At the Bridgewater
DISCLAIMER: I'm sure you know by now that no one on this site owns anything except the stuff they make up, so what's the point of saying it again? I OWN NOTHING! There, I said it.
A/N: Hey everyone! Thanks for all your reviews, they were great! I wasn't expecting such great feedback so soon (about nine reviews came in on the very first day the story was put up!). Sorry for the long delay, but I've had loads of coursework to do, and drama scripts to learn … you know how it is! Well, here's the second chapter of my story. I'm going to warn you that there may be an even longer delay before the third chapter's put up, since I have NO idea what to do for the next chapter … if you have any ideas then feel free to tell me. And, once again, PLEASE REVIEW, since reviews are one of the most useful and rewarding things about being on
Freddy was lying on his back, listening to some music while his parents were out. He tossed a tennis ball into the air and caught it with one hand as one his feet tapped out the beat of the song. He hummed tunelessly to the lyrics as he thought about his homework, which was lying discarded on his desk underneath a pile of CD's. As the song ended, he thought that he should probably get on and do the work before Summer rang him up to remind him, which she sometimes did. Not that he minded or anything; if it wasn't for Summer, he probably wouldn't even go to school.
"Freddy, school is important!" she would say. "You can't do anything if you haven't got an education!" He would normally just wave her comments aside with a carefree shrug, but inside he knew she was right, as she usually was. In a way, Summer was a sort of guardian angel sent to make sure Freddy did his homework, revised for tests and turned up on time for band practice.
Freddy rolled over and turned his stereo down a bit before turning to face the chaos that was his desk. There were clothes, both clean and dirty, strewn across his desk and chair. The floor around the desk was littered with empty cans and old magazines, there were piles of CD's and music scattered across the desk and chair, and somewhere underneath all that mess was Freddy's old hamster cage, which had been deserted since his old hamster, Bobby, died.
"I should really get rid of that cage," Freddy mumbled absently to himself as he pushed some CD's and magazines onto the floor. He looked around his desk, trying to find his folder and a pen, but before he had a chance to look properly, the phone rang. Freddy sighed as he went downstairs to answer it. "Hello?"
"Freddy – it's Zack," he heard his best friend say. Zack sounded slightly strange, as though he had been crying.
"Hey. How's it going? You okay?" he asked.
There was a slight pause before Zack answered, "Summer and I just broke up."
"What!" Freddy cried, sitting down on a chair. "You … you broke up? What happened?"
"I did something terrible …"
"Well what did you do? It can't be that bad –"
"I called her Katie," Zack said suddenly, cutting across Freddy. There was another pause as Freddy slowly digested this new information.
"You … you called her Katie?" he said eventually.
"I know!" Zack moaned. "I was so stupid! I don't even know why I did it – I mean, I wasn't even thinking about Katie at the time …"
"So it was just a mistake," Freddy said sceptically.
"Yes!"
"Are you sure? Because it sure seems like you've got the hots for Katie."
"What!" Zack cried.
"Look, how about you call Katie, tell her that you love her, and I'll take care of Summer," Freddy reasoned.
"No!" Zack said. "I don't like Katie, and I never will. Freddy, I love Summer more than anything in the world and I need to make her see that. So please don't go getting any ideas, because they won't work. I need Summer as much as I need air to breathe, Freddy. Please try and understand that," Zack said.
He needed his best friend to understand how much Summer meant to him, as Freddy was his only shoulder to cry on. He couldn't turn to Katie, as she would freak as soon as she found that Zack had called Summer by her name, and he couldn't talk to Summer for obvious reasons.
"Okay, okay, I understand what you're saying," Freddy said. "Well, why don't you go and buy a great big bunch of flowers and a huge box of chocolates – she likes truffles the best. Just go round to her house and apologise. Oh, roses are her favourite flower by the way," Freddy suggested.
"How did you know that?"
"Know what?"
"What her favourite flower and chocolate were?"
"Oh … I guess she must have told me sometime. No big deal, Zack," he said casually, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the fact that he knew something about Summer that Zack didn't. In fact, he probably knew a lot about Summer that Zack didn't, like the fact that her father had mysteriously gone missing when she was seven and now lived with her mother and her five siblings, or that her older brother was an alcoholic and had died of alcohol poisoning when she was eleven. Freddy reckoned that Zack didn't know any of these things, and couldn't help but feel that maybe he should, seeing as he loved her so much. But telling him those secrets was Summer's job, not his.
"She told you? When?" Zack demanded, immediately suspicious of his best friend.
"Oh, I don't know. Ages ago. It's no big deal," Freddy said, trying to calm Zack down before he got himself into a state.
"Have you been seeing her behind my back? Because if you have, I'll –"
"Zack, relax! I haven't touched your girlfriend, so don't freak out at me," Freddy exclaimed. There was a few seconds of silence, during which Freddy could hear Zack breathing deeply on the other end of the phone.
"Okay, I'm calm. I'm just going to go straight up to Summer's house and apologise to her," Zack said determinedly. "Bye Freddy, and thanks."
"No problem. See you in school," Freddy said, and hung up. He went back upstairs to tackle his homework, but when he was halfway up the stairs the doorbell rang. "Probably Dad locked out again," he muttered, and went to open the door. When he pulled it open, he was surprised to see a rather dishevelled Summer on the doorstep.
"Summer?" he said in surprise as he saw her.
She smiled shyly and said, "I'm really sorry Freddy, but can I come in? I really need to talk to someone."
