Theo's POV
Adam and I have been best friends for five years, since the start of college. He doesn’t talk about Savannah much, and the few photos he’d shown me were always of a little girl. I hadn’t realized she’d grown into *this*.
She’s seventeen, turning eighteen soon. I just turned twenty-one, so there’s a three-year gap between us. It’s a gap that feels…significant. I need to tread carefully. Making any move requires caution for a few reasons. First, she’s Adam’s little sister. Second, I’m not sure I’m ready for anything serious. There are other reasons, too, ones I’m not ready to examine yet.
I noticed something was wrong the moment she looked at her phone. Her face clouded over, a shadow passing across her features. When she didn’t join us in the dining room, I volunteered to fetch her, pretending to do everyone a favour. Really, I wanted to understand what was going on. It’s not my business, but I felt compelled to help. The attempt failed. Adam called out to her, and she turned, effectively blocking my inquiry.
The only available seat at the table was across from me. It was almost impossible *not* to watch her lips as she ate. She’d lick them, then bite them, drawing my gaze. It felt wrong to be imagining things, to be drawn in by her movements.
After dinner, the boys and I settled in to watch TV. Savannah hadn't joined us, and she'd said she would. I couldn’t shake the urge to know what had been on her phone, what had stolen her mood.
I told the guys I was getting a call, an excuse to go find her. I found her in the kitchen, bending over to load the dishwasher. I knew I shouldn’t be staring, but I couldn’t help myself.
She turned, startled. “Oh, you scared me.”
I smiled, trying to appear casual. “Are you the one left with the dishes?”
She sighed, a flicker of exhaustion in her eyes. “Yeah.”
“I’ll help you,” I offered, reaching for a plate.
“Oh no, you—”
I cut her off. “I’ll clean them, and you can put them in the dishwasher, okay?”
“Okay, thank you.” She accepted, relieved.
I smirked. “It’s alright. It’ll be a good way to get to know each other.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
A few minutes later, Savannah excused herself to use the bathroom, leaving me alone with the dishes.
Then, her phone pinged. And lit up. Of course. The reason I came down here was to see what was bothering her.
I glanced at the lock screen.
Callum: You must be free now, babe FaceTime me and we can surprise each other
She has a boyfriend. It all clicked.
Before I could dwell on it further, Savannah returned.
Why bother? She has a man who can deal with her problems.
“Sorry, I’ve got to go,” I mumbled, heading back to the sofa where Adam and Matt were sitting.
“That was a long call,” Matt commented, raising an eyebrow.
“It ended quickly. I was just helping your sis with the dishes,” I said to Adam.
“Wait, you helped her clean?” Matt burst into laughter. I hoped it wouldn’t get Adam’s attention.
“Don’t be weird. She was begging me to. Have you seen her? She’s exhausted.” I replied.
“To be honest, she looked tired when she came back from work,” Adam added, shutting down Matt’s teasing.
“Yeah, she said she had a hard day at work.”
“Thanks for helping her, man. You didn’t need to. You should’ve told me. I would’ve done it instead.”
“It’s alright, man. I wanted you to relax.”
Later, Savannah poked her head into the room. “Hey, I’m going to go to bed now. I’m so tired. It was nice meeting you guys, and I’m glad you’re going to be living close now, Adam.”
Adam replied first. “Thanks for everything, sis. Hope you sleep well.”
Matt added, “Good to meet you too, goodnight, Sav.”
Savannah glanced at me, expecting a response. I didn’t give one.
When she realized, she nodded her head with a smile to the others. “Thank you, bye.” Then she closed the door and went upstairs.
***
Savannah’s POV
A week has passed, and it’s Monday morning. Thankfully, I finish college at twelve today. I felt drained last week, and the weekend didn’t help me recharge. I know this week will be long. I changed into black leggings and a vest, putting on a burgundy leather jacket before heading to college.
Callum’s POV
The entire group can’t stop staring at Savannah today. She looks incredible. She doesn’t seek attention, but the guys are starting to notice her.
She’s told me she likes me. She used to message me before all this attention started, and I like her. But she’s been backing off lately. At college, she can’t stop looking at me. On text, she's blunt, and I think it’s because I keep asking for nudes. She needs to understand that I only like her body. If she wants to keep talking to me, she better send something soon.
There’s going to be a big college party at Grace’s house. My friends are saying they’ll try to sleep with Savannah there. Little do they know that I’ll be the one doing it. She’ll be all over me.
Savannah’s POV
The final exam is in a few months, and my maths teacher is stressing me out. It’s not like everyone in class is stupid, just half. I like to think I’m in the other half, but I need to improve. The only reason I took maths is that I’ve always been ‘okay’ at it, but college-level maths is a whole new level of hard.
I sit next to Callum in class. We were assigned seats together, and I hated it at first. I used to think he was arrogant. But it turned out to be a blessing. He’s actually a sweet, kind person. I think I like him.
There’s just one problem: he always wants me to send nudes. Nearly every day he sends me one and asks for one back, but I’m not confident enough, so I always say no. I reckon I would one day, but only when we’re really close, so I know he’s not just using me.
“Hey, are you coming to the party at Grace’s?” Callum whispered with a smile.
I continued to take notes, replying, “Yeah, I think I will be.”
He let out a small laugh. “Good, I’ll wait for you to come.”
It was sweet that he was already planning to wait for me. I couldn’t help but look down with a smile, fidgeting with my pen. “Really? You want to wait for me?”
“Yeah, who wouldn’t? Look at you.”
My face flushed at the unexpected compliment. Callum leaned across the table to get a better view of me. “You blushing for me?” he asked.
“No…” I turned my head away, biting my lip.
“I know you are, and that’s fine babe because you look even hotter when you do.” He placed his hand on my knee. I felt my body temperature rise.
He kept his hand on my knee for the rest of the lesson, until I was comfortable with it. I don’t get attention like that, so it was nice to have it.
“Are you done for the day now?” Callum asked as the lesson ended.
“Yeah, I can’t wait to go home and chill. Are you?”
“I’m done now, too. But will you come over to my place and help me with this part?” He pointed to a question in his book. “I didn’t understand it one bit.”
“Wait, you want me to help you?”
He put his book in his bag and zipped it up. “Yeah.”
“But why? I’m not even that good myself.”
He wore his backpack. “You’re better than me, and you’re the only person I like here. I’ll bring you back at three. Come on, it’ll be fun.”
I was convinced. “What shall I do about my car?”
“Just leave it. We will take mine.”
“Okay.”
Together, we walked to his car.
When we arrived at his house, I was shocked by how big it was. He led me inside, and it looked even better than I’d imagined. Wow. I knew he was rich, but not *this* rich. Now I understand why he’s so arrogant.
I heard his laugh from upstairs. “Come up. We don’t have all day.” He ran back down and ushered me up first, following closely behind. I walked carefully, making sure I didn’t trip and embarrass myself.
He walked into a room and opened it for me. The room contained a medium-sized bed aligned at the centre-back side of the room, neatly made, a wall-mounted desk with a straight-backed chair, and a TV at the end of the bed. The colour scheme was dark greys and silvery tones. It’s a very sexy, modern room to look at. It’s his bedroom.
“We will work here. I’ve only got one chair so we can’t work on the desk so I guess we will need to work on the bed” he said snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Okay, yeah, that’s fine.”
We both sat on his bed and retrieved our maths books from our bags. “Okay, so this is the part I need help with.”