Under the stars || James McVey

chapter sixteen

James’ POV

Arriving back at Rich’s, I was relieved to see Tristan and Brad now up, Tristan shoving a cup of coffee in Brad’s face. “Seriously Brad, just drink it. It’ll make you feel better,” Tris says with a frustrated tone.

“But it smells really bad, like, really bad,” Brad groans in response. I can’t help but laugh when Tristan chucks a bottle of water at Brad in annoyance. They both look up at me then, and when I enter the room, Brad faintly smiles at me, still scrutching his nose up at the smell of coffee, and Tristan looks at me as if I’m about to be break.

“Are you alright, mate?” he asks, walking up to me and placing a hand on my shoulder. He was there last night, with Katherine, when I blacked out. I felt bad for him, seeing me like that again, he shouldn’t have to. I nod and give him a hearty smile, before walking over to Brad and rubbing his back whilst he rests his head in his folded arms.

“Where’d you go? Rich said you left with some – I quote – ‘ridiculous hot but stubbornly frigid’ girl,” Brad says as I sit next to him. I chuckle at his words, knowing of the interaction between Rich and Katherine earlier.

“Yeah, it was just Katherine” I reply.

“Katherine? Isn’t that the girl Brad has a crush on?” A voice croaks as a figure stumbles into the kitchen, rubbing his temples repeatedly. I look at Brad briefly and see him blushing when he tries to hide it. Something in my stomach churns at Connor’s words and Brad’s reaction, and I don’t know why.

“Hey Con, how’re you feeling buddy?” Tristan asks holding out a cup of coffee for him, which he, like Brad, turns his nose up at and grabs a bottle of water. Tris sighs heavily and mutters ‘feel like shit then’ under his breath. I’ve got to hand it to him, the guy’s trying. I laugh when Connor rests his head on the kitchen counter and groans.

“How much did you guys have to drink last night?” I ask with a laugh.

“Way too much. And what the hell happened to you? You disappeared,” Connor accuses, with comes out muffled from the way he wraps his arms around his head.

“Erm… I was with Katherine.” I say, not wanting to tell the boys what happened last night, knowing they’ll worry. Tristan frowns at me and I shrug it off with a small shake of the head. He sighs and leaves it at that, not wanting to argue with me about it, like usual.

“You were with her all night? Anything happen?” Connor chortles at me. I punch his arm lightly and he cries out in protest and smirks. “Seriously though, what were you guys doing? Is your thing now to hang out at parties?”

I roll my eyes at his sarcasm and shrug my shoulders. “We just talked, that’s all. I took her out for breakfast as well, so I guess it isn’t just party hang outs.”

“Wait,” Brad starts, now looking straight at me. “You took her out for breakfast?” I nod and he looks a little confused, so I just shrug and sip the coffee Tristan had made and he smiles at me. I thought someone should at least drink it.

“So who’s the girl then?” Joe walks into the kitchen, a plastic bag in his hands, closely followed by Dean carrying drinks.

“What do you mean?” I ask, not sure if he’s talking to me or not.

“This girl,” He pulls out his pad, taps the screen a couple of times, and slides the device across the table towards me. I take the phone, my eyebrows furrowed, and that’s when I see it.

‘JAMES MCVEY AND MYSTERY GIRL ENJOY BREAKFAST TOGETHER’

I continue to read the article and scan through the couple of attached photos, seeing one where Katherine is looking up me laughing as we walk to the shop, and another where we’re sitting talking to each other, both of us smile contently. From looking at this photo, you would think I was happy and had no problems, I looked completely in trance with her, and she me. We looked like a couple.

As if I could it, I look up and see all pairs of eyes on me. I shrink in my seat, feeling rather self-conscious and clear my throat. “It’s just Katherine, she’s… erm… a friend, I guess” Were we friends? I mean, we’d pretty much seen each other at our bad times, comforted each other, laughed a lot, and knew a little about each other from our twenty questions game. I guess you could call us friends.

“You guess?” Dean asks, raising an eyebrow at me. They’re all still staring at me.

“Yeah, well I’ve only know her for like a week, so...”

“But you took her on a date?”

“It wasn’t a date.” I defend, starting to feel rather annoyed.

“Look, James. It’s been over a year. It’s alright to date, you know.”

“How?! How is it alright?!” I snap, standing up from my seat suddenly, clenching my fists at my firsts.

“James, calm down mate.” Joe says, holding his hands out to me and placing them on my shoulders. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, mumbling an apology, before ripping myself out of Joe’s grip and stalking out the house.

I had no idea where I was going, but I needed to get away from there. I knew it was a bad idea going there last night. I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle it.

It won’t ever be alright.