~6~ First Class

(Angel’s POV)

“Hey Angel,” Vanessa smiled over Skype.

“Hi,” I greeted. She looked the same—tanned skin, dark and long wavy hair, wide brown eyes.

“What’s up?” She asked.

“Is that Angel?”

a voice said off screen. Vanessa nodded. Quickly, I saw Paige—Vanessa’s little sister—appear on screen. “Hey! Angel!”

“Hey,” I smiled. “It’s good to see you and all, but I really need to talk to Vanessa alone right now.”

I’d grown close to Vanessa and her sister because that’s who Brian resided with during the year. I guess without Zac being there, there was no one to push them away from me or our conversations.

She left in a pout and Vanessa waited for me to start.

“Where’s Zac?” I asked. Her face twisted.

“Um have you been living for the past year? He hasn’t been here…” she reminded.

“Well duh, I know that,” I replied. “Where is he now?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged.

“You used to talk to him every couple weeks!” I reminded.

“So?” she asked.

“Check the phone number—”

“Whenever he called, it was a pay phone or Blocked ID,” she said. “Trust me, I ask him nearly every time where he is but—”

“Doesn’t your mom know?” I asked. “He was only seventeen when he left. He had to have consent.”

“I don’t know, Angel…” she said, hesitant. “If you wanna come all the way back here and ask her, be my guest, but I can’t guarantee an answer.”

Their mom was in a life-long journey of rehab. Why they had never told me this before a few years ago, I don’t know, but she was. She was an alcoholic because that was her relief when Mr. Tyler died. She’s been “recovering” ever since and basically gave the title as “Mother” to Vanessa for all these years. The only thing I’m glad about is the fact that Vanessa said she didn’t mess with them when she was drunk. The opposite of normal intoxicated people that stumbled around and acted a mess, their mom was…quiet and kept to herself. Maybe that’s why she started in the first place.

I sighed. Driving all the way home from here? Even though I didn’t want to, I knew I’d have to.

***

“That’s, what, a few day’s worth drive?” Brian asked me when I told him my plans to drive home.

“Not to mention all the hotel stops and gas stops we’d have to make,” Joey added.

“Who said ‘we’?” I asked. “I was going to go because I figured out the one person that could know where he is and continuously know where he is because he’s not legal yet.”

“Meaning?” Joey asked.

“His mom’s not gonna tell you,” Brian scoffed in a laugh. I narrowed my eyes. “She’s not! You don’t think he’s told her about you?”

I shrugged. It was worth the try.

“I think this is a bit thinking, but sure—fine. We’ll go back,” Joey said.

“Um—” Brian started gesturing between him and me. “She meant we, not we.” He started gesturing to the three of us.

I rolled my eyes.

“And days in a car with you? Yeah right,” Brian added.

“Fine. I’ll get us plane tickets,” Joey said, giving me a look for approval.

“No,” I said. “Better yet, Devin will give us plane tickets since he’s the reason for all of this.”

“First class,” Brian commented beneath his breath with excitement in his eyes.

***

Brian’s head leaned over and touched my shoulder as he was fast asleep. I smirked as I continued to read.

“He’s like a puppy, you know,” Joey laughed. I looked over to him across the aisle, to my left. “He just keeps comin’ back to you.”

“He’s my best friend—” I reasoned.

“Lulu’s your best friend,” he corrected. “Or this Nelly person.”

What’s that supposed to mean?

“A guy isn’t your best friend, Angel,” he said. Um? “You’re too smart and fun and pretty for them to think of you as that.”

Pretty?

“You’re obviously tired,” I scoffed.

“I’m not,” he denied. I looked over to his crystal clear blue eyes. He glanced at Brian, who I shrugged off my shoulder, and then back to me. “He still loves you.”

Good. I still love him…just in a different way. As though it was meant for us to be in love with each other in our relationship, but I grew to only love him as a friend. Same with Joey. The only difference was that Brian accepted that much and returned the mutual feeling. There were no romantic feelings combined.

“What about you?” I asked. Didn’t he come back to his other girlfriends? Or Meghan? He started to stammer and I realized that he must have thought I meant him coming back to me or still loving me. “I mean with Meghan. Do you love her?”

He smiled faintly.

“Maybe I do,” he said.

“Maybe?” I recited. “You’re in college, Joey. It’s time for you to decide your feelings because before you know it, you’ll need to settle down and I have no doubt that Meghan will want that too.”

Maybe even sooner than you…

He scoffed.

“You’re what, two years younger than me? What do you know about settling down?” he asked.

“I know enough,” I shrugged.

“Right…” he said. “When I get to settling down—or better off you get to settling down, we’ll settle it when the time comes, but for now…I’m a free man.”

He says that, but I know that if anything happened with Meghan, he’d be on his first plane back to reunite with her and make things right.

“I’m sorry, you know,” he added.

“About?” I asked.

“For being so protective when we broke up,” he said.

“No worries. It wasn’t your fault,” I said, biting my lip. It truly wasn’t. I should’ve been the one to say sorry considering I didn’t let him play his role as my boyfriend—meaning protecting me. But it wasn’t even his fault for his reason for protecting me. It was Luke’s…and Devin’s…and…Zac’s.

Joey smiled smugly to himself and rested his head on the back of his seat with content as if someone had told him any and everything he wanted to hear.