The Best Is Yet to Come

“He sort of freaked out,” Max announced as I let him in through my front door.

“Freaked out?”

“Yeah, he went mental on everyone,” he said awkwardly and grimaced. “He was in a foul mood this morning and when people showed up, he told everyone what he thought of them.”

“Great,” I moaned, shutting the door behind him and leant against the wall.

“He’s in the middle of some songs,” Max went on to say. “And I think we can guess what they’re going to be about.”

“People we hate?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“People who are fake,” he answered truthfully, glowering into space. “I’m sort of half glad he did it. None of us had the guts to say anything. Are you the reason he’s in a foul mood?”

“Gee, thanks Max,” I grunted, folding my arms and leaning forwards defensively. I sunk back after a moment. “But yes.”

Dragging Max to my room, I launched into what had happened.

“Ouch,” Max said when I was done. “Well that does explain a lot.”

I just made a grunting noise and fell back on my covers, fighting the strongest urge to seize my pillow and scream into it.

“So who did he flip out on exactly?” I asked trying to distract myself – my fingers were twitching towards the pillow.

“Well, he had a go at Charlie, Harry and Summer,” Max held out his fingers to count the people on them. “And then basically anyone within distance.”

I was kind of pleased. I was glad the fake-ness was being eradicated from our lives but it still didn’t sort my Josh problem. My Josh problem. There seemed to be a lot of Josh problems at the moment- Wait! What the fuck? Josh wasn’t a problem. My boyfriend wasn’t a problem. We’d get through this – I assured myself of that.

“At least there’s some tunage about other people,” I said, mentally adding “and not me.”

Max chuckled and glanced up to the ceiling, staring at my light as he spoke.

“We’ve got about one down and a sort of rough idea for another, Josh can’t get the lyrics for the second just yet.”

“What’s the first one?”

“The Truth Is A Terrible Thing,” Max said calmly, still looking up at my ceiling. “Well that’s the title, he sort of nailed down these lyrics, like he did for The Rumour? But I do hope he finds better inspiration soon because otherwise we’re going to have a CD full of people we don’t actually like.” Max laughed again, falling backwards to lie next to me.

I cringed into my duvet. Inspiration. My gut was twisting and squirming with a sense of foreboding. My gut was telling me I was going to be that inspiration.

***

My heart seemed to meet my head halfway and both knew it was time to go and apologise. Josh responded to my text, at last, and agreed to meet me in the park we used to spend a lot of time in, between our houses.

I couldn’t work out why I was nervous as I paced back and for over the springy but crumbling surface padding that kept kids from ‘injuring’ themselves. When he arrived, five minutes later, I guess I was right to be a tiny bit scared. He looked like he was GLOWERING at me – I was instantly reminded of my nightmare. I swallowed nervously but he only kept his glare for a few more steps, he saw me properly and it was like his heart was melting. His fixed frowned lifted, his dark eyes brightened, his shoulders sagged into form of internal defeat. A faint smile danced across my lips but stretched into a full blown smile when he returned it.

He stopped in front of me a few feet away.

“I was asleep,” I burst out before I could stop myself. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he mumbled, looking down at his feet as he scuffed them against the floor, his hands buried in his pocket.

“I am really sorry,” I said quietly. “I got really pissed off and shouldn’t have hung up on you or told you goodnight.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he repeated still staring at the floor.

“I guess I should have been more honest.” I paused and tried to look him in the eye. “I don’t really like… all those girls.”

“Oh for Godsake Jase!” he hissed, suddenly becoming very animated, raising his hands to his hair. “You think I’d do that to you? You think I would cheat on you for some one night stand?”

“What- no, I guess, I don-”

“It’s always been you!” Now he looked at me, the blue aflame with meaning and depth. I’d stopped breathing. “I loved you from the moment I saw you!”

He’d never told me this before. I could my feel my face crease in confusion as my heart started fluttering. That couldn’t have been true. Josh had never acted on it before. Josh had had girlfriends – Nia and Tash being a few of the latest.

“What?” I questioned when I could find my voice.

My question seemed to unlock Josh’s body and he started rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes looking down in… embarrassment? He combed his fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, his cheeks flushing.

