Callum & Harper (Sleepless 1)

I could barely contain the excitement in my voice. “What do you say, Harper? It is the best one we’ve seen all day and we don’t have much time before school starts.”

She took a deep, cleansing breath and her eyes sparkled a bit before she answered, “I think it’s amazing. We’ll take it.”

An hour worth of paperwork later, Harper and I were ready to sign the dotted line.

“I’ll just need the first and last month’s rent and a five hundred dollar deposit,” Kenny says.

Harper reached for her bag to pull out our cash but Kenny stopped her.

“Not yet. I’ll need to see if you’re approved first but as soon as we get the thumbs up, you can swing by and we’ll take care of it then. Do you guys have a number I can reach you at?”

“Do we?” Harper asked.

“Uh, sure. I’ll give you Cherry’s cell.” I grabbed a sheet of paper and jotted the number down. “Just let her know who you are and why you’re calling and she’ll take the message.”

“Alright, I’ll let you know in a few hours,” Kenny said.

Harper

Before Callum and I boarded the packed train back to Charlie’s to put all the sheets back on his bed and put up a few things, Callum found a nearby pay phone and rung Cherry to let her know to expect a call from Kenny.

“So, where should we go after Charlie’s?” I asked as I plopped next to Callum on the subway.

“I’m not sure, sweet. I haven’t gotten a chance to think it through yet.”

I could tell he was sort of sweating it. He kept rubbing the palm of his hand against the back of his neck, running his long fingers through his hair, and scrubbing his face.

“Dude, if you’re getting cold feet about moving in with me, remember that you don’t have to do it. I understand if I scared you with that crap I pulled back there. I don’t blame you if you want out.”

“What? Shut up, goof. I’m stressed about Sam.”

My stomach plummeted toward my feet. “Oh, I understand.”

When he revealed that he liked her back at Charlie’s, I wanted to burst into idiotic tears which was so unlike me. As I was fighting the urge, the burn subsided a bit because I realized that Callum had softened me like a stick of butter left in the sun. It scared the shit out of me, actually. The last thing I wanted was to feel weak in a vulnerable situation and here I’d gone and let him do it without my knowledge. I wanted to clobber him and kiss him all at once. The fact that he liked Sam was like a punch to my gut.

“Really? Well then what do you think I should do about it?” He asked me.

“I think you should, well, listen to what your heart says.”

His brows furrowed. “That’s vague and not at all helpful,” he teased with his glorious, slightly crooked smile. “It doesn’t matter anyway because I don’t think Charlie cares for her that much,” he stated.

So, he for sure likes her, then. Why would he say that otherwise? Is he worried that Charlie will be offended if he asks Sam out? God, I am such a dweeb. He was never interested in me. He’s just a master flirt.

I promised myself that I’d stop liking him, move on. I turned my head toward him and actually watched him think about her. I wanted to kick my laughable ass all the way back to social services. I wondered if he thought about her hair the way I wanted him to think about mine. I wondered if he fantasized about the way she smelled or memorized her lips. Just the thought of him wanting her the way I wanted him made me nauseous. I was so pissed at myself for thinking that he was starting to become mine.

I opened my mouth to let him know that I was the one who was going to bail on our deal because I’d started to fall in love with him and I just couldn’t deal when a man tripped over my bag and sprawled face first into the floor of the train.

“Shit! Are you okay?” I asked him, standing up.

Callum stood and helped the guy to his feet but he just walked to the end of the car without so much as an acknowledgement.

“Weird,” I said.

“Yeah,” Callum said, sitting back down.

The walk to Charlie’s was quiet and uncomfortable. Callum was preoccupied with, I’m sure, thoughts of Sam but he surprised me when he said, “Our appointment with Sylvia is on Monday.”

“I know. What made you say that?”