Yesterday

As soon as the sun broke out from the ground, Cammie was out of bed. She didn't even need her alarm to tell her to get up this time. She had been awake most of the night anyways.

`She silently made her way down the hallway of the college dorms that she resided in to the communal showers. As soon as she caught sight of the broken mirror that remained unhinged from yesterday, she immediately returned to her room.

Her roommate Bex, could sleep through a hurricane, so Cam moved with ease around the tiny room. She slipped on her sports bra and spandex (classic 5am running outfit) and grabbed her shoes before heading out the door.

She didn't usually like running this early. Cammie thrived on the late night air that college had accustomed her to. She had been fortunate enough to not be slammed with any 8am classes this year as she had last, so her preference would remain in waking up late after a long, but always fun, night.

However, those nights usually included Zach.

Cammie shook thoughts of him out of her mind as she began to stretch her calves out against the building. She could already tell that she was going to be hella sore after this run, so she gave up on the stretches and hit the pavement at a jog.

The few people that she passed on campus looked about as bad as she felt. They probably hadn't seen sleep yet. Usually 4/5am was when the party stragglers came back to their apartments dreading the hangover that would envelop them when they woke up.

That's what yesterday was supposed to be like for Cammie. Bex had planned an amazing night of bar hopping to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Plus, it was the last Friday before they left for fall break, and their midterms and sufficiently beat all of their asses. Cammie was planning to drive home with Zach later that day, but that seemed relatively unlikely considering what had happened last night.

Cammie turned a corner and found herself nearing the end of the campus. She decided that she didn't feel like doing another lap and instead left the complex and traveled into the neighboring city hoping to see life that wasn't sporting a hangover.

Cammie's mind again drifted back to the night before. She, of course, tried to push it away, but she had nothing else to think about and this was going to be a long run.

" Cammie hurry up," Bex called, She was obviously annoyed with her as Cammie applied her last coat of mascara.

"Calm down Bex please. Grant and Zach aren't even here yet."

"Yeah, that's because I knew you would take forever and told them to meet us there!"

"Aw, you know me so well."

"Get your ass out the door woman."

The two had arrived at the party fashionably late and their boyfriends, Zach and Grant, were non to pleased.

"Bex, are you kidding me? You said you would be here a half hour ago!" Grant complained.

"Yeah, I know, but Cam over here decided last minute that she wanted to curl her hair," she replied.

"Hey!" Cammie raised her hands. "In my defense, I haven't washed my hair since the beginning of midterm week and something needed to give it volume!"

Bex just shook her head and pulled Grant to go get a drink with her.

"Well I for one, think you look beautiful tonight," Zach said, taking a step closer to me. "And you would've looked that way, with or without your curled hair."

Cammie melted at his words. It was hard for her to comprehend how she had scored a man that was so freaking kind and hot (if she said so herself).

Cammie took a step to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you babe."

"I love you too."

The bar filled up insanely quickly after Bex and Cammie arrived and after a few drinks, they decided to move to another one down the streets. A couple of their friends were there and they had insider intel that it was open mic night for the drunk college kids.

As the four walked out, Cammie realized she had left her purse in the booth they were sitting in. "Shoot, I need to go back. I left my stuff in the booth," she explained,

"I'll go with you," Zach offered.

Camie turned down his offer because he had the friends at the other bar, and she just said that she would meet them there seeing as it was barely a block away.

Zach begrudgingly agreed and Cammie dove back into the madness to get her purse. She met some very polite drunkards in the booth where they had been and an extremely underage girl handed Cammie her purse back.

Cam just chuckled and headed out.

She made it out of the bar and accidentally stumbled into someone that was standing outside.

The man caught Cammie before she hit the ground. Normally, this wouldn't have happened, but you never know what a few hard shots will do to you.

"Thanks," she said to the mystery man who had stopped her fall. He was attractive (not nearly on the same level as Zach though).

"Hey," he replied.

Uh oh, Cammie could clearly hear the slur in the single word and quickly tried to exit the situation with a brief wave goodbye.

"Hey! Where are you going!" The man said. "It's gotta be fate that I stumbled into you like this. Wanna go back to my place and-"

Cammie cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "No thank you, I have a boyfriend."

"Well," the man replied, leaning heavily against the side of the bar, "Where is the boyfriend now?"

Again Cammie tried to leave, but the guy lunged for her, probably missing his mark terribly, but getting her just enough that she tumbled to the ground with him.

She quickly got up and sprinted out of the parking lot and back towards campus. She wasn't sure why she hadn't just gone to the bar her friends were at. That would've been the best option, but she was panicking and her homing beacon she took her back to her dorm.

She swiped her key card and quickly ran up the stairs, breaking a very cheap heel in the process.

Cammie wasn't sure why the short interaction had her creeped out so much. She was barely in the vicinity of this man for a minute.