“I mean, yeah, when I turned up in primary that first day, I thought you were the most beautiful thing in existence,” he muttered, glancing up at me, his cheeks a delicate shade of red. “Jase, I’ve loved you since that day but who was I to think that you’d ever, ever want me-”

I cut him off there, throwing myself at him, my hand wrapping around his neck, pulling what I wanted towards me as fast and hard as I could. His hands slid around my waist, up the back of my coat and crushed me against him, like he never wanted to let me go. And as I stood there, in our park full of mixed memories, the heavy sky threatening to pour with rain, and Josh pressed against my lips, I knew I never wanted to let him go either.

***

“You’re really struggling with this aren’t you?” I asked, looking down at the blank note pad, and resting my chin on Josh’s shoulder. The guys were in Max’s garage having a band meeting and we were allowed to sit in if we wanted to. Georgina was sat next to Chris and the pair were having a small private conversation. Dan and Max were on the laptop. Matt was watching his singer, his expression hard to read.

“We’re struggling with this yeah,” Matt answered for Josh who didn’t have a reply. I could see their lack of material was getting to them. They wanted an album out.

“Right,” Josh said loudly, leaning forwards so I slipped off his shoulder and started hammering on the notepad with his pen. “We’ve got a few songs down, can’t we just re-record the ones we like?”

“I vote The Rumour,” Max said quickly. “That is insane to play live and kind of suits your running album theme at the moment about fake people.”

“True,” Matt seconded, taking the pen off Josh to write it down.

“You’ve Made Your Bed fits too,” Josh said, watching his bassist start a list. He looked at me with raised eyebrows as if asking me. I nodded and forced a smile.

“Gossip?” Matt asked cautiously. My jaw locked. I didn’t like Gossip. I held my tongue and nodded encouragingly. “We’ve also already got If I Were In Your Shoes.”

“You have to put Save It For The Bedroom in!” I said quickly, leaning forwards. That is an awesome song and your fans love it!”

“Definitely,” Matt agreed, scribbling it onto the list.

“All Your Fault?” Dan asked curiously and for the first time the guys paused.

“Hmmm,” Max mulled over it. It wasn’t about being fake – it was a hate song.

“B-side maybe?” Georgina suggested in the silence.

“I knew I loved your girlfriend Chris,” Matt said as he noted ‘B-side’ next to it. I laughed lightly at Chris’ glower.

“No New Jersey? Or Nois-”

“Oh how about this one?” Max chuckled, his eyes fixed on the laptop screen, his eyes full of delight. “Been a while since we heard this!”

“Oh no you haven’t!” Josh said quickly, his face horrified. “I thought I deleted that. Urg, I hate that song!”

I exchanged a confused glance with Georgina as Max hit the play button. A completely new song started playing from the small speakers from the laptop.

“My Mona Lisa,” Josh whispered to me and rolled his eyes. “Half filler. Only small inspiration from you and Katie and Nia.”

“This was recorded with Noises and such, we just never really liked it,” Matt explained when I stared at the back of the laptop in confusion.

The opening was strong and reminded me a lot of their other earlier stuff. Josh’s voice was different too, higher and more American but I couldn’t really get what he was saying because of the bad quality of the speakers. I only picked up on the fact that there wasn’t any screaming until the end where Josh started ripping at the words.

“Oh God,” Josh groaned, sinking down his chair in embarrassment.

“Are you going to re-record with screamo?” I asked curiously as Max rolled around with laughter at Josh’s face.

The guys all exchanged uncertain glances.

“Personally, I don’t think we should,” Josh said to his band. “I hate screaming and I don’t really do it very well. I know it’s got us some fans but shouldn’t we… develop?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we should include it,” Dan agreed. “I’m not saying it’s bad,” he quickly added from the mock glower from Josh. “I just think it seems more… grown up and mature for us if we don’t.”

“Okay.” Matt decided to note that down, he bit down on the pen and stared at the pad. “Well… it’s a start.”

“We just need to try and inspiration,” Josh said casually and leant backwards in his chair.

My gut squirmed again.

***

Knowing I was due for some shit, my mood plummeted a week later. I’d had a calm, relaxing week in college where I was able to focus on my work, my boyfriend and my friends. Then on Thursday Matt announced that he was hosting a sort of celebration again for their new single being released - “If I Were In Your Shoes”. The single was being released on Valentine’s day, so I guess that fucked up any romantic plans.

Silently sitting in anger, I watched the band pass through their ‘party’ that consisted of close friends and family members. It was a quieter affair than last time but all the same I didn’t like the way girls looked at the boys. So on Valentines day, whilst my boyfriend socialised with everyone else, I decided to pull my phone out and text the one person that would listen to my strop.

