I'm A Walking Travesty (All Time Low Fanfic) [Watty Awards Winner]

I'm A Walking Travesty (All Time Lo Fanfic) - Chapter Sixteen

Chapter 16

Jack’s P.O.V

She’s gone. She’s really gone. I couldn’t even begin to contemplate what was going on. I just felt completely empty. No one had expected this. Maybe it was my fault. I shouldn’t have kissed her yesterday. Why the fuck was I so stupid? Maybe she didn’t care. Maybe she was just saying all those things so I would let her go.

I sighed and put my head in my hands. The bus was way to quiet considering the amount of people who were in it. Everyone was still in shock. I wished someone would talk, about anything, anyone. This silence was killing me.

“Valarie told me to tell you that she loves you,” Alex murmured.

He sat down beside me and handed me a beer. I looked up and Alex frowned.

“She did?” I said a little to excitedly, “I mean, oh.”

She told him that she loves me. I felt my stomach do a backflip inside of me.

“You okay?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, sure. I’m fine,” I lied.

Alex’s frown deepened. “You don’t have to lie to us, Jack. We all know how you feel about her.”

I sighed again and gulped down my beer. I couldn’t talk about it, not when the only person I wanted to talk to was her. I just kept replaying her last words in my head, over and over like a broken record. I’ll come back one day, then maybe we can be together. I hoped she would come back soon.

“I need to go to bed,” I murmured.

I stood up and left Alex on the sofa by himself. I pushed past Vinny, who stood in the doorway to the bedroom before slamming the door shut behind me. I instinctively looked down at Valarie’s bed. Her blankets were still where she left them and I noticed something poking out from underneath one of the blankets and knelt down to find out what it was.

I pulled the book out and sat down on her bed. I realised it was her sketchbook. She used to carry it around everywhere and refuse to let me see what she was drawing. I stared at the way her name was written in her elegantly curved handwriting for a while before finally opening it. Inside on the first page was a picture of the skeleton of a tree. It look so realistic that I though I could reach out and touch it. I flicked through the rest of her pictures until I came to the last one. It was half finished and it didn’t take me long to see what it was of. I could make out half of Alex’s face among the group of other faces. Then I realised that it was of us. All of us. The band, the crew, the girls and even the members of We Are The In Crowd. She really did care about all of us.

Valarie’s P.O.V

I dropped my suitcases and my duffel bag on the front doorstep and rang the doorbell. I wiped my eyes on the sleeve of the purple hoodie I was wearing. I had cried practically the whole way home, which made the cab driver constantly ask if I was okay. I wasn’t okay. I was far from it. The front door of the house I had grown up in swung open and behind it stood my father. He looked the same as I had remembered him, tall and greying with the same bright green eyes that I had.

He paused for a moment before pulling me into a tight hug and helping me get my bags inside. My mother rushed out to meet me. She was the same too. Her auburn hair was tied in a tight bun and her figure practically matched mine, short and thin. She was the only one out of the two of them that noticed I was crying.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as she sat be down on a stood behind the counter.

“A boy,” I murmured, hoping she’d know what I was talking about.

“Ah. Did he break your heart?” she asked.

“No, I kind of broke his,” I sighed.

It was all far to complicated for me. My mom placed a hot chocolate down on the counter in front of me and I took a careful sip.

“You know that band All Time Low?” I asked.

“How could we forget? You constantly told us you were going to marry the one called Alex one day.”

I blushed, “I went on tour with them. That’s where I’ve been for the last month.”

“We know. Your father worked out how to follow you on Twitterbook,” mom replied.

“I think you mean Twitter?”

“Whatever. We are still working out how to send Twits.”

“Tweets,” I corrected, rolling my eyes.

“Anyway. Who was that boy in your picture?” she asked.

I didn’t have to ask what picture it was. I knew she was talking about my display picture, the one with Jack and I hugged and poking our tongues out because they had turned blue.

“That’s Jack,” I sighed.

Even saying his name felt like I was being stabbed in the chest. I was starting to second-guess my decision to leave. Maybe it hadn’t been for the better? Mom didn’t have to say anything. I’m pretty sure she just put the pieces together, based on my facial expression and what I told her earlier.

I sighed again, “I need some sleep.”

I stood up, leaving my half finished hot chocolate on the bench. I headed down the familiar hall and came to my bedroom. The door was shut and still had all the keep out signs on it that I put up as a teenager.  I pushed the door open to reveal walls covered in posters and a double bed in the middle. I stared at one of my massive All Time Low posters that hung over my bed and felt tears prickle in my eyes. My phone started vibrating in my pocket and I pulled it out to see the caller ID. It was Cass. I picked it up and lay down on my bed.

“Hello,” I murmured, trying to stop myself from crying.

“Val? Oh my god, thank god you picked up,” Cass gushed.

“Why did you call?” I asked a little too grumpily.

“Jack wanted to see if you were okay. He didn’t want to call because he didn’t think you’d want to talk to him.”

“Tell him I’m fine.”

“He misses you,” she murmured.

I feel silent. I didn’t have anything to say.

“Val?”

“I’m here.”

“Okay.”

“Tell Jack that I’m fine, nothing has happened to me.”

“I’ll tell him when he wakes up. He’s not handling this well.”

Why was she telling me this? To make me feel more guilty than I already felt?

“How is he?” I asked.

“Drunk and passed out on your bunk at the moment. He won’t talk to anyone but Alex.”

I sighed, “You can’t let him know that you’re contacting me, okay? Tell him I’m okay, but don’t let him find out you’re calling me.”

“Okay.”

“Can you tell him, can you tell him I love him?” I bit my lip.

“Of course,” she murmured, “I’ve got to go. Can we stay in touch?”

“Yeah, please.”

“Good, talk to you later babe.”

And with that Cass hung up. I sighed and dialed Freddy’s number and hoped that she was hope.

“Hello, Freddy speaking,” she said when she finally picked up the phone.

“Hey, Freddy. It’s me, Val.”

“Valarie! Long time no chat,” she laughed, “How’s the tour going?”

“I, left for a while,” I murmured.

“What, why?”

“I’ll explain it all later. Can you come over? I need some girl time. Bring ice-cream.”