The Fear Of Faith [2]

26. Cal

The weekdays dragged by as I heard nothing from Bethan. The day she left I'd laid about the apartment expecting a call or a text but nothing came. I knew she would be back at college the day after so I didn't expect to hear anything, knowing she'd be distracted by her studies. Even more so, she was living in a dorm with one of her friends now so she had even more reason to not want to contact me. They were probably out drinking and partying and staying up all night watching movies and spending all of their time together. I didn't want her to be sitting around crying and feeling down but I at least expected her to be missing me.

I consumed my time with filling my sketchbook; drawing up designs of random ideas that came to my head so I could think about anything but what she was doing and why she hadn't called me up crying yet. I stayed at work as late as I could all week and Charlie and Tori didn't ask any questions but tried to keep the mood light and distract me with random conversation.

I thought by now that Brodie had probably made his move to get in there with her once he'd realised she had moved out. I had faith that Bethan would have told him to go fuck himself. My body would flare up with fury at the very thought of him trying to get back to her dorm after a party or trying to take her out again, acting like he was just being a friend.

I knew that if I saw him around I wouldn't hesitate to kick the shit out of him and threaten him to stay away from her; the old me was still in there as much as I'd done my best to keep him locked away.

'You want to come for beers?' Tori asked me, as we all packed up to leave work for the day.

'No,' I muttered, as I turned out the lights.

'Come on,' she said, softly. 'Just come for one.'

I flared my nostrils, my patience running thin at the moment, and I wanted Tori to just back off and leave me alone. I didn't want to act like everything was okay and hang out with my "friends" even though it was probably exactly what Bethan was doing. I was so pissed off that she had done what she had done and now she was probably having the time of her life without a fucking care whilst I was here depressed out of my mind at losing her.

'Fine,' I quickly said, realising that if she was getting on with her life then I would have to too. 'Just one.'

We locked up the shop and headed down the street to the bar, taking a booth in the back corner and Charlie stopped at the bar for the first round.

'So,' Tori said as we sat and waited for Charlie. 'I don't want to have to bring it up but what's going on?'

'You should have stuck to not bringing it up because I won't hesitate to walk the fuck out of here,' I warned, pointing to the door as I glared at her.

'You don't have to act all tough and mighty,' Tori said. 'You found out that she lied to you about going to that restaurant; I feel fucking terrible that I was the one who ended up revealing it to you. Even so, it doesn't excuse her lying about it so I'm guessing you guys aren't talking right now considering you came to stay at my place, huh?'

'You don't even know the fucking half of it,' I spat.

'Half of what?' Charlie asked as he set the beers down and sat on the opposite side of the booth next to Tori.

I sighed and shook my head, 'Nothing,' I muttered.

'Cal,' Tori sighed. 'You guys have fallen out before and you'll make up again; it happens.'

'Tori, shut the fuck up,' I said. 'Okay, you don't have any fucking idea what is going on.'

'Cal, don't; just chill out, man,' Charlie said, holding up a steady hand to try and calm things down. 'Nobody needs to start falling out again.'