Another Broken Girl

Chapter 18

Luke's POV

It's been a few days since Ali moved into a different apartment. We all offered to come with her but she just turned it down.

"Is Ali coming over?" Michael asks sitting on the couch.

“We haven’t talked in a while.” Calum says.

"Has she updated you on anything?" Ashton says coming back from the kitchen.

"No, not at all." I say.

She hasn't been talking to any of us. Not even Skylar, Andy or Jess. It's like she's avoiding us.

"Let's go. I'll be late. We'll see her there." I say walking towards the door.

When we were walking to the store my mind began to wonder. Is she really avoiding us? I remember she said she has to leave because she's getting too close to us, but I didn't realize that meant avoiding us. 

We all go into the store and sit in our usual seats. There's one or two people in the store just looking around.

"She's not here." Ashton says coming back from the back. 

"Maybe she's late?" Calum suggests.

"Are you talking about Ali?" my boss asks us while waddling over to us.

"Yeah." Michael answers.

"Where is she?" I ask.

"She quit the other day. I though you guys knew that." he says gathering some papers from the register.

"Anyways, get back to work." he says waddling back to his office.

"She quit?" Calum asks breaking the silence we stood in for what seemed like hours.

"I thought she liked this job." Michael says.

"We'll see her at school. Don't worry." I say sitting down on the empty stool.

All the boys start a conversation, but I'm too busy thinking. I have a feeling that when she said she has to move, she meant more than just moving.

----

"Why'd Ali quit?" Michael asks me the next day in homeroom.

"It was probably too far away from her new apartment." I say. It was reasonable.

"Plus we'll see her today at lunch." I say. Michael shrugs and we start to pay attention to our teacher.

I don't know what this feeling I'm having right now is. It feels horrible. It feels like my chest got shot. Whatever it is, I don't like it. It sort of hurts. Am I sick?

Once I walked into the lunchroom I saw the guys and Ali's friends at our table. But no Ali. I look around the lunchroom but I don't see her.

I sit down next to Michael and Calum and everyone is very quiet. I feel weird because I don't know what happen. But I have a feeling it has to do with Ali.

"So," I say breaking the silence, "where's Ali?"

"She's not here. Obviously." Andy speaks up.

"Is she sick?" I ask awkwardly.

"No. She's dropping out." Jess answers.

She's dropping out? Is she serious? Why would she? I feel my heart beat faster than the speed of light. I think I really am sick.

"Why?" I ask realizing I haven't answered her.

"So she can get enough money to pay for her new apartment." Skylar says.

I look at the boys and they're all staring off into the distance. They all look sad, and so do the girls. If they're sad why aren't they doing something about it? They're just sitting here like there's nothing they can do about it.

I feel anger boil inside of me. I knew it was a stupid idea for her to move out. She should've just stayed in my apartment just paying probably half of what she's paying for rent now. Why did she come out of the blue like that anyway? Talking about moving out.

Wait, no. I'm glad she moved out. I hope she is paying more than what she use to for rent. I mean, it was my apartment after all. She was right, she couldn't stay in my apartment forever. This is for the best. She'd have to move out eventually, so why not now than later?

"Do you know the address to Ali's apartment?" I ask Michael.

"No, I just looked at their ratings." he answers still looking off to the distance.

"Damn it.” I whisper to myself feeling beyond frustrated.

I start to walk away hearing them call out my name but I have all of this anger building up in me that I can't even bring myself to look at them. She is obviously happy with her decision, so why am I so angry? She hasn't even bothered to fill us in on how she’s doing, so why bother getting so worked up about it?

When I'm out of the lunchroom I realize something. Where am I going? I still have classes.

"Fuck." I sigh to myself leaning against a brick wall.

After ignoring all of the guys throughout the school day I go back to my apartment. I get some soda from the fridge and watch a film to clear my mind of the events that happened today. I don't pay attention to the film choice I made and just shove it in the DVD player.

After a couple of minutes watching the film I mentally face palm myself. This is The Avengers. The same film me and Ali watched together the time she asked if I had food.

I stop the film and turn on the cable. I get some chips to munch on and drink the soda. Once the show I was watching ended I cleaned my messed and turned off the cable.

I actually feel better now.

Before I was going to my room I saw the "I Wish" written in big letters on the wall near the table. I walk over to it and trace my fingers over some wishes me and the boys wrote. I then remember Ali was the one that told us about making this.

"Damn it." I sigh. I then gently lean my head on the wall cursing myself for thinking of Ali.