***Chapter Sixty-Four***
The following weekend I found myself spending time together with the boys before their practice. By boys, I mean 3 minus one. The minus one is Drew. I was excited to see them perform this upcoming Wednesday before Thanksgiving. They were truly embracing their group as time continued. Once they've made their page, people instantly started following. It was the perfect recipe for greatness. Julie was right!
They were all waiting for Drew to get here as he's always the one late. That worked out fine for me since I got to hang with them for a bit. There's no telling when Drew and I would fix our differences. The main objective was that I missed him as a friend. All the other crap aside, our friendship mattered the most to me. Without that we had nothing.
On the bright side, Keegan and I were still close despite our falling out too. He still had some kind of feelings for me though as he always stayed close by when we were together. I can't say that my feelings for him disappeared overnight either. I still had an immense amount of care for him, but our relationship wouldn't progress any further than this. Not when I couldn't let go of Drew. In a parallel universe, Keegan and I would make a great couple.
Standing behind him, I wrap my arms around Keegan's neck as we all continue to talk. "When did you guys do the shoot?" I asked about their cover photo.
"We went the other night out by the overpass," Cameron explained showing me some of the pictures on his phone. They were great.
"We had someone in the photography club edit them," Dre said. "They work pretty quickly at their craft."
Keegan laughed. "And let's just say, a lot of people loved the photo as soon as we uploaded it." He bragged. "Mainly the girls."
My eyes roll at his statement. "Jeez, you guys have barely been a band for 5 minutes and you're already ultra-famous." It's true. They were so popular already.
Dre shrugged. "I guess that's what happens when you're hot," he joked.
All of us laugh before we hear the door open. In came Julie, followed by Drew. They were walking together as they made their way to the stage. My heart rate adherently picked up seeing the two of them. It made me sick to my stomach that we could never be as public. I knew going into this he'd never choose me over Juliana, but that didn't make it hurt any less. My mom was right. It's so stupid to pine over someone with a girlfriend.
Walking up on the stage, Julie immediately clocked my closeness to Keegan. It's not like we were trying to hide it, but she never took the hint. Everything we did she thought we were dating. I've already explained to her we decided to end things mutually. This is Juliana we're talking about though, so she never takes no for an answer. Even if it has nothing to do with her.
Smirking, she crossed her arms in front of us. "You two back together or something?" She questioned, loud enough for Drew to hear.
Keegan and I both laugh nervously. "Nope, just friends." He says as he grabs my hands that are still wrapped around him.
"Yep, but it doesn't mean I can't love on him," I tease, resting my head on top of his while I squeeze him tighter.
I can feel Keegan tense up making me think that it may have been a bad idea to do that. I don't know the extent of what Keegan is thinking. We haven't exactly spoken about our relationship. We went on one great date and haven't looked back since. After he lied about the Julie situation, I figured it'd be best to call it quits. Even if it weren't Keegan wouldn't say anything. Still, I hugged him as tight as I could embracing the smell of his blond locks. They smelled heavenly for a guy that is. It'll be a good idea to talk to him about what he is feeling. It'd be the only way I'd be able to understand him.
That was the least of my worries right now as Drew's eyes fell on us. The way we were locked into a staring contest gave me hope that he might talk to me. That was the moment where he'd want to step to the side and chat about what happened that day. It's been a few weeks of us not saying a word to one another. I kept true to my part of the deal by not speaking to him. The only thing I couldn't do was forget. It's an impossible task that would never be done no matter how much he begged. Unfortunately, Drew didn't come over to apologize or make amends of any sort. He was practically kicking me out instead.
"You can't be here," he pointed to me again with a stone face. His commitment to hiding his emotions was top-tier.
Leaning off Keegan, I looked at him confused, yet happy inside that he finally said words to me. "W—why not?" I stuttered like it was the first time we spoke.
It's obvious he didn't want to shoo me away but was going to anyway. "Because...it's no girls allowed." He pulled that one out of his ass.
