FRIENDS

9

All I wanted was to find Ashton.

I spun around, away from the awful image of Michael kissing that girl with the blonde hair that I'd never seen before and I never wanted to see again.

I don't know how long I walked around the house looking for Ashton before I ran into Calum, my eyes misty and my heart pounding.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his eyes wide. Calum may not have caught on to little things like haircuts or new shoes, but he always noticed when I was hurt. Even if I showed little to no reaction towards the issue, he knew.

"Do you know where Ashton is?" I asked, ignoring his question. I just needed to talk to Ashton. Calum shrugged his shoulders.

"He's probably upstairs hooking up with Vanessa." He said nonchalantly, as if it was no big deal. Normally, it wouldn't be, but I needed him. I felt the tears well up even more and I knew that right away I was going to start crying. I shouldn't have gotten so worked up over Michael kissing someone else, but I did. I always did. "What's wrong, Ivy? Talk to me." Cal led me towards the patio doors and outside into the fresh air. He knew that I was going to cry, and there isn't a single soul in this world who wants to cry in a room full of people.

"I went to find Michael," I started, sniffling. "and he was kissing some girl. I know I shouldn't be this upset but I can't help it." I hid my face in my hands. Calum sighed and pulled me in for a hug.

"I don't know what to tell you. You keep letting him hurt you. Of course he's gonna kiss other girls, Ivy, he has no idea how you feel about him. You haven't put your feelings out in the open. What reason does he have not to kiss that other girl?" I shrugged my shoulders; Calum was right. I haven't ever been open with how I feel about Michael, yet I expect him to almost be faithful to me. How was he to know these things hurt me? He didn't. There was no way for him to know.

"You're right." I mumbled. I was drunk and emotional and now, I just wanted to go home. I hadn't expected today to play out like this.

Calum pushed my hair out of my face and frowned before pulling me in for another hug.

"I'm sorry that you keep getting hurt." He mumbled against my hair. We stayed like that, silent for a few minutes, before the patio doors opened.

"There you are! I've been looking for you." I looked up to see Lacey standing in the doorway, her hair all mussed up and her lipstick smeared slightly. She looked at me in a way that made it seem like she had no idea that she looked like such a wreck.

"Here I am." I murmured, pulling away from Cal. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and said a quiet hello to Lacey. She had obviously just been hooking up with someone else, which meant that whatever plans she'd had for her and Calum that night were now ruined.

"The line for the washroom was so long." She moaned, throwing her hair up in a ponytail. She'd gotten it straightened earlier, but it had started to curl slightly in the back. "And then when I went back to where I'd left you, you were gone. Where did you go?" She asked. I wanted to giggle at how disheveled she looked, but I knew that would be mean.

"I forget and went to look for one of the guys." I admitted. "I'm really drunk." Lacey giggled.

"Yeah, I figured that out when you started leaning against the wall because standing was too hard." We both laughed and Calum shifted awkwardly beside me.

"I'm gonna go look for Ashton, alright? We should probably go soon if you're this drunk, Ivy. You're going to end up throwing up." I nodded my head and a moment later, he was off in search of our friends so that we could go.

Lacey led me over to the little table on the corner of the patio and sat me down, then sat in the chair beside me. She smiled happily out into the darkness.