the life changer// j.j

twenty

*Marie's POV*
Los Angeles is the city of my dreams.
We arrive at the apartment that we're staying in, and i hop in the elevator to the floor it's on.
Jack knocks on the door and some movement inside, a tall boy with blue eyes answers the door.
"Johnson!" He yells.
"Wassup grier!" Jack screams back, hugging the boy.
Jack walks inside and I assume I'm invited in too, so I follow right behind him.
Jack throws our luggage in the kitchen and then plops down on the couch, after greeting three other boys.
I thought he said there was only three boys here, but after some counting, I realize that, counting the boy at the door, there's four boys.
Jack sees the confusion on my face and then explains,
"That one right there," he says, pointing to someone who looks younger, "is Hayes. He's Nash's little brother. Visiting from North Carolina." Hayes smiles at me.
I nod, wondering who 'Nash' is.
"And I'm Nash." The boy from the door says, almost reading my thoughts perfectly. "I don't claim Hayes by the way." He says laughing. "But it's nice to meet you. You must be...." Then pauses for a minute, thinking.
"Marie." Jack responds, chuckling.
"OH YEAH!" Nash yells. My eyes go wide at the amount of yelling this boy does.
Then another boy, who has big, brown eyes and is very tan and muscular comes up to me.
"I'm Cameron." He says, smiling. "Welcome to LA."
He wraps me in a hug and I'm taken back. I did not expect him to greet me like that.
The last boy comes up to me. "I'm Matthew. But you can call me Matt. Your quiet. Johnson how does this quiet girl with your loud ass mouth?"
Jack laughs. "Not really sure." He says, smiling at me. "But she's got me whipped, man." They all laugh.
I sit down next to Jack and he laces his fingers with mine.
"So Marie...." Cameron says. Oh gosh. I know where this is going.
"No I didn't shave because I wanted to." I say.
His mouth drops open. "I.... I. Wasn't. Gonna-"
"It's fine." I say. "I know all of you guys were thinking it. So uh basically me and Jack were on Gilinsky's lake talking and I felt this pain in my head. Kinda scared the shit out of me and Johnson. So he went and got Gilinsky and Sam. They all managed to get me to the hospital. I blacked out. When I woke up there was chemo pumping into my fucking body. Then the doctor was like 'oh. By the way. You have cancer' and here we are."
They all look at me, taken back a little.
"I didn't mean to make you talk about it." Cameron tells me.
"That's the thing." I say. "It doesn't hurt to talk about it any more. I don't know I guess I've had to tell so many people it just- I can talk about it whenever I need. Which I shouldn't be able to. But I mean.... I don't really know."
Jack grips tight onto my hand.
There's a few minutes of silence.
Everyone's trying to let my words sink in.
"How about we get settled in tonight? And then tomorrow we can all do stuff together?" I suggest.
Everyone looks at me and smiles, agreeing.
"C'mon." Nash says, referring to me and Jack. "I'll show you guys where the guest room is."
Nash walks up the stairs and I follow, jack close behind me,
We walk into a room and jack throws our stuff onto the bed.
"I'll let you guys get settled in." Nash says. "Come down in a few hours and we'll order pizza." He says, smiling and then walking out.
As soon as he shuts the door, jack starts talking.
"You didn't have to tell them that, ya know?"
"Yeah I know, I just felt like it needed to be said."
He nods.
"Can we just lay down for a little while? I'm kinda feeling tired." I ask
Jack nods and throws his shirt off, locking the door and then laying down in the bed.
I take my shoes off which Jack seemed to have done when we walked in the door.
I lay down next to him and his arms wrap around me tightly. I put my head in his neck and he whispers in my ear.
"I love you. Every bit of you."
I drift off to sleep with his voice ringing in my ear,