Wasted Time

Chapter 23

Michael's POV

I rushed into the back of the meeting, out of breath, and sank lower and lower in my chair as the others sent me disapproving looks without stopping their discussion. Despite how important this meeting was supposed to be, it was incredibly boring, and I wasn't even sure what was being spoken about half the time.

Afterwards, Calum and Ashton sent me dirty looks and headed straight out of the building, but Luke pulled me to the side in the lobby.

"Where the hell were you?" he asked. "I know we're not all exactly friends at the moment but I thought you would have cared enough about the band to still turn up to the meetings. Where did you sleep last night?"

"Umm..." With all the hurry, I hadn't had time to think of a proper excuse.

"Another "friend"?" he asked, making quotation marks with his fingers.

"Umm... yeah," I agreed. Technically I was telling the truth.

"You're sick," he said, pulling a face. "I'm so glad I got with Emily before you did, you'd only have broken her heart."

"Woah, hold on a second," I said, holding my hand out to stop him from leaving. "I'm disgusted by the way you've been treating Emily. Breaking up with her so suddenly? Over nothing at all? And not even telling her the reason?" Pain and anger flashed in Luke's eyes.

"I tried, okay? You know I tried to tell her that I didn't want to break up, but she never turned up. She won't talk to me!"

"I wonder why!" I yelled sarcastically. "You should never have done it in the first place. Plus, you know she saw those pictures of you and Meg kissing? How do you think she feels now?" Luke went white.

"She – she saw those?"

"Yes, she did, and she was a mess, Luke!" Both of us stood defensively, breathing heavily with clenched fists.

"I didn't know..."

"Well, if you're going to go around kissing girls in public places, what do you expect?"

"She kissed me!"

"I've heard that one before..."

"I have no feelings for Megan any more, I've moved on. There was just some confusion, okay?"

"I still can't believe you'd do that to her."

"I tried to fix it, but she wouldn't let me, Michael," he said, his voice softening. "Don't you think it's been hard for me as well? I miss her more than you can know. Not being able to hear her laugh, missing her hugs, her kisses... you've got no idea what that's like."

"Oh, I think I do," I said under my breath.

Luke continued, ignoring me. "Anyway, don't you think she's got with some university guy while she hasn't been with me? You know what she's like, leave her alone for a few days and she'll be making out with someone else! She's done it before!" I could see his sorrow turning into poisonous hate in his eyes.

"Dude, that's totally out of order. That was once, last year, you know how bad she felt about it. Anyway, I don't think she's been talking to any guys."

"Except you, you mean," he pointed out. "Is that what this is? Waiting for me to get out of the way so you can make your move? I bet it's you that's encouraging her not to reply to me!"

"Listen to yourself!" I said, amazed. "How can you possibly believe all this rubbish? You're just blind to the truth, that you were an idiot and you lost her, and now you're scared you're never going to get her back again." With that, I turned quickly and stormed out of the building, leaving a broken Luke alone in the lobby.