regina's pov
The 86% of the time that had passed ever since Luke and Mandy broke up was awkward. The first weeks were pure pain, to all of us -- To Mandy and Luke because they had just broken up, to me because my best friend and my almost-brother were in pain, to my boyfriend Ashton because his best friends were in pain and to Cal and Mike, because everyone was in pain. Pain, sadness, movie and videogames marathons. Not even FIFA could pull Luke out of his blue and I knew that the struggle was real the moment Mandy's eyes didn't sparkle when I showed up at her house with a new purse she had been dying to buy. But she said, and I quote "it's for the best. His best, my best. The best." No more reasons. No further explanation. But that didn't look like the best. In the blink of an eye, two months flew by and the wounds were starting to heal. At this point having them in the same room was uncomfortable, but for the first time in what seemed like forever, we were able to hang out together again. Most of the time Mandy and Luke sat on the opposites of the table and avoided all kinds of contact, but anyone could tell they were trying. For us. And it was sweet of them.
It was a regular Saturday evening of the bunch hanging together. We were at the boys' house, Michael and Luke on the couch cuddling, Calum was filling up the bowl with chips and I was sitting between Ashton's legs, with my back resting on his chest and Mandy's head on my thighs. The movie was running on the screen but no one was particularly paying attention to it, because Mandy's phone was apparentaly far more intresting and Ashton was whispering nonsense in my ear and trying to make the words "feta cheese" sound sexy, which had me giggling like an idiot. And then the alarms went off. Calm down, there wasn't a fire or anything -- Mandy's phone went off with Arabella by Arctic Monkeys and so did Luke's. Everyone was confused for a couple of seconds and then I looked at Mandy's screen. "Arcitc Monkeys at iTunes festival tomorrow!" Holy shit.
mandy's pov
I had forgotten everything about it. The last thing I cared about were those damn tickets Luke got for the concert months ago. I looked up from my phone to him and his face was serious, staring at the screen as well and snoozing the alarm. We hadn't spoken more words aside from "Hey" "Yeah" "I don't know" and whilst we did try to make things work out as friends, it was hard when I could see the reproach and a faint sadness whenever he looked at me. I felt guilty, and sad, and incomplete without him, but we weren't good for each other. We argued every day and brought nothing but stress into the other's life. It was better off that way. Over the past weeks the pain and sadness were fading away, but seeing your ex rather frequently wasn't exactly good. Nobody said a word and then Calum walked in, shoving a bunch of chips into his mouth "...What happened here, is it a funeral?" "Shut up Calum" the only sounds were the T.V and the crack of the chips inside Calum and Luke's mouths. I stood up, not being able to take it anymore "Where are you going?" Regina asked worried, attempting to stand up as well "To the bathroom, I'll be right back" "Oh, okay" down the hall and to the right. Classic. I stood up in front of the mirror and sighed, remembering how happy he looked when he pulled out the tickets and put them in front of my face "I got us tickets to see Arctic Monkeys!" "Baby that's awesome, oh my God!" "Happy early anniversary, beautiful." "Same to you" Damn, I could still smell his cologne.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket -- A text from Luke. The last text I got from him was right above it 'I left your shit at regina's' ouch. But there was a new one, and my heart dropped when I read those new words 'I still have the tickets. We could go, or I could give them to ashton and regina. Whatever you decide it's fine by me' Dammit, Hemmings, why would you put me in that situation? Of course I wanted to go. Arctic Monkeys was our band, the band we listened to when we cooked, had sex, made out, cuddled to... It was our band, our music. Regina was childish enough to 'claim' a couple of songs as hers, but at the end of the day, it was ours. But it wasn't a good idea. It would be awkward, and uncomfortable, and I'd probably be in tears by the time the first song started. Everything was too clear, we couldn't go. The wise thing to do here was giving the tickets away and forget that anything ever happened. I returned to the living room and took my old spot, feeling Regina's body fall on my back the second my butt hit the floor "So tomorrow I was thinking we could go to--" "Can't do" "Why not?" looking up at Luke for a second and back at my friend, I answered "Because Luke and I are going to see Arctic Monkeys."
