𝐒𝐊𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑

quarante: stay close

CHAPTER FORTY:
"stay close"

Twenty-seventh. It was today.

Honestly, it wasn't such a big deal like they were making it.

Correction, Johnny was making it.

This is probably just gonna be like that St.Monica little fight.

At least that's what they thought.

Jack laughed, "This should be interesting"

"Only because Asher here decided to-" Johnny started.

"Johnny." She said softly, cutting him off.

Ever since that day, Johnny didn't talk to Asher a lot and Asher, he was being himself, He was confused at first but then both of them got used to not talking to eachother which troubled the others.

There already so much negative tension and they didn't want more.

Of course, Johnny's mad because he knows Annie's gonna get hurt. He was determined not to let her go. They weren't gonna go easy on her.

Little did he know things were gonna go way different than he thought.

Asher cared about Annie too but maybe he took it a little far. He definitley could have handled situation some other way but poor boy, can't blame him. He was fed up with Keith, he'd been stuck with his threats for years. Yes, All of them were.

Annie had her back pressed against the car seat, her knees up to her chest. She let out a breath. She was a scared. Just a little. She didn't know what to expect unlike them. They probably had an idea of what was gonna happen, they had been in fights before.

They were considered dangerous, remember?

Suddenly, Jack screamed causing all of them to jump.

"What the actual fuck is wrong with you?" Josh questioned hitting his head.

"I needed to get that out, you know- to relax myself?" He shrugged.

Johnny cringed, "You are so-" He let out a breath stopping himself.

Johnny was stressed, more than the others were. He was overthinking, which wasn't good at all.

"Can you all shut up?" Asher groaned. He was driving and Jacks scream caught him a little off guard. "We're here."

Johnny rolled his eyes like he was doing for the past five days to anything Asher said. I would say Annie and him switched personalities. Well, Kinda.

Annie looked out the tinted window, It was almost six thirty so it was getting darker by the second. It was like an alley.

Why does every gang decide to settle in an alley?

There was huge house a little after where they had parked. That's where they were probably gonna go. Annie let out a shaky breath, once again.

"Annie?" Johnny called out. She turned his head towards him realizing that they were already outside.

She slowly came out the black door. They had planned that Annie would just distract them, she wasn't doing anything physical.

Well, that's what they planned.

She gave him a smile, "Thank you.. for always being here, I love you."

He bit the inside of his cheek looking down at her, "I love you too."

He said giving her a soft kiss. "Stay close."

"Everything happens for a reason." She mumbled loud enough for him to hear before walking towards the others. 

He wasn't quite sure if she was telling it to herself or to reassure him but either way, it wouldn't change the way he would feel if anything happened to her. 

They walked into the house. Somehow, Asher had the key.

There was probably another side of Ashers past that Annie did not know of.

"Annie all you got to do it follow me." Johnny reminded her as they walked in.

Asher huffed low, "Johnny stop acting like she's going to die."

"I would like it if you would just shut the fuck up." Johnny said, his voice showing clear frustration.

"Will you both quit it?" Jack rolled his eyes.

Johnny pointed towards Asher, "He started it."

"Well if you act like that I'm going to have to say something!"

Asher whisper-shouted keeping in mind that someone could walk through one of the doors.

They needed to be careful even if it was pretty clear that no one would use weapons in the fight. 

"Act like what!? I'm sorry I care about her."

"Johnny stop it!"  Annie exclaimed, closing the front door.

Bad idea.

"As if I don't?" Asher raised a brow. "Is this seriously about if I care about her or not?"

"You clearly don't you or else you wouldn't have brought her into this mess!"

Josh crossed his arms as they walked further in, "Johnny quit it."

There was small sound of a door unlocking and a muffled squeal but they were so engrossed in their arguement that they paid no notice to that.

"Of course I care about her! I just want this to end! I've been living with his threats for years. Its not like anything's gonna happen—she's just distracting them right?"

"Whatever." Johnny said as he looked over to call Annie.

Just to see that she wasn't there.

"Annie!?" Jack said exclaimed at the same time as Johnny realised.

"Fuck." Johnny muttered under his breath. "This is all you're fault Asher!" Johnny exclaimed. He only said that to make him feel a little better. Johnny knew that he could've held her hand or just kept an eye on her. It was his fault too. He knew it was, but maybe he didn't just want to admit to that.

"For fucks sake, stop blaming each other. Lets go find Annie!"

"She's safe don't worry." They heard a voice up the stairs. Oscar.

"Bring her down here Oscar. She has nothing to do with this!" Johnny yelled.

Let me tell you, he was mad.