I sat in my room, on my laptop. It was a beautiful day, but I'd spent the whole morning on the Internet and playing League. As usual.
"Knock knock," I heard a familiar voice say. I turned around.
"Oh hey, Zander, what's up?" I asked my roommate, closing my laptop.
"Someone wants to see you," he said, gesturing his head that was poked into my door toward the living room.
I smiled. Joey.
"Tell him I'll be right there," I said. He nodded and closed the door. I looked in the mirror, fixed my hair a bit, and went out.
He stood there, outside, his hands in his jacket pockets, with his messy hair undone. I love it when he doesn't do his hair. I smiled.
"Well, hello there," I said.
"Hi," he greeted back, and pulled me into a gentle, 5-second kiss. We pulled away and he held onto my arm.
"How was the premiere? I'm sad I didn't get to watch," I said.
"Don't worry about it. It went great," he said.
"So why'd you come? Something special?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Just to be with you." I blushed a little bit.
"It's cold outside, Joey. Let's go in my room." I grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. He sat on the bed, while I sat at the computer chair.
"So, Cat," Joey said.
"Yes?" I said.
"It's going to be Christmas and I got you a little something," he said, pulling a box out of his jacket pocket.
"I hate you," I blurted, not wanting to say the usual 'Aww, you didn't have to.'
"Why?!" he gasped, laughing loudly.
"Because! Alright..what is it?" I said.
"Catherine Valdes," He opened the small box, revealing a necklace shaped like a heart with a J on it. Inside, is 1 picture of him and 1 picture of the both of us. I held it gently in my hands and smiled. I looked up at him.
"It's for you to remember me.. Us.. Forever."
Cheesy. But you know...cute.
"Joseph Graceffa," I teased. "I present to you.. your Christmas gift."
I pulled out a small book.
"I made this little scrapbook, with pictures and items in it. I know, it's not the best gift, I also got you some headphones and some Minecraft crap but I'll give that to you after Christmas," I said.
"Aww, why?" he said, doing puppy dog eyes.
"You know we'll both be with our families for Christmas, away from LA," I said.
"Yeah, I know, that's what I did with the other stuff I got you. The necklace was just Part 1 of your present," he said, flipping through the scrapbook. He got to a page that had a receipt from the coffee shop he took me to.
"Cat, you're hashtag cray for keeping all of this stuff," he said, still flipping through the book of our memories.
"I know," I replied.
"That's why I love you," he said, pulling me into another kiss.
~
It's been almost 2 days since we've exchanged gifts, and we're both going on our flight soon. I texted Joey.
Cat: flight soon! 5:00. 20 more minutes until I leave LA.
Joey: My flight's in 2 days! =( don't leave me!
Cat: <3 love you. I'll keep you company for 20 minutes via text.
Joey: <3 yay! Can't wait to go to Boston to see my family again, but sad I'll have to leave u
Cat: don't worry about it. We can always skype, but I'm sad I won't get to see your face in person for a whole week!
Joey: me too, girl
We never stopped texting until my plane arrived, and it was time for me to depart.
Cat: Looks like my plane just arrived. I'll text you first thing when I settle down with the fam, love you. <3 have fun in Boston!
Joey: Aww =( ill try my best to have fun even though you won't be there <3 have fun too Kit cat! I love you more.
~
{JOEYS POV}
It was only the day after, and I already miss her. To get my mind off things, I decided to play some Hungercraft with Stacy.
"Joey, come follow me quick!" Stacy yelled through Skype, running back from the cornucopia.
"I'm right behind you, don't stop running," I said. "I got some good stuff."
We played for about 15 minutes, then I got a text.
Sawyer: Can I date Cat? I like her.
"What the fuck," I said out loud, not meaning to.
"Joey! I'm gonna have to bleep that out now!!" Stacy said. I was silent.
"Wait, what's wrong?" she said with concern in her voice.
"Um, nothing, hold on," I said, texting him back.
Joey: excuse me?
Sawyer: you heard me. Cat is hot. Let me date her too.
"Joey, something's up, and you better tell me," Stacy said.
"Hold on, Stacy, I'll tell you after this game," I said.
"I'm gonna have to cut out a long part of this video," she mumbled and sighed. I glanced at the screen and saw her running around in circles.
Joey: No. I don't believe this. I don't know what to tell you except you should have some respect.
Sawyer: respect, you say? Well if you want respect you certainly aren't getting it, considering the fact she tried to kiss me while you were on the Amazing Race again
"What the hell," I blurted out loud again. Stacy replied with a 'what?'.
Joey: that isn't true. stop making things up if you don't want to lose a roommate, and a friend.
