In the Band

Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Carson’s P.O.V.

The band, Nick, and I all sat in silence on the floor of Brendon’s new and unfurnished apartment.

“Maybe she just forgot. Why don’t you call her?” Jon said, pealing a small layer of awkwardness.

“She doesn’t have a phone,” I said.

There was a group sigh.

“Maybe we should just cut the cake without her-“ Brendon started.

“No,” I cut him off. “It’s my birthday party and we’re waiting for Allison to cut the cake.” He fell silent.

When I invited Nick to my party, he still didn’t believe me that I was in Panic, he agreed to come, however, describing it as ‘playing along’. His face when he walked in and saw them was priceless. He’s been quiet ever since.

“What’s up with Allison, anyway?” Nick said, speaking in front of the group for the first time. I stiffened a bit. Maybe I didn’t like the attention of my birthday all that much, but it was MY birthday. We should be able to talk about something other than Allison.

“We shouldn’t talk about her,” Spencer defended. I silently thanked him. Glad that Allison wasn’t the center of attention for once.

“It’s not like we’re gonna’ say anything bad,” Brendon said. “I feel like we’ve all spent a lot of time with her, but I for one, know almost nothing about her.” I sighed, but no one seemed to hear me.

“I hope she’s okay,” Ryan said quietly. It made my heart clench just a little. What about me? I wanted to scream.

“You were the last one to see her, right?” I asked him. Bitterly, I might add, but again, no one noticed my sharper tone.

“Yeah, this morning,” he ran his fingers through his hair. “She seemed…scared.”

“She wasn’t at lunch on Friday,” Nick said.

“This might be a little forward, but is she depressed?” Brendon asked me.

“No,” I said right away. Then, I thought about it. “I mean, I don’t think so. We were best friends, but a couple years ago we just kinda grew apart, so I’m not sure,”  I shrugged. Now that I think about it, I really don’t know much about her either. That didn’t make me want to talk about her though.

“What about her family?” Jon asked. My shoulders sagged and I gave up trying to stop the inevitable.

“I know she has a sister. I’m pretty sure she’s younger. I’m guessing a mom and a dad. I’ve never met them.”

“How long have you been friends?” Spencer asked.

“Since kindergarten,” I remembered her taking my hand and running to the blocks very clearly.

“So, she doesn’t like her family,” Brendon said. I gave him a look for being judgmental. “You’ve been her friend for that long and you’ve never met them, there has to be a reason.”

“I don’t know. When I asked, she would just change the subject or get upset.”

“Huh,” Spencer grunted with interest. Everyone was looking at me as if to go on.

“When she was upset, or at least sounded upset, she would call and we would go to this bridge near a park,” the memories came clearly, “Well, it wasn’t much of a park, just a little red swing set…Anyways, she said it was in-between our two houses. I guess I wouldn’t know if it was true, since I’ve never been to her house, but I took her word for it. We used to hang our feet over the ledge of the bridge, which, now that I think about it, would be pretty dangerous. It was a big drop. People rarely came over that bridge with their cars. It was tiny, probably ten feet or so across. Sometimes she would talk about running away. I always thought she was just pretending when we were younger,” I paused, becoming more distant. “She talked about become a bird and flying away…” I started off into space for a little. When coming to, everyone was staring at me with much more interested expressions than before. Ryan was shaking his head, looking upset.