Hate That I Love You

“Hey Bryan! What are you doing out here on this lovely afternoon?” Robert appeared next to him. The book flew from Bryan’s hands, landing softly on his legs.

“Scare ya, did I?” Robert tapped his shoulder. Bryan exhaled loudly, sinking into the seat.

“I tried so hard to get Rory on that, but I didn’t get you…” he pouted.

“Mate, it’s a little Deep and Meaningful in there…” Robert jumped onto the seat next to Bryan, flinging him off it. He landed on the ground with a dull thud.

“Oh, sorry mate!” Robert waved at him on the ground. Bryan’s eyebrows met, he scrunched his face up.

“Ouch?” he got up and rubbed his posterior, dusting himself off.

“What do you mean Deep and Meaningful?”

“Don’t ask dude, just… don’t ask…” Robert nodded, glancing down at the book he was once reading.

“You read this shit?” he asked, flinging the book up to his face.

“Why is it Deep and Meaningful?”

“I don’t know? She didn’t tell me why?”

Bryan sighed heavily and slapped his forehead, stupidly.

“Im not a mind reader Robert, who told you what?” Bryan sighed, shuffling his feet and occasionally checking over his shoulder for a crowd. None was found.

“Nikki, she was crying… she didn’t tell me why.”

Bryan paused.

“What was that?” he asked, his eyes peeking from above his glasses.

“I think it had something to do with Ronnie?” Robert wasn’t paying any attention, he could have been talking to himself and Bryan wouldn’t be listening.

“Where’s Max?” Bryan mumbled, hoping Robert would listen.

“…or maybe she was having a bad day…” Robert continued. Bryan exhaled and walked away.

“Oh, Bye!” Robert called out, waving his hand, but not looking at Bryan. Bryan lazily waved back.

“Max?”

Silence

“Max?”

Still no response

“MAX FUCKING GREEN!”

“Mmphmmm…”

Ronnie spun on his heels, heading in the direction of the mumble. He leant onto the sleek door that led to Max’s secret lair. No one dared to go in there, it was more a fact that if anyone did, they probably would come back permanently scared. Ronnie knocked on the door, upon scoring no reply he spoke into the door.

“Max? if your there… reply please?”

Ronnie paused and glanced at the ground, his ear pressed to the door waiting for a reply. He heard the faint shuffling of a moving figure.

“Max! I’m coming in!” Ronnie forced all of his weight against the door, swiftly opening it. The door swung back on its hinges, hitting the opposite wall with a loud ‘thwack’. Ronnie attempted to catch the door before it hit, but he failed. Max shot up in bed, his upper half was bare and his hair was a mess. His bedroom floor was littered with liquor bottles. Bacardi, Vodka, Rum and Fruit juice. Ronnie stared weirdly at the Fruit juice, wondering what that was doing here.

“Max? What is this?” Ronnie asked, pointing to the ground. Ma innocently crawled to the end of the bed and peeked over it.

“I dunno..” he slurred, almost falling of the bed. Ronnie rolled his eyes.

“Only losers drink alone..” he smirked, remember the days when Max would say that to him, and all Ronnie could do was stumble and trip over is drunken-lagged feet.

“Are you calling me a loser?” Max toppled over, landing face first on the carpet. Ronnie squinted upon hearing Max’s face hit the ground, hard.

“Max? What the hell is wrong with you?” Ronnie picked him up by his arms. Max leant into him, whispering into his ear.

“Why did you let him? She was yours..”

Ronnie’s eyes widened. He released his grip on Max, and he toppled back down to the ground, except not on his face. Ronnie stared down at him.

“How did you find out?”

“The floor…” Max innocently pointed to the floor. “There was paper on the floor…. And I read it..” he smiled, falling forward, off his knees, face planting himself again.

“Jesus Max, your worse than me…”

“She loves you… and.. you love her, but.. you hurt her, I heard her cry..” Max quietly muttered, leaning up to Ronnie’s feet, grasping them with his arms.

“Max?”

“She is sad now, isn’t she? You made her sad, and you said you loved her.. and wouldn’t make her sad, why did you make her so sad?” Max cried.

“Max?....” Ronnie bent down to Max’s level.

“She loved you Ron, more than I do.. like, she LOVES you..” he exclaimed. “Now you hate her, you think Omar did things to her, don’t you?”

“Max, stop…” Ronnie muttered, his head bowing.

“Go away, you hurt her, you hurt me…” Max pushed him away. From his squatting position Ronnie landed squarely on his bottom on the carpet as Max scurried off.

“Max!” Ronnie called out, watching his best friend disappear into the shadows of his room.

“Go away, you monster…” Max threw an empty Vodka bottle, just passing Ronnie’s head. Ronnie took that as a sign and left. As he left the room, he slowly clicked the door shut, and slid his way down the door. He allowed tears to flow smoothly down his face, before crying himself a river.

“He what?” I asked. Nikki broke into a fit of more crying, and fell into my arms. I quickly swept her up in my arms, avoiding her from the ground. I pressed her face to my shoulder and allowed her to cry all she wanted.

“Nikki? Where is he now?” I whispered into her ear. She slightly shrugged, sobbing a little more.

“Have you actually talked about it, or… not?”

She shrugged again.

“Nikki, I’m going to put you on the couch, and leave you there for a while, I will be back.”

She looked up at me.

“Where are you going?” she asked, clutching to my shirt.

“To find Bryan, he wanted to talk to me…”

“If you see Ronnie, tell him I still love him…”

I heard a small click, but when I turned to see what it was, I saw nothing. Although I could have sworn I heard something, I found nothing. I stared at it for a while, waiting to see if anything would appear.

Nothing did…

“What are you looking at?” Nikki sobbed, staring at the exact spot I was staring at.

“Oh, nothing…” I smiled and walked away.

“Rory?”

I met Bryan on my way outside, he caught my hands within his and pulled me into the kitchen. At first I was terrified, but as soon as I heard his voice, I felt safe.

“Bryan?” I asked, feeling up his arms towards his face.

“Whats happening, Robert says its pretty emotional in there?” Bryan pointed out to the lounge room.

“How about we go outside and talk about this.”

“GUYS!?” Robert ran into us just as we were going outside. He had opened the door as soon as we were going too, instantaneously facing each other.

“What Robert?” Omar ran down the stairs, soon followed by a dazed Max. Great, now we were all in one space. It had been a while since this had happened. These past few days had found us all over the house. Bryan and I turned to Max and Omar, smiling, then turned back to Robert to hear what he had to say.

“Some one just took off in one of the cars.” Robert huffed, his glances changing between us all.

I quickly glanced at the door I was staring at before I left Nikki. I wasn’t hearing things, someone had actually left the house and taken off. Ronnie, he was the only one missing.

“Max, quickly go up and check whether Ronnie’s stuff is still in his room.” I hurried him along. He was bounding out of the room so quickly it was like he never left.

“What’s wrong Rory?” Bryan asked, grasping my shoulder.

I pointed to the door.

“When I was with Nikki, I swore I heard the door shut, but when I looked, it seemed as though it hadn’t moved. And the only one missing is Ronnie.” I replied, squarely staring Bryan in the face.

“Rory! His stuff is all gone…” Max yelled, bolting down the stairs so fast he nearly lost control of his own body.

We all exchanged obvious looks before panicing, to ourselves.

Ronnie had left us, taken off, left nothing, taken everything.

What were we to do?

Search for him?

How would the band replace him?

What about Nikki?

My mind raced.

Bryan became worried, as did the rest of the band, and we all didn’t know what to say. We wanted to race after him, but none of us had any idea of where he would have gone.

Why would he leave us?