Cowboy Casanova

4 - Sydney

Where are you gonna go? I thought to myself, walking down the street. Well, the band is leaving tomorrow. I could go back to my room in David's apartment. But that would hold too many memories and pain. I couldn't go there. I couldn't go anywhere but Australia. Fuck. No. David would find me there, if he really needed to talk to me. I just remembered that he knew my address from sending letters to me. I still owned my house in Australia, and had a few friends go into it every once in a while so that when I got back, if I ever did, it wouldn't smell like an old house that hadn't been lived in for 50 years. I sighed. I really had nowhere to go. New Jersey itself held too many memories.

 Someone put their hand on my shoulder, making me lose my thoughts. They sounded out of breath. I turned around and almost slapped him in the face. "If you so much as lay a hand on me again I'll get a fucking restraining order."

David held his hands up. "Sorry."

"Sorry," I sneered. "Sorry for what? Cheating on me? Not caring about me? Lying to me? Breaking my heart? Being an idiot? Acting like a moron? Dating some bitch behind my back? Which are you sorry for, David? Because 'sorry' won't be enough for any of those things."

"Lyssa, I care about you..."

"Oh, you do? So caring about someone to you is lying straight to their face and cheating on them?"

"I..."

"I'm sure you lie to the band too. Are you in another band? Do you lie to both bands? Do you even care about either one?"

"I'm not in two bands! That's stupid!"

"Exactly! Cheating is stupid, dumb ass!"

"How does cheating have anything to do with-"

"Stop being so stupid and maybe you'd figure it out!"

He took a deep breath, shaking his head at me. 

"Oh, so now you're mad, are you? Do you feel the pain? Do you like it? Do you feel it ripping your heart to shreds and throwing it out in the rain? Do you remember all of those fake kisses? The fake 'I love you's? The fake love in bed? Now it's coming back to bite you in the damn ass! How does it feel, David?! I hope it hurts you as much as you hurt me! Don't expect me to talk to you or even acknowledge your existence anymore. I hope you have a nice life with Rachel. You'll make perfect little asshole children together." And with that, I turned around, and smiled. That sounded better out loud than it did in my head. I just dissed him, and it felt really good. But... Shit. I still had nowhere to go. And I still needed to pack up my stuff from David's apartment. I would do that once he was gone on tour. I saw a pay phone and hoped I had change in my pocket. Thankfully, I did. I dialed Richie's number, whispering to myself, "Please pick up. Please pick up."

As soon as it stopped ringing, I smiled and said, "Hey, Richie!"

"Hey. Are you okay? Where's David?"

"I'm fine. I just told David off. I don't know where he's at."

"What'd you say to him?"

"I don't know. A bunch of stuff that ticked him off. I could see it in his eyes. He was really mad. I didn't wanna say anything else to him or slap him or anything, which is why he left. But he followed me, being stupid, and so... Yeah."

"What are you gonna do now? I think  you could live with me, if that isn't too weird for you."

"I'm going back to Australia."

"You are? Oh..."

"What?" I chuckled.

"I'm gonna miss you. The whole band will."

"I'm sure David will..." I mumbled. 

"He was being really stupid. I'll talk to him about it and make sure he never hurts you again, even if you're not dating anymore."

"Thank you. Just... don't be too hard on him. I'm just now realizing how harsh I was."

"I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad."

"Richie... You've never seen me angry."

"I haven't...? Then I probably don't want to."

I smiled. "I gotta go because I don't have any more change. But before I do, when are you guys leaving tomorrow?"

"Our flight leaves at 5 in the morning. So we'll probably leave around 3:30 or 4."

"Okay. Is it okay if I come to the airport with you and say bye?"

"But David will be with us."

"I'm not letting him get in the way of saying bye to my friends that I won't see for two years."

Richie laughed. "All right. Be at my apartment by 3:20."