I kept texting Alex for around an hour, talking to Athina, Emily and Georgina every now and again.

“No Valentine’s plans for you guys either?” I asked miserably, glaring at Josh’s back.

They all exchanged a glance.

“Well… Chris and I are leaving after the video plays, we’re going to catch a film, neither of us have a lesson until three tomorrow,” she answered and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

“I have no boyfriend,” Athina half sighed, raising her hands in defeat but sinking back down looking slightly miserable. Why Athina did not have a boyfriend was a mystery to me. She was the prettiest person I knew. She was a band and absolutely the nicest person in the world. The three sitting by me had proved they were not fake.

“I would be doing something but my boyfriend, sorry, ex boyfriend, is a dick,” Emily snapped, glowering at the nearest male but then a smile lit up her face as an idea struck. “Then again, it is Valentines day, I’m going to grab me something.”

Athina laughed heartily as Emily started heading towards a group of boys that Matt and Max knew well. I sighed heavily and Georgina just gave me a sympathetic look.

I couldn’t help but notice a few guys that we knew by face but not by name eyeing the three of us up from the corner. I tried not to make eye contact but it was extremely flattering. They finally came over to us and started talking. James, the oldest of the three, wouldn’t take his eyes off me. He was handsome, well built with a series of intricate tattoos up his arm and up to his neck. He and his friend Matthew looked disappointed when Georgina and I connected ourselves with the band. The third boy Liam looked ecstatic on hearing Athina’s single status – but she did not look one bit interested.

Just as I was starting to enjoy myself with these new attained male friends, Josh appeared and pulled me away looking the grumpiest he had all evening. Looked like I couldn’t talk to boys full stop.

Luckily, the video showed on Kerrang! and we were distracted by the cries of the people around us. Removing irritation from my system to enjoy the moment, I climbed up onto a chair behind Josh and draped my arms around him as the video played. He gave me the tiniest piece of acknowledgement and his eyes, like the rest of the room, were glued on the TV screen. I shifted focus from his face, narrowing my eyes slightly, to do the same.

It was a good video and more professional looking than their last at least. I smiled at Josh’s longer hair and raked my fingers through the new shorter cut, kissing the side of his neck. No response. I would have growled but nobody would have noticed. The video just kept bringing back memories of the filming for me and how dull it had been for the rest of us despite Max’s hyper caffeine rush. I kissed Josh’s cheek as the room applauded and ‘wooped’ but again I didn’t really get a response out of him. Anger was starting to stir ominously in my stomach as I jumped down and pushed past Max to nip out for a smoke.

As I tried to compose myself, inhaling and exhaling the sweet smoke, I stared out into the dark street, the noise of the party behind me, and at that moment, the small buzz in my pocket actually spiked some note of happiness.

***

“He wouldn’t.” I spat, staring at Emily appalled. Alex just shrugged at her desperate expression and sat down on the edge of the park wall.

“I don’t know! I only heard it!” Emily covered quickly, raising her hands to try and defend the words that had just escaped.

Josh wouldn’t cheat on me. Josh wouldn’t cheat on me. He wouldn’t!

I wanted to stomp around like a small child and to prove them wrong. He loved me. Josh loved me.

“I don’t know, apparently these girl-”

“The ones we went out with the other night?” I snapped and spun on my heel to face her. But they’d seemed so… lovely!

“Yeah, after we’d left, the small blonde told me she’d gotten off with Josh,” she said nervously, chewing on the bottom of her lip and glancing at Alex.

I dug my nails deep into my palms to stop myself from crying. No. No! But then I paused to think. What if it was true? Josh was a good looking boy, popular and a lead singer of a band, why was he wasting his time on me? Then his speech in the park about how he’d always loved me swam into my memory. Just… what the fuck? I wanted to rip my hair out.

Alex and Emily followed me to the Franceschi’s where I demanded that Josh came out to speak to me. I hadn’t meant to knock so hard. The side of my hand began to throb painfully as I paced in front of their front door.

“What’s up with you?” he asked, standing in the doorway, he had pen all over his hands – he’d been writing. He glanced over my shoulder at the pair – Emily sitting awkwardly on the wall and Alex a few feet behind me standing rather defensively.

I just stared at him. I wanted him to deny it instantly because the words wouldn’t form in my mouth.

