Who do you love?

7

"Calum that looks disgusting. I'm not eating that." Teal said, her face contorted as her hands ran through Duke's fir, the small dog seated happily on her lap.

"Shut up and just try it." He laughed, hand directly in front of her face still holding up the piece of bread covered in vegemite he had been trying to talk her into eating for twenty minutes. She and the usual dinner group had joined Calum in the guest house for a few drinks. The crew had to be on set practically twenty-four seven in case anything crazy happened so it wasn't like they had anywhere better to be.

"I'll give whoever eats it twenty bucks." Pete said, eyeing the slice warily.

"Well shit, don't threaten me with a good time." Teal said, releasing Duke and grabbing the item from Calum's hand, taking a large bite before she could overthink it. She grimaced and covered her mouth running over to grab a paper towel off the roll before spitting out the offending food as Calum and the other boys burst into fits of hysteria, laughing at her expense.

"Gimme my money." Teal said, running water in the sink and catching it in her hand before splashing it into her mouth in an attempt to rid her tastebuds of the foul flavor.

"I said I'd give someone who ate it twenty. I didn't say you'd get it if you put it in your mouth and spit it back up." Teal glared at him as Calum, Lorenzo and Anthony all worked to regain control of themselves.

"Fuck you." She told him, a smile breaking across her face showing that she wasn't really mad. This was typical, as long as she had known the boys, they'd always indulged in this kind of behavior and over the past year she'd simply become another one of the boys when she was with them.

"C'mon T, you should have seen your face." Calum said through his chuckles and she had to force herself to contain the rush she felt in her chest as he called her 'T'. The alcohol in her veins was working to make that a bit more difficult though and she hoped that not only Calum, but her friends as well, were too inebriated to notice the way her cheeks reddened beneath the kitchen lights.

"You said it was good. You fucking lied." She retorted.

"It is good, look." He said with a smirk, dipping his finger into the jar and swiping a glob that he quickly ate.

She gaped at him, the others around staring at him with much the same expression, before her face contorted into a look of disgust. "How the actual hell do you just eat it like that."

He shrugged, "I dunno, just do."

"Gross."

"You're gross." He said childishly, a quick poke out of his tongue completing the look before he reached out and gently touched his hand to her shoulder. The contact was again brief, much the same as when she had touched his hand earlier in the day but it was nonetheless overwhelming. His scent stuck to her skin, the smell something pinesy with a hint of nicotine, the last trace of a smoked cigarette still clinging to him and now infiltrating her nostrils before he moved away and the moment was over before it had really even gotten a chance to begin.

They stayed an hour longer, drinking and laughing until Teal's sides hurt and she mentioned that they should all probably think about heading to bed so they wouldn't be completely useless the next day.

"No stay." Calum said, his lower lip pouting as his deep brown eyes softened and he looked hurt by the fact that she would even suggest they leave.

She gulped down a breath not wanting him to see the effect his sad look was having on her but the tug at the base of her stomach was making that increasingly difficult. Her mouth dried as she looked up at him, the others distracted with squeezing in one last round of shots. "I—uh—I think we better go." She forced out, her tongue darting from between her partially parted lips to wet them. "Don't want to give Brad a reason to bitch me out in the morning."