Playing With Lightning

September 2009

September 2009

“I don’t know about that chord going into the bridge,” Tom’s voice drifted into the hall. I threw open the door, bringing their conversation to a halt as I dropped my bag in the middle of the floor and crossed the lounge room as quickly as possible.

“Are you alright?” Max asked, concerned.

“No, just leave me alone,” I yelled over my shoulder, storming up the stairs and slamming my bedroom door. I fell forward onto my bed, burying my face into a pillow and letting the tears fall from my eyes.

“Maeve,” Max’s voice came softly from behind me. “Want to talk?”

“I want to dig myself a hole, curl up in a ball and never come out,” I mumbled into the fabric of my pillowcase. The bed dipped as he sat beside me, stroking my hair comfortingly. I sat up abruptly and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. “Everybody hates me.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he shook his head.

“I’m not being stupid,” I pulled back, annoyed. “I am never going back to that place, ever.”

“Are you actually going to tell me what happened?” he pushed, looking me in the eye.

I hesitated, biting down on my lip and looking at my twisting hands. If I told him the whole story, he’d go nuts, calling the school and causing a heap of drama. I didn’t want that, I wanted to disappear.

“A brief summary then,” he suggested and I nodded reluctantly.

“Long story short,” I sighed. “I have no friends, even LuLu turned on me. Actually, she kind of orchestrated the whole thing, everyone else just went along with it. I don’t want to go back there Max.”

“Alright,” he pulled me back in for a hug, rubbing my back. “We’ll work it out. Everything will be alright.”

“What’s wrong with me?” My voice broke on a tear as I buried my face in his shirt.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with you,” he said firmly. “There’s something wrong with the world that makes you think there is.”

“I love you Maxxie.”

“I love you too Maeve. Now, are you going to come down for dinner? Or should I bring it up to you? I know the boys would love to see you, Nath’s been missing company his own age.”

“Give me ten minutes and I’ll come down, okay?” I stood up and wiped my eyes, putting on a convincing smile. He ruffled my hair and left, leaving me to compose myself. I changed out of my uniform and into a pair of leggings and a baggy jumper I stole off Max.

I pulled up my hair, washing my face to make it slightly less red and made myself smile in the mirror. I pulled down my sleeves as much as possible to hide the bruised palms of my hands from falling on them. After deeming myself acceptable, I left the safety of my room and made my way downstairs, where the boys were talking quietly, going silent when I walked in.

I smiled brightly and took a seat at the dining room table in front of a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise.

“So, what did you guys do today?” I asked, breaking the silence of forks scraping against bowls.

“Just rehearsing and stuff,” Nathan shrugged. “We’re recording the last couple of songs this weekend, then the album is all ready to go.”

“That’s so exciting, great job guys,” I praised them. “Of course I’ll be expecting a signed copy.”

“I’m sure we can pull some strings,” Siva laughed.

“So, what are we doing tomorrow guys?” Tom asked the other boys. I narrowed my eyes slightly, this should be interesting.

“Not sure, don’t we have to record?” Nathan pointed out.

“I think so, can’t think of anything else we have on,” Max agreed, nodding along. I dropped my fork into my bowl, crossing my arms across my chest.  They kept talking, discussing what song they’d be recording, before they all started laughing hysterically.

“Your face,” Nathan laughed, pointing at me. “You totally fell for it.”

“You can’t believe I would actually forget my favourite sister’s 17th birthday,” Max put an arm around me. I blushed, embarrassed that I’d let them trick me… again. “We’re spending the day The Wanted style.”

“That’s what worries me,” I poked him in the side before standing up and taking my bowl to the sink. “I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

I trudged upstairs and pulled out my computer, logging onto Facebook before remembering that it was probably a really bad idea. My inbox and wall were flooded with nasty messages that made me want to throw my laptop at the wall.  Instead, I went through the process of deactivating my account. No point have a social network with nobody to socialise with.

I chose to go to YouTube instead, playing some music until I fell asleep. It didn’t even seem like I fell asleep besides the fact that one minute it was dark and the next Max was pulling my curtains open to let in the sunlight.

“What are you doing you asshole?” I groaned, putting my pillow over my face.

“I’ll let that go because it’s your birthday,” he pulled the pillow off, along with my doona and picked me up easily, carrying me protesting down the stairs.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” A chorus of voices yelled as I was dropped into a chair at the table. The boys were all sitting around me grinning, a plate of chocolate chip pancakes piled high in front of me with every topping you could ever imagine.

The boys all took turns to hug me and wish me happy birthday before I was allowed to eat my heavenly breakfast. They ushered me upstairs to get changed for a shopping day. They figured they’d take me out and buy me whatever I wanted. Oh, and be my personal slaves for the day. Booyah.

“I want food now,” I declared after hours of dragging the boys around the shops and making them carry all my bags. They all sighed in relief and hurried to the food court where they could dump them all.

“I can’t believe I ever thought you were shy and timid,” Nathan shook his head and I laughed, shrugging with a grin.

“So Maeve, I need to talk to you about something,” Max said as he shooed off the others to get me food. “I made a couple of calls, and I think I’ve found a solution for this whole school thing. I can get you into the school Tom’s sister goes to, but not until next year.”

“Wait, Tom has a sister?” I cut in.

“Yeah she’s about your age I think,” he nodded. “So they’ll only take you at the start of next year, so I called some people and I got you a home school tutor for the rest of this year, sound good?”

“Sounds perfect,” I nodded eagerly. “Thank you Max.”

“Tommy, why have I never heard of this mysterious sister?” I demanded as he sat down. “All this time I’ve been stuck with Nathan while you’re hiding a sister from me? Not cool.”

“Well, she’s kind of halfway across the world,” he explained. “She’s doing a year of exchange in America.”

“That is so cool,” I sighed in envy. “Why can’t I do cool things like that?”

“Because you get to live with your amazing big brother instead,” Max said cockily and I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself Bro.”

 A.N: How are you all liking it so far? This is my first The Wanted story, I usually write One DIrection fics, but I thought I'd try something different and here it it. Let me know what you think :)