Anything But That

Chapter 5

Reece POV
When Reece Jamie Bibby woke up, he was confused.

He was in a bed that was queen sized, and his own was most definitely a single- this he knew for sure from all the times his younger sister Lexi tried to climb in with him during thunderstorms and he inevitably fell off throughout the night.

He also did not have bedsheets with little mice in tutus on them with a pillow that smelt like girl shampoo.

And then he saw the defining feature of the room and his jaw dropped. "No, no, no no nononono not the bloody meme wall." he sat up, running his hands through his hair. "Not Lydia, no, Jake's gonna murder me."

He heard a noise coming from a side of the room. Lydia was stood in the doorway of the bathroom in an oversized shirt and he was acutely aware of the lack of bra.

"Please tell me I didn't do anything I shouldn't have last night." he begged.

"Other than get mad drunk and completely disregard your own safety, no, nothing particularly bad happened after you came up to my room."

Two heads popped up from the floor next to him and the green-eyed boy just about pooped himself. "If something weird happened, we would've woken up and had a very uncomfortable situation on our hands." George said.

"Christ on a biscuit, what the hell is going on?" Reece gasped, surprised at the sight of his two best friends all wrapped up in blankets on the ground.

Lydia opened her mouth as if to reply but was interrupted by a heavy knocking from the window. She walked over and opened it, and in climbed a gangly black haired boy who looked vaguely familiar; he had been at the party last night.

"You're here early for someone who went home with a girl last night. What do you want, Mac?" The girl sounded angry.

"I just wanted to apologize."

"Apologize for what?"

"For not telling you about AJ and I. I was going to but I never did, and that's on me, and I'm sorry. But last night, AJ and I went to our own houses. We realised we didn't actually like each other, we were just taking our frustration out on each other because we liked someone else. Forgive us?" Mac asked, stretching his arms out with a hopeful smile on his face.

Lydia looked like she was trying not to cry, but she bit her lip and nodded, folding herself into Mac's arms. Reece felt a slight pang in his stomach as he watched the two. He didn't really know what they had fought about but it seemed so nice the way they just together. He wished he'd had that kind of bond with Gemma.

"Okay," Mac announced, "Now that that's out of the way, do you care to explain why there's three minimally clothed boys in your room, and one of them in your bed?"

***

After an incredibly brief rundown of the events from the night before, the girl and four boys decided that they were hungry- or, the boys decided, and the girl had to supply.

They trooped down the stairs like the food-driven animals that they were, but stopped short at the entrance to the kitchen.

Sat at the kitchen counter was a lady in her mid-forties, with brown hair pinned up at the back of her head in a loose bun. She was tall, with impeccable posture, and the New Hope Club boys couldn't help but feel intimidated by the stranger.

"Oh, Amelia, you're home!" Lydia cried excitedly, pushing past her friends to envelope the woman in a hug.

"Yes, the Geneva meeting ended early! Also, your father just finished his conference with the US government so he's on the way back from the airport! How fabulous is that?"