Tangled Strings (sequel to Red Strings)

Chapter 8

"You love me" "Nope I've decided only Nat's coming with us" "Oh shut up" I tease standing up. "Speaking of Nat have you heard from her?" "Not recently no, did you know she applied to schools in Cali?" he asks me "what about Calum?" I continue 

"No" I bite my lip nervously "Why what's wrong?" "Sky?" Luke says standing the doorway "Lucas" I reply "do you wanna borrow some clothes?" I cough nodding my head slowly "yes please" I smile locking eyes with him "I'm going to go call Cal" Michael announces standing up and walking out the door he stands behind Luke air thrusting. 

I stick my tongue out at him again, but by the time Luke turns around Michael is sprinting down the steps. "I think I have something here" Luke says starting to rummage through his drawers "here you go" he says passing me one of his shirts and sweat pants. "Your hair is so flat" I grin fondly "they're crazy" he replies and I sigh giving him a quick peck on the cheek before turning around and standing in the corner of the room. 

I pull my wet shirt of me and hold it in my left hand and some how manage to pull Luke's dry one over my head. I then switch my now soaking black jeans with his sweatpants. I turn around and realize Luke is still in the room pretending to be looking around. 

I blush embarrassed and walk over to him, drowning in his giant clothing "you're ridiculous" I whisper pulling him into a kiss, he grabs my waist firmly deepening it and pushes me closer to him making me loose my balance causing us both fall back onto the bed. I giggle continuing to kiss him as his hands trace down my back, and a soft moan escapes my lips. 

We hear a knock at the door and we scramble to stand up both of our cheeks flushed "Sorry" Michael apologizes "Sky, Natalie needs you" Michael says the worry in his voice putting me on edge "ok" I say picking my clothes up off the floor 

"bye I'll text you" I say walking out of the room, I catch a glimpse of Calum on my way out his face flushed and eyes puffy. As soon as the wind hits me I grab my phone and dial Nat's number "pick up, pick up, pick up" I mumble under my breath the phone rings six times before she answers "Nat?" I say almost desperately walking towards her house "Sky" she says her voice cracking "Nat what happened?" "I don't really want to talk about it"  she sobs into the phone "that's it I'm coming over and I'm bringing ice cream!" I decide changing my direction and walking towards the Glob "Sky you really don't ha-" "I'll be there in 15" I say hanging up the phone. 

Natalie's POV

I knew that once Skyler had made her decision that nothing would stop her.  I sighed wiping my eyes, now swollen.  "Natalie?" my mom asked knocking softly on my door.  "Go away." I sobbed before I laid back down onto my pillow and began to cry again.

I could hear my door softly squeak open as my mother stepped in, and she sat on the edge of the bed, gently rubbing my back.  "Darling what's wrong?" she asked as I sat up and choked out "M-me and C-calum we had a fight.....and then we broke up" I then burst into tears again, as my mother pulled me close to her.

"Shhhh shhh it's alright.  Natalie it's ok, you might have to have a few doors shut in your face before the right one comes around the corner." my mother said pressing a kiss to my forehead, as I continued to cry my heart out.  

"But I thought.....I thought it would all work out....and they asked for us to move with them to California....and I applied there too and just....." I said trying to get this all out, but failing miserably, as I began to sob again.  "Darling when you want to explain that whole California ordeal to me, you can.  Get this crying off your chest and then when you feel ready you can talk to me alright?"

I nodded biting my lip before laying back down on the bed.  I heard the doorbell ring and my mom stood up and said "I'll get that.  I'm going to guess it's Skyler."  I gave a small smile and asked "How did you know that?"

My mother tapped the side of her nose before heading downstairs, shutting the door behind her.  I buried my head into my pillow again, trying desperately not to cry just because of the thought of Calum.  

"Natalie?" I heard Sky's voice as she tapped on my door.  I groaned.  "I come bearing ice cream!" she said trying to convince me.  "We have ice cream downstairs." I grumbled before she responded "It's the chocolate brownie fudge.  Your favourite....." 

I paused, hesitating before finally saying "Fine you can come in."  Skyler burst in, a plastic grocery bag which I assumed held the ice cream, along with two spoons in her hand.  "I have what you need." she said coming over to the bed, and sitting down on end of it.  

She revealed the ice cream, and she opened it, handing me one spoon as she pulled out her own small carton of Häagen-Dazs.  

"Cheers?" she said holding up her spoon, doing a fake pout.  "Sure.  Cheers." I said holding my spoon up as well, as we clinked them before digging in.  As I began to eat, I felt my chest tighten before Skyler said "So do you wanna talk about it?" I shrugged, my eyes watering anyways.  

Skyler was silent before she wiped a tear away from my face before saying "I saw Calum crying.  Did something happen between you two?"  She had a concerned look on her face, and I bit my lip trying to hold back my tears.

I nodded before saying "We had a huge fight.  The ride back was us yelling at each other about everything that had happened since he got back.  It was terrible, I was just so done in that moment with what had gone wrong and he told me he didn't want us to come out to the fans because of some bullshit from management and because he didn't want to hurt me and then we finally stopped and I got really mad about everything and finally well we basically broke up and I can't handle how it had to happen and I didn't even want it to happen and- and....and...." I had burst into tears at that point.

Skyler pulled me close to her, as I sobbed into her shoulder.  "Natalie it's ok....if it wasn't worth trying it was good that you let it go." Skyler said rubbing my back.  "But it's just so HARD because I didn't want it to end like this, and I didn't want to even break up, but there was no other WAY." I cried.

"Do you wanna talk about it at all?" Skyler asked "No.  I just wanna pretend like it never happened and forget about the whole thing." I said sniffing.  "It's not gonna be easy." "Easy?  More like hard." I said wiping my eyes, before grabbing a tissue box and blowing my nose.

"It's not like Calum's doing any better." Skyler said looking at her phone.  "Huh?" I asked trying to constantly remind myself that Calum was my EX, rather than my boyfriend.  Or should I start calling him my "friend"?  

"Luke asked me if I knew what happened and he's saying that Calum's not doing well with the whole break up thing." "Next time he should mean what he says, and knows what he's getting himself into." I moped mushing my face back into my pillow.  

"Listen, calling him a jerk face isn't going to make anything any better." Skyler said before I replied "I just want everything to be back the way it was BEFORE.  Ya know?  We would all just head down to the beach and swim and just have FUN, and not care what was really going on in the world.  But now everything has changed and it's just all so HARD and I don't want it getting any harder."

"I know, I know.  But you can't change the past, and at this point, who knows whats gonna happen in the future?" Skyler said as I replied "Yeah well, let's hope something gets better."