bad timing

seven

       "What was his problem?" Jonas asks me, and I shoot him a glare. "Don't, just... don't." I say, holding up my hand to him. What was I supposed to do? Jonas had been good to me these past couple weeks, but Sam... God, Sam. "Can you stay here for a minute? I'll be right back." I say, not letting him answer before I push my way out of my room and into the crowd. "You three!" I exclaim, pointing at Josh, Jake, and Danny, "Spare bedroom. Now." They give me weird looks, but follow me into the spare bedroom. "Sam just confessed his love to me." I say, like it was the worst thing anyone had ever done. "Oh, right." Jake nods. "How'd that go?" He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms.

"Oh, it was just fantastic, until my boyfriend walked in!" I exclaim, balling my fists in frustration. "Woah, woah, woah, since when do you have a boyfriend?" Danny asks, and I sigh. "It's been a couple weeks. I didn't want you guys to scare him off so I was waiting for him to meet you. But that's beside the point!" "Us? Scare him off? Never." Josh gives me a grin, and I glare at him. "I told him I wanted to be friends. I told him I wanted to be back to normal for a little while, I... God." I say, running my hands into my hair. "What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"Well..." Danny starts, "Do you love him?" He asks. Man, what a loaded question. "I'm working on getting over him." I mumble, fixing my hair. "Alright, so that's a yes." Jake concludes, and I sigh. "I did. For a very long time. But I've been trying so hard to get over him, because I know nothing good will come from it. It's just a bad idea. We both know that." I explain. "You wanna know what I think? Honestly?" Jake asks, putting his hands on his hips.

"I guess." I say, looking at him. "I think you two should give it a try. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. It's not like you're never gonna talk to each other again if it doesn't go well. The three of us will make sure to keep you guys friends if it goes bad, alright?" Jake motions to himself and the other two. I squint at him, knowing it was still a bad idea. "You can't go through life avoiding everything that's a 'bad idea'." Josh says, putting air quotations around the 'bad idea'. "You have to take risks sometimes. Who knows, maybe it'll be worth it." He shrugs.

"I need to think about it. I don't want to break up with Jonas, he's so sweet, and it's just... I don't know. It's easy." I honestly didn't know what to do. As much as I wanted to be with Sam, I had convinced myself I was finally getting over him, and I really did not want to break Jonas's heart. "If you're going to break up with him, it's better to do it sooner, rather than later. He'll just fall more in love with you over time, and it'll hurt him more. Do you think he deserves being with someone who's in love with someone else?" Jake says, and I give him a look.

"I told you. I'm getting over Sam. If you guys don't tell him, he won't find out. Just... don't tell my boyfriend. Please." "Tell me what?" Jonas says, peeking his head in the room with a smile. "Oh! Just something embarrassing about me from when we were kids." I say quickly, clearly making it up on the spot. "Jonas, this is Jake, Josh, and Danny." I say, pointing to the boys with each respected name. "Wait a minute," Jonas says, halfway through shaking their hands, "You guys are in that band, right?" He raises an eyebrow. "That we are." Josh nods with a grin.

"Oh, man! Alex, why didn't you tell me? I'm a huge fan." Jonas grins, grabbing my arm. I glanced down, noticing his grip was a little rough. "Really? Cool!" Danny says. "Yeah, totally! Well, it was great meeting you guys." Jonas says, like he was expecting them to leave after he said that. "I'll talk to you guys later." I say, getting the hint he wanted them to leave. They all give me a weird look before walking out.

"What was that all about?" Jonas says, pulling away from me and giving me an annoyed look. "What are you talking about?" I ask, not sure what he was referring to. He laughs, but it wasn't genuine. It was like he was mocking me. "Oh, don't play dumb. You know those guys all wanna fuck you, right?" He exclaims. I give him an uncomfortable expression. "No, they don't. They're my friends. Not all guys want to fuck their girl friends." "You've gotta be real dumb to actually believe that." He says, and I raise my eyebrows, "Excuse me?"

"You know what I mean. Just admit it, you like the attention. That's the only reason you're friends with them!" He yells, and I step back a little. "Tell me what you were talking about with Sam when I walked in." His voice dropped, and I furrowed my eyebrows. "It doesn't matter." I say quietly, and he steps closer. He grabs my wrist so roughly I was sure it would bruise. "Tell me. Or I'm gonna think you're fucking him!" He yells again, getting in my face. "You're hurting me." I say through my teeth.

"You're avoiding the question. I'm not gonna be with you if you're gonna act like this." He squeezes my wrist a little tighter, and my heart pounds against my chest. "They're just my friends. I promise." I say softly, worried if I wasn't calm, he would lash out. "Fine. Fine. I'm sorry." He says, letting go. I rub my wrist, looking away. "I should get back to Sophie." I mumble. "Okay. I'm gonna get going, I'll text you tonight." He says, and I nod. "Okay."

He kisses my forehead like everything was perfectly fine, then leaves my apartment without another word. I left the room, not wanting to talk to anyone, but of course, Jake walked directly into me. "Oh, shit, sorry." He says, obviously drunk. "Hey, woah, are you alright?" He furrows his eyebrows, putting his hands on my shoulders. I give him a small smile, nodding and hoping he couldn't see the pain in my eyes, "Yeah. I'm alright."