Gay Guitarist

PARKER'S P.O.V

Once again, I woke up with a raging hangover, but this time, I remembered what happened the night before. Given the circumstances of the night, though, I'd say that that was a bad thing.

When I got home from school (where no members of Reach were anywhere to be found) I called Oliver's house 14 times. 13 times, no one picked up. On the fourteenth, Theo answered.

"Hello?" I heard him say. He sounded distracted, and I heard voices in the background.

"Hi!" I said, surprised someone had answered.

"Uhh, who is this?" He asked.

"It's Parker."

"Oh." That's all he said, and he was silent. I heard the voices in the background easier now, and I recognized the voices of Aiden, Oliver and Abigail. Band practice maybe?

"You guys practicing?"

"Uhh, yeah. Our show's tonight, and we haven't practiced for awhile." He sounded awkward, like he wished he wasn't on the phone with me. At all.

"Oh, really? That's awesome." My tongue felt numb. He didn't want to talk to me.

"Yeah." I heard someone, ask who was on the phone. Theo replied quietly, "It's Parker." Then, the rest of them went quiet.

"Give me the phone." I heard someone say. Theo must've handed the phone to him, because just a second after, Aiden said, "Parker?"

"Oh. Hi Aiden."

"Listen, Parker." I heard a door close behind him. He must've left the room where the rest of them were, because I heard no more voices in the background. "Don't call again."

I was quiet. If I couldn't call, how could I apologize?

"Oliver's really mad at you. He doesn't want to talk to you. So there's no reason for you to call."

"But---" I stopped short. I couldn't find any excuse to finish that sentence.

"Yeah. What day is it?" He asked, his voice sounding less threatening now.

"Wednesday." I said, quickly. It's weird, I had only met all of them on Friday.

"Ahh. Well, Oliver's going to be gone Thursday and Friday. So, give the calling a break."

"B-but, I have to talk to him!" I stuttered finally.

"But you can't." He paused. "Tell you what, you can talk to him. But Theo, Abigail and I will be there, too."

"What? Really?" I asked, surprised. I didn't think this would happen.

"Yeah. Uhh, it's almost 4:30 now, so we'll go out for supper for 5. Uhh, where do you want to go?"

"I don't care."

"Hmm. How about Charlie Brown's, then?"

"Isn't that a steakhouse?"

"Yeah, it's nice. Nice enough that it'll make sure you two don't get in a fist fight, or anything. I'll buy, if that's what you're worried about...?"

"No, no! I can pay for myself!" It was the least I could do. Aiden was giving me such a wonderful gift, I couldn't take his money, too.

"Great, then. We'll be there at 5."

"O-okay! Bye!" I said, smiling widely. Aiden hung up without saying goodbye. I didn't care though. I was getting the second chance I wanted. No, the second chance I needed. If I didn't make things right with Oliver, I wasn't just losing a boyfriend. No, I was losing a whole group of friends.

I would lose a whole future.

A whole life.

I had to make this right.