Under the stars || James McVey

chapter nineteen

I know I promised to update last night and I didn't, so I'm thinking of doing a double update. If I don't, the next update will be Friday.

SO, here's the next chapter - I hope you like it :)

Lauren x

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Katherine’s POV

RING RING RING RING.

Stumbling around my room, tripping over piles upon piles of books, shoes and clothes, I manage to find the obnoxious ringing sound that threatened to tip my headache over the edge. Hanging breathlessly over the end of my bed, phone in hand, I accept the call without looking at the caller ID and puff out a careless ‘Look, Brad I’m so sorry, I couldn’t find--’

“Hello, Katherine? It’s James,” Well shit!

“Er, hi. Sorry, I thought you were Brad. You ok?” I ask, unsure as to why he was calling me.

“Hi, yeah, it’s ok. I just wanted to talk. Are you busy?” He asks me as I try, and fail, to tie my laces up with one hand whilst the other was holding the phone. I gave up eventually, resting the phone between my shoulder and ear, using both my hands to finish my ridiculous job.

“Erm, I’m supposed to be meeting Brad,” I state to him quietly, biting my lip harshly in response as I felt uneasy telling James I had other plans.

“Oh, ok.” There was a long pause for a while, until I let out a deep breath and sigh.

“James, are you ok?” His breathing was uneven and he seemed rather agitated over the phone.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just, erm, I wanted to talk, that’s all,” He stumbles over his words and a part of me ached for him, his pain and frustration. He sounded desperate, and after all of my despair, I was not prepared to abandon him when he is asking for help. There’s a difference when you ask for help rather than just receiving it; it becomes clear to oneself that they do need help; they need someone to be there for them. If James was in need of my assistance, I was not going to deny him that, not matter what the cost.

“Come around to mine, we’ll talk here,” I finally say.

“Wha-what? Are you sure? What about Brad?” He asks frantically. I guess he didn’t think I’d disregard my plans for him, I guess even though he was pleading, a part of him thought he was beyond that help, beyond my help. Boy, was he wromg.

“He’ll understand. I’ve seen him enough in the past week or so, he’ll start to resent me,” I chuckle lightly, my heart clenching when I hear the pained and forceful laugh on the other line.

“O-ok. I’ll be there soon!” He says quickly before abruptly hanging up.

“Well, ok then,” I mutter in confusion, throwing my phone on my bed and collapsing on it, letting my gaze fall over the collective swirls splattered on the ceiling.

An alert on my phone brought my attention back to the mobile contraption, and seeing Brad’s name flash across the screen with a new message, my heart automatically dropped.

Bradley: Hey, where are you? Is everything ok?x

I felt like such a terrible person for making him wait for me whilst I was running late, and now I’ll have to cancel on him. I am such a screw up! I quickly shot him a reply before slapping my head at how bitchy I sound.