Frustration -SERIES- [Part 1] [boyxboy]

Chapter Eleven

'Who is Robbie?' Josh asked dumbly, as we followed Rachel back towards the library. Conor and Sally were trailing a few feet behind us, heads close together in some discussion, and I felt the most inexplicable pang of jealousy force it's way through my Jackson-oriented haze - most likely as a result of the comments at St Vincent's yesterday regarding their relationship. It was one of those things you know shouldn't bother you but it does anyway, like when people leave their Christmas decorations up too long or sleep without taking their socks off.

'One of my friends from St Vincent's,' she said. 'His parents are, to put it mildly, "absent". So we always would party at his place on the weekends. Friday nights if you weren't at Robbie's, you weren't living.'

'And so we're going there tonight?' Josh clarified.

'Yeah, if you guys are sure you're up for it. I'm going.'

'It could be kind of weird,' I hedged. 'Like I'm planning on breaking up with him in a week, would this not just make that more messy?'

Rachel shrugged and sighed. 'Look, Jackson was right about me. I came up here and completely forgot about my old friends, and that's fucked up. I want them to still be in my life. And I want you guys to meet them and be friends with them. And Tyler, I don't know if it will even be possible, but if you want to maintain a friendship with Jack after you dump him, this is the way to do it. It has to be now, before you break his heart.'

I flinched. I did not want to be in the business of breaking anyone's heart. Though it seemed like three hearts were getting unavoidably damaged in this situation already, and I felt horribly guilty.

'Fair point,' Josh and I muttered at the same time, looking at the ground and shoving our hands in our pockets as we re-entered the library. Play secured, we still had to act like we were working on it until four this evening when we were to meet with Ms Hughes.

'What are you two whispering about?' Rachel asked Sally and Conor as they caught up with us and dropped into seats around the table.

'Tyler's butt,' Sally said, deadpan, and Conor rolled his eyes before I could react.

'You're hilarious,' he muttered. 'Are any of you sure you haven't seen my green notebook?' he asked then.

Josh managed to look him right in the eye as he shook his head, his face a picture of innocence, but Rachel and I had to pretend to look at each other questioningly as we stuttered, 'Nope...' I don't know how Sally was managing to lie to her best friend on what was surely an hourly basis, seeing as he clearly valued the contents of that notebook so highly, but he seemed to have no clue that Josh had it. I set a mental reminder to demand it from him later when we were back in the dorm. He had no right to have it, and I for one didn't want him reading it, especially if the play was in there. I wanted to be the first to read the play.

'The whole album is in there,' Conor muttered, looking at Sally with a worried frown on his face.

She shrugged. 'We all know all the songs off.'

Conor mumbled something else inaudible, and silence settled in around the table.

'What time is it?' Josh asked eventually, looking around boredly.

'Eleven-thirty,' I muttered, glancing at my phone.

'Okay, fuck this,' he announced, standing up. 'I'm not sitting around here all day doing nothing. Tyler, come for a walk with me.'

'Huh?' We are not what you might call, the type of best friends who take walks together. We are the type of best friends who will beat the shit out of each other for the last poptart, or spoon in bed after we have a fight, but we do not go for walks.