(A/N) I probably don't say this enough but I would just like to thank you all so much. I started writing this not expecting that I was even going to publish it on anything and just be my little secret that I reread in years to come with my children type of thing. But when I started posting chapters on here, I was hoping to get at least 100 reads. Now we're almost at 5k. I read every single comment and they (as cringe as this may sound) fill me with joy. You guys really keep me motivated and this has really boosted my confidence in creative writing. So, thank you all so much for all the support <3

I'll stop being corny now and let you read.

Don't forget to vote and comment. Enjoy :)

I took a step out of the bathroom. My body was finally back to my normal body temperature. After applying moisturiser to my skin and putting on my comfort onesie, I finally felt relaxed.

I sat on my bed and plugged my phone on charge. I tried catching up on my emails when a noise kept distracting me.

Screaming. I could hear screaming at 4 in the morning.

I stood up out of bed and walked towards my window. There was no one out there and the sound had stopped. When I sat back down on my bed, the dreadful screams echoed through my room again.

I rushed out into the hallway and my heartrate lowered when I saw a short, blonde girl screaming on the TV through the small gap between the door and the wall. Calla was watching a horror movie. Thank God it wasn't anyone in real life.

With my mind more at ease, I leisurely strolled back to the threshold of my room. Something stopped me from going in.

My hand clutching onto the small, round doorhandle used to enter my room, I sighed. Calla only watches horror when she's upset. The thing that made me start making my way back outside her room was the fact that I knew reason she was cooped up by herself watching horror was because of me.

I let out a silent, small sigh. I cracked my knuckles and slowly opened the door revealing Calla's room.

She sat on her bed with her knees to her chest, the cover so high I could only just about see her eyes. She quickly glanced over to me, a sad, tired smile appearing on her face.

I didn't know what to do next. Do I stand and talk or sit down next to her? Either way, I was going to have to talk to her. So, I suppose it didn't matter where I stood. After a few seconds of me awkwardly standing in the threshold of her room, she shifted to the side, presenting room for me to sit next to her. I slowly walked over and sat down next to her.

This was very strange to me, feeling awkward. Usually, I know exactly what to say. But words evaded me now. I didn't know where to start as I was still kind of lost as to why she was annoyed at me.

I sat quietly and stared blankly at the television propped up on her wall.

After a while, I heard a small sigh escape her lips before she covered the lower half of my body with some of the duvet. I smiled. This was like her offering out an olive branch.

With anyone else, I would have given up with not knowing what I had allegedly done wrong. But Cals acting like this was so out of character. Something was bothering her more than usual and it would have been morally wrong of me to ignore it any further.

She was one of my closest friends and I needed to be there for her right now.

"Are you okay?" I stupidly asked using that to break-the-ice. I knew she wasn't alright.

"I mean- I know you're not alright. Especially from the screams coming from the TV," I nervously laughed trying to add some type of humour the situation.

"Yeah," she whispered in response.

"So, what did I do?"

Her head turned so she was now looking directly at me. It was only now that I noticed the slight tinge of redness to her eyes and the way her face was puffier than normal. She had been crying and I suddenly felt terrible. "You really don't know?"

"No..." I tried racking my brain for any type of answer but it just came to nothing. So much had happened over the last twenty-four-hours that I couldn't remember much.

Calla huffed and shook her head as I caught a glimpse of a single tear escaping her eye before she viciously wiped it away. "You know that guy I was speaking to online?" She started but instead of looking at me, she stared at the TV. She wasn't paying attention to what was going on in the movie and I could tell that by the way her eyes were still, not following the action of the film.

I nodded my head but soon realised she probably couldn't hear me, "Yeah?"

"Well, they stood me up. You were right." My jaw dropped. I felt so bad. I hadn't even remembered to ask how it went with him.

"Oh, and that's not even the worst part. I stupidly organised a second date and got stood up again."

I instantly pulled her into a tight hug. There was no hesitation in her accepting the gesture. We sat in each other's arms as tears silently escaped from Calla's eyes. I felt terrible.

She sat up, her back straight against her headboard as we resumed our previous sitting positions. I grabbed a tissue out of the box that was sat on her bedside table and offered it to her.

"It was hard. I liked him, sure, but that wasn't the hard part," she began to explain. I wanted her to know that she had my full attention and I did that by getting a hold of the remote and pausing the TV. "It was not being able to come and tell you everything like I normally would have. I didn't want to go and overwhelm you even more with my own problems when you were clearly struggling with your own. It- it sucked," she stuttered.

I heavily sighed as I ran my hand over my face in frustration. I should have been there for her. It wasn't fair. I was too consumed in my own silly little bubble that I forgot about other things. I knew sorry wasn't going to cut it, but it was the only thing I could think about doing.

