Wasted Opportunities

Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Michael's POV

Luke sat down on the bed in my room as soon as we entered and buried his head in his hands.

"This is all so messed up," he mumbled.

"You think I actually wanted to talk? I just said that to make her happy," I scoffed, wandering into the bathroom and ignoring him. "I don't have anything to say to you."

"Look, I'm really... sorry... that I pushed you down the stairs. I was drunk, and angry, all of these feelings about Emily have kind of been bottled up inside of me for ages, and they all came out when I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing."

"What do you think she thinks happened?" I asked, sort of worried since I really didn't remember much of what we said to her.

"She asked me just before you came in why we fought. She must be so confused," he said. "I can't believe we let this happen!" He ran his hands through his hair, frustrated.

"We?!" I said, putting my head round the bathroom door and glaring at him. "Look, I offered to make peace a few weeks ago. We could have put it all behind us, tried to be friends, but no! You had to keep chasing her, even though she obviously doesn't like you that way..."

"What do you mean?" he said indignantly, getting up. "She nearly kissed me in the bar, I remember that bit!"

"No she didn't! You were drunk, you saw what you wanted to see. It really wasn't like that at all."

"Well maybe we would have found out if you hadn't punched me!"

"Look, I - I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have done that. But you pushed me down the stairs!"

"I already apologised for that!" argued Luke. "What more do you want me to do?"

"You always flirt with her. You could stop."

"Why would I do that? I have every right to do that. If she didn't want me to, then I would stop. But she likes it."

"She likes it way more when I flirt with her. You remember right at the start, the Costa cup? And the Mario Karts? Come on, you know she was into me when we played Mario Karts." I folded my arms confidently, sure that I had won. Luke opened his mouth to argue, but then Jojo walked in.

"Are you guys arguing again?" she sighed.

"No," I said, unclenching my fists and trying to look more relaxed.

"You need to stop! How do you think Emily feels? Last night was awful for her, and you're here arguing again!" Luke and I glanced at each other guiltily.

"You'd better not do this at Disneyland tomorrow."

"Oh my gosh there it is!" squealed Maddy, tapping on the back of my seat impatiently. Ashton smiled at her excitement and squeezed her hand. We drove through the entrance to Disneyland Paris and Chris attempted to find a parking space.

"Have you ever been here before?" I asked Emily, turning to face her.

"No, I'm not much of a theme park fan, really," she said, biting her lip. "But Maddy's told me all about it, and she refused to come to Paris without coming here."

"Yeah, I kind of gathered," I laughed. "Don't worry, I don't like rollercoasters and stuff either, we could both stay behind and get food or something instead whilst the others go on the scary ones." She smiled and nodded, and we got out of the minibus.

We manage to persuade Maddy to choose something that we could all do together first, so she picked the Buzz Lightyear shooting game. Whilst we queued, we picked partners. Maddy and Ashton were predictably together, and Jojo went with Max, since they hadn't seen each other in ages. Me and the boys had met him a couple of times, and thought he was a great person, and the girls seemed to like him as well. He was a really friendly, easy person to get along with, and he seemed to really care about Jojo. Calum pounced on Luke, wrapping his arms around his neck, and claimed him as a partner. I think he had been feeling a little distant from Luke recently, since we hadn't actually told him what was going on with Emily, and Luke always jumped to sit next to her instead of him. I was happy with this, because it meant I could go with Emily, and Flavia went with one of her bandmates, Tallulah, who she had invited to come along as well. Chris and Dean, the security guard, decided to come with us. We queued for quite a while, messing about and boasting that we would be the best, before it was finally our turn. We climbed into the capsules, excited at our first proper experience of Disneyland, and started the game. I could hear Ashton yelling competitively in front of us, claiming that he was definitely going to get the most points, and Maddy arguing that she always won this game. Luke and Calum were giggling as they failed miserably, and I could hear Chris and Dean pretending they didn't care who won, but secretly trying desperately to beat each other. Emily and I didn't care as much about who got the most points, we were mainly just enjoying ourselves, and neither did Flavia and Tallulah. Maddy and Ashton were still debating as we left the ride and headed out into the sunlight.