Thank you for your lovely reviews on chapter one, they really mean a lot to me! Thank you also for the kind messages that I've been getting on twitter about this fic, they are honestly such a great source of encouragement.

To the guest who left me a little constructive criticism on Caleb's character in the first chapter – he was made to be somewhat more awkward/nervous than usual on purpose, and for very specific reasons! But that will change and more will be revealed, starting in this chapter.

Enjoy!

Minus One Week

"So, how's NYU?"

Hanna turned and threw her empty coffee cup in the trash before replying to her friend, "It's kinda weird being here…" She spoke, holding her phone to her ear as she reached into her bag and tossed a candy wrapper away too, "But it's starting to feel nice, like really nice."

"What do you mean? I'm not there with you, how can it be anything other than awful?" Spencer joked, laughing a little.

Hanna rolled her eyes as she began walking down the street towards her dorm, "Like, I miss you a lot, obviously, but being away from my parents and all that is…"

"Yeah I know what you mean," Spencer confirmed, interrupting her, "It feels good to walk out the door without someone telling you to be back by nine."

Hanna smiled to herself – at least somebody else understood how she was feeling. "So, how's Toby?" She asked after a beat, changing the topic.

"He's good," Spencer replied; Hanna could practically hear her grinning down the phone at the mention of her boyfriend's name, "How's… oh, wait." And now Hanna could practically hear her smirking.

"Ass," She shot back, though she was more than used to being subjected to her best friend's jokes about her love life. The truth was, ever since Sean, Hanna had been a little apprehensive about looking for anything more than a friendship; her first and only romantic relationship hadn't exactly been idyllic, and had left her feeling a little self-conscious around guys.

"But seriously, has anything been happening for you?"

Hanna shook her head as her friend's voice brought her back to reality. "Uh, no," She breathed out, "Just about nothing." She couldn't help but briefly think back to the previous weekend; images of Caleb wrapping his arms around her as she leaned back into his body flashed through her mind, and she silently scolded herself for even going there.

Spencer's voice was noticeably chirpier now, "Just about nothing? So there's something?"

Crap. "No, there's nothing."

"Come on, there must be some cute guys around," Spencer teased.

Hanna allowed herself a small smile, which seem to grow as she walked closer to her new home; the tugging at the corner of her lips became harder and harder to resist as more memories of the previous weekend flooded her mind. "Well there is this one guy…"

Spencer knew that she would get it out of her – she could sense that her friend had been a little more perky than usual, even though she was thousands of miles away from her. "Tell me more."

"But I haven't seen him for like a week," Hanna spoke quickly, trying to make her little 'run in' with Caleb sound insignificant, "Not even once."

"Why not?" Spencer sounded confused – there was a pause before she spoke again, "Did anything happen between you two?" Hanna knew by her even brighter tone of voice that Spencer had thought she'd cracked the code.

"I don't know, I guess we've both just been busy," Hanna sighed, "And no, nothing happened." Did anything happen? No, Hanna couldn't count what had happened as something, 'anything'. She was drunk off of her head, and she couldn't even recount half of their encounter. Nevertheless, she still couldn't help but feel that she was lying to Spencer a little as she remembered the spark that ignited within her when Caleb flashed her his bright smile for the first time.

"Then how did you meet him?"

"He, uh," Hanna spluttered, already beginning to feel herself blushing as she explained herself to Spencer, "He spilled his drink down my dress and took me to my room to change." She bit down on her thumb nail and chewed a little as she awaited her best friend's response.

Spencer let out a short laugh, "It definitely sounds like something happened to me."

"He sat on the bed while I got changed in the bathroom, ok?" Hanna retorted, reaching into her bag to pull out her keys as she approached her bedroom.

"And after that?"

Hanna unlocked the door before she answered – mostly because she needed a little time to recall what had actually happened after that. "I uh, I don't remember," She concluded after a few seconds.

"Something totally happened!" Spencer squealed, "How was it?!"

"It did not!" She huffed, rolling her eyes, "I must have fallen asleep, I was still wearing my dress and my heels when I woke up in the morning."

"And your underwear?"

Hanna cringed at the thought of having woken up completely naked – which thankfully, hadn't happened, "Yes my underwear! I'm going now, I don't feel like being interrogated anymore."

"No, wait!" Spencer laughed frantically; she was clearly finding this conversation a lot more amusing than Hanna was, "One more thing."

Hanna huffed, resigning to her friend, "What?"

There was a brief pause before Spencer replied, her voice low, "Was he cute?"

"On a scale of one to ten? A solid eleven," Hanna couldn't help but smile as she answered her friend – she wasn't lying.

"You are so hooking up with this guy!"

Hanna rolled her eyes as she shook her head, but couldn't do anything about the grin that stretched from one of her cheeks to the other. Thank god Spencer wasn't there with her, or it would have totally given her away. "Goodbye, Spence," She laughed, hanging up and throwing her phone into her bag before her friend even had a chance to answer.

