The 5 of them got to Ikea and met up with Tommy who had also decided to come along. He gave Tony a firm handshake and they caught up a little. Both Noelle and Tommy were oblivious to the fact that Tony slightly blamed his actions on their flirting.

Noelle needed to get a vanity desk, some lamps, a couch, kitchen stools, another bedside drawer and some storage units for the living room. Noelle also informed the guys that she had to stop at Target to get some paint, since she found the perfect colours in there a few days prior to this trip.

They walked around Ikea for about an hour and half before finally getting everything they needed. They booked for all of the bigger items to be delivered later that day. This meant they could start on the painting first, which makes sense to do anyway.

When they arrived back at Noelle’s apartment she let everyone in and offered each of them a drink. They all took a beer. Noelle’s fridge currently is stocked with beer, cheese and blueberries. She wasn’t a very domestic person and hated shopping so never bothered with proper food; she would just get something on her way home from work most days.

After getting out the paints and choosing which rooms would be painted which colour the team split up and started to decorate. Mike and Noelle took the bedroom, Jaime and Vic had the spare room and bathroom and Tony and Tommy were left with the lounge and the few odd walls in the kitchen. Every wall was white at the minute but soon would be an array of pastel yellows and greens.

“Tommy seems nice” Mike started the conversation with Noelle as they each took opposite walls in her fairly big bedroom.

“He is, he’s the sweetest. We’ve been best friends since we were 14” Noelle replied.
“You and Tony seem to be on okay turf today, too?” Mike pointed out.

Noelle let out a sigh and continued the talk “Well I don’t want to be arguing all the time, I don’t have the energy for it to be honest. I just want to be happy with Jaime and if that means having to be polite to Tony, then that’s what I’m going to do for my relationship”

“You really like Jaime, huh?” Mike could sense nothing but great vibes coming from Noelle when they spoke about him.
“So fucking much” She gushed in response, “I just hope he doesn’t find this whole thing too awkward or something and break up with me because of it or something” Her smile faded at that thought.

“Trust me, he isn’t going anywhere. I know when Jaime’s in it for the long run and that’s definitely what he plans with you” Mike had wandered over to where Noelle was painting and hugged her sideways for reassurance. It worked. “Is it alright to smoke in here?” Mike asked as he pulled out a joint.

“As long as you’re willing to share” Noelle giggled. “Fine by me, little one” Mike lit the joint, took a drag and passed it over to Noelle who repeated his actions.

Pretty soon the pair had made their way through 2 spliffs and had painted the entire room. They were sat on the bed getting to know each other as they passed the third one back and forth when the doorbell rang.

“FURNITURE IS HERE” Jaime shouted through the house. This caused everyone that was in a different room to enter the living area. All the rooms had been painted and it turned out the 4 people that weren’t getting high were chatting in the kitchen with a few beers.

“Yay, I can finally fill this bitch up” Noelle joked as she held her hands out gesturing to her home.

“Dude, you look like you’re about to take off when you do that” Mike said as he walked past Noelle flapping his arms like a bird.

“Are you two high?” Tommy asked while the pair was in fits of giggles “Very” Noelle responded before walking to her door where the delivery man was bringing in the couch.

Once all the furniture was in the delivery men left, after being given a decent tip from Noelle. The gang decided that they would attempt to put everything together themselves. Many arguments were involved, many laughs too. They did however manage to assemble everything in the end. Noelle’s apartment was finally complete, minus the practically empty fridge and cupboards. She did have plenty of pop tarts, midget gems and whiskey though.
Jaime had ordered pizza and the 6 of them were, you guessed it, in the kitchen when it arrived. They spent a good few hours just talking about high school memories, music, films they like and every other random topic you could think of.

Noelle had departed the kitchen to go and get changed into something more comfortable when Tony asked if they could talk. Noelle obliged and he followed her into her room. Luckily she had a walk-in wardrobe, which she changed in. She came out wearing a pair of pyjama shorts and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle t-shirt; it may or may not have been a t-shirt that belonged to Tony when they were together.

“I knew I lost that shirt” He joked as he got a bit more comfortable on the bed. Noelle joined him but kept her distance slightly.

“I just want to know one thing” She started “Why did you do it? We were perfect together, we were happy, we had everything going for us, why?” This was the only thing she could never wrap her head around. She was right though, they had the perfect life, the perfect relationship. They were soon going to be moving in together and they both had decent jobs, everything was beyond great.

“Honestly I have no excuse for what I did. I messed up big time and I know I won’t be forgiven; I don’t deserve to be forgiven. But that night I saw you and Tommy flirting, and I know I shouldn’t have thought anything of it because that’s what you two are like but something that night just nagged at me and I thought about the time you told me that you guys slept together and I was really drunk and I let myself believe that you two had something more than a friendship, which I know is fucked up, it’s you two and so I did what I did. But I want you to know that I have never regretted doing anything more, in my entire life than what I did that night.” He couldn’t look at her, he knew she would be pissed and the fact that she was still slightly high meant that her arguing would be a lot worse.

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?” She shouted at him. “You cheated on me because you thought I was fucking Tommy. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?” She threw a pillow at him, he moved out of the way and it landed on the floor.

