Chapter 7: Apologies, Confrontation and Broken Hearts

Part 1: Apologies

Keely didn't get it. How come she hadn't seen it coming? Because Phil was her friend and had never shown signs of wanting anything more. But how did he have to let her know like that? In front of everyone? In front of Jake? She shuddered. It would be like kissing your cousin. At this thought she felt sick and picked up the phone.

I hope he'll still talk to me. Jake had left the second that Phil had disappeared. Keely would have followed out the door, but she knew her place was with Tia, trying to comfort a sobbing April. Keely had assured her that she knew nothing about Phil's feelings for her, and would never make him cheat on April.

"Hello?" A voice on the other line answered.

"Jake?" Keely asked. Jake paused.

"Yeah it's me." It didn't take a genius to realize that he was annoyed. "What happened tonight?"

Keely hesitated. "Well, Phil and I were having a pillow fight, then…"

"He kissed you." Jake said with an air of contempt in his voice.

"Look, Jake, I had no idea." Keely pleaded, hoping Jake would believe her.

"I know you wouldn't lie to me, but…he makes me so mad!" Jake gritted his teeth.

"I'll talk to him tomorrow. We need to clear a few things up."

"A few?" Jake asked, "More like a lot."

"True." Keely laughed to herself. Jake had no idea how much.

Suddenly Keely heard a crash from downstairs.

"What was that?" Jake asked.

"I don't know. I think I'd better go and check it out." Keely replied, hoping it wasn't Oreo, her new pet cat, jumping on the mantelpiece in the dining room again.

"Ok," Jake sighed, "You're always having to go, and we never talk long."

"Sorry Jakie, but I assure you, it's an emergency."

"Bye then." Jake mumbled and hung up the phone. Keely sighed before racing downstairs at the sound of her mother's voice.

"Oreo, no! That's my father's ashes!"

Darn it Oreo, what have you done now?

It was now 12:30 in the morning, and Pim was both tired and annoyed.

For the past hour and a half her brother had been playing on his drum kit. She would have wrung his neck personally by now, but Phil had locked himself, along with his drums, in his bedroom, and although humans in the future had advanced greatly by means of technology, they still hadn't invented a device that could open a door with a bookshelf lent against it without blowing it up.

Pim walked in to the kitchen, hoping to grab a snack, but instead of finding a big bag of cookies, she found both of the Diffy parents, with equally tired looks on their faces.

"Do you know what's got into him?" Barbara asked Pim.

"Hadn't he always been this strangely behaved?" Pim replied, grabbing an apple and taking a large bite.

"Pim, show some compassion for your brother. It's just a stage." Lloyd said. "All boys go through this stage. First they're in to music and want to play it constantly, then they eat mountains of food, then the next thing you know, they don't have time for you anymore because they're too busy with girls and cars, ignore you, then ALMOST MARRY YOUR WIFE." Lloyd finished angrily.

"Something tells me this isn't about Phil anymore." Pim sighed.

Lloyd Diffy was always a little "quirky", and Pim believed he had really outdone himself this time.

"Well, I'm sure we'll be able to sleep soon." Barbara said, trying to be logical. "I mean, he can play forever."

Phil planned to. His wrists were sore and his arms were tired, but he couldn't stop. While he played he didn't have to think about April or Keely or Jake. He could also ignore the alarming fact; he was in love with his best friend, his great-great-great grandmother, and she didn't love him back.

But why would she? It's horrible, sick, twisted…Phil's stomach turned at the thought. He continued to hit the snare, trying to drive those thoughts away. On Friday he would start helping his dad with the time machine, get away from it all, go back home where he'd never have to think about this century again. No Keely…No more Keely…

After a long time, which seemed like minutes to Phil and hours to Pim, he collapsed out of exhaustion and lack of sleep. With his last ounce of strength he moved the bookshelf, before passing out.

Pim burst out in celebration as soon as she could hear the loud snoring coming from his room. Barbara and Lloyd were both overjoyed, and grinned in relief. All that drumming was making it impossible for them to sleep, but now the whole family could get some shut-eye.

"Tomorrow I am talking to him." Barbara assured her husband. "No-one keeps the family up for four hours without an extremely detailed explanation for their actions."

She turned when she found no answer, to her husband who had already fallen asleep on the kitchen table. She shook her head and walked up the stairs to bed, leaving a mumbling Lloyd.

"zzz…no, Curtis, off the table…zzz…"

Phil had minimal sleep. His aching bones woke him up and he yawned widely.

What am I doing on the floor? He thought to himself. Then he remembered.

"Scraps…" He mumbled. Not the Keely thing.

He looked up and finally noticed that there was a person standing above him. Pim.

"You are beyond dead, do you know that?" Pim said, grinding her teeth together and clenching her fists.

"I seem to feel alive." Phil replied. Despite the situation and his depressing mood, he was still always going to be one beat ahead of his sister.

"Mom is going to ground you into the 22nd Century." Pim smiled, enjoying hearing the information, even from her own mouth. Although Phil didn't want to show his face in H.G Wells for an eternity, he still wanted to be able to go around Pickford.

"Really?" Phil said, not believing this.