"Yeah, sure. Do you want a drink?" he asked, stepping back to let her in. She shook her head and followed him upstairs. Her eyes were rather red, and there was mascara smudged under her eyes, as though she had been crying, he noticed. She was chewing on the inside of her cheek, too, which she did when she was nervous or upset. Freddy turned his music off as Summer pushed a pair of trainers and a couple of CD's out of the way to sit down on his bed.
"Freddy, I'm really sorry but I just had to tell someone." She took a deep breath and then told him, "Zack and I have broken up."
He didn't want to say 'I know, Zack just told me' because that would only upset her more, so he simply stayed silent and sympathetic as Summer's bottom lip trembled slightly.
"Freddy, swear to me that you'll never tell anyone this, especially Posh, but Zack called me Katie. We were in the park, kis- well, doing what couples do … you know," she said. "And then all of a sudden, he just looks at me and says 'Katie'."
Summer suddenly burst into tears as she thought of the only boy she had ever loved – could ever love, breaking her heart so quickly. She couldn't help but remember the way that Zack's eyes had changed from being filled with love to being filled with desire when he said Katie's name. Zack loved Summer, yes, but he wasn't in love with her. He was in love with Katie.
"How could I have been stupid? Of course he loves Katie more than me … I mean, she's prettier than me, she's funnier than I am, she's more confident than me, she's smarter than –"
"Summer, no one's smarter than you, so don't even try that one," Freddy said. "And she isn't any of the things you just said. And you know what? Zack doesn't even love Katie. He loves you."
"Yeah? Prove it," Summer said bitterly. She didn't believe for a moment that Zack loved her more than Katie.
"Well he said so himself. He called me up and told me," Freddy said. Summer looked at him, and then looked back down at the ground.
"He's a liar then. And even if he does still love me – which I seriously doubt – I don't love him. I can't possibly love him after what he said," she told Freddy. She expected him to laugh at her, and to tell her not to be so silly, but for now he looked serious. He was looking at her, watching her as she spoke. Normally, she would have felt awkward under a scrutinising gaze, but she didn't this time; she felt as though he should be watching her. She felt protected when he was watching her, as though he was her guardian angel, to protect her from all the world's evils. But what had started out as a calm, comforting thought resulted in Summer bursting into laughter as she imagined Freddy Jones in a white gown and halo, complete with a harp.
"What?" he asked, confused at her sudden mood change.
"Nothing," Summer said, taking a deep breath and calming the giggles. "I just had the funniest thought. It doesn't matter now, anyway." Summer wiped away her tears, took another deep breath and stood up. "I better go now. Thanks for letting me in, and for listening to me. I might call you later, maybe we can go out tomorrow sometime or something," she said, making her way out onto the Jones' landing.
"Yeah, that'd be cool. Maybe go to the pictures or something, like we used to," Freddy said, remembering when they were younger and the two of them would go the pictures once or twice a month on a Saturday. It was never a date, just a chance for them to talk and have fun together.
"Yeah, maybe. Well, I'll see you soon. Bye," Summer said as she stepped out onto Freddy's driveway.
"Bye," he returned, and then went back inside.
He was really confused about the whole Summer and Zack thing. They were the closest, most affectionate couple in the School of Rock, and everything seemed perfect from where Freddy stood. He still couldn't get his head round the fact that Zack had called Summer Katie. Even Freddy wouldn't do that, no matter how much he was thinking about another girl. Freddy didn't believe in flings and one-night stands; he liked to have a steady girlfriend, even if they only dated for a month or so. He sometimes got frustrated when girls came up to him and flirted outrageously, pouting their lips and fluttering their eyelashes at him. He got sick and tired of it, and sometimes wondered if girls only went as far as nail polish and hair mascara.
Freddy went back upstairs, but he didn't go to his homework. Instead, he lay back down on his bed and twirled one of his drumsticks in one hand while the other rested behind his head. He couldn't help but think about Summer and Zack, and how badly they had destroyed what was possibly one of the best relationships in the band. If only Zack hadn't have been so stupid, and Summer wasn't so stubborn, they would both be still blissfully happy with the knowledge that the other loved them.
He felt sorry for Zack, but he felt even sorrier for Summer. He had known how much Zack meant to her – she would spend almost every moment she could talking about him and praising him and saying how much she loved him. Zack, on the other hand, tended to mention her rather than talk about her. Freddy had never really thought about it until now, and he found that perhaps Zack didn't love Summer as much as he thought he did.
"I need Summer like I need air to breathe," Zack had said on the phone. Freddy partly believed him, but he knew that with Zack's free and easy spirit Zack could probably get over Summer quite easily. Summer would take longer to come to terms with the fact that the love of her life didn't love her, and so Freddy reckoned that he needed to be there for Summer more than for Zack.
A/N: Well that was the second chapter of the story. I hope you liked it … I'm worried it may be a bit too confusing for some people. If you did get a bit confused when reading it, then tell me and I'll edit the chapter and then repost it to make it easier to read. If not, then ignore that comment. Thanks again for all the great reviews I got. I don't really do shout-outs, as they take up to much space on the page and take ages to type up, but I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate your comments. If you have any plot suggestions or one-liners that you'd like me to include in my story, then put them in your review and I'll see what I can do (obviously I can't include everyone's ideas – that is presuming someone will give me a suggestion or two – but I'll do my best). Thanks everyone!