Sawyer: I don't really care if you believe me or not. But it happened, so i don't know if she brainwashed you or something or if she's been so "innocent" to you in your whole relationship. I'm just trying to help you out here.
I was furious at this point.
Joey: help me?? By trying to steal my girlfriend, is that supposed to help me? And help me for what?
Sawyer: I'm trying to help you from getting hurt. And well yeah since I expected you wouldn't want to be with her anymore and she likes me.
Joey: the only one who is actually hurting me is you. so you can stop doing what you call 'protecting' and be a better friend.
Sawyer didn't text back after this, but I still couldn't believe Sawyer was actually doing this. But the scariest thing that will bring the most pain is if what he saying is actually true, because it could be possible no matter how much I don't want to believe it.
~
Sadly we lost the game because we couldn't take on the guy with a diamond sword. But right after that, Stacy randomly disconnected our Skype call without saying anything. I had no clue why, especially since she wanted me to tell her what happened.
After 15 minutes, I heard a knock on the door. Sawyer was probably back and forgot his keys.
As much as I wanted to leave him out there in the cold, I had to let him in. Instead of opening it, I just unlocked it and immediately turned around and walked to the kitchen.
"Hey," a voice that wasn't Sawyer's called. It was Stacy.
"I came right after the game ended because you sounded like something big happened. And being a good friend and all, I brought some snacks. So tell me what's up," she said.
I smiled, knowing that Stacy really cared about me, which is something I always want in a friend.
We sat on the chairs by the counter, where I began to tell her what happened.
"So.. You know how me and Cat are together, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, of course! Why?" she replied. I took my phone out and showed her the texts.
"Oh....I'm so sorry, Joey. I wonder why he's acting like this," she said.
"Me too.." I sighed.
"Oh he's not home is he?" she asked.
"No, he went to go drinking or something with Tyler," I said.
"Well.. I don't think what he said was true. I mean, Cat really really loves you, so why would she throw away that love and trust and cheat on you? He could be making this up."
"I know, Stacy. I just..." my thoughts wandered off, and I was still in disbelief.
"You know what Joey, what if that isn't Sawyer?" Stacy said after a short silence.
"Oh my god Stacy, you're genius! Someone could have stolen his phone or something!" I said.
"Should we wait until he comes back?" she said.
"I guess it's the only thing we can do. But he might come home really late," I said. I looked over at Stacy, who looked like she was deeply thinking.
"I have a question though. If it wasn't Sawyer, then who was it? And why did they target Sawyer?" I asked.
"I don't know, Joey. This is all so complicated," she said.
I facepalmed. "I shouldn't have told anyone we were together."
"No, don't blame yourself Joey. It's not your fault this happened. It was good to tell people. But it's the people, who think this is okay, but it's not," she said. And she was right. I told people who I thought I could trust, but those people betrayed me.
"Stacy, you're right. I'm just grateful I have you as a friend. I'd be lost without you," I said, tears starting to form.
"That's why I'm here Joey. To make sure you're always feeling happy and good about yourself," she noticed my eyes start to get shiny because of the forming tears. "Aww, Joey don't be sad. Let's play some Minecraft, shall we?"
I just smiled and followed her to the computer, while she got out her laptop. We played MCSG for a couple hours, until Sawyer came in.
"Joey? You home," Sawyer called. I exchanged looks with Stacy as I took my headphones off.
"Oh, hi Stacy," I heard him say. She waved and smiled. He appeared in sight, walking into the room.
"Sawyer, I saw the texts you sent me," I said, hoping he was drunk when he wrote it and didnt mean it.
"Oh my gosh, Joey, I forgot to mention that I lost my phone," he said.
"What?"
"Yeah. I was at the bar with Tyler and my phone wasn't in my pocket. I don't know if I dropped it or I lost it or if someone stole it."
I pulled out my phone, checking what time his texts were sent. 7:53.
"Sawyer, what time did you get at the bar, and what time was it when your phone was missing?" I asked.
"I got there around 7, I think. My phone was missing....like.... 7:20-30 ish?" he replied.
"Okay, because look at the texts someone sent me," I showed him the phone.
"Oh god Joey I swear that wasn't me. Some bitch stole my phone! Did you actually think that was me? I would NEVER do that," he said.
I looked over at Stacy, who was listening to us.
{Sawyer's POV}
I can't believe someone stole my phone, and why they would even try to mess with Joey and Cat's relationship.
I looked again at the texts that got sent to Joey. The one that specifically said "she tried to kiss me while you were on the Amazing Race again."
That could only mean 2 things. The person made this up coincidentally, or someone was watching us that day she came over and I tried to kiss her.