Another Life (Sequel to Toxic) - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 5

After almost 6 hours of music and staring at the ceiling, I couldn't take it any longer. I have no idea how the time went by that fast, but it felt like I was only laying here for an hour or two. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 7:52, so I slid my slippers on and wrapped a blanket around myself to head down to the lounge.

Today had already been horrible, so I wasn't even dreading this. I didn't even know who I was trying to kid, the last 6 months had been horrible, and it seemed to only get worse. I trudged down the stairs to the floor below mine where the lounge we always used to reserve for movie nights was. I missed those days, back when everything was relatively peaceful and we went out of our way to plan group activities.

Now it felt like we only saw each other when we had to, and this was one of those times. I think we all knew how this was going to go, but no one wanted to admit it. Screaming and fighting was inevitable, and that positive attitude that Sophie told me to bring was long gone. If Mike hadn't rubbed me the wrong way earlier it would have been fine, but here I was about to walk into the lion's den already ticked off.

I saw that everyone was already inside as I walked up to the glass door, so I just opened it up quietly and watched as everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me. I brought my eyes to the floor and plopped down on the bean bag in the corner, letting Sophie take the reins and lead this meeting.

Instead of leading it like I thought she would, we all just sat there in silence for a few moments. I looked up and found Luke staring at me, but he looked away right when I caught him. He had this odd look on his face that I couldn't really read, but I snapped out of that thought when Ashton finally spoke up.

"Does anyone have anything they want to start with?" He asked hesitantly.

I had so many things that I had been thinking about saying all day, but now that we were here I was frozen. I didn't want to be the one to start, so I waited for someone else to take the baton.

When the whole room stayed silent my blood started boiling the slightest bit, since apparently no one wanted to address the elephant in the room. I gave it another minute, but when I watched the rest of them exchanging glances I finally spit it out.

"All of our issues revolve around me." I said quietly, keeping my eyes out the window. I had a pretty good view of the main road from here, so I kept watching cars as they drove by in hopes of keeping myself from making eye contact with anyone.

"That's not fair, Izz. This isn't on you at all." Sophie said. I just shook my head, but before I could refute it, Mike did for me.

"How is this not on her?" He asked in an amused tone. I scoffed and shook my head again, only Sophie came to my defense.

"You're over here brawling with Luke, and you want to talk about Izzy being to blame?" She spat, flailing her arms.

"We were at each other's throats because of her!" He shouted as if it was obvious. I was at the point where I didn't even want to add my input, so I sat back and listened while I continued to watch passing cars.

"It's not her fault that both of you have feelings for her!" Calum even started shouting, and by the sound of it he was pissed that Mike was taking it there.

"She was leading me on the whole time!" Mike said, dragging my name through the dirt. I didn't even feel the need to defend myself against his bullshit though.

"She didn't lead you on, you psychopath! You don't want to accept that she doesn't want you back!" Sophie was now joining in on the screaming, even though she was the one who wanted this to be positive. The more they shouted the more I started to shut down, until I finally screwed my eyes shut.