figure my heart out // muke

2

The party wasn't that eventful for me apart from the pizza incident. After that, I trudged my way into Calum's bedroom and locked the door. I face planted on the bed, making it bounce a bit before I shut my eyes and allowed sleep to take over me.

I woke up around noon but didn't leave Calum's bedroom until 1pm. I was surprised to see all the house guests had gone and Calum was standing in the kitchen making himself a sandwich.

I couldn't help but cringe, my face folding into disgust as he slapped the ham onto the buttered bread, slammed another piece of bread on top and took a hungry bite out of it. The worst part of it all was that he was making this sandwich on top of the bare counter without a chopping board or plate. It made me wonder what remainents were left on there and if he just swallowed someone's excrement.

I walked over to sit on one of the black bar stools that were placed in front of the counter. I almost relaxed my hovering arms on it but ended up placing them comfortably in my lap instead.

"So, have fun?" Calum chewed. Unfortunately my view of him was not pretty as he was an open mouth chewer.

"Ummm" I fakely pondered, "Yeah it was fun"

"Great!" He exclaimed with eyebrows raised and a grin on his face, "Now do I have a proposition for you Clifford!" He pointed at me all excitedly.

I eye rolled in my head. "What is it?" I asked him, half curious on what he might be offering. I was hoping it was something else than another party invite.

"Well, my other best friend, Ashton, he wants to go on a roadtrip for a couple of weeks. He invited me and said that I could invite someone to tag along, so I told him that you would be coming"

I furrowed my eyebrows as I processed the words he was saying. I wasn't angry but I was quite upset he didn't communicate this with me first. Maybe I didn't want to go on a car-sick vacation for however long. That is a lot of commitment and a lot of planning that needed to be put into this. Not everyone can ditch their lives for some stupid roadtrip. Unfortunately for me though, Calum knew I didn't have any solid commitments or plans as my job was completely on my own terms.

"I mean, I guess" I shrugged, "I don't have anything planned." I was more or so convincing myself that this would be a fun idea. "Is it just going to be you, me and this Ashton guy?" I paused after my question, thinking about how I've never even met this guy and now I'll be spending a few weeks with him. "Wait, who the fuck is Ashton?"

"Ashton is my friend. I swear I've introduced you guys at some point, he's the same height as us and has brown curlyish hair" Calum explained as he moved his left hand around his black shaved head, "And yeah, Luke's coming with us as well"

My eyes widened at that name being recalled, "Luke Hemmings?"

Calum furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at my response, then his facial features relaxed into a content nod. "Yeah, him. I don't remembering introducing you two though."

"Oh yeah" I awkwardly giggled and looked down at the hands in my lap as my fingers were twirling around eachother in anxiety, "I kind of met him last night, it was only for a brief moment though."

"Awww" Calum smiled, "Well I'm glad you got along. I was kind of scared. Well I know you two have similar tastes in interests but I had a feeling you guys would butt heads for some reason" Calum trailed off as he lowered his head to take another bite of his sandwich.

I didn't want to let Calum down. If I told him the interaction I had with Luke was not a nice one, he'd try to justify it. That's the thing, Calum would try to defend people even if they were shitty in nature. He's a true optimist and believes that people can change for the better. I mean even if he tried justifying Luke's actions, how would he defend him? He wasn't there to see it all unfold.

And yes, I'll admit that the situation escalated with me and Luke because I was going to steal his pizza. In my defence, he didn't answer the door. I saw an opportunity and took it. Luke should have payed more attention instead of having such an awful attitude on him.

"And look, I'm really excited to go on a roadtrip with just me and my best mates in the whole wide world. Plus, Ashton has a spacious mini van! So we won't be cramped since I know you can get very agitated in small spaces."

I started to smile at the thought of Calum thinking of me ahead of the trip. Knowing that I wouldn't be stuck in a tiny clown car with 3 other guys (one I knew well, two I only just met) made ease wash over me. I started to grow a liking to the idea of a roadtrip. It would be nice to get out of my cold and lonely apartment. It would be nice to escape this underground town I lived in and go somewhere new.

"When is it?" I asked him as I made eye contact with his face again, he was nearly finished his sandwich.

"We start our little adventure this Saturday" he answered, my eyes widening at the realisation that this Saturday was the day after tomorrow.

Firstly, he invites me on a trip without asking me and now he's given me less than one days notice? He must of noticed the dismay displayed on my face as he continued, "It was quite a spontaneous idea, Mikey. Everyone was notified short notice, not just you."

"Ok" I said, not wanting to make this into a back and forth argument with him.

"I'll pick you up from your place at 7ish"

"7 in the morning?!?!" I cried, "I'm not waking up at 7am in the morning. That's physically impossible for me and you know it."

"If you aren't awake by 7, I will use the spare key you gave me to let myself into your apartment and slap you with your own pillow until you're fully awake and out that door" he paused to swallow some of his saliva before continuing, "And I'm not joking, I'm dead serious."

"I know" I laugh, "You've done it many times before."