chasing love ;; cth

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

**Valerie's POV**

I anxiously knock on the door, looking down at my phone to see that it's already 12 a.m. I wait patiently as I hear foot steps getting louder and louder by the second, the door knob soon slowly turning. The barrier between us disappears and my eyes meet a bewildered Calum.

"Valerie? What are you doing here?" He speaks in a hushed tone.

"I came to apologize. And I brought a first aid kit," I smile weakly, holding up my bag for him to see.

"I'm fine, you really didn't need to bring all this," He whispers, but I can see a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Calum, your lip is bleeding and your eye is throbbing, please let me in,"

"Okay," he obliges, opening the door. I make my way inside the dimly lit room, sitting on the bed that is right beside his.

"Where's your roommate?" I ask as he closes the door and sits across from me on his bed.

"He moved in with his girlfriend that lives outside of campus," He informs me as he slouches over, running his hands through his hair.

I open up my bag and pull out the small kit, rummaging through it to find what I need, "And he still pays for dorm services?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure he moved out completely, they just haven't assigned me a new roommate,"

"Oh," I reply awkwardly as I pour some rubbing alcohol onto a piece of gauze, "Listen Calum, I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions and automatically assuming you started the fight just because Adam told me you did. I was kind of surprised when he said you had started it, cause I never would have expected you to do something like that. Then Ashton told me what happened, and that Adam had started the fight, which made more sense. Plus he was drunk anyway I should have assumed he started the fight to begin with. Just please forgive me?"

"Don't worry about it," He smiles warmly, "I completely understand, you were taking your boyfriend's side, I get it,"

"Thank you for understanding, but the way I spoke to you was horrible, I don't deserve to be forgiven," I reply, looking towards the floor in despair. I really had treated him horribly when he had done nothing wrong. I completely and one hundred percent hate myself for talking to him that way.

"Val, I said don't worry about it," He gives me a forgiving smile, "Plus I'm not one to hold a grudge,"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," I exclaim, affectionately wrapping my arms around his neck, "Now let's get you cleaned up,"

"You really don't have to do this," He insists as I bring the gauze towards his mouth,

"Calum, you have dried blood all over your cut lip," I grimace at the sight, "I'm not gonna hurt you,"

"Okay," He murmurs, tightly shutting his eyes. I turn a small light on his night table on. I lightly grasp his chin, positioning his head so I can better examine the cut. I gently rub the gauze covered in rubbing alcohol against his cut lip.

"Ahh it stings," He cringes from the pain, all his muscles tensing up.

"Shhhh, don't speak," I attempt to calm him down, delicately resting my hand against his cheek. "I'm almost done," I whisper, his body seeming to instantly become relaxed.

I continue to gently rub at his lip, as he tries extremely hard, not to flinch from the stinging pain. Everything is silent. I can clearly hear every inhale and exhale he takes, his chest slowly moving up and down.

"There," I state confidently, once his lip is completely clean of dried blood,

"Thank you," He mumbles, as I get up and walk to the other side of the room, tossing the now disgusting piece of gauze in the garbage.

"No problem," I smile warmly. Handing him a bag of ice I had brought, which he holds against his swollen eye.

We sit for about 20 minutes making small talk. He keeps the ice pack on his eye for the whole time, in hopes of the bruise disappearing.

"My eye is cold and starting to get numb," He chuckles, slowly removing the ice pack from his face, "Does this look any better,"

I take a step closer to get a better look, "Well it's not black and blue anymore, but it's still slightly swollen,"

"Alright, I think I'm done icing it for tonight," He says, getting up from his bed and dropping the bag with now mostly melted ice into the garbage. I watch as he goes over to a mini fridge that he keeps in his room and pulls out a beer bottle. I look beside him and notice 3 more empty bottles sitting next to the mini fridge. I didn't know he drank before I came here.

He turns around, just about to open the bottle when he notices how uncomfortable I look. He casually turns back around, putting the drink back in the mini fridge. I don't at all have a problem with him drinking and I don't want him to think that he can't drink cause I'm around. It's just he's already had three bottles, and I don't want to be around him when he's drunk, so that I can run into the same problem I did with Adam.