Julie didn't like that. "What? You said I could come this time." She refuted.
"Well, I just changed my mind," he shut that down. "Get out...both of you." He looked at me again when he said it.
Great, the minute he speaks to me it's to kick me out. So much for mending our friendship but I wouldn't intrude on his work. He wanted me gone, then that's what I was going to do. I said bye to everyone else as Julie followed me out. She was very pissed that Drew kicked her out too as she wouldn't shut up about it. There wasn't much we could do about that though. It already happened.
"Just you wait until their practice is over, I'm going to kill him." She groaned.
I laughed, feeling her pain. "Seriously, I don't understand why we couldn't stay."
Julie didn't either with a roll of her eyes. "You know, he's been acting strange lately," she pointed out. "You guys haven't been talking a lot either."
I feel myself panicking a little. "Oh, um yeah I don't know why. I guess we just stopped." I shrugged.
It was obvious Drew's and I's relationship hadn't been the same in a while. I didn't expect Juliana to notice that. Especially coupled with the fact that he's been acting strange. How strange does she mean? They seemed fine as they walked into the auditorium holding hands. I'd say their relationship grew stronger since we've stopped our tirade. There shouldn't be any strange things going on between them. Drew didn't have to worry about me anymore.
However, his mood has seemed different. He wasn't his usual carefree self. His emotions were being hidden without any explanation as to why. It's hard to tell what he and Julie do when they're alone. She has a lot more insight into who Drew is as a person than I ever will. If anyone could detect behavioral changes it'd be Julie.
Stopping, she gave me the look that she always gives when she's trying to catch me in some sort of lie. "Anna, why did you guys stop talking?" She queried.
My head went into overdrive trying to think about what to say. "You'll have to ask Drew, Julie. I have no idea why he stopped talking to me." It was true.
"Stop holding out on me, Anna. You know why." She kept applying pressure. "He started acting very strange since you guys stopped talking."
I scoffed. "Okay, well what do you want to do about that Juliana?" I shouldn't have asked that, but she was very annoying.
Her finger points at me with her menacing glare. "*You're* going to fix this mess because I know it has everything to do with you."
Ugh, as annoying as she was Julie always read the situation correctly. Even if she didn't have the ins and outs of what happened, she knew something was up. Regardless, I can't fix it! Drew didn't want to talk to me. Also, why would I want to fix anything with their relationship? For all I knew he was acting weird because of something to do with them. It's none of my business to get in between.
"Julie, I'm not doing that," I put my foot down. "There's nothing to fix anyway."
"Oh, there is everything to fix Annabelle!" She yelled. "I can't quite put my finger on what's happening, but I know stuff won't get better until you talk to him."
There was no way she could convince me to do that. No matter how threatening she sounded. I'm not going to beg Drew to talk to me because he's the one who made that decision. There wasn't anything I could do besides hope that he would say something. Anything! She had no idea how much I missed spending time with him. That used to be the highlight of any day and now it was dead.
My eyes roll at her nonsense. "You don't know that, Julie," I argue. "I'm not some miracle worker."
She heaved a very loud sigh. "Look, I'm not one for admitting stuff," she calms down.
"You got that right," I agreed.
"But, for some peculiar reason, you mean a lot to Drew. Like a lot." The fact that she said it shocked me. "I know that if you speak to him, he'll come back to life. Can you please just try? I'd fix it myself, but he doesn't seem to like that."
As much as her honesty was shocking, there truly wasn't anything I could do to fix him. I didn't even want to fix Drew. There wasn't anything for me to change other than our friendship. Besides that, my talking to him wouldn't change how he behaves. That's for Drew to figure out. However, I couldn't just leave her feeling hopeless. Even if it weren't possible, I'll try for her. At least have her think I'm trying.
Taking a breath, I nod my head. "Alright, whatever I'll try." I give in.
She smiles. "Good. Don't let me down, Anna."
Yeah, yeah.