*Carly's POV*
I shakily dialed Quinn's number over and over again. The first time, she declined the call, but now, she was just not answering at all, letting her phone ring and go to voicemail. I held my breath as I heard footsteps coming my way. "Carly? Where'd you go?" Slurred Wes. I stifled a sob. What if she had changed her number? It had, after all, been 4 years. Maybe her phone plan expired. Maybe my calls weren't even going to her phone. Wesley's footsteps got further and further.
I guess karma will always catch up to you, no matter how far you run. I should have never agreed to go to Australia. Never agreed to let that guy at the bar buy me a drink. Never let Wes near me in that way, knowing that Quinn as in the same room. While Quinn stayed strong, and moved on, she put everything behind her, and became successful, gaining so much, because she worked her ass off for everything she got, she never let anything get to her.
Wes and I stayed together, long after management made us appear a couple after the incident to rebuild his image. I think we just grew on each other, and things weren't just public anymore. I really liked him, and he acted like he felt the same way. I didn't know why Quinn ever left him, but a few months after we started to get attached, after he asked me to be his girlfriend, away from the press and cameras, everything started crumbling down.
Emblem3 was getting more famous than ever, and he was almost always out at parties, celebrating the success of Emblem3, or someone else. Almost every time coming back, he came home in a drunk rage about how he was such an idiot for screwing things up with Quinn, and yelled about his 99 problems. Drew left the band, and Keaton told me to try my best to stay out of his way. So during those nights, I stayed with Kyle, rather than Wes or Drew after I moved in with them.
I know I could have stayed with Keaton, but staying with Keaton meant staying with Quinn and her band, and I think it was pretty clear that I couldn't ever voluntarily face Quinn after what happened. But I guess Quinn maybe would have let me, since she still acted as if nothing happened every time I saw her, with or without Wesley. She still talked to me whenever we bumped into each other getting the mail, or shopping, or at a party. She still acted like a friend to me, although I had pretty much betrayed her.
She didn't talk any trash about Wesley after their breakup, she was still like a protective older sister to me, but just told me to be careful. At the time, I didn't know what she meant, I just thought he was a flirt, and to keep an eye on him. The stupid part of my brain decided to hide things that were going on from her, because I thought they would blow over, and that I thought her open mind would just shut me out.
We both knew that things weren't going to be the same for a while, but she put that behind her, but just acted a little bit more distant as we would have usually been, but as the months went by, she got too busy with the band.
They moved out the day after they got their diplomas.
The house next door being empty took some getting used to. I mean, it was empty on the occasion for a few days or weeks at a time, since their band was doing some promotions in different cities and countries, but they still managed to stay on top of their classes, and return within the shortest amount of time that they could. They did their best to book everything around important dates of their university time, and I remember every year, Quinn would literally cross her fingers and pray that the MMVAs wouldn't be in the same week as her exams. Miraculously, they were never in the same week. But now they were in the same city as the MMVAs, and also about 3000 Miles away from us. Keaton moved in with Wesley, Drew, and I.
In the year that they had been gone, they'd went on tour, released an album, and won countless awards, including 4 Grammies, which resulted in the band bursting into tears on live television. It was quite funny, because while the nominees were announced, the screen showed Quinn and the band, looking quite bored, clearly not expecting to win. Dallas was trying to fix his bowtie, Jasper and Ian were playing footsies, Quinn was telling them to stop scuffing up their shoes, and Milo was in the middle of unwrapping a candy. When their names were called, I don't know what was funnier, the band and Quinn's reactions to winning, or Taylor Swift's reaction to losing against them in album sales.
