Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You.

"Dude, buy me a Big Mac," Jack growled, pointing a straw in Alex's face. "You can't drag me all the way out here and not buy me a God damn Big Mac!"
"Yes, I can. You buy the Big Mac!" Alex retaliated.
"I don't have my wallet since someone didn't give me any notice!" I was stood silently giggling between them. They'd been at this for at least five minutes now, the people behind the counter all giving the pair strange looks.
"Well, then you don't get a Big Mac, do you?!"
"How is that fair?! I'm hungry, Gaskarth!" Jack whined, sending Alex puppy dog eyes.
"You should have thought of that before coming into McDonald's without your wallet then, shouldn't you?"
"Three Big Mac meals with chocolate milk," I stated, tray in front of me. "You guys going to sit and bitch at each other or help me eat these?" Jack shot wide eyed looks between the tray, me and Alex before breaking out in a grin.
"This girl is the best person I have met in years. Move over, Gaskarth, you're getting replaced. She's my new best friend!" Jack squealed, trailing behind me as I found us a table.
"Hey, hands off. I found her! Girl can eat, she stopped you whining and she bought me a Big Mac meal, therefore she is mine." By this point I had found a table and put the tray down on it, both of the boy's reaching for their own burger first and me for my fries.
"But you said the same about Jas- shit." Alex's face had dropped considerably at the mention of my name, his happy grin now turned to a scowl. "Sorry, bro, I didn't mean to. It just sort of came out. You know me and Maria still talk about her." I looked down at my lap, trying not to feel anything as they spoke about me. They would just take it as awkwardness and not knowing what they were talking about.
"It's fine, Jack, it's nothing. Just forget it," Alex mumbled, fiddling with the box around his burger. I shot Alex a worried look, then turned my gaze to Jack. Did they really still talk about me? Would that mean Marissa was okay with me? I'd missed that girl to high hell, but my pride had never allowed me to turn back. And what I'd say to Zack was true, I hadn't looked back when I met John and the guys, even if it was more forcing myself to carry on going forward. Jack shook his head at me slightly, telling me not to ask, or that he and Alex weren't going to tell.
"I want a happy meal. Adult meals suck balls. I mean, where's my toy?" I told the pair, causing them both to laugh at me.
"See! She gets it! How come you don't, Alex?!" Jack said.
"Because they never give me the right toy! I always want a specific one from a collection and they never give me the right one!" The pair carried on bickering over Happy Meal toys while I sat laughing along to what they were saying. Jack shot me a warm smile in the middle of Alex ranting on about Star Wars toys, thanking me for stopping him moping, as I could only assume he would have carried on for a while if I hadn't. I shouldn't still affect Alex like this; I was only little Jasey Rae, I wasn't special.
"I got to head back," Jack told us around four o'clock. "Rian needs to talk to me about Maria and Kara coming out," he chuckled.
"When are they coming?" Alex grinned. I dropped my head, pretending to feel awkward about these girls I 'didn't know'.
"Meeting us in New York in two days, coming to the show, hanging with us until Charlotte, then going home before we go to Florida." My heart stopped. I wasn't ready for this. I was in no way ready for this. Two days? She couldn't, I couldn't lie to her face. I couldn't pretend I was someone else completely.
"Alex, I-I have to go. John's expecting me," I stuttered out. Why did I even agree to this? Two years and now all the people I've avoided for so long are coming barging back into my life.
"Well, me and Jack'll give you a ride back," he told me, smiling softly. I shook my head.
"No, I'm going to walk it."
"Come on, Stella; it's forty minutes walk." Again, I shook my head. "Don't be daft. If he's expecting you, he'll want you back soon. It'll take like five minutes." I bit my lip, closing my eyes and letting out a sigh.
"Okay, fine, I suppose I might as well. But I have to leave to meet him as soon as I get back, it's important." Jack looked at me suspiciously. He had always been the more observant out of the pair, and I was already starting to get myself into trouble with them both.
The moment the car pulled up outside Gravity, I bolted, shouting a quick goodbye at the pair of boys as they unbuckled their seatbelts and I made my way over to the bus. John was on the bus playing on the Xbox with Garrett when I jumped onto the bus, hair looking insanely windswept.
"Hey, Holly," the pair grinned, moving their eyes from the TV screen momentarily as I ran toward the bunk area of the bus, toward my bags. I knew what I was looking for, what I hadn't looked at in weeks, maybe even months. I didn't even know why I brought it, and it probably wasn't going to do me any good looking now but I had to. Pulling out my old Sidekick 2, I sighed as it loaded up. It still had all the old messages from the first week I'd left. I'd deleted Marissa's but kept Alex's, for times like these when everything was going wrong. Knowing I'd once meant everything to someone, that he'd cared enough to miss me when I'd left, was the only thing that kept me from regretting everything he and I had had.
'Holly, baby, please come home. I need you. Jack needs you. Maria needs you. Please don't do this. I love you.'
'I can't do this, I'm falling apart. I'm so sorry - more than just sorry. Please come back, I'm a wreck.'
'Why won't you come home? Why can't you just hang around, Maria needs you to come back, and I'd be happy just knowing you were alive. Please come home. Please.'
'I'm begging you, turn around and come back to us. Jack&Maria are going insane.'
'I love you, Holly. Oh God, I really do. It's wrong without you around.'
"Holly, what's wrong?" John whispered, coming into the room. I was clinging to my phone with tears streaming down my face, trying hard not to just curl up into a ball.
"I can't do it, John. Every thing's going wrong; everyone's catching up to me. It's not safe doing this any more," I choked out. "Oh, God, John, help me."
Before I knew it John was beside me with his arms around me as I cried.