Shaforostop It (2015)

Chapter 34 - Heavy Gloom

{Can we talk about how fucking sexy Sam is in the pic?}

"Why isn't he here." I said more to myself. As the happiness of Ben's arrival wore off, I was bitter that Denis hadn't shown. Miserable even. Why does his best friend care more about me than he does? That's not right. He should be here.
We

"I don't know," Ben sighed. He had picked me up from the training centre at about eight, and was driving us to go eat, just the two of us. We hadn't done anything just us in a while. "I don't really know what he's doing with himself at the moment." He muttered. I looked up at him from the window.

"What?" Ben sighed slightly as he parked the car at a restaurant.

"He said he's leaving."

"What?" I choked again.

"Asking, not you. He said he can't be around James knowing what he did. And to be honest, I don't know if any of us can." I felt tears well in my eyes. Though they were my best friends, beyond that they were still my favorite band. I didn't want to see the AA family finally break up. I didn't want there to be a final tour. A final show. A final song they play. A final phone call between them all. A final anything. I couldn't speak. We both got out of the car and walked into the small restaurant. A small Bell above the door rang as we entered, and a small man walked out to the front. The restaurant looked old, and a little dirty, but I'd been told to visit by far too many people to pass it up.

"Hello." He smiled excitedly. A little Asian man that couldn't have been more that five feet tall, and seemed in his late forties to early fifties.

"Hi," Ben smiled politely. I looked around and found no menu.

"For two?"

"Um, yeah?" I laughed, slightly confused.

"Take a seat anywhere you like." The man smiled. "Though it may be hard to find a place..." He said jokingly of the empty restaurant. We sat at a small booth by the window. Rio was absolutely beautiful. I had been before when I was younger, a vacation with my parents, and always wanted to go back. "Food will be ready in three minutes." The man called.

"We didn't order any food." Ben laughed.

"They only make one thing here." I told him. "One thing."

"Odd?" Ben chuckled. When they distracted laughter fell away I felt my thought slowly crawl back to more pressing matters. What we were gonna do. How we could fix things. "Have you talked to him?"

"No." I looked down at my hands in my lap, knowing he meant James. "I haven't since we went over." Ben nodded. I rubbed my eyes, tired from the days work, and conversation.

"Anyone else?" I shook my head no.

"Cameron and Sam don't particularly like me, so, no." Ben looked at me in confusion.

"What d'you mean they don't like you?" I sighed and sat back in my chair.

"When we all first met, and like Denis and I started dating, I know they didn't. Cause I was some kind of big deal and everyone talked about me all the time. Sam never talks to me anyways, I haven't had a remote conversation with him ever. Cameron is nice and all but I feel like he's just doing it to be polite."

BEN'S POV

"The only time me and James ever talked was the morning after Denis' birthday, and apparently at the bar." Leda said that softer than everything else. I didn't know that she thought Cam and Sam didn't like her. They did. Just like anyone else. Sure, at first they didn't see what the fuss was all about, but they sure never didn't like her.