Walk-On

Ch 4 - The Friend and the Gift

Ch 4 - The Friend and the Gift

________________________

                I was sprawled flat out on my bed, still wrapped up in my comforter and in my pajamas, when my phone started blaring. I didn’t like musical ringtones, so I had gone with the sound of a bird squawking. The only thing the noise had going for it was that it was difficult to ignore. Mumbling to myself about decapitating whoever was interrupting me at eleven in the morning on my first day of summer, I grabbed the cell from the side of my bed and jammed it up against my ear.

                “Hello?”

                “Morning, sunshine,” Liam answered, and I debated hanging up. “Still ticked at me?”

                “Beyond.”

                “It’s been over a week, Gwen.”

                I sat up and tried not to look across the room into my mirror. Upon waking up I looked like my bed mate was a giant rodent. That was definitely something I needed to work on before I got married and scared my husband to death on the first morning of our honeymoon. “Yeah, and you haven’t really done anything to correct the issue.”

                “Doesn’t taking the group to your graduation and yelling for you at the top of our lungs count?”

                Okay, I had to admit that was really sweet and adorable. They all held big fan girl signs that said my name, and when the principal called me up and I walked across the stage they were definitely louder than anyone. But then a few girls spotted them, and since the graduation was huge and there were a lot of people that new about Walk-On and the new tour, the boys had to be escorted out and there was a lot of drama and the fifteen people after me gave me death glares because nobody in the room could even hear them being announced. “Causing the police to show up at my graduation definitely doesn’t count.”

                “I tried to come to your party, too, but the people waiting outside your house was too much for us.” Oh, I knew. I would never tell Liam, but I had stood at my window for the better part of the night willing everyone to go away so that he would show. But they had surrounded the place, and it had basically been the worst night of my puny existence. Which just so happened to be called “last night” as well.

                “Liam, it doesn’t really matter.”

                “Why are you even mad in the first place?”

                Ah, there it was. The question of all questions. And the only thing that I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t tell Liam why I was mad, because then he would read more into it than there was, and it would cause a lot of pointless drama that I didn’t need. “Okay… I’m not really mad at you.” I hoped that he would just take the bait and drop it. Guys liked to do that, I noticed.

                “Good, because I’m currently in a taxi cab with two cups of ice cold java trying to make my way over to you. But it might take awhile. Traffic in New York is crazy.”

                I smiled despite myself, and pushed myself up off of my bed, finally glancing in the mirror. Ouch. I’d need every minute of his trip over to make myself at least half way presentable. “Fine, I’ll be waiting.”

                “Great. Love you, Gwen,” he ended, just like we always did.

                “Love you too, Liam.” I clicked the end button on my phone and was starting to tackle my out of whack hair right when my mom called up at me from downstairs.