Steam | Toby McDonough/Before You Exit |

Chapter 10

Ren's POV:

Avery hangs up the phone and I know she's going to see them. She misses them and, honestly, so do I, but I'm not giving in. I've never trusted easily but when Thomas told me about them, he said to give them a chance. So I did.

And now look what happened. I put a lot of trust in them. I thought I was actually making friends. I get I'm not popular. I get that sometimes I can be a lot to handle. I get that most people like Avery more than me, no matter how much she denies it. It's just how its always been. Thats why I don't want to let them back in my life. They've come in, been my best friend, then left with all my secrets. It's just not fair. I have Avery, and the friends I see on a few occasions, but never did I ever get any way close to the boys like them.

I put my phone on the charger and grab my Nook trying to get my mind off things. After a while I just put it down, no use in continuing, I can barely focus on the words on the screen.

There's a knock on the door and I tell my older sister Megan that I'll get it.

I look through the peephole and see, of all people, Braiden.

"Sorry! Wrong address!" I call without opening the door. I look through the peephole again and see him hold up a single rose. It's almost the same as the one he gave me the first time we met. Why did he seem like such a sweetheart sometimes?

"Please. Ren, we really need to talk." I open the door and say:

"Hello!" Then close the door, "There! We talked!"

I can hear him sigh.

"I'm not leaving till you let me explain." Ok now I'm pissed. "Megan, I'll be outside on the porch!"

"I don't care what you do!" Megan yells back,

Sighing, I go outside and close the door behind me still not looking at him. He tries to put a hand on my shoulder, but I shrug it off.

"How are you?" Braiden asks with a sweet voice, I whip around, giving him the meanest glare I can.

"Seriously? I just came out here for an explanation. I'm getting one."

"So not so good these days..." He mumbles, taking a step back.

"Oh no, I've been just fine without you guys around. In fact me and Avery have been up to a BUNCH of new things." I basically lie, Avery and I have just done the same things. The only difference is that me and Avery each lost about 15 pounds over summer. We now both weigh about 108-112 pounds. But thats it. Im still 5'8" and look like I'm like 18. And Avery still looks like a munchkin because shes barely 5 foot. He swallows hard before trying to hand me the rose, I turn away,

"Braiden, what are you even trying to do here?" I say, less angry, more disappointed and tired,

"Please explain it to me."

He tries to turn me back around to face him, but I reject by taking a step forward, I don't want him to see my face.

"Please, Ren, I need to look you in the eye when I tell you." He pleads. Slowly I give in, turning to face the tall boy. I can feel myself getting teary eyed. He takes a deep breath in before whispering his explanation, and pulling the hood over his head more over his face,

"6 months ago, me and the boys came to a conclusion that things weren't going too well, for some reason. Ben, our tour manager, came up with the idea of trying to raise our popularity. That's when we met 'Diamond Edition'. They liked our music, and they are the number one girl group in America right now. Plus they're all our ages. By having a few of us with the girls it would make us popular. It's not real. It's all been a set up by our managers. And it worked. They wanted it so that enough of us would be taken with them, and at the same time have enough of us single for fans with hopes of dating us. That's why me, Toby, and Thomas are with the girls. We wanted to keep in contact, but we all agreed that at some point it would go somewhere and that's just something we can't do now. When we got back in town me and Toby couldn't handle it anymore. We wanted to see you guys so bad. I wanted to see you." Braiden intertwines his hand into mine,

"What do you mean by 'at some point it would go somewhere'?" I ask, pulling mine back,

"Well.. I don't know. I mean.." He scratches the back of his neck, "You know Toby and Avery.. Yeah. We all know Toby thinks Avery's the best person around." He rambles.

Theres a bit of an awkward silence. I rub my eyes which are surely red.

"Thanks for your explanation. I'm sorry, I have to go think about things. Um.." I start to reach for my front door, "Call me tomorrow." I sigh, trying to race inside,

"Will you pick up?" he asks just as the door is a centimeter to being closed,

"Maybe."

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A/N: Again sorry for it to be so short! Thanks to a friend of mine, Meredith, for writing a part of this for me (:

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