university | lrh

06 - little girl

Elise Halder
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I didn't fall asleep that night.

Instead, I stayed awake replaying the nights events, over analyzing Luke's every word, and simply stressing myself out.

The morning was a blur. I ended up keeping Luke's shirt, after he'd panicked at the sight of me about to walk outside in my skimpy tank, and made me put it back on. I was blushing the entire walk back to my dorm, but he pretended he didn't notice.

The drop off was quick, because neither of us wanted a certain foul-mouthed girl with blue hair to catch us together. In fact, we didn't say much at all. Neither of us knew how to address the prior night, and I was too focused on avoiding his intense gaze on me to form any coherent words.

Cassie bombarded me with questions the second I stepped through the door, to which I avoided and simply told her I'd slept in some empty room at the frat house. Only, I hadn't specified which frat I was talking about.

And after a weekend of nothing but catching up on some much needed sleep, Cassie and I are now sprawled out amongst piles of blankets and pillows on the middle of our dorm room floor, rewatching episodes of Gossip Girl but hardly paying attention to the screen.

We should be in class right now. Luke's class, in particular, but I'd bribed Cassie to skip our English lesson with me in exchange for two bags of sour skittles.

I just couldn't face him yet. I was embarrassed, to say the least, that he had practically babysat me that night out of pity. The absolute last thing I wanted that man to see me as was some stupid kid who couldn't stick up for herself or handle her alcohol.

It's a peaceful break from Luke's intensity. That is, until a very loud and very distraught Ashton Irwin bursts through the unlocked door and rushes straight to our bathroom.

It's not even a second later before we see the two other usual suspects with faces mirroring Ashton's panicked one. I look to Michael first, and see the boy clutching a stained towel around his head for dear life, before glancing at Calum to see his usual black muscle tee coated in similar stains.

Cassie's the first to speak. "I don't even want to know." She throws her body back into the mass of blankets.

I'm too curious to stay silent. "I do. What the hell happened to you guys?"

I think Calum is about to explain, but Ashton swings open the bathroom door and doesn't hesitate to gesture to the two other messy boys.

"These two fuckheads are too dumb to read a box of hair dye correctly, and now, I've got pink hands and Michael looks like My little Pony if the ponies tried to be punk rock. That's what happened." He holds up his fading pink palms and glares at the other two.

Cassie's jolts up again, suddenly interested. "Michael," She says slowly. "Please, for the love of god, tell me you didn't ruin your beautiful red hair." He looks from Cassie to Calum before answering.

"She wants me to lie to her-"

"Michael! You dipshit! How could you?" Her hand is clutching her chest in disbelief. "It's supposed to be blue and red, Michael! We're supposed to be purple!"

Calum snorts out a laugh. "Yeah, well, now you can be cotton candy, Cass." He rips the towel away from an unsuspecting Michael, revealing his freshly dyed pink hair.

Cassie is beyond frazzled at this point, scolding both Michael and Calum for being such dumbasses, while Ashton scrubs repeatedly at his pink tinted hands, mumbling something along the lines of "giving a kitten and a puppy too much responsibility".