Page 18 of Harrison's Wedding

Ariana slips past me and stands in the doorway before saying, “I’d like to go home now. Thank you for your hospitality, Sebastian.”

She spins on her heel before rushing back past us with tears falling down her face again, and I feel terrible for the way the evening has turned out.

“Ari. I’m sorry,” Gabriel calls as he rushes to follow her to the elevator.

“You two couldn’t just be nice to her for one evening?” I ask while staring at Heather.

I’m angry at not just her and Sebastian, but myself as well. I knew she was tired, and I also know that those two feed off each other. With Heather not in the mood to be civil, it was only a matter of time before things devolved into something like this.

“Clearly not, Captain Obvious,” Sebastian says in a sarcastic voice.

I continue to glare at Heather, who looks chagrined as she says, “I’m sorry, honey. I tried.”

“Aww, Heather, don’t ruin your badass bitch persona by apologizing for it.” Sebastian grins at her, and she fails to withhold a smirk at his words.

The fact that neither of them is willing to give Ariana a chance but are both more than happy to drive Gabriel away without concern for what that might do to any of us is infuriating.

I growl, “Shut your fucking mouth, Seb. This isn’t the time. Both of you owe Gabriel and Ariana an apology.”

“Perhaps, you’re right. I’d say she fucking owes us one, too.” Heather tilts her chin up in defiance at me.

Before I’m able to comment that Ariana is more than likely going to apologize to her as soon as Heather gives her a chance, Hayden joins in from behind me, “Sometimes, you have to take the high road, Heather.”

“This isn’t about you, Hayden. This is about the fact that Ariana Chamberlain stopped talking to me for two years and now wants me to act like I’m her best friend again. Well, I’m not.”

“Like fuck, it’s not about me. Do you and Sebastian have any idea what you’ve done? If Gabriel refuses to be around you, that’s one thing. If he refuses to be around Sebastian, what the hell do you think will happen to Cruise Control, Heather?”

Hayden voices the fears that have been rattling around in my brain since my birthday. I can see that it won’t take many nights like this one before a huge rift will begin to form within the friendships that we’ve had for well over a decade.

Heather turns to look at Sebastian. He meets her gaze for a second before turning to look at Hayden and me.

“Hell will freeze over before I ever forgive Ariana for what she did,” he says with a casual shrug of his shoulders before pushing past us to leave the room.

There’s a heavy silence in the wake of his departure, but his words continue to ring in my ears. If he can’t forgive Ariana, then the band splitting up seems to be an inevitability. I know in my heart that Heather could prevent that from happening if she wanted to, but she seems to hold no desire to keep us all together. Instead, she’s choosing to wallow in her past hurt and egging Sebastian on.

“We should probably leave,” I say into the quietness, and both Heather and Hayden follow me to the elevator as I pull out my phone to call us an Uber.

Sebastian doesn’t come out to say goodbye to us before we leave. So, we make our way outside with Hayden and get into our Uber when it arrives, waving a solemn goodbye to him as we do.

I notice the recognition on our Uber driver’s face as he greets us, so I remain silent on the drive home. I keep seeing poor Ariana’s face as she asked to leave, even thanking Sebastian, despite his cruelty.

As soon as we’re safely in our apartment, I glare at Heather. “I didn’t think that I was asking much of you when I asked you to not argue with Gabriel and Ariana tonight.”

“Hey, Gabriel is the one who came in and started an argument.” Heather shrugs her shoulders, meeting my gaze with a cool one of her own.

“Yes, because you and Seb were off bitching about his girlfriend, together,” I seethe.

“It feels as though you care more about Gabriel’s happiness than you do about mine.” Heather frowns at me.

I raise my eyebrows at her as I ask, “Does it, angel? Well, it feels as though you don’t care about my happiness, or the band, at all. You could talk sense into Sebastian, instead of turning this into some kind of turf war.”

She knows that she’s the one, out of all of us, who holds the most sway over Sebastian. If she wanted to, she could talk him down from this, but instead, she seems to be choosing to egg him on.

“Did Ariana give a fuck about the band when she left, Harrison? Did she give a fuck about me? Because if we’re talking about feelings, I still feel like she didn’t.” She glares at me. “I was tired before we went out, and I’m utterly exhausted now. I’m going to bed.”

She spins on her heel and walks away toward the bedroom. I watch her go and sigh as I do. It doesn’t happen often, but I hate fighting with Heather because it feels so wrong to be on opposite sides of anything to her. But it very much feels as though a line was drawn in the sand tonight, and I’m standing on one side of it with Gabriel, Ariana, and Hayden, while Heather is standing on the other side with Sebastian.

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