"I'm so sorry, Cals. I honestly didn't mean to... make you feel like you couldn't come to me. I'm not going to make excuses. I hate knowing... I just should have been there. I'm sorry."

A light hearted laugh from Calla threw me off completely. I looked at her with the confusion I was feeling present on my face. What was funny?

"I've never seen you look so apologetic before," she explained through small giggles. "and it's alright. You are forgiven," she pretend bowed to me and I grinned at her.

"Thank you," I grinned, earning me an eyeroll.

"I've never known you to be so sappy before. What's wrong with you?" Calla questioned suspiciously, putting the back of her hand on my forehead pretending to check for a high temperature. Just like that, we were back.

That's one of the many things I loved about my friend group, not one of us held grudges. We all spoke through whatever happened and moved on. There was no needed to ponder too much over stuff when you can just confront the issue and get it dealt with.

I shrugged my shoulders, "Nothing is wrong with me. If anything, I feel okay at the moment."

Calla nodded her head before unpausing the TV, resuming the terrible film that was playing. I only watched a few minutes of it and I could tell how bad it was.

"Calla, this acting is horrendous."

"I'm proud of you, you know?" What was that in relevance to?

"Okay?" I nervously chuckled, not sure what she was referring to.

"For speaking up to Jace."

"Yeah?"

She glanced at me from the corner of her eye, "Yup. I should get you a medal." I knew she couldn't go too long without saying something jokey, but that didn't take away from what she had just confessed. She was proud of me and I won't be letting her forget that any time soon.

I threw the duvet off the both of us and grabbed Calla's hand. I began pulling her up off the bed, "What are you doing?" She complained, dragging out the end of the word to emphasise her annoyance.

I rolled my eyes at her complaining, "We're going downstairs with Syd and Lucas. I'm not letting you sulk up here all by yourself. So, stop resisting."

"Fine," she gave in and got up herself.

I jokingly skipped downstairs and into the kitchen. I stopped. Immediately.

Sydney and Lucas were kissing.

"You guys are two of my closest friends and I'm very glad that you're both happy. But my eyes did not need to see that. Please get a room." Lucas laughed and Sydney was clearly embarrassed.

When I finally felt Calla standing behind me, I put my arm around her shoulders and grinned at Lucas and Syd, "I have an announcement to make," I started proudly.

Calla sighed and raised her hand to her face, "Do you really have to do this?"

"Yes. Yes, I do," I grinned at her, earning an eyeroll from Calla. It felt nice to be messing around with everyone again. Everything being more light-hearted between us all. It was normal again.

Sydney gasped suddenly, her hand instantly covering her mouth in an almost shocked way. I frowned at her. What was going on?

"Are you pregnant?" Sydney breathed out. Calla and I fell into a hysterical laughter. Where did she get that from?

Lucas' face dropped and he stared at her in disbelief, making us both laugh to the point of tears.

"Why would you say that?"

"I don't know. She said she had something to announce and that's what usually follows."

At this point, Calla and I almost couldn't breathe. We were using the counter behind us for support, stopping us from falling.

"No, no, no, no, no," I managed to say through giggles. "I'm not pregnant," I admitted. Lucas and Syd probably couldn't see the funny side to this. Why would not being pregnant be so funny? But it was funny because it was so random and the complete opposite of what I was going to say. It caught me off guard to say the least.

Once we both had calmed down, I resumed with what I originally was going to say, "Calla, here, said that she was proud of me. So, we are going to watch a movie to celebrate."

Everyone looked at me like I had gone mad. I hadn't, I was just overtired.

"We are?" Calla asked.

"Yes. We are all going to watch a film together. Right now," I told everyone and walked to the living room.

"Dude, it's 4:19am. Do we have to do this now?" Sydney lamely complained resulting in me sighing. Can't I want to watch a movie without being questioned?

"Can't I just want to spend time with my friends drama-free?" I directed to Syd, raising my eyebrows because she knew I was right.

She sighed but smiled at me nonetheless, "Fine. It has to be a Christmas movie though."

Calla immediately turned to Syd, "What? No." Calla added, causing them both to argue over what genre of movie we were going to watch. I left them to argue and went to make some popcorn.

Just as I carefully took the bag of popped corn out of the microwave, ready to equally separate it into two bowls I saw Lucas enter the room from the corner of my eye.

"Hey."

"So, you and Cals are okay?"

"Yup," I said anticipating the next question.

He moved closer to me before continuing, "Uh, and you're okay with how things ended with Jace today?"

I laughed on the inwardly at the way he acted like a big brother, "I suppose so, why?"

He slowly nodded his head and I could tell that he was holding back on saying something. That or he was trying to find a way to word something perfectly – something he did often. "As long as you think you're going to be okay. I just don't want to see him hurt you again," he truthfully told me and I instantly held him in a hug.

"I'll be okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sure. Now come on, let's stop them from ripping each other's heads off."