A Silver Lining

Chapter Seventeen: Lovers & Malls

Chapter 17: Lovers and Malls

"This is absolutely injustice!" Noah rolled on my bed while trying to contain his laughter.

I gave him a sharp look. "What's so funny mister?"

He tries to sober up but fails without even trying.

"Yeah yeah, laugh all you want," I crossed my arms and pouted.

"I'm sorry Stel, but it's just-" he cleared his throat, "I mean why complaining? I never found Caleb or even myself complaining because Ryan does all the work."

"See? There's the problem. He doesn't let others do anything risky and in the end, takes all the credit himself."

"Absolutely."

"I know right?"

"Indeed."

"He wants to prove that we would be lost without him."

"Hmm."

"We should do something about it."

"Yeah- wait what?"

I glared. "Were you even listening to me?!"

"Yes-no-"

Whatever excuse Noah had under his sleeve(or maybe nothing at all) he was saved by my archenemies.

Phoebe and Alison. Yes they are. At least from that moment.

Last night, I came back home with dad. I was absolutely mad at everyone. It's either I was PMSing or the fact Ryan didn't let us have any fun.

Like really? He took us to that stupid club, dumped in the corner and when he said we were going to dad's office, I thought I'll finally be able to know what was actually happening.

But who was I kidding? When we were in dad's office, he ditched us again. They had to talk in private with others(which excludes me and Caleb by the way) in the conference room.

And what had we done the whole time? Counted doors of the vacant office.

I'm not joking. There were fifty-five in total on the first floor.

And when they were done, we drove me back home. Without giving a single clue of what they talked about.

This morning, I woke up when Alexa called me, we talked for something like an hour. Or she did, I just listened.

After talking to her, I tried to reach out to my friends, Zara and Christine, but none of them picked up. It was weird. The first few days after I moved here, we would have talked, but as time flew by, they stopped calling me. In a matter of a week or two, they didn't pick up my call or cut the conversation short.

Though I don't like to admit it, it hurts. I felt betrayed.

I know I should've stopped trying to reach out by now, but it's not even a whole month I moved here. Is breaking a friendship without any reason so easy?

I still have a connection with Ed, who moved out of the town six years ago.

But my grief didn't last long when Noah said he wanted to hang out with me. Scott and Ryan weren't still out of bed. And Phoebe was on her way here.

Yeah, you heard me right. Ryan crashed in our place last night so Phoebe decided to join too, as our holiday just started as she had nothing else to do according to her.

What I didn't know was that Alison was coming too.

"Is the timing wrong?" Alison asked when she noticed my glare.