"Well it's getting late," I sigh, getting up and turning for the door, "I'm gonna head back now,"

"No," Calum opposed, firmly grabbing on to my shoulder, "Please stay with me,"

"Calum, I can't just sleep in your room," I explain turning to face him, giving him one of those 'are you freakin crazy?' looks.

"Yes you can," He pushes, "You can sleep in that bed, since it's empty now. Please just stay with me Val, I'm so lonely at night,"

I pause a second, my gaze traveling towards his face. I would expect him to hate me for the way I had talked to him, not want me to spend the night in his room with him. His bottom lip begins to quiver as he stares right back at me. He says nothing, but in his eyes I can see he is pleading for me to stay,

"Fine," I give in, as Calum begins to jump up and down in excitement, "But I'm not staying up and talking to you, It's almost 1 in the morning. I'm going to sleep."

"Aww please stay up with me," He whines, "We could pull an all-nighter," I think the symptoms from being drunk are finally beginning to kick in,

"Calum, we're 18 not 12, we need sleep. Plus I have class tomorrow,"

"But isn't your first class not until three?" He reminds me, a smug grin taking over once he realized he found a loophole.

"Yeah, but I'm dead tired, and it's already 1 am, so I'm probably gonna sleep until 3 in the afternoon," I yawn, climbing into the empty bed, next to Calum's.

"Sounds good to me," He chuckles, flicking the light off. I hear him move beneath the covers till he finally settles in, "Goodnight Val,"

"Goodnight Cal," I hum, before turning onto my side, and attempting to drift off to sleep.

I toss and turn in the bed, in desperation to fall asleep. I don't know what's keeping me up, but something is. Maybe I'm just uncomfortable, sleeping in Calum's room. That's probably it, but for some reason he's lonely and wants me here, so I'm just gonna have to get past it.

"Valerie?" Calum whispers,

"What?" I groan, not cracking my eyes open the slightest bit.

"Are you awake?" He asks, his voice getting a little louder.

"No," I reply. I can't help but admire how hot his voice is when it's groggy. It lowers about 2 octaves and sends chills running down my spine.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Calum, go to bed," I demand, hiding my head underneath the pillow to block out the noise. He doesn't respond, so assuming he followed my orders, I remove my head from underneath the pillow and try to go back to sleep,

"What's it like to be in love?" He giggles.

My eyes fling wide open. I am so taken aback by the question, I can't even make words come out of my mouth. I decide not to answer because he's obviously drunk and probably half asleep. He probably doesn't even realize he's talking.

There is a moment of silence before he speaks again, "I said, What's it like to be in love?"

"I-I don't know, why do you ask?" I studder.

"Just curious," He sighs,

"Oh well, I don't know, I guess I've never really been in love," I tell him, me being one hundred percent aware that it's a lie. I like Adam, a lot, but I'm not in love with him. The only person I was ever really been in love with, was Calum. I was in love with him for a while. I was in love with him for too long. But I'm not in love with him anymore, so he doesn't need to know about the whole 14 years.

"Oh," Is all he says, pausing for a moment, "But I think I'm in love,"

I abruptly sit up in bed, my eyes traveling towards him. I can barely make out his face in the darkness, but I raise an eyebrow at him as if he can see me.

"With Luke," He begins to laughs uncontrollably. He's definitely drunk.

"Okay Calum," I chuckle,

"I'm kidding," He continues to laugh, "I'm not in love with Luke, but I am in love,"

"With who?" I ask nervously, fumbling with my hands.

"I'm not telling you," He giggles,

"C'mon Calum, you already have me up, you might as well tell me," I whine, slightly interested to find out who he is talking about. Maybe I don't know the girl. Plus I shouldn't be jealous of her, it's not like Calum and I are dating or anything, he can like whoever he pleases.

"You'll have to find out for yourself," He yawns, rolling on his side, so that he is facing me.

"Calum, just tell me," I almost beg,

"Goodnight, Valerie," He hums, and I can almost make out his smug smile in the darkness.