After Her

2

Hope paces back and forth. Christina told her not to go but she wants to.

"Screw it," Hope thinks "she can't tell me what to do"

She grabs the bag full presents and leaves her apartment. She shows up at the boy's house, leaves her presents in the car, walks to the door and knocks. Not long after Zach opens the door with Daniel standing behind him.

"You didn't have to knock you could've just come in," Zach says

"It just didn't feel right, Merry Christmas"

"Merry Christmas, it's good to have you back," Jack says while Hope hugs Zach

"Merry Christmas Daniel," she says and hugs him

They walk into the house and Christina looks at her.

"Hey guys," she says and sits down

"Hey Hope," Christina says through gritted teeth

"Hey, Christina how was your day?" Hope says awkwardly

"Let's open presents" Corbyn yells

"Let me go grab them there in my car" Hope excused herself and runs out to get the presents

She comes back in with a huge bag of presents.

"Go a little overboard?" Zach teases

"Every time I saw something that reminded me of one of you guys a bought it just to make sure I never ever forgot you. But now that I'm back I don't need them I have you guys."

"Awwwww," Jonah says "that's adorable"

"Love you sis"

Hope passes out all her presents and they open them.

"Sorry Christina I didn't know you existed until a few days ago," Hope says

"It's okay the only thing I have you is my burning hatred," Christina says quietly rolls her eyes

"Why don't you like me"

"Cause you leave for three years and come back and everyone loves you again. Corbyn was in love with you."

"Exactly WAS he not in love with me but not anymore"

"You can't be friends with someone you love unless you're still in love or you never loved them in the first place"

"Christina I promise you that Corbyn feels nothing for me"

The room was silent for the last part of Hope said and everyone heard. Hope excuses herself and walks into the kitchen. After a minute Zach comes in and leans in the counter.

"What was that about" he asks

"Nothing"

"Hope obviously it was about something"

"Christina thinks that there's something between Corbyn and me still. She keeps telling me to stay away from you guys, but I don't want to I missed you guys so much"

"Why did you leave us?"

"Because I needed to get out of the spotlight. I loved you all so much but I just couldn't keep going through it. I tried to kill myself 3 times and things weren't getting better. And you know what I haven't cut myself or even thought about trying to kill myself in two years."

"Really?"

"Yeah that break really helped me. I even saw a therapist about. I hated not seeing you and everyone but I needed to put myself first."

"Hope..."

She cuts him off and says, "I know I shouldn't have left but please don't hate me, it was selfish"

"Hope I'm proud of you" he says and hugs her as she starts crying

"What?" She utters barely load enough to hear.

"I'm proud of you. It wasn't selfish, sure you might have made us upset but you had to do what was best for you."

"Thanks you and Zach while were having this little heart to heart conversation I need to tell you something"

"Okay. What is it?"

"Christina's  been I don't really know how to put it.. ummm bullying me I guess."

"What are you talking about."

"She has this grudge against me. We went to grade school together and were best friends. Well she was bullied a lot and I would try to stand up for her but no one else would do anything about it. Well then my mom got transferred out of state and we had to move. Apparently things got really bad because no was there for her and she blames me."

"How is she bullying you now."

"She keeps telling me to kill myself, that I'm a failure, that you guys all hate me and laugh at me, that Corbyn never loved me and told me that if I came today she would make sure Corbyn hated me" 

Hope grabs her phone and shows it to Zach.

Before she can stop him he runs into the main room. He throws the phone at Corbyn and starts yelling.

"How dare you say those things to Hope. She's done nothing to you. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What are you talking about?" Christina tried to play dumb.

"He's talking about this" Corbyn says and hold the phone up

"I never sent that maybe someone texted from my phone"

"You're the only who knew that you and Hope met before" Zach says

"Fine I did it. I hate her guts and as soon as I get a boyfriend she shows back up and he just so happens to be in love with her."

"Why don't you trust me?" Corbyn says hurt

"Really you're not even going to deny that you're still in love with her" Christina says

Corbyn stays silent.

"He shouldn't have to. You have to trust him and that won't do anything" Hope speaks up still crying slightly.

"I'll trust him when he can look me in the eye and tell me he doesn't love you and want you back." Christina walks to Corbyn and holds his hand "Corbyn please just say it"

He looks at her and looks down at his shoes.

"I can't cause I never stopped loving Hope."

Hope looks up from the ground and smiles. Christina turns to her and launches herself at Hope. The both fall to the ground and the boys pull Christina off her.

"Get out Christina" Jonah says and walks her out.

A/N
Okay so first of all sorry for not updating and second of all sorry for such a long update. I'm not gonna make an excuse for not updating cause honestly I could've but I was having trouble figuring out how to write this.

Bye XO -Liv