Promises - Joel Pimentel

Chapter 19

Ingrid's POV

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up" I've been poking Maya with my finger for the past fifteen minutes and she doesn't budge at all.

Last night I had slept over at Maya's house and she practically spent the night crying to me while we ate junk food and watched romantic movies till at least 2am. She's my best friend and I need to be there for her at her worst times. It's practically my duty.

"Leave me alone" she groans grabbing my pillow and placing it over her head to avoid listening to me.

"Come on. I know you're heartbroken and you think sleeping the day away is the answer but you can't spend all day curled up in a ball under your blanket" I tried to pull the pillow off her.

"You want to bet on that?" I hear her muffles from under the pillow.

"No, I don't. Now get up before I scarf up all the pancakes for breakfast"

"Be my guest" she gave me a thumbs up, indicating that she obviously didn't care.

"Come on sleeping beauty, you've got a big day ahead. Tonight's one of CNCO's longest shows and you and I are both going, so suck it up princess and get your tiny non-existent butt out of bed"

"Like I care" her head was still facing away from me under the pillow.

"You know what? I'm starving. Goodbye" and with that, I left her in bed while I went to go freshen up before heading downstairs to her mother.

"Good morning Ingrid, would you like some pancakes?" she sweetly asked taking out a bottle of sweet maple syrup.

"Mrs Francis, have I ever turned down any of your food?" I jokingly ask.

I felt bad eating without Maya but knowing her, I know she wouldn't be able to stay away from food for this long, no matter how hard she tried to resist.

It's as if on cue, I hear footsteps coming down from the stairs. Maya then approaches me with a saddened look in her eyes.

"You don't really think my butt is tiny and non-existent do you?" she softly asks.

"Of course not, silly"

"Maybe that's one of the reasons why Joel would pick Amber over me any day" she heavily sighs looking down at the ground.

"Oh my god Maya don't say that! Your butt is the cutest thing ever, I was only kidding about that, and who cares what or who Joel likes"

"Ay dios mio Maya, go take a shower and brush your hair. Your dad will be wanting you both dressed for the boys show tonight so don't waste any time" Mrs Francis interrupts after seeing the sleepy, tired state Maya was in since she had just gotten out of bed.

"Since you're my best friend and I love you, I'll even do your hair and makeup. How does that sound?" I offer, smiling.

"That would be nice" a tiny smile appears on Maya's face before she heads upstairs for a shower.

5:00 pm

At the moment, we were heading off to the boys' concert. Maya had no interest in going but since she would he helping her dad out, she sort of had no choice.

"When is this nightmare going to be over?" her head was leaning against the car window as she was looking out.

I know no matter what I say, my words can never cheer her up. Therefore, I went with the safer option and rubbed her arm for comfort. As soon as we had reached the venue, we walked straight to the backstage area.

"Maya be a doll and print these documents, will you? Here's my card to scan the printer if you need it" Renato instructs her as she grabs a card and a USB stick that carried the documents to be printed.

"I'll come along" I begin to follow her as we both stroll down the hallway.

Entering the room that had a computer and a printing machine, Maya heads straight for one of the computers and switches it on.

"You do this often?" I ask looking around the room in awe.

"Yup" her eyes not leaving the screen as page after page appears. 

As soon as we were done, we headed out of the room and made our way back to her dad. In the hallway, we hear multiple shouts and laughter. Maya was too busy counting her papers to notice who was coming.

"Hey, don't look now but ex-boyfriend approaching in less than three seconds" I whisper leaning over to her.

"Where?" she quickly looks up to see the CNCO boys walking in our direction probably heading off to stage.

She quickly hides her face with the papers but continues walking straight hoping Joel wouldn't see her.

"Miss Maya Francis, nice to see your face after so long. How have you been kid?" Richard asks walking past us.

"Fine" she replies, still hiding her face.

"Oh Maya, just give it up, they saw you" I pull her hand down along with the papers, revealing her face as they had already walked past us by now.

Handing the papers to her dad, he asked her for another favour.

"Sorry angel, you know I wouldn't ask you to do this but could you fetch me a latte? You girls can buy something for yourselves as well" he hands us his credit card and we make our way to the buildings café.

An hour had gone by and the sound of screaming fans and music filled both our ears.

"I'm going to go buy myself a drink. You coming?" I asked Maya standing up from the couch.

"I'll just wait here" she was laying down on the couch in the main room while on her phone.

"Alright then" I head out the door approaching the nearest vending machine and bought myself a bottle of coke.

On my way back to the main room, all my attention was on my phone. It wasn't long until I felt a force against me that almost knocked the drink out of my hand. I realised I had bumped into someone while knocking their things down.

"Watch it!" the girl scoffs picking her purse up along with the things that had fallen out.

My bad. It wasn't a girl. It was the wicked witch of the west.

Amber.

"Maybe if you took your eyes off your phone, you wouldn't be so blind while walking and knocking peoples things over" she snarls at me.

"You were on your phone too, genius" I spit back, rolling my eyes at her.

"Ugh, whatever" she stands up and begins walking away.

I realised she had dropped something and had forgotten to pick it up; her phone.

"Wait!" I turn around to run after her but stopped when I see a notification pop up on her screen.

Observing the notification, I see that it's from a bank company.

"What the" my eyes zoom in to the whole message as my jaw drops.

Maya's POV

I had some free time and decided to walk around instead of laying around all night. I was currently side stage, watching CNCO perform. Unfortunately, Amber was also on the other end of side stage. She couldn't see me but I saw her. Her eyes were glued to Joel the whole time and so were mine. Every now and then he would also glance side stage, smiling at her every often as she waved and smiled back, blowing air kisses.

Why did he only notice her and not me?

My thoughts were interrupted by Ingrid yelling my name from a far distance behind me. As I turned around, I see her running towards me, breathing heavily.

"I have been looking all over for you" she tries catching her breath while bending over, holding her knees.

"What happened to you?" I ask, trying to be as loud as possible, over the music.

"You would not believe what I found out" she was slowly starting to re gain her breaths at a normal rate.

"What is it?"

"According to this, Amber has been stealing money off of Joel's bank account and transferring it into her own"