Page 65 of Shattered

Sam's fingers hovered over the envelope but then, after a much needed deep breath, she pressed it.

Callum: I’m sorry. That’s not how I wanted today to end.

Callum: Let me know when it's a good time so we can talk.

Callum: I told you I would fuck it up. I promise I was only trying to do the right thing.

Callum: Please don’t hate me.

Callum: Sam. Please answer the phone.

Callum: Can we talk after work tomorrow? I can have Hunter cover your last hour or so.

Callum: Are you okay? You missed two separate shifts. Please call me.

Callum: You aren’t the only one confused by all this.

Callum: I’m sorry.

“Are you going to call him?”

“Why should I?” Sam said as tears filled her eyes.

“Oh, god. Sam! Please don’t cry. I’m so sorry. Please. He isn’t worth this.”

“I know,” she said as she tried to hold back the emotion threatening to spill over. “We aren’t even together. Why does he have this hold on me? Jesus, Kristin. I’ve known Callum for all of three, no…four weeks now. Why am I being like this?”

“I don’t know, Sam. Sometimes people just make an impression on us and I guess you two made one hell of an impression on each other. Maybe you should call him?” At that statement, Sam jerked up to look at Kristin through the mirror. “I mean, I feel like in one messed up sense y’all work. I don’t understand it, and I don’t think y’all do either, but I think we can both agree that you have to figure it out one way or another. You are both absolutely miserable like this.”

“It would be pointless. We would apologize, then end up making out again, someone would end up partially undressed and then one of us would come to our senses, piss the other off, and we would be back to where we are now. It’s basically the same cycle every single time. He’s probably blocked me by now and he won’t even answer.” The latter would be worse.

“Well, that’s your decision to make. I just don’t like seeing you so upset. I wish I could make this all go away.”

“Yeah, me too.”

*******

She hit end before she ever even heard the first ring. She was normally not this impulsive, but she was drunk at this point. Nothing about this would turn out well.

“Why don’t we just head to bed and we can take turns vomiting in the toilet in the morning?” Kristin slurred as she plopped down on the couch.

“Your bed is this way, you know,” Sam pointed up, trying to redirect her upstairs.

“I know. But I’m so comfy here. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Kristin already had her eyes closed and was asleep by the time Sam made it to her room. Sam didn’t even bother changing out of her clothes. She just curled up on top of the covers and tried to drown out her racing thoughts.

******

She was awoken by a loud banging from the front door. For a second, she couldn’t decide if it was in her head or truly happening. She decided the latter when she heard the front door open and shut and Kristin’s incoherent mumbling.

It was 12:05 a.m.

She hadn’t even been asleep for an hour, and she wasn’t quite sure how Kristin was able to function enough to call Micah and tell him to come over, let alone get up and open the front door. She reached down to cover herself with the blanket just as her door swung open.

She had drunk far too much.

Her tolerance level had definitely gone down since the last time she and Kristin had spent the night drowning out their worries. Because there was absolutely no way in hell Callum fucking Barker was standing in her doorway right now.

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