Chapter 33:
The moments of ignoring Josh had grown in the past week of touring. Four times awkwardness ensued.. The week was ending and my excuse of "pmsing" had expired. Let's have a recap of the past week's most awkward moments, shall we?
~ 1 ~
The first venue, the first show. It was all tonight. I was so excited for the boys, it was their first arena headlining tour. It was everything they had worked for. I walked down the empty hall to their dressing room, the present I had for each of the boys hidden away in the bag slung over my shoulder.
"Wait up, Brook!" A familiar voice called out and I stopped dead in my tracks. Excuses ran through my head as the muscular drummer caught up to me.
"Oh, uh, hi Josh." I said as he fell into step with me. We kept walking and I refused to look over.
"You okay? You've been acting a bit weird lately," Josh raised an eyebrow at me.
"Yeah, just uh, lady things. Look, I gotta go. Um, catch up with you later, yeah?" I turned to him, feeling slightly apologetic. He gave me a confused look, but I turned and practically ran towards the boys dressing room.
~ 2 ~
"I'm going to dinner tonight, you in?" Josh asked me as we waited for the boys to wrap up for the second concert. I turned to him and shrugged.
"I'm not really in the mood, I'm sorry.." I turned away and refused to meet eyes with him. Which was made a bit difficult when he caught my arm and practically forced me to look straight at him.
"What's been eating you? I thought we were friends?" Josh sounded hurt.
"We are, Josh. I'm sorry. It's just.. You know. That time of month. I'm just going to be in a pissy mood the next few days. I'm sorry.." With a forced smile, I used the excuse.
"If you need me to go on any chocolate runs, let me know, okay?" He offered with a wink.
I agreed with a laugh, but I was flooded with guilt.
~ 3 ~
"Still in a bad mood?" Josh teased, his hip hitting my lightly. It was Wednesday and the only break day for the week. We had all gathered in the hotel lobby to decide who was going where. Mostly for Paul's sake, the poor guy could only go with one boy and pray the other four were alive.
"Just PMSing," I forced a laugh, "Nothing chocolate can't fix."
"I'm heading to the mall for some shopping," Louis announced, "Promised I'd grab Juliet a gift for leaving my room a mess."
I was about to volunteer to go with him, when Josh beat me to it. "I'll go with you, mate."
"Brook? What are you doing?" Paul asked, since Niall and Zayn decided to go out for some 'male bonding' and Harry was going to meet up with a friend.
"I think I'll stay and go to to the pool," I smiled politely, noticing Josh's look of disappointment cross his face.
~ 4 ~
"I'm going to assume you don't want to come to a party with me?" Josh asked, a bit of hurt in his voice. My heart broke a bit, knowing he was annoyed with my lack of friendship towards him.
"I'm exhausted, I'm going to go back to my room and head to sleep.." I replied and he nodded, as if expecting that answer.
"Yeah, figured. Listen, I don't know why you've decided to stop acting like my friend.. Maybe you're PMSing, but I feel like it's so much more than that. You're not ignoring the others. If you want to talk about being friends again, you know where to find me. Until then, I guess we'll just act like we did before the accident." Josh said before walking away.
I'm pretty sure if it was possible, you'd have been able to hear my heart crack.
~
"Time for a talk, young one." Liam announced, letting himself into my hotel room and making himself at home on the couch. I turned from where I was lazily flipping through a magazine.
"Oh? About what?" I grumbled out, still upset about Josh. I mean, it was all my fault. I just didn't want to see him get hurt and I didn't want to watch Lilly walk all over him. Maybe it was for the best?
"You've been ignoring Josh," he stated obviously.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I groaned, dropping the magazine onto my face.
"Talk to me, come on. He's upset over it. What did he do wrong? He thinks it's because he has a crush on you. I know for a fact that's not it. So tell me," Liam persisted, brown eyes boring into my skull.
"It's not Josh. I would never ignore him like this if it wasn't for the fact that I don't want to see him get hurt," I sighed.
"Why is he going to get hurt?" Liam inquired, sitting up a little straighter.
"Do you like Lilly?" I changed subjects, turning so I was looking up at Daddy Direction.
"She's alright. She's quite funny, but I haven't really talked to her one on one." Liam shrugged indifference.
"She's after your fame," I stated in an annoyed tone.
"Explain?"
"Don't you find it weird? From what I've heard, Lilly and Josh stopped talking when Josh got a job and moved. He tried to keep in touch but she hardly responded to them. But now, oh look! Josh is traveling with a world famous band going all over the place! Making lots of money and is practically one of the most well-known drummers of all time! I just don't think she's reconnecting with Josh for the right reasons," I ranted angrily.
"So you're ignoring Josh?" Liam sounded confused.
"I can't watch him get hurt by her. But I can't say anything to him because he'll accuse me of being a selfish brat. Imagine if I was to say something to him once he started liking this girl. It'll be because he doesn't like me anymore. Even though it's not."
"Talk to Josh. He'll understand. Just tell him you need to talk. And don't judge Lilly quite yet, you haven't heard her side of the story." Liam walked over. He ruffled my hair and left me with a wide, puppy-like smile.
"Maybe I will.." I mumbled, mostly to myself.
Author's Note:
Hiya! Surprise update :) Woo! So this story has ten more chapters to go :D So much more to come...
I have a request for all of you. I've been getting tweets from some of you saying where you're from, and it's crazy how many places in the world are reading my stories!
SO what I want you to go do, is comment below where you're from. (No specifics of course :P) But I think it'd be cool to see where most of the reads are coming from :)
Love you guys, have a brilliant day!
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