Settle Down // Irwin

21

"So you're grounded?" Jade said to Calum.

She was sitting on the side of his bed and he was lying in it. Shirtless, with his hand covering his eyes to shield him from the light that was far too bright for his hungover and delicate eyes.

"Yeah." Calum sighed pulling his eyes away. "After coming home this morning in the state I did..." He trailed off and sighed again and began messaging his temples. "I thought my mom was going to disown or kill me."

Jade chuckles softly. She had never seen Calum like this before. Obviously she had seen him drunk before but never like this the morning after.

"You should have called me when you wanted picked up." Jade tells him.

He nods. "I know but it was really early I left this morning and I didn't want to wake you."

Jade nodded and appreciated Calum not wanting to wake her early. But if she did she could have left Ashton's earlier and not had to face the fact he couldn't remember a thing last night and thought him and Jade had sex. She was still in a state of shell shock. She ran out of Ashton's so quickly, afraid she might cry, that she didn't even ask him if he was coming to hers later for math tutoring. Probably not considering he clearly has a huge hangover. To be fair to Ashton he's not anything like what Calum is right now. But somehow Calum has been able to remember most of his night. But it seemed pretty boring. He just drank by Charlie as she spoke to others. That's how he got so trashed.

"But..." Calum sighed and ran his fingers through his black hair. "I need to talk to you." He locked eyes with Jade and that's when she knew he was going to tell her something serious.

"Yeah," Jade said hesitantly. "What's wrong?"

"I'm worried you will hate me." Calum said and stared down the bed to his feet. "I don't know why you would hate me though. Because it's not like you like me. Well I mean you like me but you don't like-like me. You like-like Ashton, who made your night hell whilst I stayed behind with Charlie and got drunk. You had to go home because Ashton was such a dick..." Calum was beginning to ramble so Jade just let him continue. She wasn't really listening. It wasn't going to be anything important that Calum was going to tell her. He probably just thought it was. But then he said a sentence which made Jade snap back into focus.

"So we had sex." Calum shrugs and Jade stares at him with a blank expression.

Who? What? When? Why? What the fuck was Calum saying?

"Who had sex?" Jade asks.

Calum looks at Jade and then hesitantly says. "Me and Charlie." Then he rolls his eyes. "Did you lay attention to anything I just said?"

Jade couldn't answer though. She felt sick. She felt her chest tighten, her throat close up and her stomach was filled with the dolphins from a water park. They were doing multiple flips in her stomach, she felt her food from yesterday starting to fight it's way up.

"...Charlie?" She felt something else too. Jealousy. "You and Charlie... sex?" Jade managed out.

"Yeah." Calum says, he sounds in disbelief himself. "Like I have already said," he points out. "Everyone was leaving and we were both plastered. You were long gone and Michael left in a bad mood. So it was kind if just me and Charlie... and stuff happened."

There was definitely some some jealousy in Jade. She felt it flush her cheeks and clench her fists. She wasn't jealous about Calum and Charlie being together. She didn't care. She didn't like Charlie and Calum together because she was worried Calum would get hurt, not because she wanted him. She was jealous because Calum got what he wanted with the person he liked. He was able to sleep with Charlie and Ashton couldn't even remember that Jade took him home.

"Oh." She says shortly. She didn't know what he wanted her to say.

"You're mad." Calum decided.

Jade shook her head. "I'm not mad." She told him. "Confused. But not mad."

"What're you confused about?" Calum begins to sit up, holding his head.

"Charlie." Jade shrugged. "She is weird."

"She's not weird." Calum said quickly, automatically coming to her defence.

"Come on Calum," Jade sighed. "She has got you wrapped around her finger. Don't you see it? You are totally under her spell." Jade stopped talking and Calum scoffed.

"Okay I knew you would be mad, I expected it, but are you really that jealous?" Calum said.

"I'm not jealous!" Jade yelled and Calum groaned, holding his head. Jade lowered her volume. "I'm not jealous. I'm just... just..." She wasn't anything else because she was jealous but not for the reason Calum was thinking.

"Jealous." Calum said. "And a hypocrite." He spat.

"Excuse me?" Jade raised her eyebrows at him in shock and confusion at what he has just said.

"I know you hate the fact I like Charlie." Calum says accusingly. "And I know you hate it knowing that we were together last night. But at least the person I like is a good person and doesn't beat up my best friend. Charlie actually treats you like a person, Jade." Calum points out making Jade fall silent just as she was going to protest. "Unlike what Ashton treats me like and you still throw yourself at him." Jade looks down at her feet. She knew Calum was right, like normal, but she didn't want him to know it.

"If you weren't tutoring Ashton he wouldn't have given you the time of day." Calum spits at her. "And do you know what he still doesn't god you the time of day now." Calum finishes by saying and Jade shakes her head.

"He kissed me." She says quietly when Calum opens his mouth to speak again.

"What?" Calum says suddenly.

"He kissed me." Jade says a little louder. She wanted Calum to know just how wrong he was.

Calum lets out a fake laugh. "Was this after he made you cry?"

"You are a dick!" Jade yells and stands up.

"I can't believe you!" Calum yells back. "He was the one who made you cry last night and he gets a kiss and I get called a dick. Do you not see how fucked up your logic is?" Calum laughs again. "I can't believe you let him kiss you." He mumbles and brings his knees to his chest.

"You're being ridiculous." Jade scoffs. She picks up the jumper from the foot of Calum's bed. She still was wearing Ashton's jumper even though she was upset with him.

"I'm being sensible." Calum replies smugly.

"You had sex with Charlie Collins lay night!" Jade yells and Calum shushes her. "That is not sensible."

"Get out." Calum says suddenly.

"Gladly." Jade makes her way over to the door. "Have fun with Charlie." She fake smiles at Calum.

"Have fun with Ashton." Calum fakes the same smile back and Jade leaves.

She says goodbye to Joy who is looking at her like she wants to ask a million questions but doesn't say anything. And Jade is so thankful.

Jade only wants to talk to one person. But she is supposed to be mad at that person. That's what any sane person would feel. She is supposed to be mad at them for many reasons but she just can't be. Because it's Ashton she can't feel mad at him. She just needs him right now. She only has him right now.

Sort of, anyway.