The shirt

Chapter Seventeen The Treehouse

Jayden
It's been about a month since the car crash. My memory came back and I'm back to normal for the most part. I'm terrified to ride in a car and I still have to wear a brace on my knee and a metal bracket type thing around my elbow to heal the joint. I'm out of softball until I get this crappy bracket off my elbow. My knee isn't such a big deal, but the doctor told me I will always have to wear this brace.

It's summer time, but Liz is always going to softball practice since we go through the summer practicing and conditioning for next year, and my parents are going on some crazy cruise for the entire summer for their anniversary, so it's just me and the house. I don't know why my parents have to leave for the entire summer, but Elizabeth said that I'm always welcome over if I need anything, so I'm basically over a lot.

I crawl out of bed and check my phone.
I had a text from Hayes and a text from Nash.
From Grier🙈: Hey Jay, you should come hang out today with Nash, Cam, Kendall and I.
To Grier🙈: Okay, I'm gonna get dressed and all that good stuff and then I'll be over.

Kendall is Cameron's girlfriend. I've met her a few times and I really like her. Since Cameron and I basically live at the Grier's because we're over 24/7 I see Kendall a lot. She's like the big sister I never had.

Nash basically told me the same thing as Hayes did so I just told him what I told Hayes. I jump in the shower and wash my hair and my face, then my body. I got out of the shower and patted myself dry. I let my hair air dry while I found some clothes to wear. I rummaged through my closet, which is a disaster, and I find Hayes' t-shirt he gave me when we met. I throw it on with some cut off jean shorts and my converse. I grab my phone and some cash then walk to Hayes'.

I get to Hayes' house and I just walk in. Elizabeth doesn't care, she calls me family. I walk into the living room and I see Elizabeth playing with Skylynn.
"Oh, hello Jayden! Hayes is upstairs in his room." Elizabeth said as she continued to play with Skylynn. I walked up the stairs and went into Hayes' room. I didn't bother to knock since he knew I was coming. I open the door and I run right into Hayes. I hit the ground and start laughing.
"Jayden, are you okay?" Hayes says as me puts his hand out. I take his hand and he pulls me up from the floor.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just ran into you and got off balance." I say. I look up at him because now he's hit his growth spirt and is quite a bit taller than I am.
"Baby Dallas!" I hear from behind me and I know it's Cam. As Cam and I have been around each other more and more we've discovered that we have a lot of things in common....and when Taylor and Matthew came to visit they did too, I guess because they started to call me 'Baby Dallas' since I was so much like Cam. I spin around and give Cam a big hug because it's been awhile since I've seen him. I last saw him when I was in the hospital.
"I missed you Baby Dallas." Cam whispers in my ear.
"I missed you too, Cam." I whisper back. After that Cam put me down and I saw Kendall behind him I ran over to her and have her a big hug.
"I missed my little sister!" She yells as we hug.
"I missed my big sister!" I say back as we let go.
"Last time I checked she was my little sister first." Nash says as me swings his arm over my shoulder and grins.
"How could I forget about you Nashy." I say as I give him a hug. Out of everyone I missed Nash the most, well except for Hayes, but I saw him at school a week ago. I missed the advice Nash would give me about things and our brother-sister moments. He was a great big brother, even if he wasn't really my brother.
"Okay, my turn!" Hayes whined because I hadn't gave him a hug yet.
"Fine, come here Grier." I say as I open up my arms. He walks over to me and picks me up. I wrap my legs around his torso and my head finds a nice spot in the crook of his neck and his head rested on mine. What can I say? I loved his hugs more than anything else. They truly were the best feeling in the world.

"I say we go swimming!" Cam screams.
"That's a nice thought, but Jayden can't swim with her braces." Kendall says as she pulls Cameron by the shirt back up the stairs.
"I can swim. I just have to take the knee brace off, the elbow brace is water proof." I say as I reach for my knee brace. I almost get it off and I feel a hand touch mine, causing me to stop.
"Are you sure that the doctor would say it's fine to take your knee brace off. You need to let it heal, Jay." I was Hayes. I thought it was sweet that he wanted to make sure I was going to be okay. The doctor did say that the knee shatter looked a ton better and that it wasn't as serious. I nod my head and Hayes lets go of my hand and I remove the brace completely. My knee looks totally normal and I can walk perfectly fine. I'm pretty sure the brace is just so that the cartilage in my knee doesn't tear during softball because that was what the doctor was most scared about when he told me the shatter looked a ton better.
"Kendall do you have a swim suit I can borrow?" I say and she nods. I walk into Nash's room and she throws me a swim suit from her duffle bag.
"Thanks." I say as I walk back to Hayes' room. I knock this time incase he's changing. He opens the door and let's me in. I walk into his bathroom and change into Kendall's swimsuit. It was a cute bikini that had a navy blue top with a ruffle along the top and white and navy striped bottoms. I walk out of Hayes' bathroom and he's waiting for me.

