Chapter 29

Echo POV

I'm sitting on Beck's lap as he and the gang play cards.. without Erik and Jade. I could understand why, recently they've been fighting a lot and it makes people uncomfortable. Poor Cat faints and Robbie has even cried sometimes and me? It puts me in a tight spot, specially when they ask me to choose sides. I mean that's like choosing between two favorite siblings or choosing which parents you love more when you love them both.

"You ok?" I hear Beck ask me bouncing his leg a little to get my attention.

"Hm? Oh yeah, I just feel weird not being with Erik and Jade when we're all here." I say.

"I feel bad for not inviting Erik." Tori says.

"You invite Erik you get Jade too." Andre says.

"And they're always fighting." Cat says.

"I don't wanna be sitting here playing cards while they scream at each other." Robbie says while I lean back on Beck gripping his hands tightly. He knew this was bothering me.. a lot.

"All-right ladies are we gonna chit-chat or play some cards?" Andre asks while they all chose cards.

"Oh wait one sec." Tori says taking her phone just before she was electrocuted by it.

"Who was it?" Cat asked as we all look at her like she was crazy.

"I don't know, I was too busy being electrocuted to hear." Tori says glaring at Robbie.

"The worst those batteries can do is give you a mild shock." He says making me raise a brow.

"You do realize those are car batteries right?" I ask emphasizing on the word 'car' just as Tori pressed her phone to his leg shocking him too making me chuckle, serves him right.

"Just buy yourself another pearphone GX." Andre says.

"No, if I buy another GX they're going to announce the XT the next day, and then everyone will have a new XT and I'll be stuck with a stupid GX." Tori says with all of us joining her half way.

"Man I'm so sick of hearing that." Rex says as I nod.

"Well there's no need to for you to mock me simultaneously." Tori says.

"Is it my turn to deal?" Cat asked.

"Yep." Andre says handing her the cards.

"Ok, look. My uncle thought me how to shuffle cards with one hand. Ready? Look it, schmozzle." Yep I was expecting this.. she just threw the cards everywhere. We hear the doorbell and Tori says she'll get it getting up and walking to the door.

"Oh, great, it's you guys." Tori says acting happy and when I look my stomach turned.

"See? They're all here! I told you they'd all be here." Erik says and my grip on Beck's hand tighten but also made sure I didn't hurt him.

"Listen, I'm sorry we didn't invite you guys to play, but uh-" Erik cuts Tori off.

"Tell her why you didn't invite us to play." Erik says.

"Well.. cause.. we were planing your surprise party?" Tori says and I sigh getting up.

"Look, we didn't invite you to play because you two are always fighting and screaming at each other making everyone feel awkward. You make Cat faint and Robbie even cries sometimes." I say carefully.

"One time! I only cried one time!" Robbie says.

"6." Rex corrects.

"6 times!" Robbie says.

"See we fight so much even our friends don't want us around." Erik says.

"Tori's not my friend, I only tolerate Robbie, no one likes Trina and Cat's basically a pet." Jade says as Cat does an 'arf' making us look at her weird.

"Are you guys gonna let her say that no body likes me?" Trina asked.

"Was there ever a doubt about that?" I ask making Beck pat my ass in a warning way.

"So why don't you guys come play cards with us." Tori says.

"Look I don't wanna be your boyfriend if we're just gonna fight all the time." My eyes widen at his words.

"So you wanna break up?" Jade asks.

"No, I didn't say that. I'm just saying-" Erik tries to say but Trina started talking.

"You guys, might break up?" I take the steps necessary towards Trina and kneel her knees to make her fall to her knees and Jade throws me a pillow that I press on her face to keep her from talking pressing the back of her head to my stomach to keep her in place.

"Come on Erik, take me to get some food." Jade says turning around to walk away.

"I'm tired of fighting." Erik says.

"Ok, I'm going to walk out that door and I'm gonna count to 10." Jade says.

"Don't forget 3. Some people forget it." Cat says making all of us look at her and shake our heads.

"If I get to 10 and you're not out there, I'm going home, and we're over." Jade says as my eyes widen not even noticing how much pressure I was adding to Trina's pillow against her.

"One.." Jade started when she opened the door closing it when she was out while still counting. I see Erik sigh and walk to the door making my heart relax a little but when he stopped at the door I froze.

"Erik.. open the door." I say but he just stands there with his hand on the doorknob as Jade continued counting.

"Erik please open the door you don't want this." I say knowing full well just how much those two love each other.. they can't end because of something that can be fixed if they just tried.

"Erik please." I beg but just then Jade said 10. I feel my eyes water and my breathing get a little faster as I hear Jade turn the car on and leave. I felt Trina hit my hands hard and that's when I noticed I was still pressing the pillow against her and let go of it.

"You almost killed me!" She yells but I just stay quiet looking at Erik.

"You do realize what you just did don't you?" I ask him as he sighs and Beck hugs me from behind.

"Let's play some cards." He says making me shake my head at him with tears in my eyes. I know Erik would never cry, he was always the strong one, no matter what happened he'd always stay strong. Maybe that's why I decided to date Beck because Beck and Erik aren't so different and I always admired my brother. How he could always keep a strong face even when he wanted to break.. so I'm always the one crying for him.

"It's ok." Beck whispers to my ear as I turn around hugging him tight letting the tears fall from my eyes.