A/N: Alright readers, here is chapter four. The other chapters I owe you will be up shortly, but I realised when I was proof reading that I'd left out a very major part of chapter six, so I need to do an edit, but, never fear, the chapter I owe you will be up today. Now, read and review.
Chapter Four
~ He looks around the room
Innocently over looks the truth
Shouldn't a light go on
Doesn't he know that I've had him memorized for so long
And he sees everything black and white
Never let nobody seen him cry
I don't let nobody see me wishing he was mine ~
I'd Lie by Taylor Swift
Friday after school James asked to come to my place. Some people might consider it bad manners to invite yourself over to somebody's house but, with James, I knew that it was because of his crazy parents at home.
We were lying on our stomachs on the floor of my living room with all our English homework spread out around us. In theory, we were doing our homework, in practice James was ranting about Edward Cullen and I was lending a sympathetic ear.
"He didn't even knock when he came in last time!" James said, looking livid. "He just waltzed right on in like he owned the place and I said to him 'Bella's not here' and he said 'That's OK, I'll wait' and walked into the living room and sat his pompous ass down on the sofa!"
"Did you tell him to leave?" I asked and James nodded vigorously "Yes! And he just looked at me with this smug smile and said, 'Do you think you could tell Mr. and Mrs. Swan to keep it down?'"
Alright, Edward Cullen might be many things and, even if he wasn't good for Bella, he was still supposed to be her boyfriend and he would know that Charlie and Renee were always fighting. James looked around and then let his breath out and then said "I all but threw the prick out! Bella was shitty with me all day and then Dr. Cullen came over and asked, really politely, why I'd thrown his son out. I told him and he said he'd speak to Edward. Edward and Dr. Cullen came back over within the hour because Edward had rattled off some bullshit story about me being an ass to him for no apparent reason and..."
James stopped and gave me a sympathetic smile "Sorry, you don't need to listen to me ranting. I'll shut up for a while now"
"No, James, I don't mind" I told him and I meant it "If you need to get this stuff off your chest then, well, go for it. I'm always here" I reached out to touch his hand. "You know that"
He laughed suddenly "Yeah, I know that. Boy oh boy, Victoria! I'm glad you were born a woman, if you were a guy I would never be able to rattle all this shit off to you!"
I laughed, leaving my hand on his for longer than necessary and saying, "James, I'd be worried if you stopped telling me everything in your life."
He grinned stupidly and said, "Yeah, I'd be worried if you stopped listening."
I laughed and felt James move his hand out from under mine. My heart sank; he hadn't seen my gesture for what it was. He still saw me as a friend, a friend who would sit around and listen to all his life's trials with a sympathetic ear.
"Victoria, I've had, um, something I want to discuss with you for a while" he said to me, drawing me back from my painful reverie and I blinked at him and he said, "I know that I'm not your father, or your brother or anything like that; but, as a concerned friend whose known you since birth, I would like to ask you why you still hang out with Laurent? He's bad news!"
I sighed. We had this conversation at least once a week. James thought that, because Laurent was homeless, jobless, had a limited education and smoked dope that he was a bad person. I'd tried to point out to James that Laurent was a nice person whose fatal flaw was that he was only motivated for the short term and couldn't see past tomorrow. James didn't listen; he believed that, if a person did bad things, such as become addicted to marijuana, they must be a bad person.
"James" I said to him "Laurent just lacks motivation. Now, I agree that his habits aren't all that savoury but not every homeless person is bad and not every marijuana addict is trying to escape from life. Laurent will be on pot until it kills him, I know that and..."
"He smokes in front of you" James said "Imagine what his smoke is doing to your lungs!"
I sighed. The risk of lung cancer was not something I could do very much about if I wanted to stay friends with Laurent. Of course I knew that being around my pot smoking friend increased the risks of respiratory diseases from breathing in second hand smoke but, when I weighed up the risks of respiratory diseases compared to the value of my friendship with Laurent, I'd decided that the former was not worth giving up the latter.
Despite his habit, Laurent had an amazing way with words. If he could just go to university then he could very well become a lawyer to be feared! I'd told him this numerous times and he'd just laughed and said that the court system didn't tend to like lawyers who smoked weed.
"James, if I was worried about my lungs I wouldn't be friends with Laurent. I know that you're worried about me, and thank you, it means a lot," if only he knew how much, "But I value Laurent's friendship almost as much as I value yours. If you went out to a party, took a rec drug and eventually became addicted to them I wouldn't think any less of you, so please stop ragging off on Laurent, if you could just look past the pot and the homelessness then I think you'd really like him."
James shuddered, whether it was in reaction to the idea that he could like Laurent or the example I'd used of him becoming addicted to recreational drugs I didn't know.
"I know that he's your friend and all and I know that you really want to help him out of this predicament, but, Victoria, sometimes I worry that he uses you like a crutch. I know that he sleeps here sometimes and I know that you two went out for coffee yesterday and you would have paid..."
"Actually," I cut James off, "Laurent paid, he insisted. I wanted to but he wouldn't let me, he says that a gentleman always pays for a lady"
James continued unabashed, "Alright, so he paid, where's he going to get his next supply of dope from? Before you know it, Victoria, he'll be stealing cash and he'll in end up in front of a court and get thrown in the slammer just like mum when..."
James stopped and went white and I stared and managed to choke "Renee... was in... jail?"
"A few years ago, she, she..." James stopped and I could see tears building in his eyes. He wouldn't cry, James never cried, even in front of anybody, because he was so used to being strong for Bella. He wiped his eyes on the back of his hand and said "Um, I should, should be, um, be getting home. Bella will be, she'll, she'll be home soon"
"OK" I said. I wanted to reach out to him, hold him, tell him that it was alright and that he could cry on my shoulder whenever he needed to. But I didn't, I couldn't and James left with a strangled, "Bye, Victoria."
I almost ran out after him and, an hour later and feeling like an absolute jerk for not helping my incredibly upset friend, I was crying myself. Laurent was right, I was an idiotic little girl who drove my future soul mate to school every morning and refused to admit that I loved him.
A/N: Just because there is another chapter you can go to directly following this one doesn't mean you shouldn't review. Shout out to wolverinacullen and Liyorah who have read and reviewed all my chapters so far. Make sure you have a read of their stories, they're awesome!
