Gif: Lily Collins as Amanda Dales

Dedication to wendyCV13 for the vote on the last chapter! :)

Almost the same note as the previous chapter, sorry if the French words are translated wrongly; I used a translator.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. :) x

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"Come on, we'll be late," Nate said, honking his car horn as I rushed and got into his car. "Ashton and the guys are starting soon and we still have to pick up Michelle."

"Okay," I said, fastening the seat belt. "I hope Michelle's ready. You know how long she usually gets ready."

"I know right," he mumbled as he drove to Michelle's house.

It's been 10 minutes since we arrived at Michelle's house, but she hasn't come out yet, so we decided to come into her house.

Nate rang the bell and her mom opened the door.

"Hello, Maria," I greeted her. She does not like it when I call her Mrs Hayes because-

"Nate, darling, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me Mrs Hayes?" she scolded Nate in her Mexican accent. "First of all, I am not married to her father anymore and second I do not want to sound old. Please call me Maria."

"Right, sorry Maria. Sometimes I forget," he said sheepishly, rubbing his neck.

"So, where is Michelle?" I asked when Nate and I sat down on the couch. "We're picking her up to watch my brother's band's performance."

"Oh, yes, Michelle told me," she said. "Wait, let me call her. That girl is always slow and late."

Shaking her head, Maria proceeded to go to Michelle's room and I heard some Spanish words exchanged between Maria and Michelle.

"What are they talking about?" Nate said with confusion written all over his face.

"How would I know?" I shrugged. Actually I do know, but I like to make him confused. I'm such a great friend.

"You take Spanish!" he said and I shrugged once again before he rolled his eyes.

"Aren't your mom's ancestors from Spain?" I questioned. His mom looks Hispanic and Nate also kind of looks Hispanic.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that I can speak Spanish," he said, raising his hands in the air.

"You should've taken Spanish instead of French, doofus," I said, shaking my head jokingly. "Embrace your Hispanicity."

"What the fudge? Is Hispanicity even a word?" Nate exclaimed. "I prefer studying French than Spanish because I like me some French girls."

He then received an eye roll from me. "Tu es bizarre [You are weird.]"

"Mais tu m'aimes [But you love me,]" he said, grinning.

"Michelle, you are so slow," I heard someone said in a Mexican accent. The voice must be Maria's. "Hurry up!"

Soon, Michelle appeared into her living room with a sheepish smile.

She was wearing a black crop top with a matching cardigan and a matching black skirt that falls onto her mid thigh. Her bouncy brown curled hair fell onto her shoulders. Natural make-up caked her face- it doesn't look too caked like a clown.

Talk about fashionably late.

She doesn't need effort to be pretty, and sometimes I wish I were her.

I am just dressed in a grey slightly loose sweater with a pair of dark blue jeans and a coat since it's really cold. For my shoes, I just wore a black Converse but with some wedges.

"Sorry, I didn't know what to wear," she said, still having a sheepish smile plastered on her face. "Oh wait, let me get my shoes."

Nate just gave her an eye roll and I just shook my head as I laughed.

"Okay, I'm ready," Michelle said as soon as she finished putting on her shoes. "Let's go."

"Maria, we're going now," I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Alright, see you soon darling," she said, leading us to the front door. "Be careful."

"Bye Ma," Michelle said, waving goodbye at Maria.

"Bye Michelle," Maria replied. "And Nate."

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"Good evening everyone," Carson said onto the microphone just when Nate, Michelle and I have just arrived at the café.

"Come on, they're starting!" I exclaimed, running to an empty table the nearest to the stage.

"We are a band from Midlands High and we're going to perform several songs tonight," Carson continued, his eyes meeting mine, and I could see his eyes slightly twinkling while I could feel my cheeks heating up from the incident when he caught me staring few days ago. "Hope you enjoy."

"Shirt buttoned to the neck," he started to sing the first verse of the song.

"I've got friends who've got friend talking 'bout the weekend," he sang the chorus and without realisation, I found myself singing along the song is really catchy.

"Oh my God!" Michelle suddenly exclaimed when Carson played the intro of their second song. "I know this song!"

"I'm gonna pick up the pieces," Michelle and I sang along with Carson. "And build a lego house. When things to wrong we can knock it down."

"My three words have two meanings, but there's one thing on my mind," Carson continued, filling the now quiet café with his harmonious voice. "It's all for you."

