Your Nickle Ain't Worth My Dime (A Sleeping with Sirens fan fiction)

Risky Business

*Jamie's POV*

As much as I loved being in a cramped apartment that was filled by the smell of fresh paint, four other people, and all vegan food (please note my sarcasm), I needed a little fresh air. I woke up early, before even Mariah, for the first time in years. I pulled on a pair of jeans from my bag and crept, as quietly as I could, out of the apartment. I saw Jeydon asleep on the couch, his phone in his hand. Mariah had laid a blanket over him last night before she had gone to bed. It was weird how one minute, she could be furious and not talking to him, then covering him up and putting his hat away while he was sleeping the next.

Aside from all the drama that fills my daily life, I decided that, while I was in LA, it would be a wonderful time to do some big city shopping. Mya and I had always wanted to go shopping in New York City or London or Paris or some big city together, and I would have woken her up had I not been on Jeydon's side in everything. 

I spotted a pair of dark brown combat boots in the window of some store. I wasn't sure if I should really be spending money on anything before I had some coffee, but I would never be able to find my way back to this place or be one of the very few people on the streets. "Take the opportunity!" my mind yelled. 

Well, might as well go inside instead of being that weird girl on the side of the street having an internal argument with herself . 

I started up the steps, keeping my eyes on the pair of combat boots as I went. I just reached the door when something was thrown over my eyes and I was being pulled somewhere by somebody I didn't know and couldn't see in a city that I had never been to before. This psycho picked the wrong YouTuber to mess with.

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*Mariah's POV* 

I was pretty good at many things, such as reading and procrastinating, but the one thing that I was probably the best at was multitasking. I was tweeting, scrolling through Tumblr, Skyping with Justin, and walking all at the same time. I know, it's pretty impressive. Although, it probably wasn't the best idea. I had never been to LA before, and I had no idea how to get around or where everything was. 

"So, you're by yourself and walking around a city you've never been to before?" Justin asked me. 

I flicked my gaze upward quickly, just to make sure that I hadn't somehow veered off the sidewalk, and nodded. "Yes. I probably should have thought this out a little better."

"And you probably should have either had somebody go with you, or at least paid attention to where you were going." 

"That would have been WAY too much effort," I sighed, smiling. 

"It's hard for me to believe that you would go anywhere without Jeydon or Jamie or Damon anyways. Aren't you always with them?"

I shook my head and shrugged. Damon had been sleeping, and I hated to wake him up since he so rarely slept. Jamie hadn't been anywhere, even though I wanted so badly to talk to her. Jeydon, well... I didn't even want to think about him right now. All I wanted was some coffee. 

"Speaking of Jeydon," Justin started, mentioning exactly what I didn't want to think about, "Have you guys ever dated?"

I was taken aback, quite a bit. Did people actually think that we were a thing? "No. Why?"

Justin shrugged, walking outside and lighting a cigarette. "You guys should. You seen like you would be a great couple." 

I felt like reminding him that I had a boyfriend, and that it was his best friend. But then again, Kellin still hadn't told them, so there must be a reason. Was it really my place to tell his best friend? Nah, I decided. "We're just friends," I said simply.

"Who are you Skyping with?" I heard somebody say in the background. 

"Mariah," Justin answered.

Somebody took Justin's phone out of his hands and started walking. I could hear the sound of footsteps, but that was about it. I saw a wall, then the inside of their venue for tonight. Was I now Skyping with a building or..? I heard a door slam, I was thrown onto a couch, then I heard a loud sigh. I felt like I was in one of the Paranormal Activity movies, and I honestly hadn't realized how dizzying the camera work for those movies was. I felt like I was either going to see a demon's face, or be sick. 

Luckily, neither of those things happened. Instead, Kellin's wonderful face appeared. "HI!" he yelled, smiling.

"Hi," I smiled back. "How's it going?"

"FANTASTIC!" he exclaimed. "I have some happy news." 

"Ah. I knew there was a reason for all this smiling. Please, tell me more."

He set the phone down in order to play a drum roll on his legs. "I get to see my child whenever I am home!" 

"Yay!" I said, feeling my smile become more genuine by the second. Copeland was pretty much the center of Kellin's world. I knew that being able to see her meant everything to him, considering he had stayed with Katelynne for years just for his daughter. "That's awesome, Kells! Congrats!" 

"Thanks! I'm really happy about it."

I rolled my eyes and barely remembered to look up from my phone in time to cross a busy street. "I couldn't tell," I said sarcastically. "So...  do I get to meet her?"

The smile dimmed, going from brighter than the sun to only as bright as the lamp in my room. "Um... I still don't know how good of an idea it would be to introduce a new girl into her life right now," he said slowly. 

I looked away from the camera again, only half watching where I was going. I was mostly trying to look and seem like what he had just said hadn't affected me as much as it did. I guess it was all for his daughter, though. He knew more about being a parent than I did. "Okay," I said. "I understand. You're probably right."

"Mariah-" Kellin started, but I cut him off. 

"I'm in LA right now, and I have no clue where I'm going or where anything is, so I have to go. Bye." I hung up before he could say anything else. 

"You're Mariah, aren't you?" a man said from behind me.

I sometimes forgot that I was YouTube famous, and never remembered that people would recognize me when I went places. I turned around and nodded. "Yes, sir," I answered, putting on a smile. Quite honestly, I wasn't really into the whole being nice to everybody that came up to me and smiling at everything that person said right now, but it came with me being on the internet. 

"Good," the man said, walking closer to me. He wasn't attractive in any sense of the word, but I felt that he carried a sort of charisma that drew most girls in. It just kind of creeped me out. 

I tried my best to avoid eye contact with the man, glancing absentmindedly at the busy streets and stores of LA. When I looked back at the man, he was so close to me that I could feel his breath on my cheek. The fake smile was wiped from my face as the man spun me around, pinning my arms behind my back and putting something over my eyes. "What do you-?"

"Shut up," he growled in my ear, hitting the back of my head and making the whole world disappear. All that was left was a bitter and cold emptiness that pulled me farther and farther into its depths.

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*A/N thanks for reading! There's some pretty intense shiz going down in this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed it. Please COMMENT, VOTE, and KEEP READING. thanks(: xoxo

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