We walk outside to their pool and Nash, Cam, and Kendall are all waiting for us. We take a few pictures before jumping in and I take one just with Hayes. I decide to post the one of all of us on Twitter;
@JaydenNicole: we are squad goals
@NashGrier @HayesGrier @CamDallas @KendallHarper <photo attachment>
Then, I make the one of Hayes and I my profile picture. I set my phone down and before I know it I'm pushed into the freezing cold pool.
"CAMERON!" I scream when I surface.
Cameron jumps in and swims over to me.
"Sorry Jay." He says with a laugh. I dunk him under and then start laughing.
"WE SHOULD DO CHICKEN FIGHTS!" Nash says.
"Okay Jayden and me verses Kendall and Nash." Cam says. I knew Cam and were gonna win because Kendall is really easy to push over.
"Fine, but next time I get to play." Hayes says.
I get on Cameron's shoulders and Kendall gets on Nash's and we start trying to push each other into the water. I push Kendall in because like I said she's easy to tip over.
"Okay, my turn!" Hayes yells and I get on his shoulders and Cameron gets on Nash's shoulders.
"Wait I have to try to tip Cameron over!" I yell because everyone knew that isn't going to happen. Cameron is like twice my size.
"Come on Jay, I'll go easy." Cameron says with a smirk. I roll my eyes and we start trying to push each other in. As I thought, Cam pushed me in with no trouble. Then we do a few more rounds and decide to dry off. We all got dried off and then Kendall said, "Jayden, you should stay the week with us. Since, your home alone it'll be more fun to stay with all of us. Plus, Taylor and Matt are coming to visit."
I agree in a heartbeat. I would by far stay the week with them than go back to an empty house. Plus, I can't wait to see Matt and Taylor.
"It's settled then." Nash says.
"I'll just need to get a few things from my house; like clothes, toothbrush, my charger, that type of thing." I say as I lean back on Hayes' shoulder.
"No problem we can go after dinner." Cam says. We all lay there a little longer and talk about random stuff that no one would care about, but it was fun. These moments are what I love the most about being with them. I never have these moments at home. My parents are always working and I don't have any siblings, so I don't have moments like this. Now that I think about it, they are more of a family to me than my real family ever will be. That's why I love them so much, they make me feel like I'm part of a family.

Elizabeth comes out of the house with Sky and tells us that she ordered pizza. We all rush inside to get a slice. After multiple slices of pizza everyone goes with me to my house to grab my stuff. I throw everything in my 'Davidson Day Softball' duffle bag and walk down the hall to where everyone is waiting. They were all staring at the pictures that were scattered across the hallway. Nash pointed to one from a long time ago and said, "Hey Jayden, who is that boy on the swing next to you?"
"Oh, that's Jayden." I say with a laugh, "He and I were best friends before I moved. I really miss him...he was a lot like you guys. He made me feel welcome and wanted even when no one else did. He was great." I say as memories of Jayden and I start flooding into my mind.
"Wait, his name was Jayden too?" Cameron says confused.
"Yep, our parents thought it was funny. They would say 'Jayden' and we would both answer...it was a stupid thing to laugh about, but we all thought it was really funny." I say. There was a long pause and then we all headed back to the Grier's.

For the rest of the night Nash, Cam, Kendall, Hayes and I all watched movies in the Grier's tree house. It was amazing. The boys had built it with their dad before their parents separated. The roof opened and you could see the stars. It was really big. It had two room and a balcony that went all the way around it. We all snuggled together as we watched some random movie Kendall had brought on Nash's computer. It was a really sweet movie. The ending was sad, but the storyline was cute. I snuggled up to Hayes and laid my head on his chest and slowly began to drift off to sleep.
"I love you Jayden." Hayes said as he kissed the top of my head and rubbed his hand up and down my arm. I couldn't help but smile and say,
"I love you too Grier."
Then I heard Cameron and Kendall saying something similar to each other on the other side of the room. They were sweet, I've never seen Cameron so committed to a relationship before. Kendall must be something special.
"I really need a girlfriend." Nash said as he laughed. Everyone broke into laughter and then we all drifted off to sleep in the treehouse.
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I HIT 2,000 WORDS! I hope you guys like this chapter. Apparently we don't leave for Nationals until tomorrow and it's a long car trip, so I won't say I won't post another chapter during the time I'm there, but I'm not making any promises. I made this chapter longer just incase you guys don't at an update for awhile. If you do get an update, then you just got a long chapter for fun. Anyway don't forget to vote and comment. Thanks for the support!
-Ashlynn