Broken Angelz

I lay awake in Peyton’s bed that night with a million things running through my head. It was hard to believe everything that had happened in the past 24 hours.

**The Morning before**
“Kels?” I hear Peyton ask as she walks out from her room, into the kitchen. I turn around from the toaster with my toast.
“Hi.”
“No breakfast?” She asks wiping her eyes.
“You know where everything is.”
“Oh crap. No lecture, cold stares and no breakfast… What did I do this time?”
“It’s sad you don’t remember. Funnily enough, it pisses me off even more. You’d been drinking from about 4.”
“Is that what you’re pissed about? You knew I was going out. You need to chill out Kelsi.” She said, trying to fix her hair up into something decent.
“Well next time you can find your own way home, because I’ve had it Peyton.” I say, throwing the rest of my toast out the window for Skittles, washing up my plate. Peyton just sat there and looked at me shocked.
“Kels, I’m-”
“Don’t you dare say ‘I’m sorry’!” I slam the dish cloth down, and turn to look at her, my hands on the bench trying not to pull her off the stool and punching her in the face. “I was having fun last night! For the first time in a long time, I was actually having fun! I didn’t have a drunk acting like a ditz, I didn’t have an annoying asshole breaking plates, I was having a quite night in with some friends. And you ruined it! What should have been one of the best nights in a long time was once again ruined by my best friend. So, I’ve had it! You’ve got two choices, clean up or get out.” I storm off into the studio slamming the door.

I start throwing the pillows off the couch. I push the couch out of my way. The few CD’s that were unlucky enough to be near, got smashed. I can feel the tears rolling down my cheeks. I don’t know if it’s angry tears or giving up tears. I grab Toby’s drumsticks and start playing. The hardest, fastest, rock-est song I can think of, I play. My ‘sticks hit the skins so hard that if I was in another frame of mind, I would have been scared the skins would have broken. The vibrations off the skins are so hard that they’re making my hands shake. I can’t feel them though because my brain has so much more to think about than pain.
I play until my hands are sore from the ‘sticks ricocheting so much. My head seems to fall forwards, resting on Toby. My hands go over my head trying to block out the world.
The tears make small sounds as they fall onto the skin.

I didn’t want her to go. She was my best friend. No matter what she did. I was just too worked up to even care. I was so determined to not let her turn onto my father. Shouldn’t I be grateful that she didn’t go home with some random? My arms wrap around my chest, trying to stop it from hurting.

Jackson POV.
Not caring whether or not I seemed too eager, I knocked on Kelsi’s door at five to eight the next morning, Skittles barked like crazy out the back. I had only known the girls for just on a month, but there was something about Kelsi that made me want to smile like a four year old every time I saw her. She was amazing, talented, and beautiful. She could make me laugh at anything.
Peyton answers the door and my mood drops a bit.
“Hi, Jackson.” She says, her eyes look like they’re about to cry.
“Are you okay, Peyton?”
“I’m fine.” She said it in a way that I knew there had been a fight.
“Are you sure?” I ask, wanting to find Kelsi, but not wanting to hurt Peyton’s feelings.
“She’s in the studio.” She says walking away, leaving the door open. I step inside, closing the door behind me and head off to the studio.

I knock on the door, but no one answers, so I let myself in. The studio was a mess, to say the least. There were pillows everywhere, the couch had been pushed and a couple of broken CD’s were strewn across the carpet. I looked towards the drum kit standing in the corner of the room. There she was. Slumped over, curled into a ball. I can hear her sobbing. I push the couch back against the wall and put as many things back as I can, then walk over to the broken girl at the drums.
“Kelsi?” I ask slowly. She lifts her head slightly, seeing who it was, and then she straightens up, wiping her eyes with her sleave.
“Hey, Jackson.” She says trying to be normal, but fails, breaking down in more tears.
I walk over to her and kneel spinning the stool around so that she’s facing me.
“Hey.” I say wiping the tears away from her eyes. “Are you okay?” All I get is a shake of her head. I wrap her in my arms and carry her over to the couch.

