The promise. [Short Chapters]

Chapter Nineteen.

Traffic was not on my side that night. Of course I'd picked the one cab with the incompetent driver who insisted on taking the scenic route when I was obviously in a hurry. By the time we'd finally arrived at Bobby's house, the entire band, crew, and guests had already been there for quite a while. I paid the cab driver, shooting him a nasty look the entire time, then bounded out of the cab without a care in the world about the rain soaking my hair and clothes from the run from the car to the door. I stumbled inside and my eyes immediately fell on Josh, sitting alone in the corner, nursing a bottle of beer in his hands. I had to pause momentarily to gather myself and make sure  Iss was nowhere in sight before I approached him, snatching a mixed drink off of a table in the process.

"It was a lovely song," I mumbled, leaning against the wall next to him. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking so much that the liquid in my cup was sloshing about. I downed a long drink of it to ease my nerves and continued on. "The crowd really seemed to like it."

My voice seemed to awaken Josh from some sort of trance. He, too, nervously took a lengthy drink of his beer. "Glad they liked it, but it wasn't really meant for them."

For some reason, this irked me. I turned to face him. "Why couldn't you just talk to me one-on-one instead of springing this on me in public?"

"I don't know," Josh muttered, eyes now shut and his free hand rubbing his temples. "Love makes you do all kinds of crazy bullshit."

There was that word again. Love. "But I have a boyfriend, Josh! Hell, you have a girlfriend!"

Josh appeared to be choking on his beer for a moment. His eyes grew wide and he gave me a confused expression. "Girlfriend? Since when?"

My face mimicked his. "You're meaning to tell me that you're not with Iss? She said you were, then I saw you with your arms around her and she kissed you and--"

"Oh God," Josh groaned. "Is she really telling people that? She kept calling me over the holiday, so we hung out quite a bit. I felt bad telling her to stop being so affectionate, so I didn't. Now she's telling people I'm herboyfriend? I don't quite think that's how things are supposed to work."

My jaw about dropped to the floor. She was lying? I'd been an emotional wreck all week over a psycho lie told by a sorry excuse for a friend? Rage was bubbling through my veins, and I had to take it out on someone. Sadly Josh was the only person around.

"Seriously? I've been a trainwreck all week over a lie?" I practically shouted. "Why couldn't you just talk to me? Jesus, I thought you hated me for getting with Matt!"

"I don't hate you, I never fucking did!" Josh snapped. "I was bitter, yeah, and I still am. You know how much it sucks to see the girl you love with one of your best mates?"

"About as much as it sucks when your best friend won't even give you the time of day?" I bit back. "Don't pin this all one me or Matt when you're just as much to blame!"

Neither of us realised how loud we were being until all eyes were on us. It was like the Christmas party all over again, except this time, more was at stake than just the disapproval of my family. At the same time, it seemed, Josh and I both realised that we were arguing about our former love affair while Max was clearly in earshot.

The guitarist stepped forward, away from his side conversation with Chris and Bobby, with a mixture of hurt and sheer fury on his face. He placed his bottle of beer down on the nearest table as he continued to step closer and closer to us.

"I asked one thing of you guys," he began coldly. "One thing to keep our friendships alive. We agreed on it, it was our Promise. I was trying to prevent something like this from happening. All I ever asked of you, and what do you do? You just disregard it."

At this point, Ella stepped in, rage etched into her otherwise perfect features. "Oh, come off it, Max! All of us have broken it, including you, so stop guilt-tripping them, you hypocrite!"

Josh gasped from my side. "Seriously, Max? You broke The Promise too, and you're getting on us for doing it? With who?"

Max just stood where he was, glaring at him, so I answered for him. "He and Ella had a fling the last couple of weeks of our relationship."

Yet another sharp intake of breath came from Josh at my side. "And you knew? I thought we told each other everything? What else were you keeping from me?!"

"Can we just talk about this later?" I muttered, but Josh wasn't having it, so I decided that then was as good of a time as any to spill. "Fine! You know what I've been keeping from you? I love you too, and I probably always have, but right now I'm not so sure."

I couldn't bear to see the look on his face, so, in another deja vu moment from the Christmas party, I ran. Only this time I ran straight outside into the pouring rain and sat against the block wall in front of the house, crying into my coat, which was growing even more soaking wet by the second. I didn't care, though, because I was numb, voided of every emotion and feeling. I must have been sitting in that position for twenty minutes before I heard the squishing sound of footsteps in the wet grass behind the wall.

"Nothing to see here, please leave me alone," I growled, but it was muffled by my jacket.

"Why the fuck should I do what you say?" I knew that voice, and I was certain it was the last one I wanted to hear at that moment. I slowly raised my head to see Iss standing slightly behind me, her arms folded over her chest, hip popped out, and foot irritably tapping the ground. Her eyebrows were furrowed into a scowl and her lower lip was pouted slightly. She looked like a five-year-old. "You've got a lot of nerve, you bitch, messing around with my man so he writes songs about you and not me."

By then, my irritation had reached its peak. I stood up quickly, hands balled into fists at my sides, and glared at her. "You're kidding, right? Did you not hear that whole argument? You were never Josh's girlfriend, you're just a liar!"

"I'm not an eavesdropper, thank you very much, so no, I did not hear your argument." She continued on with the damned foot tapping and the thought crossed my mind that I should stomp on it, but I refrained. "And puh-lease, he's just doing to me what he did to you, keeping it on the down-low so Max doesn't find out. Except I won't rip his heart in two."

Frustrated, I hastily pushed my hands through my sopping wet hair. "Are you mad? Come back to reality, Iss, he said flat-out that you're not his girlfriend, that he was just too nice of a guy to tell you to lay off."

At this point, Iss actually lunged at me, fists out, but chickened out and shoved me instead. I stumbled slightly, but otherwise held my ground, which evidently pissed her off even further. She huffed and tried to regain her (lack of) composure before she hobbled down the pavement on the heels she obviously didn't know how to walk in.

As she disappeared out of my view, I sat back down in the same position as before, except this time, I leaned my head backwards against the wall, as if the rain was going to wash all the anger away. My eyes drifted shut, and I was halfway tempted to fall asleep right there, but again, a voice interrupted.

"You okay?" It was Matt. I was less than pleased.

"Go away," I growled.

"Not a chance." Matt sounded considerably less upset than earlier. The tone of his voice made it obvious that he was trying to cheer me up. "Care to take a walk? Clear your head maybe?"

Too bad I didn't. "Go away," I repeated.

"I'm sorry," Matt said softly. "If there's anything you need, babe, I--"

I finally opened my eyes so I could cut him off mid-sentence. "Please, Matt, do not call me 'babe'. You know, we're just-- we're not going to work anymore. You're a sweetheart, but my life is far too complicated right now as it is." I meant to apologise, but I just couldn't. Not when I had so much anger and sadness and embarrassment running through my veins.

After a few silent minutes, I could tell that Matt was still standing nearby, so I took this as my cue to leave. I could walk to the nearest bus stop a mile or so away, no problem. I pulled my hood over my sopping wet hair and began to trudge down the street without so much as a glance anywhere but at my feet.

...Which was my downfall, I found, when my ears filled with the sounds of honking and squealing brakes and Matt's voice shouting indistinctly until I heard nothing at all.