“You don’t think the guys are back, do you?” You ask optimistically.

“They wouldn’t be that quiet, Y/n.”

Hannah: We think there’s someone in the house.

Allie: We don’t think, we know.

Dean: WHAT??

Garrett: guys, wth is going on?? are you okay??

“What do we do?” Allie asks, snuggling in closer to you. The silence was painfully loud as you all stayed frozen, waiting for the next sound to come.

“Hide?” Hannah suggests.

“I’ll go look.” I slip out from between them, grabbing a random large textbook from Garrett's desk and turning on my phone's flashlight.

“That is not a good idea,” Allie warns, terror written all over her face.

“Someone has to; I’ll be back in a sec.”

Hannah: Y/n went down to look.

Logan: She did what?

Allie: We tried to stop her. Can you guys get here soon?

Tucker: Logan and I are getting everyone in the car now, on our way.

Logan must have broken at least one law to arrive back at the house in that time. The car couldn’t have been parked before they all jumped out and bounded to the door.

The three of you were all curled up on the sofa, paler than normal and wide awake. The three of you jumped when the door opened, immediately standing to greet them. You headed straight to Logan.

“Baby, what the hell were you thinking? I mean, anything could’ve happened to you.” His rough hands cupped your face, scanning it subconsciously like he needed reassurance that you were totally fine.

“I just wanted to check; I didn’t mean to scare you, Johnny, I swear.” Your body shook as he wrapped his arms around you, letting your body relax against him.

“So, what did happen when you went downstairs?” Tucker asked, bringing over each of you a glass of water.

“The window was wide open, no one was here, and I don’t think anything was taken; you guys will have to check though.”

“I’ll look around,” Tucker replies, already heading through to the kitchen.

“Don’t worry about that right now, gorgeous. You wanna go to bed?” He takes your hand when you nod, wishing everyone goodnight as he guided you upstairs. John could tell you weren’t yourself; no one would be, but it didn’t ease his worries any less.

“Are you sure you’re okay? God, I wish I was here with you, baby.” He laid down with you on his bed, wrapping the blankets tightly around you.

“I’m fine, I promise. I’m just glad everyone's back now. Sorry we cut your night short.” You buried your head in his chest, letting yourself finally relax.

His soothing voice was the only thing that assured you it was really a dream, a horrible dream that was taking over you. The vivid visions of your past and the loud sounds of trauma swirling into your sleep.

John woke up the second your screaming began. His gentle hands carefully shook your restless body until you sat up, your body alert and wide awake. The tears immediately started to fall, large drops dripping down your rosy cheeks as John wrapped his muscular arms around you, slowly rocking you against his chest.

“It’s all okay now, baby. You’re fine; it’s just me.” His voice was warm, calming you down enough to be able to take deep breaths in time with his. His calloused hand ran down your back, the other one massaging your head.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” Your voice came out weak, words not sounding whole from your quivering lips as your hands rushed to wipe at your eyes, not failing to notice his shirt. “And for soaking you.”

“Hey, don’t apologise. I wanna be up with you when you're upset. Anyway, that’ll dry up in no time. It isn’t a big deal, okay?” He moved his hands to cradle your face.

This was what you appreciated; he never rushed you to talk about it, never asked too many questions when you did. He just let you bury your head into his chest as you lay back down together, completely wrapped up in each other.

Garrett has always been your person; ever since your mom died, he was the only good you had in your life consistently. He never made you feel alone or left out of his life; even when his friends didn’t particularly want you there, you were. Doing your homework in the stands as he practised, getting dinner together when you did well in school- it was small things like that that made you always feel loved despite your father. 

Your favourite memory was after your first breakup. You’d never really been interested in a guy before, but he was different. You really liked him, and you thought he really liked you, until one day out of the blue he dumped you, saying he found someone new and that it wasn’t your fault. Garrett was devastated when you told him, your voice breaking through your sobs. He held you until the tears stopped, somehow still being able to make you laugh. You spent the whole night watching movies you loved, Garrett never leaving your side or getting distracted or making you feel like there was someone else he would rather be with.

This is why lying to him hurts so much.

