Becoming Us || l.h

Chapter 1

The summer is a time for catching up on sleep, seeing as school completely ruins your sleep schedule nine out of the twelve months. It's like being pregnant without getting fat, but it's a lot more crying, especially when you're writing a paper at three in the morning.

But now it's summer, so it's all good! I can sleep all day, and no one will bother me. Something starts poking my butt, and I have no idea what it is. I attempt to hit it away, but I hit nothing, the poking ceasing for a moment. I burrow back into my pillows until the poking begins again, this time more frequent. "Go away," I mumble into my pillow, unable to lift my head. I don't know who is there, and frankly, I could care less about who it was. The poking continues, a laugh coming from the culprit. Male.

"Zach, Austin, whoever you are, leave me alone!" I grumble, squeezing my eyes shut in hopes of more sleep. Apparently, that's not on today's schedule. I finally grab the wrist, lifting my head slowly and glaring at Blake. Wait, what? "Blake?" I ask, confusion lacing my voice. "Surprise!" He smiles, taking a seat beside me on my bed. "What are you doing here?" I ask, letting out a wide yawn. I grab my glasses off the dresser, hugging a pillow to my chest.

"You'll find out soon! How are you? I haven't seen you in forever!" "I'm tired, I just had three days of stressful finals, and you woke me up a lot earlier than planned." I accuse, frowning at him. He pokes his fingers into my cheeks, moving them up. "Smile." He orders, giving me a look. "Don't tell me what to do." I scold. "Also, happy birthday! Will you buy me alcohol?" He laughs, shaking his head. "Maybe later." I fist pump, grinning. "I sent your present to your house down in LA, if I had known you were coming back to New York I would have waited." "It was a last-minute plan, don't worry about it." He shakes his head, putting up a hand.

"Come downstairs, I want to introduce you to some people!" He grins, becoming very excited. "Let me change, and I'll be down. I'll meet you down there." I tell him, pushing him out of my room. I go into my closet, putting on a pair of black shorts with an older All Time Low tank I had. I brushed out my long hair and put in contacts, sliding on my teal converse. I hurried downstairs, taking the corner fast and almost running into my mom.

"Dylan Elizabeth Ryan! What have I told you about running in the house?" She demands but I stand there unmoving. "Dylan?" She repeats my name, waving a hand in front of my face. Blake appears behind her, smiling at me. I don't smile back but instead go back upstairs, slamming my bedroom door shut.

He has no right to bring her into this apartment! And to not even tell me she was here? I pace back and forth, biting my lip when my door opens partly, Blake sticking his head in. "You alright?" "Of course not! I hate that woman! Damn it! You can't just drop something like that on me, Blake! You knew how bad we were when you left! Why would you think after a year of not talking things would be fine? We never talked which also means we never apolo- well, she never apologized because I did nothing wrong and-" "Dylan, I'm sorry, I forgot about your fight, but can you please come downstairs and meet everyone?" He pleads, stepping into my room and closing the door.

"Give me a few minutes to calm down." "How 'bout I play you a new song?" He offers, grabbing the guitar off the stand. I snatch it out of his grasp, narrowing my eyes. "Right, forgot, again..." I nod, carefully putting it back. He grabs my other one from its case, tuning the guitar quickly before thinking for a moment.

"It's called Runnin', and it's one of my new favorites right now." He smiles, fingering the frets and getting a feel for the guitar before starting.

Pack your bags and let's go

First thing tomorrow morning

Say goodbye to all that we know