I Found You, Something Told Me To Stay - (Jason/Zacky) Version Two.

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

I'm not overly thrilled with this chapter, but I spent too long tweaking bits and I really just wanted to get it posted. I've nearly finished the next one as well, so that'll be up a lot quicker!

Please vote, comment and tell me what you think! :D

Enjoy!<3

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It had turned out that being grounded had included no socialisation with my family members as well as my friends.

I thought, at first, that it’d be easy. My mother had never cared enough about my behaviour or wellbeing to set any rules, so I’d never been grounded before in my life, but the idea of being grounded until my birthday hadn’t really bothered me. If anything, it made it easier to keep my promise to Zacky and stay away from Ronnie; he’d called a few times and tried to persuade me to sneak out, though I’d put my foot down and refused every time.

One week and four days was exactly how long I was grounded for, and the first five days hadn’t bothered me in the slightest. I’d been allowed to keep my phone, yet only for emergencies, so my dad had kept a close eye on me to make sure I wasn’t accepting any calls from anyone I didn’t need to. And whenever he had to go out and couldn’t keep an eye on me himself, he made Zacky the only exception to the no interacting with family rule, and he had him round at our house, watching me for him. I secretly hadn’t minded, of course, but every time he turned up at our door, I gave a playful scowl and pretended I didn’t want him to be there.

I’d grown so used to always having at least one person in the house with me, that when I woke up on the morning of my birthday to a quiet, completely empty house, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself.

I sat up in bed and stretched my arms out, a sleepy groan escaping my lips as I did so. My eyes darted to the clock on my night stand, and although I usually hated sleeping in too late, seeing that I’d slept in past noon for the first time in a while really didn’t bother me. My gaze flickered to the date that was written on the clock, and I felt a grimace pull at my face; secretly, I’d hoped I could sleep through my birthday. I’d never made much of a fuss of them, but everyone in the Avenged family had made it clear to me that they would.

Grabbing my phone as I hopped out of bed, I lit up the screen to be met with numerous different texts from everyone, wishing me a happy birthday and making some comment about how they were excited for tonight’s party. I smiled genuinely, as it felt good to actually have people who cared, though I secretly would have been happy with a quiet night in watching movies. The idea of this party, however, seemed to make everybody happy, so I was determined to have a good time.

I quickly showered and got ready, before making my way downstairs. The house was so quiet that I found myself turning the television on, just to create a bit of background noise, but I ignored whatever was on the screen and wandered through to the kitchen. The first thing I laid my eyes on was a folded piece of paper lying on the kitchen island, and I picked it up, studying the words and smiling down at my dad’s writing; “Happy birthday, baby. I’ve gone to Matt’s to help set up your party and your surprise. I’ll see you there”.

As I placed the piece of paper back down, I slid onto a stool and stared around the kitchen, drumming my fingers against the countertop. I felt like I wanted to do something productive, but I wasn’t sure what, and before I could even wrack my brain for any ideas, a knock came to the front door.

I was so desperate to find anything to do, that I practically threw myself off of the stool and darted to the door. Upon pulling it open, my gaze fell onto Dylan, who was stood on the door step, a backpack on his back like always, a balloon in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. As his gaze met mine, a grin pulled at his lips, and I couldn’t help but return it.