“You didn’t cheat on me?” I finally managed to choke out.

His eyebrows knotted together, his face creasing in confusion. He just stared at me and his mouth fell open slightly.

“Wh-what?” he asked quickly, there was anger in his eyes now. “Did he tell you that?”

Josh actually spat the words at me, his lip curling in a harsh sneer as he made a movement towards Alex. I heard Alex take a step forwards behind me.

“No, no, Emily did. Josh tell me the truth.”

“What? Jase are you nuts? What did I tell you the other day?”

“So it’s not true?”

“Wh-No!” he cried, closing his front door behind him and stepping barefoot onto the garden path. “Why do you keep thinking that? I don’t want another girl.”

“You’re a good bluffer,” I whispered bitterly through glazed eyes. “Why would you want me?” He paused there and stared at me, appalled. His mouth fell open further before he spun around.

“You’re fucking losing it Jase,” he called over his shoulder.

“You spent Valentines day celebrating your band!” I screamed before I could stop myself, my hands balled into fists at my side. He paused, his hand clenched on the doorframe. He glanced guiltily at me and spared Alex a scowl before slamming the door behind him. I glared at the door for several minutes, trying to steady my breathing but my lower lip was dangerously trembling. Angry and confused, I spun around and trekked home in the attempt to calm myself. Maybe I was losing it….

Josh caught up with me in college the next day and, more rationally this time, explained himself. He told me that he wouldn’t do that to but, rather insecurely, that I was being ridiculous about the whole thing. One angry though crossed my mind as he hypocritically told me this – Alex. Josh was as jealous of Alex as I was as any other girl. We both had the same jealous minds. I sort of clicked what he must have been penning to paper yesterday but I didn’t say anything and just nodded. He also apologised for not spending Valentine’s day with me properly. We walked to Film Studies in silence but when the rest of the class and our friends arrived, we were fine. What was happening to us?

***

“I need this,” I said but the words came out in a heavy sigh that my whole body sunk into like it weighed a million tonnes. I picked up my Malibu and coke and sipped at it gratefully. I saw Athina smile in the mirror as she raked the brush through my hair.

“Yeah we sort of gathered,” she said and picked up my curlers from the dresser. I shot her a look as I tipped the glass up and finished it off. “Well I mean… things are starting to get a bit… public. We can all see the effect this is having on the both of you and all the rumours flitting around…”

“Rumours?” Emily asked from my bed, dropping the mirror in her hand.

“Yeah,” I sighed again, wanting nothing more than to bang my head on my dresser. “Apparently I’m fucking Alex and Josh is fucking groupies.”

“It’s got the whole town talking,” Athina muttered.

“There’s no way Josh believes that though,” Emily quickly asked. I just shot her a questioning look.

I chewed on my tongue for a moment.

“I hope he doesn’t. I mean, I never cheated on Alex but I did break up with him because he thought I was doing Josh.” I paused to frown and then burst out laughing. “Which I did end up doing in the end.”

The girls started laughing too and I had to duck away from Athina and the poker hot curling wand.

“Mmm, yeah, not sure I want to hear about this,” Athina grimaced but couldn’t stop a giggle escaping as she separated a piece of my hair to curl. “You, Josh, no thank you.”

“Okay fine then, you can hear all about Charlie’s tiny d-”

“Emily!” I giggled in outrage. She just sat up innocently.

“What? He may look all beef on top but downstairs he’s pretty disappointing,” she chuckled, raising her eyebrows suggestively. “I had to fake the entire thing.”

“Emily!” I laughed again at her crudity but I loved the infectious bubble of happiness swelling inside of me that had been missing.

“So what’s Franceschi packing down there?” Emily asked, climbing over the bed to talk to us better. My face felt as hot as the iron putting waves in my naturally straight hair. Athina just shook her head and closed her eyes in defeat.

“That, Emily my love, is something you will never find out,” I said smugly and threw the pillow I was sitting on over my shoulder at her.

“Alright,” she sighed in mock defeat. “I’ll just have to find out myself.”

My mouth fell open in horror and she ducked out of the room laughing before I could launch another pillow at her.

“Joking babes, joking,” she called from the bathroom as I happily seethed with Athina. We both exchanged a grin before going back to silently getting ready.

***

“Aww please don’t ruin this,” I whined, my hands pressed against Josh’s chest. “Just ignore him.”

