Cali // younowers ( Hunter Rowland, Mark Thomas, Weston Koury, Mario Selman )

chapter 5

Mark's pov  

I walk into the house with Hunter after a long work out at the gym and run home. 

"Am I buff now guys?" I flex with a smirk and Madison rolls her eyes with a smile from the floor by the living room and Noah laughs from the kitchen counter. 

"I call dibs on the shower!" Hunter sprints up the stairs and I follow close behind. I try and pull him back by his shirt, but he hops into the bathroom, swiftly shutting the door behind him. 

I cuss at him through the door before going to my room and getting a blue and white tank top, blue shorts, and undewear before going into the girl's room downstairs.

"I'm using your shower. Thanks." I tell Maggie who lays on the bed. 

I turn the shower on, colder than usual. I heard it's good to shower with cold water after excersing; before getting out of my sweaty clothes and getting into the shower. 

The cold water feels good after the long work out and I enjoy it for like 10 minutes before realizing I'm really cold. I get out and start dressing when the sound of heavily breathing and sniffing fills the silence. I fix my hair and throw on Noah's sweatshirt that's on the floor before peaking out the door.

Tears stream down Maggie's face and I quickly approach her.

"What's wrong?"

"I miss Luke, a lot. When I lived in Georgia, we would always always be together." She cries. "I can't take it being apart from him." She covers her face and I sit on the bed next to her, pulling her into a hug.

I'm not flirting, she has a boyfriend and I respect it, but she's sad and I'll do anything to make her happier.

"Hey, but think of how proud your making him. Oh and when you do see him again, it'll be even more special."

"I want him now." She whimpers, burying her face into my chest.

"Then you have something to look forward to. Seeing him."

"Summer." She mutters. 

"There ya go! Summer is pretty soon!" I exclaim cheerfully. Something about knowing this Luke guy is gonna be here makes me uneasy. Or jealous. Not that I like Maggie, a taken girl or anything.

She wipes her face before saying, "Thanks Mark. I'm gonna go shower." I nod as she disappears into the bathroom. I stay in place on the bed and go through my texts and talk to a fan who got my number.

I then text Nathan about his new merch and he gives me the number of the person who teamed up with him to make it.

I'm distracted from my phone when the bathroom door opens, Maggie wears black shorts, a cropped but oversized white shirt and her blonde hair in a ponytail.

"Would I bother you if I stay?" I asked at the tired looking girl.

"Not at all." She smiles. I scoot over and she climbs in the bed next to me under the covers. My arm ends up around her and her head ends up on my upper chest and it feels so right. Don't get to comfortable. 

**************************************** 

"WHAT THE FUDGE NUGGETS BRO?" Hunter yells into his phone leaving the quite living room after answering a call from Brandon. I wipe the tiredness from my eyes from the short nap I took with Maggie before I left for food.

"Pass the bag." I demand to Noah who takes some dorritos from the bag. He does as told and I stuff as much as possible into my mouth.

"Weston you're on tv!" I yell. The blonde boy runs from down the stairs in excitement and stops infront of the tv. Disappointment crosses over his face when he notices Girl Meets World is on.

"There you are Farkle." I burst out into laughter before Weston tackles me to the floor and starts fake punching me.

"Ladies, ladies you're all beautiful." Mario soothes with a smile, but then comes and sits on top of Weston and I, where we tried to reasel. "Well this is fun." he grins

"Sorry to interrupt your threesome, but Brandon freaking got in a fight today!" Hunter snaps angrily, sitting on the one person couch.

"What the hell.. what happened?" Mario turns more serious, getting out of our little pile.

"I don't even know, this kid made fun of him and he got mad so he punched him."

Brandon's pov 

"Brandon Rowland's still here?" Zach points his phone at me and pretends to take a picture in the  empty hallway. I was late again and of course the "bad boy" wonders around with a bathroom pass.

"Wow who would've thought a student would show up at his own school." I roll my eyes and keep walking on my way to first period, history.

"I would've thought you went to California with your big brother... I guess that's another person who didn't care about you and left you." My heart dropped when he said that, he knows about my dad after Hunter opening up about it on broadcast briefly. 

I stop walking and turn around to the taller boy who keeps an amused grin on his face. "Don't ever talk about my dad again." I growl. "And Hunters my bestfrined, he didn't leave me."

"Whatever you say." He laughs. "Like father like son." With that, he turns around and walks in the opposite direction. I run over to him, jumping on his back, sending the boy to the floor before punching him across the face. He wrestles me to the ground now and punches my eye, making it throb and hard to see out of. We're there wrestling each other and I manage one more punch to his nose before letting out a scream, I wasn't scared, but who fights in silence like the fudge?

Two teachers come rushing to us, pulling us apart. 

"Both of you to the deans office, now."

Hunter's pov

Everything that Brandon told me is my fault. I shouldn't have left him, what kind of brother am I? I should've waited until the summer so he could finish school and we could goto Cali together.

Does he feel heartbroken when I left like how we all felt when Dad left us?

As soon as he told me what the guy said to him, I broke down in tears. Thankfully, no one saw me. Leaving my family was hard enough before all this, and hearing that someone compared me to our dad like that to the little boy I'm supposed to be a role model to? 

Mom said I had to help take care of the family, with Tyler at college I'm the man of the house. Being here means more opportunities meaning more money and more to provide for my family, but what does that matter when Brandon could be feeling abandoned again?

When Dad first left, Brandon was little, still old enough to have a conversation with, but little. He stopped talking. He barely talked to us, but in public with other people, he totally shut down. It took a year for him to be able to talk infront of someone. 

After that, he was still extemley shy, except around me, being his best friend. At school he was never one to talk a lot. Younow really opened him up and that's why I'm really so thankful for it.

Anyways, I don't want Brandon to go back. We stay in the present and future.

I have to be a better brother. Miles away, I'm not really sure how. Times like this I forget how to think like a 14 year old boy. Things aren't as easy as it seems, but I'm going to try my best to be the best, for everyone.