Hanna looked around for her roommates as she pushed the door to her bedroom open, only to notice that both Alison and Emily were nowhere to be seen; their classes must have finished late that day. She dumped her bag down onto her bed and walked over to her mini fridge before realising that it was completely empty – she wasn't going to be able to get her fix of diet coke unless she went to the store to buy some more. Damn. With a reluctant huff, she retrieved her dusky pink bag from her bed and made her way back out the door, stopping in her tracks as she registered a familiar face opposite her, leaning with his back against the wall as he typed furiously on his phone.

A high-pitched 'oh' inadvertently slipped from between Hanna's lips as she completely failed at her attempt to hide her surprise; she certainly wasn't expecting to see Caleb after he had seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth for the last week. When he subconsciously looked up at the sound of her voice and his gaze met hers, it was distinctly less inviting than Hanna had remembered. "Hi," She added, starting to feel a little uncomfortable under the intensity of his stare.

A smirk tugged at the corner of Caleb's lips before it fell away almost immediately, leaving Hanna wondering whether or not she'd just imagined it herself. "Hey," He eventually replied, shuffling his feet a little as he looked straight back down at his phone and began typing again.

Maybe he's mad at me… was I really that bad? Hanna instantly registered the all-too-familiar feeling of guilt rushing through her as paranoid thoughts about what she could have done that night flooded her mind. "I'm, I'm sorry about last weekend," She began, taking a step towards him as she pulled the door to a close behind her, "At the party."

"It's fine," Caleb assured her monotonously, not even taking a second to lift his head as he spoke.

"No, really," Hanna qualified, sensing that she still owed him an apology, "I didn't mean to make such a bad first impression, I don't usually get that drunk I swear," She giggled, trying to lighten the situation.

Caleb didn't reciprocate the gesture; he did, however, peel his eyes away from his phone as he reluctantly met her gaze, "It's fine," He confirmed for the second time, nodding once before his eyes drifted to a point further down the corridor.

Hanna was a little taken aback; it certainly didn't seem like he was 'fine' with what had happened in her opinion. "Ok…" She nodded slowly, unsure of what else to say. An awkward silence surrounded them almost immediately, and for some unknown reason, something within Hanna compelled her to try to rectify it rather than to just walk away. "So are you going to the party tonight?" She cringed at herself as she heard her voice – asking Caleb about another party probably wasn't the best way to go about mending their 'friendship'.

Caleb sighed, finally locking his phone and pushing it into the pocket of his jeans as he looked up at the girl in front of him. "No, probably not," He shrugged his shoulders, crossing one foot over the other as he leaned further back against the wall.

Hanna should have seen that answer coming. One more try, just carry on being nice to him, and you'll break him. "Oh really?" She asked, feigning surprise, "Uh, why not?"

A smile spread across Caleb's face for the first time since their conversation had begun and he pushed himself away from the wall, taking a step towards Hanna. "Oh, I don't know," He mused, sucking a noisy breath in through his teeth, "I don't really feel like taking care of a drunk girl that I barely know for the second weekend in a row."

Hanna narrowed her eyes at his reply; she was expecting a sarcastic remark of some sort, but she certainly wasn't expecting that. "Well maybe if you actually made an effort to get to know me you'd feel differently," She shot back, barely taking the time to think about what she was saying before the words had left her mouth.

Caleb quirked an eyebrow, a smug smirk still tugging at his lips, "Who says I want to?"

"Why are you being such an ass?" Hanna retorted, suddenly feeling defensive, "I don't remember seeing this side of you when your eyes were boggling at the sight of me in that red dress."

Caleb let out a short laugh, "You were drunk," He qualified.

"So that means I've suddenly developed amnesia?" She scoffed, rolling her eyes.

Caleb pushed himself away from the wall, before brushing the sleeve of his shirt with the back of his hand. "No," He smirked, "It just means that I was a decent enough guy not to be an ass during a time in which you didn't even know your own name."

Hanna had officially given up, "You know what, forget it," She huffed, re-opening the door to her room, "I don't wanna get to know you anyway."

Caleb narrowed his eyes, "Then why did you come out here?" He asked, cockily.

"I didn't know you'd be here," She rolled her eyes, "I came out to buy a drink."

"Then why are you going back into your room," Caleb raised his eyebrows, which annoyed Hanna even more, "Unless you suddenly remembered that you have a pop-up convenience store in there."

This guy really knew how to push her buttons. "Because I don't want to have to walk past you on my way back, ok?"

Hanna had slammed the door shut before Caleb even had the chance to open his mouth again.

Hands in her hair and back against the door, Hanna slid down until she was crouching on the floor and let out a long groan. Great. She was going to have to live in the same place as this guy for god knows how long, and she could practically already feel the embarrassment that she knew would wash over her every time she saw him from now on. Embarrassment and a little anger, actually; she may have previously consumed more alcohol than she could handle, but he'd been more of an ass about it than she'd anticipated.

A few moments later, Hanna jolted away from the door as she felt a push against her back, and Emily walked into the room.

"What were you doing on the floor?" Emily asked, a concerned and slightly confused look plastered across her face as Hanna stood up, brushing a little dust from her black jeans with her hands.