Josh glowered ferociously over my shoulder at Alex who was stood with a few familiar faces I hadn’t seen a while. I could feel his chest heaving under my palms.

“He’s a friend of Samantha’s, whose throwing this party? Just stay away from him-”

“I will you if you will,” he snapped, finally looking down at me. The urge to defend and bite back lashed through me but I pressed harder against his chest. I wasn’t going to fuck tonight up.

“Josh we’re not going to have this argument now. You can’t stop me talking to Alex as much as I can’t stop you talking to other people, okay?” I said sternly, holding his gaze to convey my meaning. We stared at each other as music neither of us particularly liked washed over us. He loosened up then, relaxing into the familiar scene, and slid his hands around my waist.

“Fine,” he said in defeat, sinking completely into himself and actually smiling. He leant in towards me and kissed me gently, but when he tried again, I stopped him. I was very conscious of being in a room full of people and I could feel Alex’s eyes on us. It didn’t feel exactly right. Josh looked at me in confusion, his eyes flashing to Alex for a moment as I shrugged out of his grasp. With a grunt, he turned and left for the other room. Pausing to listen to my pounding heart to stop it controlling the negative emotions, I turned around, smiled at Alex and followed after him in search for some other male company that I loved.

I found some of my best boys outside, Chris and Max had stepped out for a fag.

“Have you seen Georgie Jase?” Chris asked, offering me one from his packet. I took it gratefully and shook my head.

“Boyfriend troubles?” Max asked meaningfully and leant backwards against the wall of the white house. I stared at the end of my lit fag, burning a deep orange in the light from the street lamp, and nodded again. I inhaled, tapping my foot irritably on the concrete.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

“What?” Chris asked quickly, almost dropping his cigarette. I looked at him apologetically and chewed on my tongue.

“I don’t… I don’t know, it’s starting to get to me a bit I suppose, this is a hard relationship. We need to grow up and get over our jealous minds,” I muttered miserably, drawing a long deep breath.

“That’s what he said,” Max said darkly, flicking his stub on the floor and crushing it with his foot. “About the jealousy thing. It’s causing much more trouble than it’s worth. Just talk to him about it. You can sort it out.”

“Okay, thanks guys, I’ll speak to him about it tomorrow,” I nodded, relaxing and finally smiling into the cold air. “I will enjoy myself tonight.”

“Good,” Chris chuckled. “Can’t remember the last time I saw you smile properly.”

“I love you guys,” I laughed and pulled them into a hug. “Right now, I think we need more alcohol.”

So we vanished back into the house and into the swarm of people. James and Matthew, who I’d met on Valentine’s Day, stole Emily and I away from talking to Dan and Matt to meet their friends. Perched on the sofa in the conservatory, I met their mates Harvey, Nathan and Ty. Drinks were handed to us so we didn’t need to get up. Despite what I’d told him, James sat himself next to me, his arm always touching mine. As the alcohol took over me more, this seemed less of a problem. Emily stabbed me in my leg with a long fingernail and jerked her head over towards the door frame. Josh and Max were standing there, deep in conversation, Josh threw me a dangerous glance. Sighing, I got to my feet and tried to walk to him but I couldn’t actually walk straight. James caught me around my arm and held me up and when I looked up again, Josh was gone.

Aww fucking hell. I thanked James but made my way to the hall.

“Just let him cool off Jase,” Max called in blur of motion as he buzzed past me and up the stairs. Frowning in my very tipsy state, I dodged a snogging couple and carefully, and very slowly, made my way up the stairs. All the doors were shut. I was oddly reminded of a previous house party where Josh had decided to write ‘Gossip’ about. I made my way into a free room and collapsed onto the bed.

Trying to clear my head and my heavy heart, I rubbed my face, being careful of my make up and rolled over until I landed on the floor. Maybe I’d drunk too much…

I heard the door open, spun my head around but it was a bad idea, my head spun dangerously and I had the urge to chug. I clamped my jaw to steady myself as someone sat themselves down opposite me on the soft cream carpet.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, hoping more than looking who was sitting there.

“Why?”

It wasn’t who I expected, nor who I wanted. I lifted my head to smile grimly at Alex.

“Never mind,” I sighed, sinking down so I sat on my knees, I rubbed my forehead. “Everything’s so messed up.”