“If you had thought something was going on, you should have said something about it, yeah I would’ve been severely mad that you could think something like that but to go and sleep with someone else straight up is the biggest mistake” Noelle was now standing staring at Tony, practically burning through his skin with her eye contact. He got up and walked over to her, she took a step back.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered.

“Stop saying you’re sorry it’s not going to fucking change anything. The only reason you’re in my house is because I don’t want to fuck up the one good thing I have with the guy I love. So don’t even try that shit. And you know what, maybe I should say sorry; Sorry for not realising that getting high and fucking my best friend two years prior to my relationship with you would fuck everything up but wait, I’m not mystic fucking Meg. How fucking dare you use that as your reasoning. You’re fucking pathetic Tony.” Shit was about to get really bad.

“You love him?” Was all Tony could say in response to her rant.

“Yes, yes I do. Got a problem with that? Because if you have you can go and take it up with some slut, since that seems to be the way you deal with your problems right?”

“And how fucking dare you get that tattoo. After what you did, are you insane? Yes it was for you and so was the song but fuck you. How dare you fucking get that? Now I’m linked to you and I really wish I wasn’t." She paused "When did you get it?” She was so mad.

“October 12th three years ago”

“YOU FUCKING PRICK, why that day? WHY THAT DAY?”

“It was our anniversary I was keeping a promise.. kind of” He breathed out

“NO IT WASN’T, NOT THREE YEARS LATER. IT DOESN’T COUNT IF YOU’RE NOT TOGETHER. And as for keeping promises you wouldn’t know what that meant if it came and stabbed you in the chest. What happened to ‘until we’re buried close together in the cemetery weather? Where’s that promise now? At least I honoured my end of the pact and got mine when I said I would.” Tears were now streaming down her face.

Tony sighed and Noelle could see a look of regret and remorse in his eyes but she wasn’t going to let up just because he genuinely was sorry. He fucked her life over and she was going to make him pay. Yes it’s been 6 years but when you see someone that impacted you as much as Tony did Noelle for the first time in that many years, all the past feelings get brought up and consequences get paid. Tony was now paying the consequence of his actions.

“You know what Tony, get out”

“W-what?” He asked a bit shocked.

“I said get out. GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY APARTMENT” She screamed as she pushed him towards the front door. He looked at her one last time and exited as she had told him to. When the door was shut Noelle punched it. Not hard enough to break her hand like Tony but enough for it to hurt.

She then headed to the spare room, which everything thought was odd. She slammed the door shut and screamed at the top of her lungs. Before anyone could go and comfort her they heard the banging of drums. A small smile grew on Tommy’s face. He hasn’t heard his best friend play her favourite instrument in 6 years and he was more than happy to hear it. Not happy about the situation that got her there or happy about what he overheard in Tony and Noelle’s argument but happy she was playing.

The only thing going through Jaime’s head right now was that Noelle said she loved him. He had been so scared because he was beginning to feel that way but didn’t know if she felt the same, now he knows.

“Finally” Tommy said with a cheerful tone.

“What, that Tony’s gone?” Mike asked a bit confused. He thought the two high school friends were getting along.

“No, that Noelle is playing. She hasn’t picked up her sticks in six years, the circumstances as to why she’s picking them up are shit but she’s fucking playing. None of you realise how big a deal this is.” Jaime had never heard her music so even he didn’t know why Tommy was so excited. He did know that the best friends had slept together, when they were 16, though but it didn't bother him. Tommy couldn’t contain his excitement; he pulled out another beer from the fridge and picked a slice of pizza up before listening to his best friend play her heart out. She was an amazing drummer, she learned to play when she was 7 years old and it sounded like she had never stopped.

Three hours went by and Noelle finally finished playing her drums. She exited the room with her body covered in sweat and her hair all over the place. She headed to the kitchen and pulled down the first aid kit from one of the cupboards.

“Tommy, will you sort out my fingers please” She asked with a grimace, he could tell that she had fucked them up bad.

When he entered the kitchen he could see that Noelle’s fingers were bruised and bloodied and that she had broken two of them on her right hand. He wiped her hands and taped her up before pressing a soft kiss to her hands and pulling her into a hug.

“You fucking played girl and you played good” He whispered as he petted her head and pulled away, “And he’s a fucking dick” He winked and the both of them walked over to the lounge where Jaime and both Fuentes brothers sat with a shocked expression on their faces.

“What?” She asked looking at each of them individually

“You can, fucking, play” Mike said as he scooted up on the new couch to make enough room for her. “Better than me, might I add?”

“I started playing when I was 7, drums and music in general was my life for 13 years man.” She had the hugest smile on her face; Music will always be her life, even if she doesn’t play for as many years as she has.

The Fuentes’ and Tommy stayed for another hour before they all left. Jaime and Noelle had become sleepy and made a night of it. When in bed Jaime pulled Noelle as close to him as he could manage, while still looking into her eyes and said “I love you too” A smile erupted on Noelle’s face and she leaned in and kissed him.

“I wanted to say it first, jerk” She lightly hit his arm and they kissed again before going to sleep both ridiculously happy.

Notes

A nice long chapter for everyone :)
I really like this story. I hope you guys do too.