Mutual

Chapter Five

Hannah's POV:

I open my eyes to the bright sun coming through the window. I try to sit up but a weight on my stomach pushes me back down. It takes a minute for me to get my bearings. We all fell asleep on the sofa after having a high school musical marathon last night. Jack is laid on my stomach and I'm snuggled into Brook. I look at him to see his doe eyes looking at mine.
"Hey, Brooky."
"Hey, beautiful."
I close my eyes again and he strokes my hair. It's so relaxing I almost fall asleep again. He kisses my forehead and I snuggle in closer to him. Unfortunately, as I'm just getting comfortable, Jack wakes up and starts wriggling around.
"Good morning sleeping beauty!"
"Morning." He replies in a gruff voice, slowly getting up as he saunters into the kitchen.
"Grab us some cereal please Jack!" Of course, I'm met with silence from the kitchen and Sonny rolls over on the floor beneath us and glares at me.
"I love you but please never shout in a morning again."
"Morning? It's closer to afternoon!" Andy says, walking in.
"Why, what time is it?" I ask.
"11:57."
Brook jumps up, forgetting I'm still laying on him. "Shit."
"Careful! Where did you sleep last night, Andy?"
"Me and Rye slept in a much comfier bed. We thought we wanted to get some actually decent sleep."
"Which bed did you guys sleep in, yours or ryes?" I smirk, and Brook sends me a questioning look.
"Erm..." He looks rather sheepish for a moment before recovering, "I never said it was the same bed!"
"Okay, but you said bed, singular. Don't try and get outta this one babe." I laugh. He knows I'm only teasing but he still turns bright red.
"Can you come in the kitchen please, Andy?" Jack shouts. Andy takes the opportunity to scurry through.
"What did you mean by that, Hannah?" Brook interrogates.
"Nothing at all! It's just an inside joke we had a few years back. He probably  doesn't remember."
"Oh okay."
I know I should get up but I pull Brook back down onto the sofa so I can snuggle into him more. I never seem to get a break, though. Typically enough, my phone starts ringing.

Me: Hello?
Kathryn: Hey! My plane just landed. You here yet?
Me: I'm just on my way, I'll be there soon. See you later!
Kathryn: Alright bye!

"For fucks sake."
"What happened?"
"I forgot I was picking my best friend up from the airport. Come with me?"
"Sure."
We leg it to my house as we are quite near, and we get into my car. Brook puts on the radio and "Eternal" comes on.

How can someone be right here
Then without a warning, disappear.
Like we were just talking on the phone
Then in a moment a silent tone.
Why'd you leave?
Why'd you go?
When you leave,
Where'd you go?
I see you when I look to the stars,
Eternal, eternal we are.
I feel it right here deep in my heart,
Eternal, eternal we are.

Twenty minutes later and we're at the airport car park. I spot Kathryn on a bench and beep at her. She runs over and opens the passenger door before realising that the seat is occupied. She jumps in the back.
"Hey! Thanks for picking me up."
"No problem. Good holiday?"
"Oh god, it was amazing! I'll tell you more when we get the alcohol out. Who's this?"
"Of course knowing you, you're wanting alcohol. This is Brooklyn."
"Brooklyn? Is he an ex?" Brook and I start howling.
"No, he's a friend of Andy's."
"Andy? Who the fucks Andy? Wait! Andy Andy?"
"Yeh haha."
"Nice to meet you... umm.."
"Kathryn. Nice to meet you."
I start driving, changing gears. "Are we going back to yours, Brook, or shall I just drop you off and pick Thomas up?"
"You're welcome at any time. In fact, I think it would be a good idea for you to come. We haven't got studio or anything tomorrow so we could have a bit of a party and get some alcohol?"
"Yeh I'm down. Kathryn?"
"You had me at alcohol!"
"That was the last word..."
"Also, can I ask what you mean by studio, Brooklyn? And will it just be us four?"
"I'm in a boyband. Check us out, we're RoadTrip. I live with my bandmates and Thomas is over there still."
"Oh that's cool - whose the fit guy with the curls?"
"Curls? That would be Sonny."
"Damn..." She says under her breath.

