the state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgement through weakness of will.
enduring, she said. enduring was the word that described her relationship with calum. ever since calum had met her in his first day of school, and she split her peanut butter sandwich with him because her older brother was teasing him during lunch break, they had endured quite a lot together and only come out stronger as friends. truly, best friends.
inseparable, that was another word for them, especially as they grew up. throughout all of primary school, they were attached at the hip, and attached by the ankle during robbie wilkinson’s birthday party during the three-legged race. robbie laughed at calum for being the only boy to run with a girl, until she and calum won. she’d always save him the spot next to her on the bus, no matter how bad she wanted the love of her life, max detterming, to sit next to her. but calum would never disappoint, bringing his headphones for them to listen to music with, and an extra pack of gum so they could blow bubbles together before school even started.
at the time, calum preferred the word ‘connected’. with her, he never felt so understood. it was like there was a wire running between the two of their brains, because he knew exactly what she was feeling even when she wouldn’t say (like how she said it was fine if calum ate with michael during lunch, but calum knew that she didn’t mean it and sat with her anyway), and she always seemed to know exactly was he was thinking, and would say it so that he didn’t always have to. she was always outspoken, and he liked to be quieter, so when kids made fun of his lisp in third grade, she knew exactly what to say to get them to shut up for good (”hey, robbie, if i knock your front teeth out, you’ll have a lisp too, jerk”).
‘surviving’ might have been the best term as the duo entered their preteen years. because while calum stayed scrawny, she was getting a lot of attention from boys suddenly. she thought she was over max years ago, but boy oh boy, when he came up to her after school and asked if she wanted a ride home on the handlebars of his bike, she couldn’t say no. calum got on the bus alone that day, and while he didn’t know it yet, the best word to describe him then was ‘sulking’.
as their final schooling year approached, the tides turned. calum filled out because of his love and talent for football, and growing a foot helped him out with the ladies as well. on the other hand, she had earned a false reputation because max lied after they broke up, saying that they’d had sex when all they’d ever done was kiss. calum knew the truth, but the damage had been done to everyone else by that time. she was branded the school slut, who didn’t deserve to be best friends with the golden boy. as hard as they tried, it was hard to stay close with the entire school trying to rip him away from her. even harder when calum dated lexi van plasse. lexi was one of the worst shamers in the school.
‘heartbroken’ described her best, then.
they found each other again the summer before university. calum was going to flinder’s university on a full athletic scholarship; she had gotten a guaranteed acceptance into her program due to her high test score. they ran into each other on orientation day, and caught up over coffee in the library after the presentation was over. calum and lexi had broken up by then, and she was dating a guy she had met at her job. although quite a lot had changed since the day of the peanut butter sandwich, they were able to talk as though nothing had. on move-in day, they discovered they were rooming in the same building, which left them both jubilant.
freshman year, they spent a good portion of time together, as much as two busy university students could. sharing an on-campus job in the rec center office helped that as well. they’d talk about classes and professors, roommates and RAs, and reminisce about all the times they’d shared and spent apart. calum got to meet her boyfriend, sam, a few times, and while he seemed perfectly nice, there was just something off about him to calum. or maybe it was something off about them. they just didn’t seem suitable for each other.
and over the next year, calum’s word became ‘concealing’. he didn’t like hiding things from her, he hated leaving any part of his life unshared from his best friend... but he knew if he didn’t, it would ruin everything. they had just become best friends again, and he wouldn’t lose her a second time, not over a silly little crush. that wasn’t silly or little or even a crush. it was far more than that, so much more that he had to call it a crush for fear of acting on his feelings. she was happy with sam, and that was that. he wanted her happy, and jeopardizing that and their friendship was unbearable. she was too important to lose, so he resigned himself, and convinced himself he was happy.
until the night she was in his dorm, laying up on his bunk while he tried to finish his essay on philia versus pragma vs eros at his desk. she was texting someone, probably sam, though calum tried not to think about that, and watching some crime drama on his tablet. she had shown up at his door ready for a night out, but once he told her about the essay, she quickly pulled on a t-shirt of his and some football shorts, completely fine with a night in. and he was getting along with the essay completely fine until he reached the part where he had to combine all three and compare them. (now might be the time to mention that philia means friendly love, pragma means practical love, and eros means passionate love). he had to name the point where they might intersect, and no matter what he typed, the only word he wanted to use was her name.
finally, he sighed, saying, “want to help me with something?”
“sure,” she replied, pausing the episode. “whatcha need?”
“i’m writing about--” he paused, deciding how to phrase it. “--kinds of relationships, and i was just wondering what word you’d use to describe us. like, our relationship.”