“Jase, it doesn’t have to be,” he told me. I wasn’t actually processing his words right. Then I could feel his finger tracing over the back of my hand in soft circles. I clutched at my knees trying to stop my whirling head. I mean head whirling. Too much, too much fucking alcohol…

“What?” I finally answered, taking all my strength not to throw up on him.

“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” his voice dropped a notch into something deeper and intimate. His finger gently left a trail up my arm to my elbow crease. I shivered. I finally looked at him, very confused now, and locked my gaze with his.

Then I could tell is was going to happen before I could stop it.

His hand wrapped around my arm as the other snaked around my neck to pull me forwards into a kiss.

Alcohol had numbed every sense in my body – it delayed my reaction. When my mind finally caught up with my lips, when my mind finally caught up with what was happening, my mind tried to push away from the boy I did not want. There was a crash but I couldn’t see the cause. I pushed against his grasp, whining in the process but he finally got the message. I looked around the room for the sound and saw the door wide open. Max was running down the stairs.

Fuck.

I grasped at the bed, pushing and sliding as I scrambled desperately to my feet. Ditching my heels, I sprinted down the stairs and dodge multiple people, shoving and pushing past them as I followed after the back of Max. He came to an abrupt halt and I bumped backwards into him. I swayed but held myself upright and he turned around to look at me. Josh was behind him, absolutely seething.

Double Fuck.

All words died in my throat as he glared at me such furious hatred I wanted nothing more than to drop dead.

“I didn’t,” was all I managed to choke out. I’d never felt so sick. I was physically shaking.

“Don’t!” he hissed, pushing Max out of his way to get in my face. “Just fucking save it.”

“Josh I didn’t!” I shouted louder than I intended. He didn’t flinch from my bark. People were turning to stare at us. “I wouldn’t!”

“Then what the fuck did I just see?” he shouted finally, not caring that everyone in the corridor were watching us and people were sticking their heads in from other rooms. I recoiled away from his cry and bit my tongue to stop myself from crying. Before I could get my explanation out he started ranting.

“I’m so fucking sick of this! I knew it was going to happen sooner or later but I thought you would have had the class to break us off before going off with him!”

I could hear the murmurs around us, the snickers and the gasps but Josh’s livid face was my main focus. My cheeks were burning with embarrassment but my sinking heart was more scarring.

“Josh, listen to me, I di-”

But Josh pushed past me and before I could work out what was happening, Max and Dan pushed past me too. Alex had finally made his way down the stairs. Luckily they’d managed to grab Josh before he could throw his blow. I ran forwards, facing Josh and holding my palm to his chest to calm him down.

“Alex, get out!” Dan commanded, his tone thick with warning as he dragged Josh backwards. I nodded furiously when he looked to me and he vanished out the front door. Josh was struggling against his band mates. Finally he managed to shove Max off him with such an extreme amount of force Max was thrown backwards.

“Josh!” I cried, trying to snatch Max but he fell.

“Don’t you fucking start!” he yelled at me, seizing me with hand that Max had been holding. He grasped my wrist tightly. I held his fierce blue gaze. The eyes I loved, the luscious sapphire blue were blazing with hate. A choked sob escaped my throat.

“Get off her Josh,” Dan cautioned quietly, trying to loosen the grip of my wrist that I realised was throbbing in a numb pain. Everyone was watching us, people were cramming into the corridor to get a view of what was happening. Athina, Chris, Emily, Georgina, Henri and Matt had pushed to the front and were staring at us all in horrified confusion.

“I didn’t cheat on you! He kissed me!”

“I’ve had enough of this Jase!” Josh cried, ignoring my words, running his hands through his hair, ripping at the roots, his eyes half crazed. “I can’t take this anymore. We just don’t trust each other!”

My mouth fell open in horror. My stomach was twisting and, like the kiss, I knew what was coming. The audience to the ordeal were watching with baited breath. Silent tears were now streaming down my cheeks. He looked at me like we were the only ones in the room. His lip curled upwards in a bitter sneer and I watched the hatred vanished until the blue went cold – dead. The words were quick, harsh, and brutal, like a knife wound to my chest.

“It’s over.”

I could feel my world crash around my ears. My knees shook and I struggled to hold myself upright. He finally broke the gaze, taking one last look at me before leaving the house. It was like a blow to the gut to realise the impact of what was happening. Josh Franceschi was walking from my life forever and with him, he took my best friends, Chris, Dan, Matt and Max, who wouldn’t even look at me as the followed their singer out the door and out of my life. Gone.