Buy The Stars // Book Two

Chapter Five

April 28, 2015

I understood completely now. It took me a month, but I no longer cried at night because I missed him. I no longer felt like I needed to say something to him to apologise, because it wasn't my fault or his. Though the familiar feeling of anxiety and fear had returned as I realised that the time for Luke to arrive back home would be creeping up.

When I talked to Calum after everything went down, he explained to me how Luke had been missing days of school because he was battling with his own thoughts. It wasn't just scary for him, it was horrifying for me. He had been getting better, I didn't know what happened.

I wanted so badly to think that it was England, and maybe he would see that and move back, but being there was his dream. I didn't fall into his plan. He wanted to stick to that plan. God, did it hurt saying that, but it happened to be true.

"Why are we meeting here?" I asked Calum as we walked into Nelly's together. "I'm not hungry."

"Me neither, but we need to talk. Sit," he ordered. I sat down in the booth and Calum sat across from me. "This about what happened between you and Luke."

Groaning, I said, "Nothing happened. He just needs to figure out how to help himself before thinking about our relationship."

"Paige, I talked to him an hour after he got off the plane in England. He told me that he practically stayed in the bathroom the whole time on the plane because he couldn't hold back crying anymore. He's a wreck, too, but him breaking up with you was an asshole decision."

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

"You help Luke." Calum tapped his pointer finger on the marble table. "You're the only one who makes him see that he can get better. England was his dream, but no longer is. I know that for sure, there's nothing there for him. However, here, his home, there's you."

I let out a small sigh and processed everything. "And you," I lightly smiled. "And the band. What happened with the band by the way?"

"We're on hiatus for a while until... well I guess until Luke can get his life back together," shrugged Cal.

"How are Ashton and Michael doing?"

"They're well, I think, I hope. But anyways, back to you. Once Luke gets back in less than a week, who knows what he'll be like. I'll talk to him, say how you're doing and maybe he will want to talk to you, too, I don't know. But this winter, we have to make him realize that what he needs is us so he can get better," said Calum all in one breath.

"I agree," I mumbled.

"He misses you so much," my best friend whispered. "Even though he hasn't come in contact with me since last week, I know he misses you. I mean, he can even see how huge of a mistake he made. I don't have a doubt in my mind that he will try to fix it when he comes back." Calum crossed his arms over his chest and sat back against the hardwood seat.

"What if he doesn't?" I asked. "I don't even know if I would let him do that."

"What?" Cal sat up. I licked my lips. "Try and fix things?" I nodded. "Why?"

"Because he wouldn't be learning from his mistakes," I answered. When I was younger, my mum would always tell me to suck things up and try to do them better next time so I could learn from them. Although, I badly wanted Luke back as a boyfriend, he would try to make things go back to normal, and for me, they wouldn't be normal.

"I understand why you would say that, Pai, but the thing is, you can't do that."

"Why?"

"It's Luke we're talking about, he's made enough mistakes and he already knows that this one sucked. You need to just be there for him Paige, even if you don't want to start another relationship with him," Calum explained.