"And it's dark on a cold December, but I've got ya to keep me warm," he sang as he closed his eyes. "And if you're broken I'll mend ya and keep you sheltered from the storm that's raging on."

"I'm out of touch, I'm out of love," suddenly Nate sang. I gave him a questioning look. "What? Ed Sheeran is a cool guy."

"Didn't know you liked Ed Sheeran," I muttered before focusing back on my brother and his band's performance.

Katie was using a long sleeved, dark floral dress that flows until her knee and she's really focused to the keyboard. She barely glanced at the audience.

Ashton was just using a normal black t-shirt and long dark jeans. He was quite sweating from all the drumming he did.

Almost like Katie, he also doesn't really glance at the audience. He does it once a while, but the gaze would be fixed at Katie most of the time.

Hmm, I can feel the chemistry from here.

Carson would close his eyes or focus his gaze on the guitar when he plays and sometimes he would wipe of the sweats forming on his forehead with his hand. When he took a glance at the crowds, he would flash a small heartily smile.

He and the rest of the band either coincidentally wore black outfits or they planned it together.

As for the new bassist, he doesn't really glance at his bass; he kept on looking at the crowd and he would shoot smirks at me whenever I look at him, but as usual, I'd roll my eyes at him.

"Aw, look at that; Mr Bassist keeps on looking at you," Michelle suddenly cooed, nudging me in my rib cage.

"Ow!" I whimpered, rubbing my rib cage that had just been elbowed by my beloved friend. Please do note the sarcasm.

"Sorry, but seriously!" she gushed rather loudly. "I keep always notice that he keeps on looking at you when he's not looking at his bass."

"He just wants to annoy me," I said, rolling my eyes in annoyance. "He can't stop smirking at me."

"No, I saw him smiling a little when you weren't looking," she said suddenly in a rather serious tone.

"That is bull, Chelle," I implied, before nibbling on the French fries Nate, Michelle and I ordered. "Mr Arrogant never smiles."

"I've never seen him smile either," Nate suddenly said, causing Michelle and I to scream and jump in shock, and gained attention from several people giving us stink eyes.

"The heck, Nate!" I half-shouted, slapping him on the shoulder. "Were you listening the whole time?"

"Duh," he interjected. "You think I'm deaf? I'm just sitting across the both of you."

"Sorry, I thought you were deaf," Michelle said with sarcasm dripping on her words. "Oops, my bad."

"That's the worst comeback I've ever heard," Nate chuckled.

I silently thanked Nate for altering the conversation and for interrupting us.

"Blake! This place is horrible; let's go somewhere better than this icky place," an unpleasant ear-piecing voice loudly screeched. My head turned to find the owner of the voice. Amanda Dales, I knew it. "It's so hot. Come on."

"Fine, but wait for awhile," Blake said warily before going into our direction. "Do not go anywhere."

Wait, our direction?

I guess Michelle heard the commotion and saw Blake going to our direction.

"I'm going to hide in the toilet," she said, getting out of her seat. "I think he is still trying to talk to me."

"Okay, go," I said, giving her a thumbs up.

"Is that Blake Adams?" Nate questioned, pointing at him with his head.

I nodded my head at his question.

"Did he bring Amanda? I heard her annoying voice," Nate asked once again.

"Yes," I answered quietly. "Amanda is sitting there; Blake told her to wait for awhile."

I looked at a certain table quite far from ours and over there sat a petite brunette using her phone with a bored expression plastered on her face.

That 'petite brunette' is Amanda. Unlike stereotypical cliché mean girls, Amanda is an actual brunette. She actually looks like your average girl; she has brown hair and eyes. But I guess you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

"And I'm guessing Blake is coming over here to talk to Michelle?" Nate asked, breaking my chain of thoughts.

"I think so," I said as I eyed Blake, who surprisingly just passed us as if he didn't see us sitting here. "And he didn't actually come here. I think he is going to the toilet where Michelle is right now. He must have seen her."

"I wonder what is she going to do to him," Nate said in a low voice, silently observing Blake as he disappeared into the toilet. "That girl is sometimes unpredictable."

"I know right," I mumbled as I did a countdown from 30 for either Michelle or Blake to get out of the toilet. " . . . five, four, three, two—"

"—one," Nate finished for me when I saw Michelle coming out of the toilet with a smug smile on her face.

She quickly walked to our table and sat down.

