All Because Of You (Manthony)

•Chapter 5•

Christian's POV

"Where's Mitchel?" I was frustrated that he wasn't on time to our first rehearsal. Usually the roles would be reversed. I hadn't talked to him since our small fight. It had already been almost a week. Whenever he was home he did best to ignore me. We seemed to be getting more and more distant and I had no idea how to go about fixing whatever his problem was.

"Maybe he's stuck in traffic." Pat explains while messing with Jesse's drums. He was told countless times not to but he never listened.

I sigh and grab my guitar, beginning to strum a few cords to Swim. I wasn't sure what song we were going to sing and no one else seemed to know either. We were always so dependent on Mitchel that I was beginning to feel bad, but he never seemed to mind it. The wide double doors open, revealing an overly tired Mitchel. He was holding his guitar, and a water bottle in his left hand.

"You're here. Only took you ten years. Get your ass over here before Mike eats you for lunch." Mitchel winks at Jesse's ridiculous threat.

Mike was the guy who was managing our performance. We really wanted to win the award we were nominated for, which no doubt, would be really hard. He's a cool dude but didn't take any shit. Especially from us.

I watch him jump up on the stage, placing his guitar in the stand. He looked tired, upset, angry and paler than usual. I hated knowing something was wrong, and I wasn't aware of what it was. It only meant I had something to do with it, but I couldn't figure out what.

"Boys! Where are you!?" Mike yells at us as he makes his way through the wide double doors Mitchel had just walked through. Jesse's eyes widen and I smirk to myself, enjoying how nervous Jesse got around Mike. He slams the clipboard down on the stage and I cross my arms. We met Mike the day after we found out we were performing and right off the bat we could tell he was a hard guy to please but he seemed to like us, and that's what mattered.

"Mitchel. You look like shit." I stifle a laugh at his comment. Mitchel groans and throws his water bottle at Mike.

"Hey you little bitch, I brought you into this performance I can take you right back out." Mike yells, throwing the water bottle at Mitchel's head. Mitchel rolls his eyes and walks away to talk to Pat.

I glance at Clinton but he quickly looks away from me. Everyone was acting strange with me. But bringing it up was like telling them I was pregnant. Impossible.

"Hello?! Are you still in there?" I hear. I blink a few times and see Mike standing right in front of me, waving his hand in my face. I give a small smile and clear my throat. I could feel Jesse staring at me, satisfied with me being nervous around Mike for once.

"What song are we performing?" Pat asks.

"Numb to the Feeling." Mitchel states through the mic. I was hoping for Swim but Numb to the Feeling hit it off really well. Besides, we were nominated for the song, it was most likely the best option for us. I smile and nod my head.

"We have a lot more to figure out than you kids think. Outfits. Lights. How you'll enter the stage, how you'll leave, what you'll say. All that dumb shit. We may have almost a year, but this takes a lot of work." He explains, waving his hand around the air.

Mike rubs his temples in annoyance. I could practically see the steam coming out of his head. I was stressed, but managing us must've been worse. We were pretty fucking crazy.

"Who are we sitting next to after our performance?" Mitchel asks. Becoming all professional. Clinton shrugs. Mike sighs flipping through some papers.

"Mmmm BTS." He mumbles, flipping through more papers.

"Who the fuck is that?" Jesse asks. I had heard the name before but I never looked into them.

"Who the fuck names a band "BTS"? Sounds like STD but backwards."

"Some K-Pop group." I pull my phone out and search them up.

Clinton walks over and looks over my shoulder.

"Never heard of them...are they famous?" I ask.

Mike looks at us with wide eyes. "Are they famous?" He mocks. He scoffs and jumps up on the stage.

"They're practically the Gucci version of you." He points at me. "Why else would they be here if they're not famous?"

"Excuse me? I'm truly offended." Mitchel exaggerates.

I look back down at my phone. Examining their names and pictures of them.

"We are rockstars and we have KPOP sitting next to us?" Mitchel was completely dumbfounded, it made me internally laugh.

"I've met them before. They're actually really nice. Be for warned though, if you think some crazy girls are fangirling over you, there's a 99.9% chance they're fangirling over them." Mike says to us. He laughs and continues to write some stuff down. 

"I still don't know who these kids are." Pat says as he walks up to me.

"You never know any body." I mutter under my breath. "Why are all of you so intrigued?"  Mike asks.

"No... the real question  is....why are they in America? Aren't they Korean? And why are they sitting next to us?" Confusion was written all over his face.

"We had to even you guys out. Also, it's an award show Clinton. We have BTS and Chase Atlantic. Polar opposites. Innocent and..." He trails off. Looking all of us up and down.

He claps his hands together and shrugs.

"Not so innocent."

He wasn't wrong. Our shit was pretty hectic and I'm sure their stuff was normal.

"While all of you fight over a korean band who are the same age, and some older than you, I'll give you twenty minutes to get ready for our rehearsal. I have a wife to call who's very pissed that I almost forgot our child in the super market. Move it!" He yells.

We laugh in unison, and head backstage. I wait a minute until it's just Jesse and I. I could hear everyone complaining about our seating arrangements but I took this as my opportunity to talk to Jesse about Mitchel.

"Do you know what's up with our dumbass best friend?" I ask quietly, hoping no one else could hear. He shrugs and continues walking ahead of me, dragging Mitchel down an unfamiliar hallway. I see Clinton and I narrow my eyes, grabbing his shirt into the fist of my hand. I shove him forward and he turns around getting ready to shove me back.

"What do you want?" He asks annoyed. I roll my eyes and look behind him, making sure no one was watching us. "Why is everyone acting so pissy with me? What did I do?" I ask desperately. He sighs and and shoves his hands in his pockets.

"What is it?" I ask curiously, even though you could hear my voice dripping with concern. He doesn't make eye contact with me and I was close to socking him in the face. I groan and grab him by his shirt, shoving him against the wall

"Tell me what's wrong." I plead with a threatening tone. He rolls his eyes and manages to shove me away.

"Why don't you open your eyes?" He asks calmly. I glare at him and run my hands through my hair. It was a bad habit I had picked up from Jesse. It hasn't gone away since.

"Please, tell me. I don't have time for this." He shakes his head, looking down at his shoes. I didn't know what the problem could be. He got someone pregnant? He got arrested? Those were the only two options that were running through my head.

"Please." I beg one last time. He crosses his arms and stares at me for a minute. I could tell he was contemplating whether he should tell me or not. No matter what it was, Mitchel would always be my best friend. There was nothing in the world he could do to destroy that.

"He's in love with you."