╰─ FOR YOU; jra

chapter twenty six

"OKAY THAT'S all for today, thank you very much boys."

The five boys all said thank you and walked out of the recording studio. They had just finished recording a new song, their schedules had been incredibly busy since tour ended.

"Hey Jack, wanna go and get snacks with me?" Daniel smiled at Jack as they got in their car.

"Sorry, but I have a date with Gabbie." He replied.

"I'll come!" Zach exclaimed from the back.

Daniel drove home, before heading to the grocery store with Zach. They made dumb jokes and were relieved to have a bit of time to themselves that wasn't work related.

"So... what isle first?" Daniel walked in with Zach by his side.

"Ice cream, chips, candy, I don't know!" The smaller boy laughed.

They ended up walking around cluelessly and mostly making fun of items and their names while recording. Zach picked up a pear and called it a really weird apple, while Daniel ran over to the watermelon. Next they decided to get ice cream, because that's an essential.

Since it was nearly midnight, there were only a few others in the store. Zach and Daniel only saw a girl with her back faced towards them in the frozen isle.

"Look! The last watermelon flavoured ice cream!" Zach yelled excitedly. Before Daniel could react, Zach was already running away with the item in his hand.

Unlucky for him, he wasn't careful enough, and bumped into someone, which caused him to fall over.

The girl Zach knocked over yelped in surprise and sat up quickly, rubbing her head. Poor Daniel saw the whole thing unfold and ran up to Zach and the stranger.

"I'm so sorry, my friend-" he stopped when he was met with a familiar pair of eyes.

"Fleur?" Zach voiced exactly what Dani was thinking. Her hair was very different- it used to be a warm, dark chestnut brown, now it was a light, pale pink colour. Zach recalled Fleur saying that she wanted to dye her hair in the future to try it out. She had always loved being creative and new in terms of style.

"Huh- wait, Zach? Daniel?" She asked, equally confused.

Daniel offered his hand to help her up, which she reluctantly accepted. Zach stood up too and shook his head to make sure he wasn't seeing things. Daniel hugged Fleur. She was startled at first but hugged back eventually.

"What are you doing here?" She said and looked at them. "It's late."

"But you're here too-" Zach started.

"We were getting some stuff..." Daniel trailed off. "I like your hair."

"Thanks" she muttered quietly.

Fleur glanced at the floor and picked up the box of watermelon ice cream. It made her smile, knowing how much Daniel still loved the sweet fruit. She handed it to him and sighed sadly.

"It's been a while." She quietly muttered. In her mind, a while was an understatement. They hadn't seen each other since tour, which was nearly 5 months ago.

"Yeah we've been really busy..." Daniel scratched his neck nervously. The conversation was getting awkward.

"How are you all doing though?"

"Oh, we're fine. Like Daniel said, really busy. But hard work pays off." Zach shrugged.

"How- how's Jack?" Fleur looked at her feet. She couldn't resist, she had to know. Not a single day had passed where she didn't think of him. It was driving her insane.

"He's good. Actually he's on a date right n-" Daniel's hand shot up and stopped Zach before he said too much.

It was too late anyways, the hurt in the girl's eyes was evident. She masked it pretty well, but Daniel knew better than to believe her fake smile.

"Oh- that's good- for him..." She stuttered.

"What about you? How are you?" Daniel asked cautiously.

"I'm fine. Things are back to normal." Half truths. Every word was only half true. Fleur couldn't tell them how things were really going, because they were not good.

Daniel sighed. She wasn't telling the truth and it was obvious. He shared a look with Zach; they were both thinking the same thing. She wasn't ok and they wanted to help. At that moment they both realized the weight of the situation. They were one of the only people Fleur had ever trusted, yet as soon as tour ended, they never saw her, let alone tried to contact her.

"Hey um... do you have any plans tomorrow?" Daniel asked slowly.

Fleur thought for a minute before answering, "no, why?"

"You're coming to our house. It's a sleepover." The rosy cheeked boy smiled.

Fleur thought for a long minute, she was contemplating and trying to figure out if it would be a good idea or not. Zach's pout managed to convince her.

"Alright fine. But I don't have anything except my phone and wallet right now."

"That's ok, we can get essentials here, and I have clothes so you'll be fine." Daniel smiled adorably with his toothgap showing.

Zach hugged Fleur and happily jumped up, while they went to collect a few more things. Fleur found it surprisingly easy to reconnect with the two boys, and just couldn't be upset or mad at them. She was curious to see how the night would go, but secretly excited and scared to see Jack again.

A/N

um well I haven't updated in so long, things have been going crazy round here

2020 dec. 29.