"What did you do?" Nate and I questioned in unison.

"Well, I sprayed water all over him. I mean, the toilets had like five stalls and all of them are empty. He came inside the toilet and tried to talk to me, but I decided to go into one of the stalls with him following me, and I sprayed water on him with the water hose," she explained with a giggle.

"Do you know what does he want to talk to you about?" I questioned as I absorbed the information that Michelle had just said.

Instead, she just shrugged. "Don't know and don't care."

"What if he's trying to explain to you what really happened that made him dump you?" I questioned, and she looked at me as if I were stupid or as if I had ten thousand arms, legs, and feet.

Wait, legs and feet are the same thing, right? I think I meant heads.

Oh, yes. Heads. She looked at me as if I had ten thousand heads.

"Didn't he make it clear why he dumped me?" she laughed humorlessly with a tint of enmity heard in her voice. "He said it's because she is back! Amanda freaking Dales is back and he still wants her!"

"But now whenever I see Blake and Amanda together, it looks like Blake is faking his enthusiasm to her. There's like something hidden behind his façade. What if there's another reason why he dumped you? What if it's not because he still has feelings for her?" I continued in my calmest voice as possible, but I think I'm just making her even madder.

"Oh my God Anna, you just don't get it do you?" Michelle said stubbornly, her voice rising at the end of her sentence. "He. Still. Has. Feeling. For. Her. Period."

"Michelle, calm down," Nate held onto Michelle's shoulder, trying to break our quarrelling. "I think Anna has a point though. I also can see it."

"You guys just don't get it," she said, shaking her head as she got out of her seat.

"Hey, where are you going, Chelle?" I questioned abruptly.

"Home. I'm tired of all of this. You do not understand how does it feel like to be dumped by the person you loved so much because you've never have actual boyfriends, so please stop trying to confront me!" she snapped, and with that, she left the café.

"Wait, Chelle!" Nate exclaimed, running to the exit of the café.

I felt like my heart just got stabbed. I buried my face onto my palms in frustration.

I was just trying to help her and Blake. In these past few days I see that Blake has always been trying to talk to her, but she keeps on pushing him away from him.

The curiosity is burning inside me. There must be something else that caused their relationship to abruptly end.

"Anna, what's wrong?" I let go of my palms and saw Carson standing beside me with a concerned look.

"Oh, you're done performing?" I asked, trying to sound happy, but I think I failed to.

"Yeah, we ended a few minutes ago," he said as he looked at the seat beside me. "Uh, may I sit?"

"Sure, as long as you won't run away," I said rather bitterly before feeling guilty for snapping at him. "I'm sorry, I just . . . "

"I sort of saw you arguing with your friend Michelle when I was on stage," he said softly. "But I have no idea what were you both arguing about."

"I don't really want to talk about it," I murmured.

"It's up to you if you want to tell me. I'm not forcing you," he smiled, putting a hand on my shoulder. "But if you need anyone to talk to, I'll be there to listen."

"Thank you, Carson," I said, giving him a small genuine smile.

I saw Nate running back into the café and sat on our table.

"Oh, hey Carson," he said as he nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Hey," Carson replied before getting out of his seat. "I'm going to go back to the band, I'll see you later."

"Alright," I said with a wry smile before turning back at Nate. "What happened?"

"I asked her how was she going to go home, and she said that she's going to call the taxi and she keeps on rejecting my offer to drop her home," he said, his brown eyes looking at me with a hint of sadness.

"I shouldn't have said that to her. It just kind of slipped out from me, you know?" I sighed out. "I might have never been dumped by a guy before, but I know how does it feel to be left by someone really close to me."

"Yes, Anna," he said, grabbing me closer to him chest. "I know. She shouldn't have snapped at you like that, but she still doesn't know what happened to you right?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "She has no idea what happened before she came and I don't know how to explain it to her."

"You better tell her soon," Nate said in a soft tone. "One way or another, she will find out."

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Hello there! Hm, such a rollercoaster chapter we have today.. With 2,400+ words haha

Thank you SO MUCH for 260 reads yayyy!
Ilysm xx

.. And I updated late again, yay.

I think I'm going to move my updating schedule to every Sunday :)

So what do you think of the chapter? What do you think Nate and Anna are talking about? How about Michelle, what do you think of her? Does she have the right to snap at Anna like that?

Don't forget to vote + comment and see you soon! :) xx

Next update: Sunday (?)