He's My Brother's Best Friend and My Enemy, This Can't Be Good!

***Parker's POV***

I let Josylne walk away from me. I have no idea why I did but I let her storm away from me, angry and irrational. I really fucked up this time. Dammit just when things were getting good something always had to go wrong.

I was still in the hallway but instead of pacing I was staring blankly at the exit. I lost track of time when she left. I knew the dance must have ended but I couldn’t muster up the strength to walk back to my car. My mind just kept going through the conversation.

I was knocked out of my trance when my phone rang. I looked at the illuminated screen to find ‘Dad’ scrolling across the screen. Fuck! I’m supposed to be at the airport.

“Dad?” I answered hesitantly.

“Parker? Where the hell are you?” my dad asked in a not so kind tone. “The plane starts boarding in twenty minutes!”

There was no way I was getting to the airport in twenty minutes, not that I really wanted to go anyway. I couldn’t tell them that though.

“Sorry dad something came up and I had to handle it. There’s no way I can get to the airport in twenty minutes...just go without me. I’ll figure something out.”

“Dammit Parker. Don’t even bother trying to get up here.”

“Dad I-” I was cut off by the line going dead. Wonderful. Now not only is my girlfriend mad at me so is my family. Tonight is fantastic.

It turns out it was ten minutes to midnight so I started walking back to my car. I was at the dance early so my car wasn’t too far of a hike. I got in, turned it on and then sat there idle. I didn’t know where to go. There was no way I was going home. I needed to avoid another fight with Josylne. I reached into my pocket to find my phone. I had a miss call from Max from an hour ago, when the dance ended. I started to dial his number but stopped. I had dragged Max in the middle of my problems far too many times. Instead I started driving to no where in particular. I turned the radio all the way up and just drove.

An hour later I found myself a couple towns over. It was getting later and I was getting more tired. I decided to park the car in some 24 hour diner’s parking lot. I reclined my seat as far back as I could and fell asleep.

My phone started vibrating from the cup holder I placed it in. I instinctively reached for it, the screen partially blinding me. It was three thirty in the morning meaning I had only been asleep for two hours. I groaned answering.

“Hello?” I ask groggily.

I had forgotten to check who was calling when I check the time so I was taken aback when Max voiced boomed from the other line. “Parker!”

“Max? Its three thirty in the morning. Why are you calling?”

“Parker where are you?”

“What do you mean where am I?” I didn’t want to lie to Max but if he thought I was in New York than I was just going to go with it.

“Parker quit playing games. I know you’re not in New York and I know you’re not at home. Where the hell are you?”

Fuck. “Like two towns over in some parking lot,” I confessed.

“Why?”

“Its a long story.”

“Well, you better start talking then.”

“Max its three thirty in the morning I need sleep!” I was getting irritated. All I wanted to do was sleep but by the way Max was acting I knew that was going to be a long shot.

“You should have thought about that when you drove two towns over and found yourself in some parking lot. Get your ass to my house.”

For the second time tonight I was hung up on. Why did I have to pick up the god damn phone? Despite everything I turned the car on and drove over to Max’s house. It was going to be a long night or rather day.

When I finally arrived at his house it was five in the morning and the sun was beginning to rise. As I pulled into the driveway Max was coming out his front door. I was hoping he had fallen asleep so I could sleep in the car for a minute. Luck was not on my side. I got out of the car and followed Max down the stairs to his basement, collapsing on a bean bag chair that sat by the stairs. Max sat opposite of me.

“What happened tonight?” Max asked.

There was no way I was getting out of this conversation even it was five in the morning and I hadn’t slept. “I fucked up.”

“That much I gathered already,” Max remarked. “What did you do?”

I sighed and launched myself in to the story of tonight. Retelling it out loud hurt even more than constantly thinking about it. I told Max it all. How I lied to Josylne about the letter and how she found out. How she confronted me and I let her walk away from me angry. How I stayed in the hall for an hour before my dad called asking me where I was. How he told me not to even bother coming now. How I drove two towns over because I didn’t have anywhere to be. Everything. Max listened to all of it not making any comments until I had finished talking. I was so emotionally drained when it was over. I’m such an idiot.

“Well, you did fuck up,” Max stated.

“I drove an hour back to your house at five in the morning on two hours of sleep to here you say what I already know. Thanks Max,” I snapped. I knew it was a mistake the minute it left my mouth. “Sorry.”

Max shrugged it off. “Okay so let’s, see your parents are mad at you but Miranda and Jayden probably don’t care because now they don’t have a third wheel to worry about so you’re good on that front.”

I hadn’t thought about it like that but I guess Max was right. I mean I was always doing shit to piss my parents off. They were use to it.

“So the real problem is Josylne.”

“Josylne isn’t the problem I’m the problem,” I snapped back. This wasn’t Josylne’s fault I hope she knew that I knew that.

“Right sorry. The real problem is the fact that you lied to her.” I nodded, agreeing. “So why’d you lie?”

Why did I lie? I wish I knew the answer to that. Had this been a few months ago I probably wouldn’t have lied. I would have told the whole house and everyone would be ecstatic; but, this wasn’t a few months ago and everything was different now. I hadn’t even told Jayden about it so I wasn’t just lying to her. God that makes it sound worse.

“I don’t know Max. I just didn’t know how to tell her.”

“You know that’s a lousily excuse Parker. If anything, you know Josylne would be the only person someone would tell a secret too.”

“It wasn’t about keeping it a secret though,” I confessed. It’s not that I wanted to keep me getting into USC a secret. I was going to tell people and then wait to the banquet to tell everyone but I don’t know what happened.

“Then what is it about?” Max asked through a yawn.

It was now six thirty and the sun was definitely up. I was going to need a big cup of a coffee to get through this day without falling asleep.

“I don’t know if I’m going to the accept the offer,” I confessed for the first time since I got the letter.

“Have you lost it? Parker it’s your dream school!”

Max was right. It was my dream school. Key word being was. USC was just a concept in my head, I didn’t think it would happen. By the time I realized this my application was already sent it. I couldn’t do anything just hope I wouldn’t get in.

“That’s the thing, I don’t know if it is anymore.”

Max’s jaw hit the floor, or at least that’s what it looked like in my imagination. “What do you mean its not anymore? Its been your school since before college was even brought up in conversations. I mean the USC scouts weren’t all the way out in Massachusetts looking at Jared, they came to see the great Parker.”

This is why I didn’t tell anybody.

“You make it sound like its the only school that has a decent football program. There are plenty of other great schools that I applied and got into. Great schools that aren’t on the other side of the country.”

Max faced softened, his frustration turning into concern. Do you know what it feels like for another guy to look at you with a face of concern? Well, let me tell you it makes you feel like you’ve completely lost all control of your life.

“So that’s what this is about,” Max said more to himself than to me.

I had no idea what Max was talking about. To be honest I forgot what I even said, I was so exhausted. “What?”

“Okay forget about school for a minute. What are you going to do about Josylne?”

I didn’t know. Wasn’t that why I drove two towns over instead of confronting her? Isn’t that why I was sitting in Max’s basement sleep deprived and emotional?

“Well, then let’s get to planning.”