He unlocks your phone, his face dropping instantly when he sees a notification pop up, a notification he definitely wasn’t meant to see.

𑣲 Johnny: babyyyy when can I come over? Missing you.

He blinks, reading it again and again till it disappears off the screen. Then another one is sent.

𑣲 Johnny: love you so much, should I bring pizza?? Your topping choice :)

“Garrett, how long do these need to be in the oven for? Did you forget what you were looking for or something?” You joke, the smile falling from your face when you see his expression.

“Why is Logan messaging you? And why does he want to come over tonight?” He has that crease between his brow, the one where he is either trying to figure something out or tame his anger.

“I, uh, don’t know. Maybe he got the wrong number?”

“You're lying to me; you’ve both hidden this from me! I’m your brother; you are meant to tell me these things.” He sighs, flopping down on the closest chair.

“He’s your friend; we didn’t want to, I don’t know, upset you, I guess. I was scared of letting you down.” You wander over and stand next to him.

“Y/n, you could never let me down.” He stands back up and pulls you into a hug. “I just wish you told me. I would’ve been okay with it.”

“No, you wouldn’t have; you’d have tried to beat him up or something.” 

“Yeah, I probably would have. I might still.”

The tension was thick when Logan arrived. He had your favourite pizza in hand and an almost terrified expression on his face. You’d sent him a couple of warning texts and a promise of fresh cookies, along with Garrett leaving as soon as you could make him.

“Does he have a key to your place?” He asks as John is taking off his shoes.

“Yeah, I am closer to the rink.” You reply, carrying a plate of cookies and sitting down on the sofa. John sits next to you not long after.

“How long has this been going on?” His eyes are locked on John as he asks.

“5? 6 months? Look-”

“That’s how long you kept this from me? I live with you, we’re friends. She is my sister.”

“I am still here.” You counter, picking up your second cookie and going back to being silent.

“I’m sorry, Garrett, I really am.”

“It’s whatever; don’t keep things from me anymore. And don’t do anything weird in front of me.” He stands up, taking the plate of cookies with him.

“Are you going?” You ask, standing up at the same time so he can give you a side hug.

“Yeah, scared of witnessing anything I’d rather not.”

“We weren’t going to start having sex in front of you, Garrett.”

“I'm going!” He hurries off, saying bye to Logan quickly.

“That went way better than I thought.” John pulls you into his lap, kissing your shoulder.

“Probably cause you weren’t here when he found out.”

“He did take your cookies though; they're my favourite.” He frowns jokingly.

Everyone was growing tired of Scott, as his constant questions about the new guy, what he was saying, and what he was doing, were annoying. Especially to you. It was obvious he liked you, the way he jumped to work with you, help you with research, or join you at meals; it was painful that he hadn’t made a move yet.

“And what did you say, Javi?” The sound of him popping his gum grew louder as time passed, and it seemed to become ear-splitting whenever he saw you two together.

“I told him not to bother; it wasn’t worth getting tangled up in whatever you have going on with her. But Scott, don’t let this get in the way of your work; you aren’t like that. If I tell you to work with him, you do it.” Scott almost laughed at Javi, his attempt to control the work environment so uncommon that it shocked him.

“We’ll see.”

“Already moving on? Seriously?”

His deep voice made you jump, splashes of cheap diner coffee landing on you.

“Scott, you should really work on how you approach people who are holding hot coffee.” You grumble, grabbing the slightly discoloured napkins to start cleaning it up.

“So you are? This is unbelievable, I still have half your stuff in my room!” Scott continues to rant as you look at him, confused. “The new guy, he was all over you. It was hard to watch.”

“Feeling jealous, Scott? I turned him down, I made the mistake once of dating someone I worked with, and now he punishes me for it.”

For the first time, Scott was speechless. Was he punishing you? All he was doing was not letting you chase, making you grab the crew coffees, assigning you jobs he knew you hated… He didn’t even realise, it's just his instinct, hurt someone more than they hurt you, it's how he worked.

After taking the next perfectly timed dose of tablets from the kitchen, you let your socked feet drag you onto the couch, where another pile of blankets covers you. The constant pounding in your head and churning in your stomach never left; the small ball you ended up in is providing support for all the misery you felt.