We sit there, exactly like that for an hour. Every now and then, she’ll stop crying, then like a light switch, start again. All the time, I sit there holding her in my arms and trying to soothe her.
“You wanna talk about it?” She shakes her head.
“I’m assuming that you and Peyton had a fight?” She nods her head, and starts crying again. Through her tears she starts to speak.
“It was the biggest fight we’ve had since grade 8. I told her to clean up or get out. I don’t want her to leave Jackson.” She says sobbing even more.
“Was this about last night?”
“Last night was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. So many nights, so many times I’ve had to stop everything in my life and go pick her up. I’m tired, Jay. So freaking tired.” She says crumbling back into my chest. The memory of my brother calling me ‘Jay’ nearly brought tears to my eyes. I had to tell her. I didn’t want her to make my mistake.
“Kels, remember last night how I said that I used to have a brother?”
“Yer,” she said sniffling and sitting up.
“Well, he died a couple of years ago. A car accident.”
“I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me, Jackson.”
“I do. See, I know what it’s like with Peyton. I was you three years ago. My brother was exactly like Peyton. I told him to clean up or get out as well. He left. That night he went out drinking with his mates, again. I can remember a knock on the door, in the middle of the night and thinking that it better not be him drunk. It wasn’t. It was a policeman. He told me that Daniel had been in an accident. He was in a critical condition at the hospital. He had tried to drive home and wrapped his car around a pole. 2 weeks later, the doctors turned off the life support.” I look out the window remembering that night, and feeling tightness in my chest. Kelsi was the first person I had told that didn’t know me then. Not even the press knew. I held her tighter and looked down at her.
“I know it’s hard. But you have to be supportive and help her as much as you can. Don’t let her do what Dan did. Please.”
“Jackson… I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” Kelsi said, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“It’s ok. I was just telling you because I don’t want you to make the same mistake.”
“I don’t know if I can talk to her yet.” She said wiping her eyes and sitting up.
“Then don’t. It won’t help if you’re still mad. Calm down and then talk to her.”
“Thank you.”

Kelsi POV
Jackson and I sat there for the rest of the morning. I’m sure we both fell asleep until Jackson’s phone went off. We both jumped at the sudden noise in the quiet studio.
“Sorry,” He said, fishing the phone out of his pocket.
“It’s okay.” I say getting up and stretching my arms and legs.
“Jackson, Yer, okay, I’ll bring some with me when I come back. See you later, Ash.”
“Ashley?”
“Yer, Rob drank all the coffee. I’ll have to get some on the way home.” He put his phone back in his pocket. “Are you okay?” he asked, hugging me.
“Yer, I think so. I just need to talk to her.” We pull away and he tucks a lose lock of hair behind my ear. I feel my cheeks turn red. My heart racing a million miles an hour and my head is all fuzzy. “Thanks. For today I mean. You were just what the doctor ordered.”
“You’re welcome, anytime.”
“Well, I better go talk to Peyton, and you better get some coffee for Robert, but if everything’s okay by this afternoon, come round for dinner with Kellan, Ash and Rob?”
“Sure thing. Call when you know what’s happening?”
“Yep. Thank you again.” I say as I walk him to the door.
“Anytime. We’ll try for Breakfast on the weekend?”
“I totally forgot! Merda!Yes, we will have breakfast on the weekend. Sorry, Jackson.” I say.
"Don't worry about it. You had other things to deal with. You'll be able to enjoy it more on the weekend." He says with a hug and a last kiss on the cheek.
"Okay. Thank you." I say, watching as he walks to his car and drives off. Now to talk to Peyton.

I took a deep breath and walked down to Peyton’s room. Her suitcase was on the bed and she was throwing things in it. Her music was blasting out of the speakers, so she didn’t hear me as I walked over to turn the music down.
“What the fuck?” She said whirling around to the stereo, seeing me, her eyes turned cold as she turned around and kept packing.
“Peyton,” I started, but she cut me off.
“If you’re here to make sure I’m going, I’ll be gone in half an hour. You won’t ever have to deal with me again.” I could hear the hurt in her voice, and I knew that I had gone too far.
“I don’t want you to go.” I said quietly. My eyes already tearing up. She looked around at me.
“You yell at me this morning and go completely off your tits because I fucked up last night, now you come in here when I’m packing, telling me you don’t want me to go. Make up your fucking mind, Kelsi!” Slamming the top of her suitcase, she walked out of her room into the studio. I followed her.
“I want you to stay. I know I stuffed up this morning and everything just came out. I know that it’s not going to be a quick process, easing up on the alcohol, but I want you to be here. I want to make sure you don’t wrap yourself around a tree, when you go out, and that you have a safe place to stay, no matter what time of the day or night. I don’t want you to go. You’re my best friend and I love you no matter what crazy ass thing you do. Please, Stay?”
“Kelsi, I’m so pissed at you! You had no right to go off like that! It’s my life and I can do whatever the fuck I like with it!”
“I know, I’m trying to change Peyton. I need your help though.” I knew that I had really hurt her, and I needed to make it work again. She was all I had left, and I couldn’t lose her because of something I did.
“You work on your control issues and I’ll work on my drinking habits, then maybe our friendship might recover. We’re falling apart Kelsi and we’re both to blame. It takes two to tango.” She sighed and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Okay, you and me. Together.” I say. “Did you want me to help unpack?” I add.
“No. I’m good. I heard you inviting the new celebrities for dinner.”
“Only if you want to.”
“Sure. It’ll be good. Rob and I can catch up about last night.”
“Okay, I’ll go tell them ‘Thunderbirds are go’” I say walking out of the room. I hear Peyton laugh.
“Nerd!”