It Wasn't Meant to Be Like This

I could bore you with details of my life again, but I’ll spare you the pain. It was now March, the horrible month of February had gone. I was saying this simply because Beth and Jack had a valentine’s day together, and I was stuck chaperoning April and Ryan on a date as they needed a ride around.

Beth and I had returned to normal, somehow and someway it had gone back to normal. Jack was still scarce though and it still pissed me off, but life in general was better. I had just finished a day at the shop again, it was slow and painfully boring. I had to showing some kid how to work a camera. She was so spoilt, about 13 and had bright blonde hair and was smacking gum so loudly I was tempted to scream at her. She kept whining about how she couldn’t do it.

It wasn’t that hard. You clicked a damn button.

Sighing with relief as I jogged up the steps, and began unlocking the door and walking in to find Jack and Beth cuddled up on the sofa, watching What Woman Want, Mel Gibson was a legend in my opinion.

“I’m home!” I call, kicking off my shoes and shrugging the camera case on my shoulder, and tightening the grip on the case of recently development photos for my assignments. I was pretty pleased with them.

“Hey Finn” they chorused back, Jack muted the television when I came in. Beth saw the camera holder and case and smiled hopefully.

“You did the pictures?” she asks excitedly and I nod, Beth immediately jumps out of Jack’s grasp and sits up.

“Can I see? Please?” she asks desperately, and I rolled my eyes, feeling suddenly shy of the thought of Beth seeing my work. Jack smiled at me, nodding at me and swigging a beer he had in his hand, which meant he was stopping here tonight.

“Um…” I begin but Beth already took the folder off me and immediately starting skimming through them. To Jack they were pictures, to a fellow photographer, like Beth they were works of art, the exact position of them and the lightening had to be a certain way. It was about precision and careful choosing. Of course, Jack simply smiled and made appropriate sounds of encouragement when he thought he should have.

“Finn, these are amazing. The emotion of them. I love this one” Beth says tenderly, stroking the glossy feel of one particular picture. It was a picture of London, the London town all lit up and busy looking. It was a good photo, but what I wouldn’t tell her is my favourite photo was at the back, the last one and I had labelled it “Live, Laugh, Love” it was a picture of Beth, smiling widely, and I think she was laughing as I took the photo. It was that time in the park, when I caught her off guard. It was my favourite photo and I adored it, I loved that I had managed to keep one special moment of us. But I wouldn’t tell her that, nor Jack.

Before she got to the end, I quickly took it off her.

“It’s not finished” I say quickly, and put it back in it’s case.

“Good job man, you could actually sell this shit” Jack says, ever so charmingly but I knew it was the best I was going to get.

I went into my room, dumping all my stuff on the bed. I shrugged my jacket off.

“Hey Man, we’ve got some news” Jack suddenly calls after me. I immediately froze, if they say they’re getting married or she’s pregnant. I’ll shoot myself. I’m serious.

I walked back in carefully. “What news?” I ask quietly, Beth was smiling like a maniac though, so maybe I shouldn’t be too worried.

“Beth’s friend-” Jack begins. Beth however looked like she was going to burst and interrupted.

“My best friend Zoey is coming into town for few weeks, her school times are so messed up, anyways she’s flying in tomorrow and I haven’t seen her in so long and if it’s okay with you, can she stop here? My place is completely swamped, my roommate is having personal problems, my Mom is a bitch and my Dad’s on vacation. Please Finn, please let Zoey stay!” Beth blurts out and I blinked, seeing her hopeful, pleading face staring back at me. Jack gives me a hopeful look, he just wanted Beth to be happy.

“Um..” I say, slightly confused.

“She won’t be any trouble. She can sleep on the couch, she’s weird like that. You’ll hardly know she’s here” Beth insists. I blinked again, trying conjure up some excuse.

“What does Jack think?” I ask, looking at him hoping for once in my life that our best friend telepathy worked and he said no.

“I’m cool with it” Jack says simply, giving a happy smile.

Fucking Twat. You should have known the telepathy.

“Um, I guess…” I say, knowing I couldn’t say no now and before I know it Beth is squeezing me tightly, squealing how excited and happy she was. She thanked me continuously.

“Thank you Finn! You’re the best!” Beth says, jumping up and down and I smiled, knowing I was making her happy.

It was only three weeks, Beth had said.

How bad could it be?

--

“She’s here! She’s here! She’s here!” Beth chanted, almost squealing with excitement. The flight from New York had arrived, Zoey George, better known as Beth’s best friend since childhood.

All the way here, Beth told me everything about them. I felt like I knew Zoey personally already. Zoey was a Capricorn, she’s 21 years old and studies dance in New York, she’s a vegetarian and is still afraid of the dark. She’s a hopeless romantic and the most bossiest person on earth apparently.

As the gateway was getting busier, people piling out and hugging loved ones and friends. Beth suddenly squealed, a long, loud squeal of joy.

“ZOEY!” she screeches, and drops Jack’s hand and bolts over to a petite girl, very slim with short brown hair, with lighter highlights at the front. She was dressed in dark jeans and a off the shoulder top. She was beautiful, but not a match on Beth. Not for me anyways.

“Beth!” the girls shrieks and drops the huge duffel bag that she was carrying. They embraced tightly, shrieking with laughter uncaring that almost the whole airport was staring at them.

“I missed you so much!” Beth exclaims.
“I missed you more, New York sucks without you.” Zoey says, her head popped over Beth’s shoulders. She spotted me and smiles.

I smile back, feeling suddenly awkward.

“Come meet Jack and Finn!” Beth says and although I was reading way too much into it, I hated that my name was said last.

Zoey picked up bag and Beth picked up the small bag that Zoey had previously been holding too. They walked over to us, huge smiles on their faces.

“Zoey, this is Jack my boyfriend and Finn his best friend. Guys, this is my best, best friend Zoey George” Beth introduces and I kept up a forced smile. Zoey grinned at us, a cheeky grin that told me that we’d get along well.

“Finn eh?” she says and I suddenly felt paranoid. Had Beth told her about me?
Beth nudged Zoey and looked at me worriedly, Jack thankfully took over.

“Nice to meet you Zoey, I’ve heard plenty about you” he says politely, smiling. Zoey grins again, but not as cheeky.

“Ditto. Beth just brags about you both. I feel replaced already” Zoey teases, laughing gently. Beth rolls her eyes, laughing along but she nudge her slightly, letting her know that it would never happen.

“Well, I’m pooped from the journey. How about some munch? I’m starving!” Zoey says loudly, and I chuckled knowing that this three weeks was going to be very entertaining.

“I know a good place” I say and Zoey smiles at me, and I grinned back.

“Let’s get going then” Beth says suddenly, and we all set off.

“Here, let me help” I say, taking Zoey’s huge duffel bag. I hoist it over my shoulder, while Zoey smiles thankfully.

“Thanks Finn” she says and I nod, and I couldn’t help notice as we were smiling at each other, again. Beth was staring at us intently, for reasons I wasn’t quite sure why.