The promise. [Short Chapters]

Chapter Seventeen.

I wished so much that I could've stayed on holiday forever, spending my days with Matt and the boys, but all good things, they say, must come to an end. Unlucky for us, Adolf Price made that end a week earlier than every other school in the area. Because New Year's partying was "sinful" or something. So there I was, December 31st, my first day back at school, waking up in my dorm room instead of across the hall from my boyfriend.

Don't get me wrong, it was lovely to see Ella and Max and even Ryan again, but I was dreading seeing Iss (just because she's annoying) and Josh (for obvious reasons). He had to have know about Matt and me, right? he hung out with Dan, Chris, and Max just as much as Matt did, they must have mentioned something about Matt and me being an item... right?

I decided he must have known when he went all of breakfast without so much as a glance in my direction. He stayed quiet for most of the time, occasionally adding something to Iss and Max's conversation while Ella and I blabbed to each other about our holidays. She told me how she had an affair with an Italian bloke,  knowing what she's like, it would of been more than just a kiss and a cuddle. Especially when she showed me the pictures of them together and i realised how much he looked like Alex Gaskarth. I spilled about my whole holiday, but left out the part about my shitty "parents" coming back. Like I've said before, I was not comfortable talking about them to anyone unless absolutely necessary.

"So," Ella questioned through teeth that were chewing on the end of her straw, "have you and Matty swapped Pokemon cards?"

I cocked an eyebrow at her as I took a sip of my own juice. "Excusez-moi? What the hell are you on about now? We're not nine years old."

Ella rolled her eyes in mock frustration. "You know... has he captured your Pikachu?"

By this point, I realised what she was talking about and I silently gagged myself. Lowering my voice, I murmured a sharp, "Ellathur, I'm not quite certain I want to discuss my sex life over breakfast in a crowded dining hall, especially when my ex-boyfriend is three seats down."

"Ha!" Ella nearly shouted, and she her 'I've got you now' look on. She lowered her voice as well and gloated, "You just said 'my sex life'. You have a sex life!"

"Do not!" I insisted, but she wasn't having it, so I was forced to elaborate. "We snog and grope fully clothed, and that's it! Not even as Master Ball could catch my Pikachu." I realised that was probably the single most nerdy thing I'd ever said and I sort of wanted to punch myself for it, but at least it got my point across.

Ella was in the middle of a giggle fit, and I feared she was going to spew cranberry juice all over me. I pelted her with a piece of egg so she'd cease and desist, and she did, but the laughter remained in her eyes. And I guess she had the right to laugh, because I was just her forever virginal amigo and she was recently well-versed in the naked male form, thanks to a certain boy named Max. (As much as they both denied it, there was no escaping the fact that I'd heard them going at it on quite a few occasions before they broke it off. Filthy sluts.)

Suddenly, Ella's expression turned serious. Her voice was quiet once more and she leaned across the table so her worlds would be heard by nobody but me. "Anyway, speaking of your ex-boyfriend three seats down, rumour has it that he's been seeing someone new as well. I don't know who, or if it's even true, but I overheard Jenny Kline blubbering over it with one of her creepy friends last night."

My face contorted into a confused expression. "Right, and you're telling me this because...?"

Ella shrugged her shoulders and pursed her lips before answering. "Dunno. Thought you'd like to know."

I don't know why, but for some reason I felt like someone had just punched me in the chest. It made absolutely no sense, Josh and I were nine-hundred percent over, I was with Matt, and I liked him a whole mess. But at the same time, it hurt to know that Josh was moving on as well. I pondered who the girl was. Obviously not a Hamilton girl, or she'd have been at the table with us. Unless he was hiding her, which, at that point, seemed like a distinct possibility.