Promises - Joel Pimentel

Chapter 40

"Why though?"

"Oh, I was expecting a completely different reaction" she steps back a little as if my words had hurt her.

"It's not that. I'm just curious that's all" I force on a smile.

"Well, their stylist Laura, is on her holidays and management team thought I would be a suitable replacement. You know, since my YouTube channel is partly make up tutorials anyway" she finishes off.

"Great. Would you excuse me for a second" I ask.

She nods as I walk away from her, straight to Joel.

"Did you know about this?" I asked.

"Well yeah I was about to tell you but she wanted to give you the news instead" he replies.

"Well we will talk about that later. I actually came here to give you some bad news" I look down.

"Bad news? What bad news?" Erick askes as he was walking past and stops midway.

"Not you, bro" Joel replies.

"I want to know the bad news too" he joins in the conversation.

"Did somebody say bad news?" Chris asks from across the room, walking over to us.

"Oh my god!" I facepalm.

"There is no bad news, you guys all need to relax" Joel yells.

"CNCO team huddle without us?" Richard asks as he makes his way towards us with Zabdiel following.

By now, all the CNCO boys had been surrounding me, waiting for the so called 'bad news'.

"Alright fine, since you're all here I might as well tell everyone" I sigh. "I won't be joining you guys on tour. Sorry" I look at each and every one of them with sadness in my eyes.

"Why?" Joel asks.

"Because my surgery is set for the date the week after you guys leave. I'm going to have to stay back for it"

"Oh Maya, I'm so sorry" Chris pulls me in a hug.

Before I knew it, the rest of the boys had joined the hug too, turning it into a huge group bear hug.

"Cant. Breathe" I muffle in between their bodies.

"Step aside, let the lady breathe" Joel says as they all pull away.

"You guys aren't mad, are you? I know how much fun things we had planned for tour but now it's all ruined because of me" I say, feeling slightly guilty.

"This isn't your fault. Your health matters more to us" Erick replies.

"Alright boys listen up, five minutes till show time!" my dad yells as we all turn around.

"You guys should go" I smile.

They all begin to make their way towards the stage except for Chris who had something to say.

"For the record, we would much rather have you come with us than her" Chris gestures towards Amber who was too busy on her phone.

"Thanks Chris" I chuckle.

After the boys had left, the room had become a lot quieter. Making my way to the couch across from Ambers, I take a seat and pull out my phone.

"It's a shame you're not coming with us. I was really looking forward to us hanging out a lot more" Amber speaks up.

"Yeah well, I guess life is unfair like that"

"Then why don't we do something before you go?" She makes her way next to me and flops down on the couch.