We pull up outside the house and knock on the door.
"I forgot my key, sorry guys."
"It's okay."
The door opens and, of course, Sonny is stood there. "It's so typical of you to forget your key, mate."
"Hey, Sonny!" I go to hug him.
"Hey, Hannah! Whose this?" It's easy enough for him to look over at Kathryn as he's 50 inches taller than me. Okay, that's a bit much of an exaggeration, he's around 7 inches taller.
"Err... I'm umm.. err.. fucking attractive"
"Oh dear, that's embarrassing for you. This is KATHRYN, my best friend."
"H-hi"
Sonny hugs her, "Hey, fucking attractive. Your name really describes you that's so odd! Did your parents have a vision into the future to see how beautiful you'd be? I'm Sonny. Well, Ryan. I don't know, you can call me whatever."
Kathryn turns to face me, and she looks as though she may pass out.
"Keep talking Sonny, she's clearly at a loss for words" Brook belly laughs.
Rye appears, coming to see what all the commotion is about. "Hey! Whose here? Oh my god, Kathryn, is that you? How are you?"
"Rye!" She collects herself together and envelopes him in a hug.
I'm confused. "You guys know each other?"
"Went to school together." He shrugs.
"Huh, It's a small world."
Andy comes out looking like he's just come out of the shower. He hugs everyone in turn. "Hey, I'm Andy."
"Kathryn."
Somewhere inside, Jack shouts, "Hey guys, can someone come and check this? I finally finished the song I was writing."
"Oh my God, you weren't lying when you said you were a boyband."
"No haha."

Let me set the scene for you. Jack and Thomas are sat in a corner, talking. Kathryn is sat on Sonny's knee (yeah, she recovered fast), talking to me and Brook about her holiday. Rye and Andy aren't even in the room, no idea where they are. Everyone's pretty drunk.
"And so we went swimming with dolphins. It was such an expe-"
Rye comes storming through the living with Andy following shortly behind.
"Rye, come back, please." He stammers, desperately.
The door slams. Andy looks at me and tears start to fill his eyes. He runs back to his room. I stand up and follow him.

"Andy? What's happened?"
Andy lies down in his bed facing the wall sobbing uncontrollably. I get in beside him and wrap my arms around him. He turns around and cuddles into me. We stay like this for a while until he calms a little.
"I fucked up our friendship, Han. I really did."
"Hey, no no. Think positively. Just give him so space for a while."
"I saw that he was messaging a fan whilst we were playing FIFA, and didn't think anything of it at first. He put his phone down on the table whilst he went to the loo. His phone went off repeatedly and I checked who it was, like he would normally ask me to. Long story short, this 'fan' has hold of some explicit photos of his and is threatening him. When he returned, I asked him about it, and yelled at me, saying I shouldn't be on his phone. It quickly turned into an argument and he ran off. He physically couldn't have left quicker, barely had time to put a jacket on."
"Oh no. This could be bad."
"Exactly. I don't know what to do."
"What exactly does she want him to do? What is she blackmailing him for?"
"I'm not exactly sure. Something to with his girlfriend?"
"His girlfriend?"
"Honor. They're keeping it low-key at the moment but I'm certain you'll meet her soon."
"Okay. Should we go out and look for Rye?"
"Give him time to clear his head. He'll be back soon, and will be calmer. It will be then easier to figure out how we are going to resolve this."
"Okay, that's a good point."
"Join me for a nap?"
"Of course."
He wipes his eyes, snuggles up to me, and falls asleep. Well, if you can't beat them, join them. My eyes shut and I fall into a heavy, deep sleep.

~~~
A/N

So, I have changed this chapter quite a bit as I didn't like how it was written and a couple of things that I wrote. This book went a whole different direction and there were a few things in this chapter that eventually wouldn't add up. This also means that the next few chapters need quite a bit of a change too so if you're reading this now and the next chapters don't exactly make sense... that's why. I promise they will soon!

1451 words