Down But Not Out

Chapter 49- Epilogue II

Josh's POV

Summer jumped on Dan as I dropped my carry on bag to the floor next to the door before shutting it behind me. I glanced around the living room to see that the girls had done a brilliant job with the decoration. The colours went really well together and were so much better than the plain walls Dan and I used to have. We were too lazy to do anything with it that's why. I sighed and pushed my hand through my hair as Summer and Dan pulled back long enough for her to glare at me, making me sigh again.

"Hello to you to Summer" I said and she glared at me so harshly that I actually flinched. She ignored me, instead going over to the open kitchen to make her and Dan drinks. Dan shrugged at me apologetically but I suppose I'd expected it.

It had only been a few weeks since I'd broken up with Lizzie, and I had been in the same room as Dan with the loudspeaker on, so I'd heard what she'd said. I knew she had purposely talked to Dan either in the hopes that I was sat in the room and would hear her, or that one of the guys would come and tell me. What I hadn't expected was that it would hurt so much, and by that I don't just mean me. Dan had been suffering because Summer was suffering and there wasn't anything he could do about it since we had been over in America while Summer was stuck here, although I knew Ivy, Christy and Kayleigh had given Summer as much support as possible as they'd been filling us in, but apparently Summer had been slightly cold. It had only been in this last week that Summer had finally opened up and accepted that while Lizzie was no longer here, the rest of us were. Of course she was being cold with me because I was the reason as to why Lizzie had left in the first place.

I sighed again and went to make myself a coffee when Summer sat down in front of the television. I could hear her and Dan whispering even over the sound of the spoon clinking against the china of the cup when I stirred as the door flew open and everyone bounded through. Max nearly fell over my bag in the process since I'd practically left it in front of the door.

Matt and Dan had been off with me in the first week since Lizzie announced she was leaving, but after that things returned to normal for which I was grateful. I'd lost the one girl I ever truly loved, I couldn't lose my best friends too. It would be hard with Summer here but I was planning on moving out and getting a place of my own so that Summer and Dan could live together, and Summer wouldn't be constantly reminded of what I'd done. I felt terribly guilty enough as it was without Summer hating me as well.

My friends looked around the apartment- including the two bedrooms- before returning and congratulating Summer on how well she worked. From the look on Summer's face it was killing her taking the credit- as we all knew Lizzie had helped- but no one said anything since it was still a sore topic for each and every one of us, for our own reasons.

I painfully swallowed the rest of my coffee before deciding that when I'd finished, I would retreat to my room. There was no way I was staying out here with everyone chatting happily while I felt like the biggest asshole alive. I'd broken things off with Lizzie for no real reason at all and I was so regretting what I'd done. If only she could've handled staying until I returned, because I would've apologised, and then begged and grovelled and pleaded for her forgiveness and for her to give me a second chance. I hadn't expected her to run away so quickly and I'd had a shit time at Warped Tour because of it, and it didn't help that some of my friends found out what had happened- as well as the fact that the fans knew Lizzie and I were no longer together but they had misunderstood the break up, believing that Lizzie had done something to make me end it with her. She'd gotten a lot of hate on Twitter- since somehow they'd all found out while I was in the hospital that she was my girlfriend- and while I'd told them all to leave her alone because things were more complicated than that, there were still the odd few hate Tweets. Lizzie had decided to delete her account soon after that, so now not only did we no longer have her phone number, now Summer couldn't Tweet her and we had no clue where in the country she was and if she was actually living in an actual house. Dan had told me that that was the one thing which was killing Summer, not knowing how her best friend was doing.