“damn, that’s loaded,” she responded with a little laugh. “um... uh... any word? can i use a phrase?”
“i’d prefer just one word, honestly,” calum answered.
“okay, um... enduring,” she said.
“...enduring.” he repeated her flatly, spinning his chair around to look at her. “enduring? that’s all?”
“well, what do you want, calum?” she asked exasperatedly. “you wanted my opinion! i think we’ve gone through and ‘endured’ a lot together, don’t you?” and as dumb as he knew it was, that dumb word was the breaking point. enduring.
“felicitous,” he said in return. “unerring. ardent. veracious. perfervid. impetuous.”
“calum, you might want to speak english,” she said, rolling her eyes and jumping down from the bunk. “i don’t know what part of my answer wasn’t good enough.” she crossed her arms then, taking a step forward. while she and calum bickered all the time just for fun, she seemed to realize that there was more to this than just fun. which is what completely pushed him over.
he leapt up from his chair and closed the distance between them with two short strides. before she (or he) could fully process what was happening, he had reached for her jaw, holding her head as he crashed his lips into hers. as he did, he could feel every part of him tense and relax, and all he could think about was this, and her, and them, and how her hand was touching his chest, not pushing him away, just resting there, feeling his heart as it attempted to beat out of his chest.
slowly, they broke apart, lips lingering and foreheads pressed together. it had just processed in calum’s brain, the whole ‘that just happened’ wave that goes through someone’s brain after they kiss, when quite suddenly, she did push him away. his eyes flickered open, and he was shocked to see the look of anger on her face. before he could say anything, she spoke.
“what the hell was that?” she spat, eyes wide. he chest was rising and falling rapidly as she stared at his speechless form. after a moment of this, she scoffed, leaning over to grab her things and make for the door.
“acrasia,” he whispered as her fingers grasped the handle. she paused, then shook her head as if shaking off a bad thought. the door opened, and with a flash, she was gone, and the slam echoed through the room.
[ a part two to my story that not a lot of people read but oh well, I love it too much not to share! read part 1 here ]
to michael:
hey Michael, it’s May. I’ve got your blazer with me, meet me at the coffee shop on 4th avenue?
to may:
yeah, be there in 10. thanks!
“Hey babe, I’m leaving for my appointment with Michael and our clients, I’ll see you later!” she called as she hurried out the door, grabbing her purse and ignored the possibility she had forgotten anything at their apartment.
She didn’t wait for her boyfriend to respond because she knew he would notice her absence and wouldn’t really worry. Luckily, most of her client meetings were kept within the area, so the walk to the coffee shop was not far at all and she got there just in time for her to order a mocha before she sat down to wait for Michael. But then May realized whilst waiting for her drink that she had no idea what Michael even looked like and she had no clue whom to look for. Michael had thought about it too, and decided to look for a girl with a blazer that was much too boxy and big to be hers.
“Excuse me, are you May?” she slightly jumped in her seat from the voice behind her, and turned around to greet him.
“Uh, yes! I am. Michael?” she extended her hand out to him, and shook it.
“Yep, that’s me, and is that my blazer?”
“Yes! I hope you don’t mind, the place we’re meeting is really picky about what you wear there. I wore colored shorts one day to a lunch meeting and they kicked me out because I was wearing ‘too bright of a color’.”
He laughed and took the blazer from its place on the table next to her, slipping it on. “I hope they don’t kick me out because I look like a homeless person who mugged some guy with a blazer.”
She had to admit, Michael was attractive, and he looked nice in her boyfriend’s blazer. His messy blonde hair was a nice shade on him and brought out the dark green in his eyes. In a second, he snapped his fingers in front of her.
“Hey, are you okay? You zoned out for a second there,” he laughed. “I know I look good but you don’t have to stare.”
“Oh, um, my bad, I guess,” she laughed nervously, trying to hide her blushing face. She picked up her cup from the table and quickly chugged the rest of her drink, leaving her throat burning from the hot coffee. “Are you ready to go? We’ll be late if we don’t get going soon.”
“Sure, I’m just going to grab a coffee to go, I barely slept last night – I was working on a new song and I still haven’t finished it yet,” he laughed, headed towards to barista.
“Of course! Yeah, you go, go get that coffee…” she trailed off.
“May?”
She turned around to see her boyfriend in front of her, confused with her phone in hand.
“Hey babe!” she beamed, and kissed him on the cheek. “Did I forget my phone at the apartment again? Thanks for bringing it. How did you know I was here?”
“Well, from that text between Michael and you…” Mark said quietly. “Why are you meeting with him?”
