Red Hair Don't Care // 5SOS

Chapter 8

I awoke to candy wrappers, half eaten bags of crisps, and an arm lazily slung around my torso. The idiot was sprawled face down like a star fish in the middle of the living room floor. I was curled in a tight ball on my side covered in a warm duvet, half of which draped across Calum. The tv was still on with lousy infomercials dancing across the screen. Remembrance of last night's events flash behind my eyes; movies, pizza, snacks, and the comfort of my best friend after a stressful night. Gosh I've missed evenings like this.

My phone quickly finds its way to my hand and an aggravated groan escapes my lips. No one should ever wake up at four in the morning on a weekend. I place the phone down again and search for the remote, finding it on the couch behind Calum. I attempt to reach over the unconscious body, crawling half way across and balancing gingerly on my toes and one hand. As the remote is just within my grasp the doofus rolls over knocking my feet from under me. I collapse on his stomach startling him into a sleepy haze.

"What are you doing?" He yawns.

"I was trying to get the remote," I huff.

"You missed," he chuckles.

"No kidding," I groan and bury my face in my arms as the exhaustion creeps further into my system.

Calum sits up and grabs the remote, turning off the tv and filling the room with darkness and silence. He lifts me from my corpse plank and rests me onto his lap. He wraps his arms around my body as I lay against his chest. I feel my eyes growing heavier as my breathing harmonizes with the rise and fall of his chest. His embrace is so comforting, and he's so warm. He begins to recline, bringing me parallel to the floor with him.

"Go back to sleep," he coos softly. I nod sleepily and nuzzle further into his side. Black nothingness fills my vision as I begin to drift away.

Buzz buzz

"Who on earth is texting you at four in the morning?" I question, sleep deprived irritation lacing my words. As he retrieves the device I hiss at the sudden brightness illuminating from the screen.

"Mali. She told us to shut up people are sleeping," he chuckles.

"Tell her I'm sleeping and to stop texting you," I mumble. Calum chuckles above me and types away. As the message is sent he locks the phone and puts it down again. He sighs in exhaustion and wraps an arm around my back.

"You're like a punk teddy bear," he mumbles incoherently.

"You too," I laugh tiredly. He mumbles something else I can't make out as sleep takes him over. I blindly trace patterns across his arm and hand waiting for sleep to knock me out again. My mind begins to wander, thoughts drifting in and out like an ocean current.

I smile to myself in spite of my dreaded exhaustion as memories of previous movie nights reflect back to my conscious mind. Calum always knew which movies to watch and when. On our normal hangouts we watched anything from Disney/Pixar to Predator. On the days I was tormented he selected a mind thrilling action film to remove the negative thoughts from my head. And on the day my mom died we watched everything from the Angie's Favorites shelf. He's always looked out for me in the simplest of ways, but they were the ways that kept me smiling. For him, at least. I glance up at the sleeping giant once more before my lids fall and my mind becomes blank.

Pancakes. I smell pancakes. My eyes flutter open as my senses come alive at the lovely aroma of food wafting into the living room. Calum is no longer beside me and a shirt is left in his place. My hand clasps the random article of clothing as I trudge sleepily into the kitchen. Joy is standing in front of the stove flipping golden circular pieces of Heaven with her son mixing batter beside her. He turns to face me, his shirtless figure exposing inked skin.