So Close but So Far Away

Chapter 7

Luke

I made my way towards Amanda's doorstep since I wanted someone to hang out with. I brought  knuckles to the hard piece of wood my and knocked. The door flew wide open revealing Amanda in her wet hair and bath robe, covering her neck.

"Hey Mandy." I greeted. She tensed up and smiled uneasily at me as if she was hiding something from me.

"Hi baby! What are you doing here?" She laughed nervously.

"Oh, well, I was hoping if we could hang out." I said sheepishly.

"Listen babe, I can't. I'm busy right now, maybe next time?" She said coming closer to me, still covering her neck.

"Alright." I sighed, pecking her tensed lips before turning around to go home. Guess I'll be hanging out with the boys, but I can't help but suspect something.

Was she hiding something from me?

She isn't cheating on me, is she?

---

The boys came over minutes after I texted them to come. We're playing video games but not that long since we decided to go out and eat.

"That was awesome!!" Michael cheered, referring to the video Calum showed us.

"Isn't that the cool twins you were talking about Cal?" Ashton said, pointing to the direction of the door.

"We should call them over, they seem nice." I said looking over to them.

"Great idea."  Michael said before calling them over.

"Hey, cool-looking twins, one with the blonde and brunette!" I swear this boy is quite embarassing sometimes. The twins came over to us and grabbed a chair nearby and sat on our table.

"You guys seem awesome, what are your names?" Ashton asked clearly interested in them.

"Well, I'm Jacob, you can call me Jake." The blonde one answered

"I'm Joshua, I go by Josh." The brunette smiled. We introduced ourselves and ate our food.

"So, I've seen you and that shit haired girl has something going on?" I asked Jake. All of them stopped eating and looked at me. I'm flummoxed, what did I do?

"What the actual fuck Luke." Ashton said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You just fucking called Aspie 'Shit haired girl'." Calum said looking at me like I'm a fuck up or something.

"What? What's wrong with that?" I told them, quite puzzled.

"That's fucking messed up man." Josh said, shaking his head in disillusion.

"What the hell is wrong with you." Michael said in while Jake just laughed.

"You guys are making this like a huge fucking deal." I huffed, crossing my arms, leaning back.

"Of course, if we'd call you a breadstick, what would YOU do?" Michael sneered,  clearly pissed at me.

"Sure, I'd be offended but I won't hold the grudge." I said, taking a sip on my Dr. Pepper.

"Whatever that's still fucked up.." Calum uttered, dropping the topic.

"So, back to the question, do you guys have something going on?" I asked inquiringly.

"Ah, no. We're just friends." Jake smiled.

I finally let out the breath I didn't know that I  was holding, I can't help but feel alleviated. Why do I feel this way towards that girl? I supposed to hate her.

Do I really?

---

The rest of the boys went home except for Calum. Currently, we're watching a movie at my house.

"So Calum, tell me about this 'Aspen' girl." I said.

"She's Michael's cousin." Calum stated the obvious.

"I know that you dipshit." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm just kidding, bro. What do you wanna know about her anyway?"

"Anything."

"Well, she was your girlfriend, I swear dude, you guys were head over heels for each other." Calum shrugged.

"Anything else?"  I said, rolling my eyes.

"There are a lot of things, to be honest. Find it out on your own, yeah?" He said facing me this time and me nodding in agreement.

"Do you think Amanda's hiding something from me?"  I asked. He grimaced at the sound of her name but answered anyway.

"What made you say that?"

"Well, primitive today, I went to her house, she seems uneasy and she was covering her neck." I illustrated.

"What did she screen her neck with?"

"She used her bathrobe, to, uhh, cover it up."

"I'm not sure but she might be cheating on you, but if you really trust her, then, it's your decision whether to believe it or not." He shrugged, focusing his gaze back to the television.

I don't want to believe it, but it might be true.