Chapter Eleven

Lee paced the room angrily, feeling very frustrated with himself. He couldn't understand why he had acted like that, even though he didn't want to lose Chloe that didn't give him the right to react the way that he had. He couldn't understand why he wanted her to hate him, he only knew that it was easier for him when she did. He'd thought that by pushing her away he would protect her, but instead he'd somehow managed to hurt her anyway. It felt like someone was punching him in the heart when he'd watched her slowly break down in front of him. He instantly stopped pacing as Chloe walked back into the room. She quickly picked up her jacket and phone charger.

"Chloe...." Lee started to say, desperately wanting to apologise to her but not quite able to bring himself too.

"There are new rules, you do not speak to me for the next four weeks unless it's something to do with work, there will be no more middle of the night phone calls to send me out on errands. Once I leave here at the end of the day, I am no longer available." she said firmly.

"And if you continue to be belittle me, and make nasty comments, I will be filing a complaint against you. Since you already have a complaint on your file for violence, I'm pretty sure you don't need another complaint." she added, surprising herself at how firm and confident she was being with him. Something inside her really had snapped and she really was at the end of her tether.

"Four weeks...so you got the job then?" Lee said quietly.

"Yes, no thanks to you." Chloe said quietly.

"Also, Matt said that I can go home, so you'll have to sort yourself out for the event tonight." she announced, before quickly walking away and slamming the door behind herself.

"Cheers to us!" Louise, Chloe, Michelle, Kirstie and Kathleen exclaimed as they raised their glasses.

"It's so good to see everyone again." Kathleen smiled.

"We need to do this more often." Michelle agreed.

"What's new with everyone?" Kirstie asked. Kathleen smiled to herself, wishing that she could tell them about her night with Mark but knowing that she couldn't break her promise. Ironically Michelle was feeling the same way, she was dying to tell them that she was seeing one of the members of their favourite childhood band.

"Matt has managed to get me a place in the London shows, so I'll be performing every night for the next couple of months." Louise told them proudly.

"Oh wow, what an amazing opportunity!" Kirstie exclaimed.

"You must be so excited." Chloe smiled at her proudly.

"I am, but I'm sad that you won't be there for much longer." Louise said sadly.

"You got the job?" Kirstie asked Chloe.

Chloe nodded, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"I missed their first call, but thankfully they phoned back." Chloe smiled, choosing to leave out the part about Lee.

"I'm so happy for you." Kirstie smiled, pulling her into a hug.

"Thanks. And what about you and Ben?" Chloe asked.

"Ah, he's amazing." Kirstie told everyone.

"Aww sweet." Michelle smiled. She wished that she could tell them about her and Mark so that they could double date together.

"I know what I was going to tell, you know the whole thing with Shayne at the party?" Kirstie said.

"Yeah." Louise said. Chloe had fallen silent, her cheeks colouring.

"I don't know who, but someone filmed it, it's online." Kirstie explained.

"What?" Chloe said quietly.

"Do you want to watch it?" Kirstie offered.

"No, I don't think I do." Chloe said quickly.

"Hey, that's our song from Uni!" Kathleen exclaimed. Everyone paused for a moment to listen to the song, before quickly getting up for a dance.