Another Broken Girl

Chapter 24

"Let's go?" Ashton asks once the film is over.

"Yeah, let's go."  Calum agrees.

Once we're at the park for about thirty minutes Ali is still not here. Not that I'm waiting for her. It's just that the sun is setting and I want to save her the embarrassment if she comes late and is left here by herself.

"In coming." Michael says throwing me a can of beer.

"Thanks." I say opening it.

"My mum is going to kill me if she found me drinking this." I say as Michael sits next to me on the bench.

"Ah, it's ok. We won't tell." Michael says teasingly.

We sit there for a while just drinking out of our cans. Michael and I hated each other's guts before. But now, we're actually really close. 

 "Luke, I hate to tell you this on your birthday, but I think I should tell you something." Michael says.

"Alright, go ahead." I say.

"It's about Isabelle. She's-"

"Hey guys." A voice says cutting off Michael.

"Ali! You came!" Calum says running to her from the play set.

The boys come over to her to greet her, but I take this moment to go to the swings to avoid her. I kind of feel weird with her being here. I want her out of here, but a small part of me is happy that she actually took the time to come here for my birthday.

"Hey." I hear her voice say.

"Hey." I say looking up at her with a beer in her hand.

"I got you this. It's not much, but it was all I could think of." she says handing me a wrapped box.

"Thanks." I say surprised. I wasn't expecting her to get me a gift.

"So, you're 18 now." she asks sitting on the swing next to me.

"Yeah. It doesn't feel that different from 17 though." I say. "I guess the difference is that I can drink legally."

"That's understandable." she says slowly swinging.

I feel uncomfortable with her talking to me. I thought that she would leave by now. Just to give me the gift then take off. But she's here making conversation with me.

"Eaten any good fruit lately?" I mentally slap myself. What kind of a question is that?

"No, I been living off of leftovers from work." she says with a chuckle.

"Leftovers?" I ask.

"Yeah. I haven't had time to buy real food." she explains. I feel a bit concerned that she's only eating leftovers.

"Hey! It's getting dark! Let's go!" Michael yells from a slide. We all agree and head towards the car as Ashton is laughing at something Calum and Michael did.

"You don't have a car?" Calum asks due to the fact that there's only one car in the parking lot which belong to us.

"No way." she responds.

"How'd you get here?" Calum asks.

"Walked. Been walking everywhere I go." She says. I can't help but smile to myself when I hear that she walked here. I don't know why, but I did.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" Ashton asks.

"No!" she says a bit too loudly. "I mean no." she says quieter.

"How about you come with us to Luke's apartment? So we can all hang out like old times!" Calum suggests.

"Oh, no. I can't." she says.