The Cycle of Friends to Strangers

Chapter 6 - Starting to Crumble

The pair arrived at the party and saw everyone was in the middle of the floor dancing to loud music..

"Should we go and get some drinks?" asked Ian.

"Yeah, the floor looks a bit crowded"

They scooched past everyone and finally made it to the bar where they were faced with two girls, one who looked as if she was getting ready to get up and dance, while the other one looked dismal with her head leaning over her drink.

"Hey," called the more perky girl, "you guys are from that youtube channel right?"

"Umm yeah, you had a channel too right? But then you deleted everything" replied Anthony.

"That's right, well I have no one to dance with so I was wondering," she giggled "would you dance with me?"

"Anthony, you don't even know her name yet" Ian whispered.

"Of course I'll dance with you, what's your name?" said Anthony.

"Kalel, what about you? Even though I kinda know, I just wanna seem polite"

Anthony laughed, "Anthony"

Anthony walked Kalel to the dance floor but when she walked past Ian she nudged him hard, he was taken aghast, what did he do to make her do that?

Ian heard the other girl crying, "What's wrong?" he went over and sat down next to her.

She looked up, "Nothing I'm fine" she tried to smile to seem happy but her eyes were bloodshot and she had tears running down her face.

"Could have fooled me," Ian wiped away her tears, "now tell me what's wrong, please?"

"Well first, my name is Melanie, what's yours?"

"Ian"

"Ian, prepare yourself - pretty much my boyfriend broke up with me," she paused and laughed a little, "he was a cunt anyway, so that part didn't bother me"

"What did bother you?"

"The bit when he didn't give me a proper reason, he just gave the whole 'it's been tough for me' bullshit"

"Well Melanie, he obviously doesn't know how to treat a beautiful girl like yourself," Ian smiled, "here's my number if you ever want to talk" he borrowed the bartenders pen and wrote his number on a napkin and put it in her pocket.

"Thanks Ian" Melanie hugged Ian tight.

"No problem," he hugged her back and then let go, "see you around".

He began walking away - he was going to start talking to one of their youtuber friends but first, he decided to look around the room to see if he could see Logan, but what he saw made him stop in his tracks.

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Anthony and Kalel were dancing together.

"So what's it like being youtube famous?" asked Kalel.

"It's cool"

"And, are you and Ian friends, or is it all an act?

"Of course we're friends, we're bestfriends!" Anthony couldn't help but grin at the thought of Ian.

Kalel saw Ian, he was staring at Anthony with a sad expression on his face - as if he'd lost something... or someone. Kalel knew what Ian was thinking, Kalel knew he had feelings for Anthony, she didn't know how she knew but it was just a gut feeling and with that, while Ian was looking... she kissed Anthony.

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She kissed him! Ian couldn't stand to watch anymore, so he left, he walked out of the room, nothing else crossed his mind but the fact Kalel looked him straight in the eye and kissed Anthony. Ian tried opening the car door but then he remembered Anthony had the keys, so he had to stand in the cold, oh well, Ian decided to wait in the cold for Logan, but no matter what,  he was not going back in there.

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Kalel smirked to herself as she watched Ian walk out. Anthony pulled away first.

"What brought that on?" he chuckled a little.

"Sorry, you're just irresistable" she giggled.

Kalel leaned around Anthonys waist and pulled his phone out from his back pocket then began typing in her number.

"Hey, what are you doing" Anthony asked as Kalel gave him his phone back.

"I just put my number in - and I just saw Ian leave so you better get going, weird you guys just got here? Oh well, bye boyfriend!" waved Kalel as she walked away into the crowd.

"Boyfriend?" Anthony couldn't comprehend what just happened, but it looks like he just got a girlfriend.

Anthony walked out from the party and couldn't stop thinking about Ian on the way out. When Anthony got outside he saw Ian shvering by the car, "Ian?" Anthony ran over to him.

"How did it go?" shivered Ian?

Anthony felt Ians arm "Ian you're freezing, here take my jacket and lets get you inside the car" Anthony put his coat around Ian and unlocked the car so he could get Ian seated and warmed up

When Ian was in the car, Anthony walked to the drivers eat and sat down.

"Thanks" said Ian.

"No problem"

"Anyway, how did it go?" Ian asked again.

"Great - I've already got the girlfriend, it's Kalel - the one we met at the bar," Anthonys smile was fake, Ian noticed but decided not to say anything, "what about you?" said Anthony.

"I've still got to ask Melanie the question"

"Ooooh, Melanie" Anthony grinned as he reversed out of the parking space and began driving home.

Ian yawned and leaned back into the car seat and closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of Anthonys jacket, it smelt just like him, as if Anthony was holding on to Ian.

"I saw Kalel kissing you," Ian said, eyes still closed.

"Oh, you did," Anthony said quietly.

Ian nodded "yeah".

There was a long silence, Ian turned to look out of the car window so Anthony couldn't see his face. When he opened his eyes, tears ran down his face.

"Are you okay?" Anthony said worriedly.

Ian nodded again, "Just tired," he fake yawned while saying that so Anthony couldn't hear the croak in his voice.

"Okay, go to sleep, I'll wake you up when we get home"

Ian didn't reply and nor did he sleep, he stayed awake.

When they got home they walked into their bedrooms.

"Night!" they called to each other.

Even though they were both so tired, they didn't sleep, they stayed there awake in their beds - thinking about eachother.

Thinking about their friendship...

...And how it was starting to crumble.