"Nothing," Hanna replied sharply. When she noticed that Emily looked a little taken aback by her harsh tone, she felt the need to qualify her abruptness, "I just had a conversation with the guy that took care of me at the party last week, you know, the one that I've been talking about non-stop for seven days," She explained, pacing around the small amount of free space in their room.

Emily nodded in understanding, still a little confused as to how their conversation could have lead to Hanna crouching on the floor. Then, her eyes lit up as the realisation hit her, "Is that him?" She asked excitedly, wiggling her eyebrows as she smiled at her friend, pointing back towards the door with her thumb.

"Is that who?" Hanna retorted, though she knew perfectly well who Emily was referring to.

Emily sighed as she sat down on her bed, "Hanna, don't play dumb with me."

Hanna inhaled deeply through her nose, "Yeah, that's him," She rolled her eyes, before laying down on top of her duvet and crossing her arms behind her head, "Why is he still out there?"

"Wait, what's wrong?" Emily asked, suddenly confused by Hanna's unenthusiastic tone, "I thought he was nice to you?"

"Apparently he had a personality makeover," She murmured, bitterly. Only ten minutes ago had she been speaking to her friend about the kind, considerate guy who had helped her out so willingly; now, he was nothing but a memory, replaced by the smug looking boy that seemed intent on annoying her as much as he possibly could.

Emily now had a look of concern, maybe even anger, plastered across her features, "Did he say something to you?" She walked across the room to sit on the end of her friend's bed, searching her face for any signs of upset.

"He was just being a jerk," Hanna shrugged nonchalantly, before picking up her phone as she began to scroll through her messages, "It's cool, he doesn't owe me anything."

"He could at least be a decent human being," Emily spat out. Though she and Hanna had only known each other for a week, they'd already formed a pretty strong bond, and Hanna hadn't missed the way in which Emily was quickly becoming very protective of her.

"My fault," Hanna laughed, though she could feel a few tears beginning to brim at the corners of her eyes, "I should have known that he was too pretty to actually be a nice guy."

The door clicked before flying open as Alison sauntered into the room, having heard the tail end of her roommates' conversation, "Who are you guys talking about?"

"That's the guy that took care of Han last week," Emily whispered, nodding towards the door after noticing that Caleb was still standing in his position against the wall outside.

"Him? That's Caleb," Alison replied a little too loudly, considering that he could probably hear what they were saying. The door was shut, but the walls in their building were pretty thin, and didn't leave a lot to the imagination.

Hanna could only pray that Caleb hadn't been eavesdropping on her conversation with Emily; she pushed a finger to her lips, signalling that Alison should speak more quietly. "Yeah, I know that's Caleb," She hissed, rolling her eyes as if she didn't even have the energy to care about what his name was.

"And did you know that Caleb has a girlfriend?" Alison smirked as she walked over to Hanna's bed, taking one of Emily's hands in hers once she was close enough to do so. Emily looked up at her girlfriend and smiled, her nose crinkling up a little as she did so.

"He does?" Hanna raised her eyebrows in surprise. She'd never seen him with anyone else; well, she'd never seen him alone with another girl. Maybe that was who he was waiting for?

"Yeah, I saw them out here a couple of days ago," Alison nodded, turning her attention back to Hanna after reciprocating Emily's smile, "Looked pretty close to me."

Hanna knew that her new friend was just trying to get a rise out of her – over the past week she had come to learn that whenever Alison had the opportunity to tease someone, she would take it without hesitation. She couldn't work out whether it was a personality trait that she found amusing, or one that she would come to hate.

"Oh," Hanna eventually mumbled in reply; despite the fact that she was feeling more than a little angry in regard to Caleb's behaviour, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed upon hearing the news that he had a girlfriend. Still, she wasn't desperate for a boyfriend, and certainly wasn't looking for a long term relationship, so she figured that it didn't really matter that much anyway.

"Well, it's probably a good thing that nothing happened between you two then," Emily chirped, trying to lighten the situation a little. Just as Hanna had learned that Alison was usually the one to start up a teasing 'session', she had learned that Emily was usually the one to initiate its dissipation.

"I didn't want it to, he's an ass," Hanna mumbled, clearly unwilling to talk about Caleb for any longer.

Alison raised her eyebrows in disbelief, "That's not what you were saying a few…"

"I changed my mind, ok?" Hanna shot back, interrupting her. She stood up, grabbing her bag before she made her way over to the door; once she was there she took a tentative look through the peephole, confirming to herself that Caleb had in fact moved from his previous position. She sighed in relief, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and buy a drink without being mocked by an ass."

She didn't even bother looking back at the confused looks on her roommates' faces before she slammed the door shut and started power-walking to the store.

Why was she letting him get to her?

Oops, Hanna accidentally hates Caleb juuuuuuust a little bit... don't worry though, I promise it isn't gonna last too long. Also, I just want to apologise for the very slow updates recently; I've been so busy with uni stuff, and it doesn't look like it's gonna be getting better any time soon, sadly. To make up for it, I promise to update really really quickly during my Easter break, which is almost a month long. Reviews are appreciated as always friends xx