The tenth time I saw him, he was drunk and I had to take him home.

Allie's P.O.V.

"Yeah, no way, John Green is ten times better than Nicolas Sparks," I said into the phone.

Chris was on the other side. "No way! How many movies does John Green have out that are blockbusters?"

"Two," I said. "And for your information, Nicolas Sparks had like one good movie and that was The Notebook. All of his other ones sucked."

"What about The Lucky One? Spectacular Now? Our Last ride?" Chris rattled off three titles.

I wrinkled my nose and shifted on the couch. "The Lucky One was only good because Zac Efron was in it. The Spectacular Now was horrible. I have no idea what the point in that story was. That kid was like seventeen and drinking whiskey everyday. There is no way that happens in real life."

"The point was that at the end of the story, he realized that he didn't need to drink all the time to find things interesting and that the girl helped him realize that by almost dying. Her love changed him."

I stood up, phone still pressed between my ear as I made my way to the kitchen. "I don't see how someone's love can change someone."

"Exactly!" Chris exclaimed. "The girl, Hazel or whatever, she was changed by Augustus' love!"

"No, she was changed by knowing him as a person," I corrected, placing a bag of popcorn in the microwave and hitting the popcorn button. Sitting back against the counter, I waited for it to finish and still argue with Chris. "He said things about life that made her think differently. And with him dying, she realized how much of a great person he was."

"That's all she got out of him dying?" Chris' tone was flat.

"Well, my other point was about love, and you don't want to hear about that."

"Whatever. I still think Nicolas Sparks is better. He has more books out."

My popcorn dinged and I pulled it out and headed back to my spot on the couch. I opened Netflix and waited for it to load. "So? All that means is he can write shittier books quicker. He needs to slow down and actually put quality into his work."

"Okay, I can see I'm fighting a losing battle," Chris said. "On another note, what are you up to?"

"Nothing," I said, eating some popcorn. "I was just going to watch movies all night. Want to come over?"

"Sure," Chris said. "I'll be over in ten minutes."

"Cool," I said and hung up.

I was clicking through Netflix, trying to find a good movie that I hadn't watched when the doorbell rang.

"I got it!" Jasmine called from her room.

I closed my eyes and sighed. There goes my night with Chris, as Jasmine would just hang over him all night and drool and try to get him alone with her.

"Hell-o," she said, opening the door and pausing when she saw Chris. "Who are you?"? she asked flirtatiously, batting her eyelids.

"Chris," he said. "Is Allie here?" he asked.

Jasmine wrinkled her nose. "Allie? What do you want with her?"

"She's my girlfriend," Chris told her.

"No I'm not," I said, popping up. "Hey, Chris, come in."

Jasmine  shut the door behind me and looked at me in shock. You have a boyfriend? she mouthed.

I shook my head. No I don't, I mouthed back.

Chris plopped down on the couch next to me. "Oh, popcorn," he said, reaching for some.

I slapped his hand away. "Mine," I said protectively.

Chris pouted and I shook my head. No matter how cute he looked at that moment, with his hair not in a quiff and flopping down in his eyes, I was not going to break and give him my popcorn.

"Nope, not today," I said.

"Come on," Chris complained. "I'm a guest!"

"Yeah, well, guest, what do you want to watch?" I waved my hand in the direction of the TV.

"You know what I haven't seen? Captain America," Chris said.

I stared at him like he'd grown five extra eyes. "What? Do you live under a rock?" I asked.

"No," Chris said defensively. "I just have been busy."

"Well, we are now watching Captain America," I said, finding it and turning it on. "You're so going to cry at the end.

"I am not," Chris said, trying to look tough.

"You will."

"I won't."

"You totally will."

"I totally will not."

He cried at the end.

...

I was at a party that Chris had invited me to, and I lost Chris. I was standing on my tiptoes, trying to find him, but me on my tiptoes still puts me at about a solid three inches shorter than everyone else, so I was completely lost.

