I Had It All

-Flashback-
“You sure you even want to bother with school today? You can afford to miss one more day of school. Your attendance record is nearly perfect,” I asked Kelsey with a small smile, noting how uncomfortable she still was. I didn’t know what happened when Ian came last night, but I knew she wasn’t happy about it.

I pulled her back down on the porch swing, and kissed her cheek. She gasped involuntarily and winced, pulling back slightly.

“What’s wrong?” My eyebrows arched in confusion.

“N-nothing. Just - nothing,” she shook her head.

“Okay… Well, how about we just…go out for breakfast? School’s for suckers,” I joked, and she managed a forced laugh.

“Yeah, breakfast sounds good,” she replied shakily.

-------

The waitress arrived, plates in hand and set our respective plates in front of us. Just as I was about to eat a bite of my pancake, my cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey, man, where are you? I’m bored to death sitting here in study hall,” Jack muttered.

“Kels and I are out for breakfast. We skipped.”

“Lucky bitch! Why didn’t you take me with you?!” He pretended to be upset.

“Because I wanted to spend the day with my girlfriend…?” I laughed, making sure to wink at Kelsey because I knew she heard me say that. She cast a weak smile in my direction. “Besides, if you want to skip school more often, you should get yourself a girlfriend of your own, then you can spend the day with her all you want instead of wasting time at school.”

Jack sighed on the other end. “Whatever dude. Hey, the teacher’s coming back in. Gotta go.”

“See you later.” I hung up on him and refocused my attention on Kelsey. “Please tell me what’s going on with you,” I pleaded. “You haven’t done anything but pick at your food since you got it.”

She just shrugged. “Nothing’s wrong.”

I sighed and continued eating.

-------

Later that night was when Kelsey revealed to me what happened to her. I was in shock.
You know that feeling you get when something terrible happens to someone close to you and you can’t do anything about it? The only thing you can do is stand by and let it happen? That’s how I felt. I felt like an awful boyfriend, because I didn’t stop it from happening. It was done and over with, and the only thing I could do now was make sure it didn’t occur again.

“Hey, Rian? Can I talk to you?” I inquired hesitantly after I left Kelsey’s house that night.

“Yeah, sure. What’s up?” He muted his television and turned to me. “Girl trouble?” he asked with a knowing smirk.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, but it’s not what you might think it is.”

He looked curious. “Oh? Then what is it?”

I paused, trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to phrase it. “If…If something happened to Kara," I asked slowly, choosing my words carefully, "what would you do?”

Rian seemed genuinely taken aback by the question. “What do you mean? Like, if she got in an accident?”

My face contorted strangely as I concentrated on how to explain myself. “Kind of… I mean, what would you do if someone…did something to her?”

Now he seemed more interested. “I’d kick their ass, is what I’d do.”

I nodded, still not sure how to handle the situation.

“Why? Did something happen to Kelsey?”

“No,” I lied quickly. “Just…if something were to happen to her, I’d want to know how to fix it. I mean, you and I both know I’ve never been any good in relationships… If there was one relationship I’d want to salvage, it’d be this one.” I made up a lame excuse, hoping it would tide him over.

“Oh, that makes sense… Look, speaking of girlfriends, Kara just texted me; she’s coming over. Get out of my house!” he joked, pointing at the door with a smile.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Nice to see I’m so important to you.”

“You aren’t.” He chuckled and slammed the door in my face. God, how I loved my friends.

-Present Day-

“Gather around,” Matt announced when he stepped into the bus kitchen area. He had his “business” face on. “I just got our schedules put together. Now,” carefully reciting the schedule from the white page he held in his hand, “we’ve got a photoshoot next Monday, a radio promotion Tuesday, and an interview on Wednesday. Then Thursday, when we’re in Cleveland, you’ll do a photoshoot and interview for your AP cover story next month.”

“Shweet,” Jack exclaimed.

“Sounds good. Thanks, Matty,” Rian smiled earning nothing more from Matt than a nod and an “mhm,” as he quickly ran back and did more work on his laptop.