Stay//Poofless//discontinued

Chapter 2

Rob's POV

"What'd you do this time?" I ask. He shakes his head, "Nothing," he replies as he stands up. He begins walking towards the car and I follow.

"Shotgun!" He yells before climbing into the passenger seat of my car. I open the door of the drivers side and climb into the seat.

"As if anyone else would get shotgun, I say starting the car.

"I dunno, maybe you've got some invisible friends lurking around and you just haven't told me about them."

"You know what, I do. I almost forgot about them," I reply sarcastically. "And even if I did you would get shotgun, you always do."

He purses his lips as he tries to come up with an argument, but instead shrugs his shoulders. "Touché my friend, touché."I shake my head and start driving. We sit in a silence that would be awkward to most, but has never been between us. A few minutes pass and we still haven't said a word. The silence is beginning to drive me crazy. As if Preston were reading my mind he ends it.

"Hey, do you want to invite Mitch and Jerome?" He asks. I turn my head to him, my eye still on the road.

"No, not really. I kinda just want to hang out with you," I say. "I mean we hung out with them last night," I quickly add. I'm not sure why I did but I felt like the original statement came out a little more personal than I had intended.

Apparently Preston didn't notice or he chose not to say anything. "Yeah, we'll just go." I smile and nod as we pull into the parking lot. As I pull into a spot right next to the door, Preston immediately rushes out, limping slightly. I follow him as he goes to put in our name.

We get seated immediately and on the way, we see Lachlan sitting at a booth with a girl. I gesture my head towards him, silently asking if he wanted to go say hi or something. With a clenched jaw he shakes his head. I roll my eyes slightly and continue walking. When we sit down his irritation is showing loud and clear.

"What is he doing here?" He questions.

"You do know this is a public restaurant, right?" I reply. "I still don't understand why you won't tell me why you hate him so much." About two weeks ago, Lachlan and Preston got into a huge fight. They won't talk about it and I eventually stopped asking.

"It's not important why," he spits out. "And who's side are you on anyways?"

The anger is clearly showing on my face. Who's side am I on? "I'm on my side."

"Yes, and what exactly is your side?"

"My side says that you are both being stupid and irrational. That's what my side is." He calmly sets his fork down on the table. His face is clearly angry, but his body language isn't. This is when he gets the worst.

"Well, I am truly sorry that I am so stupid and irrational." He says finally. His voice is masked in anger but underneath there is some hurt. Usually this causes me to soften but in this case it doesn't.

"No," I say, "no you're not doing this. You're not going to play the poor me card and turn me into the bad guy." Instead of replying he just shakes his head. There are tears welling up in his eyes but I refuse to let myself feel bad about it.

He has to let go of the past, I'm not being a friend if I just let it all slide. He wipes his cheeks off as a waiter comes to take our drink orders. I get the same thing I always do, chocolate milk, and he gets orange juice.

We don't say anything for the rest of breakfast. This time the silence is awkward, it's deafening. I replay his words, then mine, and then his again, and then mine. I get time to think and I do feel bad. This got out of hand because I didn't just keep my mouth shut, I had to push. As the waiter takes our plates from us we both speak at the same time.

"I'm sorry," comes out of our mouths, followed by no it's my fault and no really it was me. After a minute we realize that we need to stop.

"I shouldn't have pushed you, I'm sorry," I say.

"I shouldn't have gotten so defensive, I'm sorry," he replies.

"I can't believe we let Lachlan get between us," I say and I mean it. He's one of my best friends but I would never be able to look at him the same way if he caused problems between Preston and I. "He clearly hurt you and that's what's important. Nobody hurts my Pearston."He smiles and I could swear I saw him blush a little too.

I stand up and walk to the counter to pay, Preston follows behind with his head angled slightly towards the ground. As we walk towards the car I swing an arm around his shoulder.

"Nobody gets between me and my best friend," I say. He looks up at me and gives me a slight smile. I squeeze his shoulder and drop my arm. I get in the car and begin driving. I drop Preston off at his apartment and head home. I drop into my bed almost immediately. It is exhausting having to fight with him and I hate doing it. I quickly fall asleep, Preston in my head.