Who's Gonna Love You Like Me? [Brother's Best Friend!Calum AU]

Part 6

The day was scratching at her skin and Josie was desperate for it to stop, restless in the house as multiple attempts of distracting herself failed. She had Saturdays off, but the boys didn't, and so Josie was left alone in the house trying to find ways to occupy herself before her thoughts took over and the desire to smother herself with a pillow being prominent. Cooking, cleaning her room, reorganizing her closet, trying to find a place of her own—none of it pulled her attention away from the mocking thoughts reminding her of the mess her drunken self had created the night before.

She'd been living in blissful ignorance the first few hours since she had woken up, groaning out of bed and dragging herself into the shower to get last night's stench off of her. Then out of nowhere, when she was in the living room enjoying the Wendy's she had gotten from Postmates, memories from last night began fluttering through her head and Josie had damn neared choked on her French fries when she was reminded of the things she had stupidly let slip to the last person she should've said them to.

Josie wanted to blame the alcohol—hell, she was even willing to blame Austin for putting her in the mood to drink after his annoying, uncalled for texts—but assigning blame wasn't going to take back the shit she had rambled. It replayed in her head like a bad dream she couldn't stop thinking about, and now all Josie wanted to do was some serious damage control and somehow talk herself out of it.

But how could she, when she knew she'd only been speaking the truth?

Calum hadn't been home when she'd woken up, which was somewhat strange since she'd woken up at eleven and he didn't have work until five. At first, Josie figured he went out for a run or the gym, but he'd never come back to the house and her stomach churned uneasily at the thought of him avoiding her. There was a chance she was jumping to conclusions, of course, but social media showed Calum at Ashton's place all day before heading to work and Josie didn't know what to think. A tiny part of her brain told her to stop overthinking, overreacting, but the majority of her was an expert in psyching herself out.

And with Calum—fuck, she never knew what to think.

Josie desperately wished things were easier, wished that her brain didn't cease all function when Calum was involved. She should see it as a sign to move on, to stop spending so much time and energy on a man who would be too complicated to be with—to stop focusing on boys in general. But moving on from Calum was easier said than done. One night with him, months ago, still played in her head like a favorite movie. And despite Josie getting back together with Austin just weeks after Calum had left, she ultimately broke up with him again for the same reasons as before—with the added issue of being unable to get Calum out of her head. He wasn't her brother's best friend anymore, and crossing that line was either Josie's biggest mistake or best decision.

Right now, it seemed to be teetering off to the former.

Gonna be home late tonight. Got a date. Don't wait up!!

Josie groaned at the text from Luke, removing her brother as a source of distraction for herself—not that Luke would serve well in that role. She would probably end up thinking about how terrible of a sister she was for more or less betraying Luke's trust when she hooked up with Calum. Not that that thought didn't already swim around in her head, particularly when she was in the house with both men—though it didn't happen much, given that they all worked and had different schedules. The universe wasn't totally against her.

But today, Josie was desperate for Calum to come home.

She had half a mind to show up to the bar, but Josie knew she'd only end up embarrassing herself. God knows what she'd look like popping up out of nowhere, demanding Calum that they talk about the shit she had said last night. She probably made enough of a fool of herself last night, but they still needed to talk about it. Enough pushing away, enough walking on egg shells and enough ill-advised drunken confessions. Clearing the air, once and for all, would help them either completely move on or take a step in a different direction.