17 Nights {c.h.}

+four+

i don't own looking for alaska but john green is perfect okay

The Fourth Day

“Good afternoon.” Mali greeted, entering the room with trays of coffee in both hands as she was chosen for this morning’s coffee run.

“Afternoon.” I sent her a tired smile, graciously accepting the cup she handed me. The hot beverage slid down my throat, my eyes lighting up now that my slight coffee withdrawal headache was relieved.

“Luke’s coming back tomorrow, right?” Ashton checked, thinking about his younger friend.

“Yeah, that’s what he told me.” Aubrey shrugged, sipping her tea.

“I’m gonna go for a little walk, call me if anything happens.” I stand up, stretching my arms over my head and wincing at the small pop it created.

“Mind if I tag along?” Michael asked after whispering something in Aubrey’s ear, to which she replied with a nod and a small smile. I shrugged, beckoning him to follow me with a small flick of the wrist.

“What’s up with the sudden impulse for exercise? You never exercise.” I accused, stopping in my tracks. “Especially after an entire day of school. What’s up?”

“You caught me,” he held his hands up in surrender; “I actually needed to talk to you about a few things.”

“What kind of things?”

“Calum kind of things.” This immediately sparked my interest, just like any time someone would mention my boyfriend.

“Go on.”

“Did you know Calum writes songs?” Michael asked, causing me to send a quizzical look his way,

“No, he never told me.” I shook my head, remembering the many times he would lazily strum the bass guitar he stashed in the corner of his room.

“He- it’s kind of weird- he asked me to show you something if you came home and something was happening with him.” Michael fussed with his hair, something I noticed he did a lot.

“Should we wait for a little longer?” I bit my lip, hoping Calum would wake up and show me himself.

“Tell you what. What if I show you in three days, since it would have been a week and all?”

“Deal.” I smiled, shaking his outstretched hand as we turned a corner, arriving back at Calum’s room.

After about an hour the rest of the guys had to go home for different reasons, leaving only Mali-koa and myself to watch over my boyfriend. Mr. and Mrs. Hood had gone who knows where earlier in the day; I assumed they had to go back to work in order to afford the hospital stay for their son.

Mali had left the room to talk to her boss about her situation, leaving me to my thoughts as I leisurely stroked my thumb across the back of his hand. They wandered from what I was missing at school, reminding me to give a call to my roommate to ask her to send over my book and to email my teachers to see what I should do because I couldn’t exactly leave Maryland to go back to California.

My mind flickered to Calum, like it has always seemed to do since our strange meeting just under a year ago. I couldn’t tell if it was some higher force, something showing me that I needed Calum just as much as he needed me, if not more. Maybe it was the fact that I needed to almost lose Calum since he had already come close to losing me.

I turned to dig through the bag I had packed, pulling out the book I had brought with me. Before I left for Stanford it wasn’t uncommon for Calum to request for me to read aloud to him. I had grabbed his favorite book, one he had requested numerous times: Looking for Alaska by everyone’s favorite author, John Green.