It was about another hour after you finally got situated on the couch when you heard soft footsteps leave the bedroom.

“Baby? Are you in here?” Scott's voice was tired as he entered, clearly not expecting to wake up at this hour without you by his side.

“Mhm, why are you up?”

“Wasn’t gonna go back to sleep without checking on you. Why are you out here anyway?” He dropped down on the couch next to you, picking up your feet to lay them across his lap.

“Couldn’t sleep, I feel terrible. But I didn’t wanna disrupt you by wriggling around all the time.”

“Well, it was more disruptive not having you there.” He carefully settled down behind you, wrapping one of the blankets around him and squeezing your body against his to keep you from dangling off the edge.

A large black tent was set up in the centre of the room, furniture pushed aside to make room for it, and you stood there, applying lotion to your knuckles. You were dressed only in a thong, breasts out and hair tied up messily, with pieces of paper stuck to the soles of your feet. John just blinked in confusion, not realising this is what your text was about.

You: Johnny come quick, i need your help.

“What’s going on, baby? I thought there was an emergency.” He asks, kicking his shoes off by the door.

“You’re here! Y’know, I was just watching TV and then looked down and realised how pale I've been looking recently. Then I remembered I had this spray tan machine but that I couldn’t really do it myself. That’s why I texted.”

“Well, you better show me how it works.” He smiles, stepping around the tent to get to you as you explain all the motions he needs.

“Your ring? No, baby, have you not got it?” Scott glanced away from the road to look at you, seeing how panicked you were as he thought back to when he had seen it last. “Did you take it off at the motel?”

“No, I never take it off.” You were definitely regretting that now as you blinked away tears. It took Scott months to pick it; every other one was not quite right until he found yours. It went perfectly with every other piece you wore while still standing out. This ring symbolized just how thoughtful Scott was, and now it was gone.

It was then that you pulled up at the motel, quickly climbing out of the car to go up to your room, just in case. You had already searched through both bedside tables when Scott came in.

“Still no luck, baby?” He asked, his voice calming you slightly. He came up behind you, gently stroking your back. You slumped down on the bed, a few tears slipping down your cheek.

“No.” You scooted closer to Scott when he sat down, resting against him.

“Good thing it’s here, then.” He smiled slightly, pulling the ring out of his pocket.

“You better not have been messing with me, Scott.” You sighed in relief as he slid it back onto your finger.

“No, baby. When i got out of the car, I remembered I slid it into my pocket before we left to protect it. I just forgot all about it.”

“They don’t sell the bars I like here.” Even Scott knew the excuse was stupid. There were plenty of other things he would eat, after all, food was there just to fuel him through the long work hours and intense data collecting. As long as it was quick and he could eat it while doing something, it would do. ‘And this is the only place that sells food here, why do you think the whole team is squashed up in that corner?”

Yet, here he was, a greasy breakfast sandwich in front of him with a strong cup of coffee next to him. Just as Scott was about to tell Javi to get going, the waitress came over. His waitress.

“Scott, I can’t believe you have friends!” She grinned, pulling a laugh out of Scott. “Can I get you anything?”

Javi barely even registered that the question was directed at him; he was frozen in shock that Scott did something apart from scowling. After telling her that he didn’t want anything, he focused on a once again stone-faced Scott.

“Who are you and what have you done with Scott? I mean, smiling and eating a meal in one day, something must be wrong.” Javi laughed as he stood back up, walking back to all the others.

Scott didn’t care; his gaze was focused on you dashing around, refilling coffee and collecting dishes, your white dress radiating a glow he could only describe as angelic. This was his favourite table, he knew after trying out all of them throughout the multiple trips in this area, this one had the best view of you.

“Need a refill, Scott?” The sweetness of syrup surrounded him when you approached, instantly bringing a smile to his face.

“Sure, when do you finish tonight?”

“Usual time, please say you’ll walk me home tonight. I get bored without you now.” You smile. Scott keeping you company was the only reason long shifts didn’t sting so hard anymore; you were secretly dreading when he’d be travelling to somewhere else again.

“Course I will. I’m ready to pay now.”