After Everything (A Starkid Fan Fiction)

Chapter 5-It's Like I Never Left

~We accept the love we think we deserve -Stephen Chobsky~

Chapter 5

Everyone knows I'm here now, staying in this apartment, mostly because Dylan told them. He must have gone around and told everyone I'm here. Probably so people would avoid coming so they don't have to see me.

That night after Dylan's been here, at midnight, I can't sleep. I'm starring at the ceiling thinking about all the nights I would do the exact same thing as now while in the hospital, stare up at the blank ceiling with zero idea what to think about. I usually would just stare until my eyes became too heavy for me and I'd end up falling asleep. But tonight is different.

I hear Nick's phone ringing again. I'd heard him in the kitchen, so I assume he's been cooking. The next thing I hear is the loud sound of voices through a phone. Speaker phone.

And it takes about five seconds to realize that it's Lauren Lopez and her boyfriend Joe Walker on the other line. And they're calling about me.

"Why is he here, living with you?" Lauren yells after Nick says hello.

Nick is surprisingly calm. "No one has the right to tell him not to be around us, not to try to rejoin what he used to be part of. We're supposed to be a team, a family. Why are you trying to take that away from him?"

"Nick don't you get it? It's not that we don't want to forgive him, because we've tried," Lauren says. "I...I tried for months. I told myself what I knew, that it wasn't his fault, that he didn't have control over it, everything Alex has been telling us for months, everything you've been telling us for months. But how am I supposed to look at Jeff ever again without thinking that deep down, he's still the guy who was around all of us for over a year with a tumor? How am I expected to act normal around him?"

"Because he's been your friend for years, he's been one of us as long as the rest of us. Don't you see that you're holding a useless grudge?"

"He's no good, Nick," Walker interjects. "He's broken, he can't be fixed."

"That's what you said about Alex."

What?

"When she started acting weird, when she was keeping secrets, and especially when she spilled Joey and Nicki's secret to all of us, what did you guys say about her? You said she wasn't right for the group, you said we made a mistake asking her to join. And now you're defending her and going after Jeff. Just stop it, alright? You're all being totally immature about all of this and at the end of the day the only bad guy here is you."

There's silence for about ten seconds.

"If you think we're okay with this, you're wrong. Lauren can be if she wants, if she thinks Jeff is worth being forgiven. But I can't. I won't forgive that fucker for what he did. I'll forgive him when hell freezes over," Walker's angry voice says.

"Then don't audition for the summer shows, Joe. Don't be part of Starkid."

"Nick you can't honestly be telling me right now that you're going to keep me from auditioning."

"If you're going to treat someone who is supposed to be family like this then you're done."

I didn't hear anything after that. I don't know what happened, if Nick hung up on Joe and Lauren, if he went into his room, whatever it was. I have no idea what happened.

I do know though, that I'm going to finish this musical, because I'm going to show Walker he can forgive me. He can have a reason to.

The next morning however, I'm struggling.