"Yeah, well you kinda kept EVERYONE AWAKE." Pim looked at her watch, which she had received from Bradley as something she liked to call "protection", and tapped it.

"Okay, I had a grand total of 5 hours sleep Phil. How about you?" She grinned as Phil realized how long he had been playing last night. His eyes widened.

"Scraps." He grumbled again.

"Well, adieu, I have to get ready for school. Good luck explaining to Mom!" At this, Pim skipped out of the room. Finally Phil was receiving some punishment around here.

Keely threw her books in her locker. Mathematics was first. How she hated mathematics. All the…numbers and…stuff… her brain felt like freezing even thinking about it. With a groan she lifted her gigantic mathematics textbook out of her locker. How could she do homework if she had to carry that book the whole way home and back? It was way too heavy to carry for much longer than a short distance. Tia who had noticed Keely arrive, smiled and waved cheerfully.

"Hi Keely!"

"Hi Tia."

"So, did you do your math homework?"

"No. You?"

"Me Neither!" Tia clasped her hands together as if this was some kind of achievement.

"Congratulations." Keely replied.

"No, Keely, this is horrible. I'm failing Math!" Tia said, her face suddenly appearing shocked.

"Oh. I must have misinterpreted you." Keely apologized. Tia's face immediately retuned to normal as if she had never said anything.

"So, Keely, are you okay after yesterday?"

No, she wasn't.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Keely lied. "Jake and I made up, we're cool."

"And Phil?"

"I'm going to talk to him later."

"Good idea, that boy's got some 'splainin to do!"

Keely didn't want to talk to Phil, but she knew she needed to find out how he was feeling. If this was what she was going through, she could hardly fathom what was going on in Phil's head. And despite what hid did to her, she couldn't help but feel sympathy for him.

She shook her head as she closed her locker.

"Let's go and grab a morning smoothie." Keely suggested. "I could really use one."

Phil sighed. Grounded for a month. That's four weeks. 30 days. He looked at the ground as he entered the school that he wished he'd never have to return to. Pim skipped ahead in joyous celebration, for the air smelled sweet, the sky was blue, and her brother was grounded for four weeks.

Phil wished he could have been more like Pim, none of these "boy-girl" troubles, well not really, unless you called Bradley Benjamin Farmer 'trouble'.

Phil on the other hand had to face at least four angry people today. And that was if they'd talk to him. He knew he and Jake would never be on talking terms again. Not that it bothered him much. You could only talk about the guitar so much before you become bored stiff. As he looked up, Phil scanned the hallway for people. As soon as he saw her, he took a deep breath and strode in her direction.

"April?" He said in a soft voice.

April turned around, trying to look surprised, but Phil was pretty sure she had seen him coming.

"What?"

"I'm sorry." He lifted a bear out of his bag and gave it to her. It was the same bear he had planned to give to Keely a while ago, but never needed to. He felt bad that he was giving April something that was actually originally intended for someone else, but he hoped she knew that the heart was there.

April sighed and smiled at the teddy bear. It was a sad smile, and made Phil feel the guilt he had been feeling for around 24 hours now.

"I should have known." She said, looking at him.

"April…even I didn't know…"

"And it was an accident." She finished his sentence for him, fully understanding. "Look, Phil, some things aren't accidents. I believe in destiny. And what happened between us wasn't it. You were meant to kiss her Phil, and we're not meant to be together."

"I should have told you, I'm sorry I hurt you so much."

"I'm fine, it's okay." April said, urging him to stop apologizing.

"You're taking this really well," Phil admitted.

"Well, I had a long time to think about it last night, and I concluded that you and me, we just didn't work. And you have had feelings for Keely for a long time, whether you noticed them or not."

"uhhh…" Phil said, " I don't know how to answer that." He paused. "I like her, okay? But I don't want to. I can't. I wish I could tell you why, but all I can say is that it's unethical."

April sighed.

"If so, then forget what I said, but keep in mind, it's okay. Maybe we can go out together some other time."

"That sounds good." Phil smiled, hugging her.

"I've got to go now," Phil said, pulling away from their embrace. "We can still hang out together if you like."

"No, I think I'll wait a bit. It'll be too weird."

"Okay. Well, see you later then," Phil shrugged before turning to walk towards the English room.

Little did he know that around the corner Jake was waiting for him.

To be continued...

Whoah! Ages since last update! I'm so sorry! I've been completely distracted by Green Day's albums (I have becomean overnight fan) and got kind of mentally blocked, not to mention all the tests and assignments. I'm actually posting this when I'm supposed to be studying for a major algebra test. oops.

I hadn't finished the whole chapter, so Idecided (assuming you people wanted me to update and I haven't for a month) that I would update each part of the chapter separately, so that you could read part one earlier if you get what I mean.

Anyway, I hope to have the next part updated ASAP.

Oh, coincidentally, even before I liked Green Day, i imagined Jake to be the 16-year-old version of Billie Joe, the lead singer of Green Day (although Billie Joe is much nicer). Basically, a black spiky haired punk. Just in case you wanted to know...

Please Review! I love hearing from you, and I do take your advice seriously, (eg. due to someone's advice, I've had a major plot change) So please review.

Til then, cya!