She trudged into the communal bathroom, Her carefully curled hair was a mess and her dress was all dirty from the fall. She delicately touched her forehead where a large gash had appeared. That's weird, she barely remembered it hurting after she fell. But one thing was for sure: it was throbbing now.

Eh, she didn't really have the strength to deal with it now. The past ten minutes had been enough excitement for the night. She considered calling Zach and asking him to come stay with her. As cheesy as it sounded. She would always feel safe and protected with him.

However, she didn't want to ruin his night. He deserved to have some fun.

Cammie knew that if she called him, he would hear the shake in her voice, so she opted for a quick text instead.

Not feeling great, went back to the dorms, have fun!

It wasn't her best work, but she really didn't have the strength to craft anything else. She sent the text and changed into her pajamas before heading back to the bathroom to prepare herself to go to sleep.

She was almost done with her skincare (it was sadly a lengthy and ritualistic process) when the door flew open.

It slammed against the wall with such force that Cammie whipped her head around hard enough to send one of her Airpods flying across the room.

Standing in the doorway was a very annoyed looking Zach

"What the hell Zach?"

"What the hell me? What the hell you?! You took forever to find your purse and then I got a completely bland text saying that you're sick. I've been blowing up the phone for thirty minutes! I thought something happened to you-" he paused as his eyes landed to the still bleeding cut on her forehead. She hadn't managed to find a way to stop it yet.

"Zach it's really nothing-"

In one swift step he was at the sinks with her, one arm loosely holding her waist and his other hand inspecting her head. "Something did happen!"

"Zach, it was really nothing, I honestly just tripped-"

"You're lying."

Cammie silently cursed. She was a truly terrible liar.

"I'm gonna ask one more time. What. Happened."

Cammie sank to the floor of the bathroom, thankful that everyone was out celebrating so she could explain what happened to Zach.

He sunk to the floor beside her and placed a warm hand on her bare thigh.

It was a short recount but by the end, Zach's hands were shaped in very uncomfortable looking fists.

"What did he look like?" was the first thing he said.

"Why?"

"So I can go beat the living shit out of him for touching my girl."

"Normally, Cammie loved it when her boyfriend got possessive, but this wasn't that. He was just plain angry.

"Babe, calm down. It's really nothing!"

"NOTHING?" he exploded. "YOUR HEAD IS STILL BLEEDING AND YOUR TRYING TO TELL ME IT'S NOTHING!"

"Zach please calm down."

His back was now facing Cammie and she tried to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. Instead of relaxing as she thought he would, Zach wheeled to the side and shattered the mirror with his fist.

Cammie let out a short schriek and jumped back from him. That was too much for her. It was scary. Zach wasn't supposed to be scary.

"Please Leave."

Zach turned to her quickly with apologetic eyes. "Cams I am so sorry didn't mean to. I just got so angry that he hurt you-"

"Leave."

"Please-"

She pointed to the door and took another step back from him, hurt in her eyes.

He let out a defeated sigh; he knew not to push her.

After that Cammie had returned to her room and passed out, happy that the night was over.

Cammie slowed her run to a jog as she returned to the campus. She didn't know what to do about Zach. He scared her. That's what Cammie's last boyfriend, Josh, had done. She could never stand to be with someone like that again.

With a conflicted heart, she trudged up the stairs to her dorm.

She turned the corner to find a very tired looking Zach sitting in front of her door.

As soon as he caught sight of her, He leapt up.

His hair was a mess, and he was wearing the same shirt he had on last night with some old sweatpants that he probably slept in. If he even slept at all.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm here to apologize."

"Zach-"

"No, just let me do this. I screwed up bad yesterday. I know what it was like with Josh and I never ever want to be like that for you. I am so sorry that I freaked. I wasn't mad at you or that guy….actually I was really mad at that guy, but I was more mad at myself. I shouldn't have left you alone at the bar. That was dumb and stupid and the way I let it out was dumber and stupider. I love you so much that it hurts, Cams. I could never do this without you and I can't lose you over something as stupid as me going mental. Please please forgive me."

Cammie looked at the pleading boy standing in front of her. Yeah he scared her yesterday, but they could work on that. That was the whole point of relationships. Plus that was the most beautiful speech a guy had ever addressed her with. She actually began to tear up a bit.

"Wait, no are you crying?! What did I do? Tell me what I need to fix and I will!"

"No!" Cammie said happily, with a teary smile on her face. "I forgive you and I love you babe."

Zach's panicked expression melted and he rushed her, kissing her hard before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her legs around his torso.

Cammie buried her head into his neck, and soon pulled away, kissing him softly. She made a move to get down but she held onto her tightly. "Where you going babe?"

She laughed a little. This was the type of possessive she liked. "I'm all sweaty and gross."

He pulled her back into him, tighter than before and mumbled into her neck, "I literally couldn't care less.