For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic

Laurence’s point of view

I sat on the very edge of the arm chair, the bridge of my nose pinched between my finger and my thumb. It was late in the morning, almost 11 and everyone bar Drew was awake. I had no idea how he wasn’t awake with the fucking…war going on in this very room. Then again, he might not be asleep, Shane had kindly informed Kier the minute he woke up that the poor guy had heard every single word he’d said last night.

Apparently he can’t even remember what he said. Fucking prick; I love Kier to pieces, he’s my best friend and all that but honestly he’s such a cunt sometimes. Especially when it comes to things like this.

“YOU’RE SO FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE!” Shane exclaimed, throwing his arms up into the air exasperatedly as he took a few steps away from where Kier was standing.

“OH I’M IMPOSSIBLE?!” Kier screamed back, “YOU’RE THE ONE THAT WON’T HEAR ME OUT. I HAD EVERY REASON TO SAY WHAT I DID.”

“YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU SAID!” Shane retorted, “YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO SAY YOU DIDN’T CARE ABOUT HIM! YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO GO OFF AND GET DRUNK AND HAVE SEX.”

“I DIDN’T HAVE SEX!” Kier pointed to his eye that now had a horrible-looking purple bruise covering it, as well as the fact it was ever so slightly swollen. “OBVIOUSLY. IT’S NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS WHAT I DO ANYWAY!”

“NO BUT IT’S MY BUSINESS WHEN YOU BREAK MY BEST FRIEND’S HEART,” Shane was screaming, it actually sounded like his voice was about to go, but that didn’t stop him from arguing.

“I DIDN’T BREAK HIS HEART!” Kier rolled his eyes, stepping towards Shane, “STOP BEING SO OVER-DRAMATIC!”

“I’M BEING OVER-DRAMATIC?! WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!” Shane copied his action, stepping towards him, looking like he was about to kill him. I looked past them to where Luke was sitting on the sofa, exchanging a glance with him which basically said ‘we need to split this up’.

We both stood up from our seats at the exact same time, each grabbing one of them by the shoulders. “Simmer down, lads,” Luke laughed, trying to ease the tension in the room as he pulled a shaking-Shane over to the sofa. I remained standing, my hands gripping tightly to Kier’s shoulders.

“You guys need to calm down,” I nodded, my grip loosening. I turned Kier around to look at me, his tear-filled eyes making me hesitate as I went to continue, “we…we’re going on tour in less than three months,” I pointed out, “we can’t be fighting before that.”

“Fine, whatever,” Shane huffed, standing up from the sofa again, “I’m going to check on Drew.”

He then began to make his way to his and Drew’s room, obviously trying his best to calm himself in the short time it took to get from here to the door. And then he was gone, it was just the three of us in the room.

Luke looked at us awkwardly, seeing us still standing there, “and I’m… gonna go…to…er…the outside world.” He stood up from the sofa and practically sprinted out of the flat, leaving just Kier and I standing in the room.

-

Kier’s point of view

I watched after Luke, biting my lip awkwardly as I willed the tears pooling in my eyes to go away. I don’t even know why I was getting so emotional, all Shane did was shout at me for a bit and I’m still not fully aware of why he was shouting at me. All I remember from last night is getting punched by Lauren’s boyfriend and then stumbling out of her house, nothing after that.

“Laurence…” I whispered, looking back at my friend whose hands were still placed firmly on my shoulders. “What…what exactly happened last night?”

Laurence looked over at my shoulder quickly before opening his mouth to speak, he spoke slowly as if trying to put the story together properly which made me question if he was even telling the truth. “Well you came in drunk and then started saying all this shit about Drew like how you didn’t care about him and stuff, then Shane stormed out of the room and you went to the kitchen to get more to drink but I stopped you and you got huffy and went to bed.”

I blinked a few times, trying to process this; had I really said that I didn’t care about Drew? Like I know Shane had tried to tell me this earlier when we were arguing but he was screaming so loudly, I was blocking it all out, that and I didn’t believe a word he’d said. “Oh…” I whispered, my gaze falling to my feet, “oops.”

“’oops’ is an understatement,” Laurence laughed as he pulled me into a hug, “it’ll be okay, you just… need to apologise.” Apologise? Why should I apologise? Okay I know I said some things I shouldn’t have but I didn’t take a fucking hissy fit! And I’m pretty sure Drew didn’t hear anything I said last night, Shane probably just said that. So I stayed silent. “Except… you’re not going to apologise, are you?”

“I don’t see why I have to,” I shrugged. I expected Laurence to blow up at me too, ranting about how it was all my fault and how I needed to fix it, but he just sighed and let his hands fall from my shoulders.

“Fine, that’s your call, not mine,” he replied, “but please don’t come crying to me when the both of them are really distant with you. Which they will be.”

Obviously he underestimates Drew and Shane, I reckon they’ll be fine with me again in a few hours.