my voice breaking. I hang up and stare at my phone in my lap.

"We're going to fix this. Don't worry," Calum tells me, putting a hand on my shoulder comfortingly.

"Thanks, guys," I say with a sigh. "Would you mind if I call Reb?"

"Go right ahead," Luke says, and Calum nods. I message Reb before calling her, and she picks up immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"A lot of shit went down," I sigh, rubbing my temples with one hand.

"First off, where are you now?"

"I'm in a van with two boys I met at the beach."

"You what?"

"You heard me. I don't want to do this right now, Reb," I sigh, holding back a laugh.

"Are they hot," she says, making it sound like a statement and not a question.

"Yes."

"How hot? Like on a scale from 1 to 10."

"Can we focus here?"

"I need answers," she scolds, and I laugh.

"On motherfucking fire. You happy?"

"So that would be like, 100?"

"Try 1,000." I twist a strand of hair around my finger. "Okay, enough of this, I have to talk to you, Reb."

"Don't get pregnant."

"Reb!"

"Okay, okay, sorry. But you have those condoms in your bag, right?"

"Reb!" I laugh. "Shut up!" I hear her laughing uncontrollably on the other end of the line.

"I couldn't help myself."

"I noticed," I reply wryly.

"Okay, so, you—hold up. Hold up a fucking second. Where's Cody?"

"That's why I had to call you."

"I'm listening."

"We were in the ocean, and Luke threw a ball at Cody's head."

"I did not! It was an unfortunate accident!"

"That was Luke," I laugh. "Basically, one thing lead to another, and Luke kissed me. I kissed him back, and Cody got mad and left me here."

"Say what now?"

I don't stop. "Then, Arden fucking comes out of nowhere and drags me into a bathroom after bitch slapping me. He like, licks my neck, and I don't want to know what else he was planning on doing, but in the end, I kneed him in the balls again, kicked him, bit him, and punched him."

"Slay that bitch." Reb claps, making me laugh.

"He, of course, doesn't know when to give up, so I was sitting in the sand crying, right? Oh, at that point, Luke and Calum came. So, Arden comes and basically treats me like an object, and Luke and Calum slayed him. But he like, grabbed me and basically yanked my fucking arm out of its fucking socket. Then, Luke pried him off me, Arden bitch slapped me again, Luke punched him, and finally, group hug."

"Well. I have to admit. Arden is a fucking bastard, to say the least."

"I know, right?"