"Hey, babe," some guy said, slurring his words and grinning creepily at me.

"Fuck off," I said, ignoring him.

"Don't be like that," he said, coming closer.

Not wanting to be bothered by drunk idiots, I turned and pushed him, hard. He landed on his ass and stared up at me in shock.

"Did you not hear me? I said fuck off," I said and he scrambled up and ran away.

I sighed deeply, sitting back. I wanted to stay home and watch Harry Potter all night, but nooooo, Chris had to drag me out here and then abandon me. I wanted to go home and I decided to do just that.

As I was pushing my way through people, a body slammed into mine. I was about to yell at them when I saw it was Luke, and he was drunker than the first time I met him, which is saying a lot. I could literally smell the alcohol on him, and I was a good few feet away.

"Luke," I said tiredly. "What are you doing?"

"Luke!" he said, looking excited. "That's me!"

"Congratulations genius, you know your own name," I muttered.

"Guess what?" he said.

"What?"

"Chicken butt!" he said, looking very proud of himself.

I rolled my eyes. "Alright, let's find Chris."

"No not him!" Luke said, widening his dark eyes. "He's a meanie!"

"Why is he a meanie?"

"He's dating a girl I kinda like," he mumbled. "I don't know. She's mean to me but I'm mean to her and she's really pretty and small and I want to wrap her up and hold her but she'd kick me in the balls if I ever tried."

"Well, you're not wrong," I said. "Well, why don't you tell Chris and the girl that you like her?"

"Because I'm not sure if I do," Luke pouted, jutting out his lower lip. "And Chris is mean to me about girls."

"Let's get you home then,"  I said, taking him by the elbow and steering him away from the crowd before he started crying and rambling like an emotional drunk.

"Not home either," he mumbled.

I threw up my hands. "Then where do you want to go?!"

"Anywhere," he said, his eyelids starting to droop. "M'sleepy," he said.

I sighed. "Okay, let's go."

I took him to my apartment, which was only a couple blocks away from the frat house where the party was. I hoped Jasmine wasn't home and after some careful searching, I knew that she wasn't. I brought Luke into my room and pushed him down on the bed. He flopped onto his side and curled up.

"Thanks, Fin," he mumbled.

I frowned. Who was Fin? Was that another friend? A girl? A nickname? His sister? His dog? His cat? It would be his pet fish, for God's sake.

"You're the only person nice to me," he continued and I stared at him, wondering what to say.

Finally, I whispered. "I'm not Fin."

Luke frowned. "Then who are you?"

I sighed and decided to tell him the truth. "It's Allie, Luke."

He was practically asleep and I wasn't sure if he heard me, but suddenly one of the brightest smiles I'd ever seen crossed his face and he mumbled, "My sassy Allie."

I stared at him. What? He had a nickname for me? He called me sassy Allie? It did kind of have a ring to it, but still, a nickname?

Later, when I was on the couch falling asleep, it kept running through my mind on repeat. There was a way he said it, with tenderness and affection I hadn't heard from anyone in a long time. It was nice, I have to admit, to have a nickname. I mean, Allie itself was a nickname, for Alicia, which was a horrible name. In my opinion, I'd rather be called Allie for the rest of my life, but I never had a nickname in a nickname before.

I liked it, to be completely and utterly honest.

What I liked more was that he called me his.

___________________________________________________________________________

Hey guys, look at me go, two updates in two days! This is extremely rare, don't expect this from me too often, but I hadn't been updating a lot recently and I thought I'd do this for you guys.

Also- registration for school is tomorrow and I don't know if you guys know this but I'm going to a new school because I moved and I'm terrified any advice? I've never been the "new kid" and I have no idea what to do, because the people in this town are mean, I mean, I've lived here a while and I just finished my school year at my old school but now I'm going here and I'm scared what do I do help

anyway, I hope you like it, please vote and comment!

Love ya!
-T A Y L O R