Why Don't We Just...

Jack

// May 9, 2017 \\

Jonah and Corb were chilling by the pool while Zach and Danny threw the football around. I sat in a chair with Nicole in my lap. She laid her head on my chest and I rubbed her hands. We talked until a loud crash was heard from the house. Everyone stopped what they were doing and then it was quiet.

"I'll go check it out." Nicole stood and I walked around carefully. I looked around downstairs and nothing looked out of place, until I went upstairs. Glass.. everywhere. A frame of one of Drake's platinum records was destroyed; it was Jonah's favorite one. I crept back through the hallway and the bathroom door was open. I looked inside and- CHESHIRE! I immediately went to her and knelt down. Her skin was still warm but she didn't look good at all.

"JONAH!! COME HERE, NOW!!" I yelled as loud as I could and not long after Jonah came to where we were, panting. He calmed down as he saw her lying there.

"What..?" That was all he could say. I stepped aside and called and ambulance while Jonah picked up Cheshire and took her downstairs to the living room. About 20 minutes later the paramedics flooded our house. There was about 10 of them and so many pieces of equipment.. I don't know what happened but they said she'd be fine, so we were going to need answers.

"Hey, what happened to her?" Nic asked quietly.

"I don't know babe. But we'll find out when she's better. I'm sure Jonah wants to go the the hospital with her so he'll tell us what's going on." As soon as she was headed to the hospital, the day went as normal as we could make it. We all shook off what happened and continued our poolside day. Nicole excused herself to go take a nap and I sighed, standing up and removing my shoes to swim with Zach. An hour later I walked into Nicole's room and she was still sleeping. I quietly stepped over to her bed and laid down beside her. She shifted as the bed moved, but didn't wake up. I stared at her; she looked so peaceful, unbothered and beautiful. Her eyes fluttered open and she gave a tired smile.

"Heyyyy you.." She said drowsily.

"Hey back. You feeling okay?" She groaned and sat up.

"Yeah. Is Cheshire okay?"

"We don't know yet. Jonah hasn't called but I want you watch a movie with me."

"Why?"

"Please?" I made a pouting face, knowing she can't resist it. She smiled and gave in. We sat together on the couch half-naked under a blanket. We watched "Don't Breathe" and after that she demanded we watch "Before I Fall" as well. Hate to admit it but my emotions cheated me and Nic laughed through her tears watching me cry. We talked after that when my phone rang:

"Hey man what's up?"

"Well I'm outside the room right now."

"What'd the doctors say?" I sat up and Nicole shifted down the couch.

"I don't know they won't tell me anything right now. They made me leave the room- said Cheshire wanted me out.."

"Why?"

"I dunno. I want to ask her but haven't got the chance to. I'll let you know if there's any news."

"Alright man, peace." I ended the call and laid the phone over on the side table.

"What was that about?" Nicole asked

"Chesh won't let Jonah in. Don't know why." She scrunched up her nose and furrowed her brow.

"I know." We got off the couch and dressed ourselves. It's 2:15 now so the rest of us are going bowling and skating to take up some time. When I was 15 and Nic was 14, we skated all the time. It was our thing to do when we were bored. Her dad worked at a skating rink when he was 20 and he had a friend who worked there with him; still did at the time so we got in for a lot less than anyone else. Chilling in our usual corner booth eating pizza and drinking Cola while cracking jokes at Mrs. Callahan's weird lisp was the highlight of my day. I remember when she had laughed so hard soda shot out of her nose and that made me laugh so hard that I choked on my pizza.. which made us laugh even harder. The manager had to make sure we weren't dying so he wouldn't get a lawsuit and after that we were picked up and went back to my house to do our homework. That night was when I realized I was starting to fall for her. It wasn't major, my inner self said that she was my best friend and only my best friend, but I couldn't ignore that part of me that said she was something more. The way she bit the end of her pencil when she focused, the way her eyes gleamed when something made her happy or excited, the constant tapping of her fingernails when something frustrated her were only a few of the hundred things I noticed and loved about her.

"Aye Jack-bud, Ready?" Corbyn called from my door.

"Yeah, let's go." I drove and Nic sat in the back with Corbyn and Zach was beside me. This guy was a terrible driver so he always sat in the front to "observe and achieve" as he would say. I just told him to drive but he was too scared with this "California traffic".. he's not entirely wrong. On the way to the rink we sang way too loud and told many jokes. I almost ran over a dog while laughing and swerved all over the road.

"Mmm... sorry guys." They all laughed and I took a breath and focused on getting us to the rink alive.

// 3 hours later \\

We were out longer than expected and I had to speed our way home. Jonah texted and said that he found out why he was kicked out, talked it over, and sorted everything out. He took Cheshire back to the house and was on his way to our friend Logan's house. Once we arrived, Logan hugged us, introduced us to his dog, Kong, and then we discussed our music video for our new song "Something Different". The rest of the night went well and around 8:00, we headed back home. When we pulled up there was a white truck: "Daisy's Cleaning", it read. We looked at each other and walked in the house.

"The hell...?" The living room was covered in whipped cream, glitter, and flower petals. The girls were soaked with glitter scattered all through their hair. There was a third girl, she was tall and had brown hair. Beside me, Corbyn was stiff. He studied the girl as if she was a statue in a museum and gasped.

"Oakley?!", he said. He jogged toward her, not caring his shoes were getting water and whipped cream on them. The girl looked like she saw a ghost until Corbyn pulled her into a hug. They talked for a bit and went out to the backyard.

"Okay, what happened here?" I said.

"Well.. hmm." Nicole started. "We wanted to make a video and things happened."

"Yeah I can tell."

"But we are cleaning it up. And we called someone to help us." As she said this, a man and a woman dressed in grey jump suits came from the kitchen. They waved at us and I looked at them.

"Hey, how much will this cost?"

"Only $200.", the man said. I looked from Jonah to Daniel and to Zach and we shrugged.

"Well, at least we know you girls are having fun." I handed the man his money, kissed Nic goodnight, then walked upstairs to change. After a long shower, I dried my hair and put on grey sweatpants. I fell on the bed and picked up my phone, posting a picture on Snapchat and checking Instagram. Two quick knocks on my door and a bang let me know Zach was at the door.

"Enter, young armadillo." I said jokingly. He came in and laughed and asked to borrow my Xbox controller. I handed it to him and he walked out with a "thank you" and "goodnight".

"Night." I laid my phone on the bed beside me and turned off the light. A while later I was half asleep when I felt a weight on top of me.

"Heyyyyy." Nicole said in a sing-songy way.

"What's up?", I said groggily.

"Sorry about the mess. Honestly we were doing a live stream and Oakley started sprinkling glitter in our hair and things just escalated from there." I chuckled and said it was okay.

"Ooh, hot." She said, smirking.

"What is?"

"That. What you said. Your voice sounds sexy when your tired."

"Wow, everyone says that!" I said with a mocking enthusiasm.

"Everyone? What you mean by that, hmm?"

"Chill, haha." I touched her arm and rubbed her hand. "You're the only who's told me that actually so you get a gold star."

"Oh I don't want it. I already have one." She said this as she leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Goodnight, Sugar." She walked out, gently closing the door.