•Cassidy

"You look absolutely exhausted," Troy pointed out with a small laugh, perching onto one of those director's chairs next to me. His brown eyes were locked on me in concern, as if he was thoroughly worried about my well-being.

I shrugged, fidgeting in my own chair. We were both waiting for hair and make-up to start, so we had some time to kill before the stylists got over here. "I am," I whined, rubbing my eyes with the back of my palm. "Calum called me really late last night because of the time difference. And then I couldn't fall back asleep."

"Ah," Troy responded quizzically. "How is the long distance relationship going?"

I shrugged my shoulders, turning my body to face him more as I crossed one of my legs over the other. "Well we're still broken up. We're just trying to stay in touch, but it's hard. He has to end calls in the middle of a conversation a lot because of band stuff. And once we actually start filming I'm not going to be able to answer as many."

The two weeks of trying this friends thing has been nice, but it was true. It was a lot harder. I loved hearing his voice fill my eardrums again, but I craved seeing him in person and feeling his arms around me.

Troy shot me an apologetic glance, stroking his chin with his fingers. "Are you guys still having good conversations though? Or is it just awkward chatter just to hear each other talk."

"A little bit of both," I admitted. The absence of reading body language made things more difficult, as well as the fact that it was harder to use sarcasm. "I don't know. Sometimes I feel like he's not listening to me, but he's busy and probably hanging out with the boys so I get it. I would never want to hold him back from his career or his friends."

"Yeah, but if he really loves you then he would be able to find a balance," Troy told me, keeping that strong eye contact with me that was so intense I had to force myself to peel my gaze away and stare at my lap. "Cass, tell me what you're so worried about. I don't like seeing you act this way."

I sighed heavily, picking away at my fingernails. "I know he loves me, I do, I'm just scared that he won't want to get back together after all this. I feel like he's going to get one taste of freedom and won't want a relationship anymore. I mean this was the whole reason he broke up with me. And I just don't want to lose him again."

Troy grasped my hand, linking our fingers together in a friendly manner, just purely out of comfort. He was a great listener, and I'm glad I was finally able to get all of this off my chest. "It's all going to work itself out. I mean, distance does make the heart grow fonder, but then again there is the whole 'out of sight, out of mind' concept. Either way, you just have to do what feels right."

I gulped. I had no idea which diverged path to choose. I could either still keep up with these phone calls to stay in touch and feel sad afterwards that everything was changing, or I could stop talking to him and let us both focus on our careers as we planned and be sad that he was out of my life. Both of the choices came with heartache. So maybe I would just wait and let Calum decide.

"Thank you," I mumbled, resting my head on his toned shoulder. His navy blue shirt reeked of cologne, and with every inhale I took my nostrils filled with the musky scent. "I'll let you know how this all goes."

"In the meantime," Troy started in a peppy tone, as opposed to the serious one he was previously using. "Would you want to go do something this weekend to take your mind off things? I miss seeing my happy Cassie. I think what you need is to have some fun!"

I smiled. Troy and I always hang out a lot while we're filming, since he was my closest friend on set and we would always just always have a blast together. Maybe I really did need to go on one of our famous outings to boost my spirits again. "Okay. Let's do it."

"Alright!" Troy cheered, lifting his palm up to give me a high-five. His enthusiasm always rubbed off on me, so my own lips curled into a grin as well. He was such a great co-star. I would hate to be filming this second movie if I was stuck with someone boring.

Tiffany, my make-up artist, finally strolled into the dressing room, clutching onto a plastic box filled with make-up. "I'm so sorry I'm late!" She yelled, frantically running over towards me and pushing all of my hair behind my ears to have a clean slate to apply of the products.

•*•*•

From: cal- babvy girerlll
From: cal- im at a party rijggt noqw
From: cal- they gavbe me lotds of whiksye nd vodkla

To: cal- aw be careful

From: cal- cassssid im fine
From: cal- u hsould see migchael
From: cal- hes sooO drubk hahaahs

To: cal- yeah well so are you

From: cal- good piont
From: cal- i miss u so much
From: cal- i love u morebthan anything

To: cal- i love you too calum

From: cal- u shoudlnt love me im a dick to you

To: cal- no you're not
To: cal- you're one of the sweetest boys i know you just need to figure some things out

From: cal- cass omg thgis girl has the bigghest tits

To: cal- nice

From: cal- she keeps tryinbg to talk to me
From: cal- but her tits are lijke eatibg her face hahaheeh

To: cal- you can talk to her we're broken up

From: cal- no nono nO
From: cal- if i wabted to talk to her i woulndbt be texting my girl right noiw
From: cal- you hasve nice boobs too

To: cal- lmao thanks cal
To: cal- stop texting me and go hang out with your friends though okay bub

From: cal- i want to go home tho im not hasving fun anymoire bechause im textifng you

To: cal- then call a cab and go home

From: cal- a cab wont take me to los angheles
From: cal- homd is wuth you
From: cal- too bad we cnat be togehter long distancye is too hard for me cause i cnst touch you or see you or talj to you whenver i want

To: cal- calum you're drunk go lay down or something

From: cal- i cnt big tits is talking to mh again
From: cal- sge seems nice i migh t have tobuy her a drinj
From: cal- stillk not as pretty as you but youre notbhere

I sighed, pressing my hands to my temple and trying to relieve some of the stress I was feeling. I wasn't sure if I was worried about him being this drunk when he's all alone, or the fact that girls are already throwing themselves at him, or the fact that he still loves me so much that it's preventing him from having a good time.

From: cal- why arent u amnswering me
From: cal- omg ur so annoying dont get jealsus
From: cal- you tvold me to tlak to her
From: cal- cassiee i may bd drunk but i cna still see you read all of thesde

From: cal- ok whatever the boys wnat me to play beer pong bye
From: cal- im gonna kjick lukes butt and party like i wanted to
From: cal- lvoe u bbay even tho youre beinn annoying

I turned my phone off without even replying. He was too drunk to even process what was going on anyways. I was flattered that I was what his brain thought about even in his drunken state. However, this was just making our situation even more complicated and I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take without ending up with an even deeper wound slashed through my heart.

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author's note: ok this is so short but i asked you guys on twitter if it was ok for me to post it and you said yes so here ya go

if you dont speak english im so sorry you had to read this chapter bc calum isnt even speaking english he's speaking drunklish omg

so like i have a plan for their relationship but every time i write i just make things more and more complicated but cute at the same time idek what im doing but i do know what the ending is going to be now so we should be good folks

love you all sooooo much thank you for reading this omg its almsot at 4 million reads thats insane thats so many people and reads you guys are the best i love you thank you

ps i just like reread this story yesterday and i thought it was so funny how you guys all hated cassidy at first and now you love her and some of you hate calum idk its just funny and so much has happened in this story c squared has come such a long way holy poop

dedicated to smhsyifa for saying how this book doesnt feel like a book or a movie it feels so real and that is such a compliment cause im trying to make it as realistic as i possibly can (hence all of the text conversations) so thank you so much ily