“It’s for our clients’ wedding! Remember how I told you I was able to get ahold of him?” She questioned. Why was he acting so strange?
“From what I saw it didn’t seem like it. You couldn’t keep your eyes off each other,” he said, handing her the phone.
She laughed nervously. “You don’t think – No, you can’t possibly think we’ve hooked up. Do you seriously think that?”
“Well you looked pretty comfortable with him, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”
She couldn’t believe she was hearing this; Mark didn’t actually think that she had been cheating on him with Michael, did he?
She scoffed in disbelief. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
As if things couldn’t get worse, Michael thought he was swooping in to save the day – unfortunately, he picked the wrong day.
Michael, with coffee in one hand, took his empty arm and snaked it around her waist. “May, is this dude bothering you?”
Mark laughed, and turned around to head out. “I’m done, May. We’re done.”
“Wait, babe, wait!” she pushed Michael’s arm off of her, and ran after her boyfriend in a frenzy grabbing him by the arm and pulling him by the window of the shop to talk to him.
From what Michael saw through the window, it wasn’t pretty. She was so close to crying, and the boyfriend did nothing to fix the mistake made. He was done for good, and as hard as she fought to tell him it was a huge misunderstanding, he wasn’t buying it. As the boyfriend disappeared into the sea of people on the streets, Michael quickly ran out to follow her. As soon as he got to her, he pulled her into a tight hug as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“He – he broke up with me… He said he couldn’t believe it, that I would do that to him,” she whispered between quiet sobs. “Michael, I could get fired. And I’ll need a place to live, he’s going to kick me out of our apartment – Oh God, this is a disaster –“
“Hey, whoa, don’t get negative with me here. Look, your relationship with him doesn’t have to affect your job, and you can stay with me for however long you need to. I know it isn’t much and we just met, but it’s the least I can do for being the asshole that got you dumped,” Michael replied.
She pulled away from his arms, and wiped away her tears and ruined makeup on her sleeve. “Thank you Michael. But you don’t have to do that for me, I would probably be a huge inconvenience to you anyways, with me probably having to find a new job and all that.”
“No seriously, please, stay with me. We can talk about all this craziness after the meeting that was supposed to be starting ten minutes ago,” He laughed slightly, whilst her eyes widened realizing how late they were.
13 Nights of Halloween is a 5sos creative project that will allow not only writers, but all creative 5sos fans to get involved. Each day will have a unique theme that represents Halloween in some form. Some are simple and others are more unique. Also thank you to @myreevee for making this amazing edit!!!
When: October 19 - October 31st ALL DAY
Ways to participate:
writing (blurbs, drabbles, oneshots, etc)
fanart
edits (gifs, pictures, etc)
moodboards
videos/vines
text or snapchat edits
Anything as long as you’re creative!!!
Guidelines:
Only post things that represent that day’s theme
Be respectful and use trigger tags (ie. blood tw, death tw, etc.)
Tag everything with #5sos13Nights (also tag me so I can see the posts!)
If you don’t want to post things on your own blog you can submit them to me too.
Most importantly, have fun!
13 Nights of Halloween Themes:
Night 1 - October 19: Autumn Activities (apple picking, raking leaves, baking, hay rides, corn mazes, etc)
Night 2 - October 20: Magic (witches, wizards, psychics, etc.)
Night 3 - October 21: End of the World (apocalypse, zombies, etc.)
Night 4 - October 22: Scary Movies (Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, etc.)
Night 5 - October 23: Domestic Halloween & Halloween Prep (decorating, visiting the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, selecting costumes, etc.)
Night 6- October 24: Creatures/Monsters (werewolves,Frankenstein, mummies, goblins, skeletons, big foot, etc.)
Night 7 - October 25: Make Up Day (If you missed a day you can do an old theme, try to refrain from doing anything that has yet to come)
Night 8 - October 26: Superstitions (black cats, broken mirrors, step on a crack break your mother’s back, etc.)
Night 9 - October 27: Vampires (Vampires, bats, Buffy the Vampire, etc.)
Night 10 - October 28: Halloween Night (trick-or-treating, visiting haunted houses, halloween parties, giving out candy, going to amusement parks like Universals Horror Nights, etc.)
Night 11 - October 29: Afterlife (angles, demons, spirits, ouija boards, ghosts, etc.)
Night 12 - October 30: Halloween Movies (Halloween Town, Hocus Pocus, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, etc.)
Night 13 - October 31: Free Day (showcase how you celebrate Halloween or post something that doesn’t it the themes of the days or post something that wasn’t finished on the day of the theme!)
