Five Boys, One Girl

Chapter 7 - One more chance

Chapter 7

Will POV

I wait, my hands clenched. Jason is completely still beside me and the twins just hold their breath. Allie looks between us and then glances at Rosie. They seem to have a conversation with their eyes and then Allie turns to me.

‘Okay.’ We all let out our breath,

‘What?’ I ask, still not believing it. I was expecting her to tell me where to go.

‘One more chance boys, one more.’ We all nod and Jason leaps up and runs over. He grabs her in a hug and she giggles.

‘Put me down Jason.’ He finally does and then she looks at the twins. They nod at each other but I can tell that the nod conveys more emotion. Finally she looks at me. I slowly take steps forward until we are inches apart. Silence falls and even the cafeteria is staring at the show. Suddenly I lean forward and wrap her in a hug. I don’t spin her around like Jason, I just hold her and somehow, that’s enough. She wraps her arms around my waist after a moment and squeezes,

‘Please don’t make me regret this.’ She whispers and I hold her tighter,

‘Never.’ I say quietly in her hear and then pull away, slowly she smiles at me and I grin back. For the rest of the day we seem to catch up on all the laughs we have missed and Hunter turns to her at the end of gym.

‘Hey, you’re still riding with us right? This morning was just because of yesterday.’ She nods with a smile,

‘Yeah, I couldn’t deal with a car ride with you guys this morning. No offence.’ We all smile at her,

‘None taken.’ The twins say in unison and she gives them a disgusted look,

‘Seriously you two, it creeps me out when you do that.’ They laugh and high five each other. Like the day before we take her back to our house but this time Chance is home. Just after she walked out yesterday he came in and glared at us,

‘What did you guys do? She was practically crying.’ We all look at him in surprise, he always seems like he doesn’t like her but I know it’s just because he wants to protect us. None of us say anything and he growls,

‘What did you fuckheads do?’ Slowly I tell him everything that happens and if anything he seems to get angrier.

‘Oh well done brother, you judgemental prick. You better apologise to her tomorrow and it better be epic.’ He storms off and so the boys and I spent the evening debating how to apologise. I snap out of it as I walk into the kitchen and see Chance.

‘Hey.’ I say and he nods at me,

‘You apologise?’ He asks and I nod,

‘Yeah, she’s here.’ He raises an eyebrow,

‘Okay then.’ He turns to walk out and then looks back once,

‘Oh, and don’t cock it up this time Will.’ I smirk and nod at him before he walks upstairs just as the others walk in.

‘Let’s watch a film.’ I suggest before anyone can ask where Chance is. Jason makes some popcorn and sets it down in the table.

‘What we watching?’ He asks and I look at Allie,

‘You can pick, consider it another part of our apology.’ She nods,

‘Okay.’ She begins to flick through the DVD’s and suddenly pulls one out but hides it behind her back. I feel nervous when I see the evil smile on her face.

‘Hell no, what are you going to make us watch?’ Hayden groans and she smiles sweetly at him,

‘If you sit through all of this with no comments and you watch the whole thing then you can consider yourselves’ completely forgiven.’

‘Deal.’ We all say at the same time and she looks taken aback but pops the dvd into the player. When the home screen comes up all four of us groan. The screen reads High School Musical. However we want her to forgive us and so obediently sit through the film with no comments. About halfway through I can hear someone quietly singing along but when I look at Allie she is looking around confused as well.

‘Jason… please don’t tell me you are singing along.’ I say and immediately the singing stops,

‘Um, no.’ I start to laugh hysterically and I am soon joined by Allie and the twins. My younger brother crosses his arms,

‘Assholes. What? It’s a good film.’ When we have finally calmed down we all decide to put the subtitles on and sing along. Chance comes into the lounge but turns and walks away when he sees us. The film finally finishes and by now the twins are sitting with their backs against the sofa while Allie sits between Jason and I. The twins start to play Call of Duty while we watch. Allie stretches and yawns, Jason glances at her and then softly tugs her shoulder so that her head is on a pillow on his lap. She smiles faintly and her eyes close slightly as Jason starts to comb fingers through her hair absentmindedly, I grit my teeth but say nothing. Allie’s legs are bent and so I reach out my hand and pull her feet onto my lap so she is comfortably lain on the couch. She mutters something that sounds like,

‘Thanks, Will.’ But I’m not sure. Her breathing slows down and I realise she is asleep. The twins realise as well and lower the voices. Chance walks into the doorway,

‘It suddenly went quiet, I wondered what was wrong.’ I gesture at the sleeping girl,

‘She fell asleep, don’t wanna wake her.’ Chance looks angry for a second but then all emotion vanishes.

‘Oh, right.’ He turns and walks away but I forget about him when Allie starts to mumble and thrash about. The twins turn around in concern as her hand lashes out and hits Hayden around the back of the head. Of course, it doesn’t actually hurt. She is mumbling but then her voice gets louder,

‘No, no. He’s coming back, he’ll be there. He’ll always be there.’ Her tone is scared  and we try and shake her but she doesn’t wake up. We keep nudging her but nothing happens and her arms are flailing. She is shouting and I hear footsteps thundering down the stairs. Chance appears yet again and quickly takes in the scene.

‘Hold her arms.’ He barks at Jason who does and taking three steps forward Chance quickly slaps her around the face. I growl, furious and the twins stand up pushing Chance away. I’m not sure what comes over me but I punch Chance in the nose and he stumbles away, the blood already spurting over his hands. He looks at me shocked and even the twins give me a weird look but I don’t care. He just fucking hit her. I suddenly realise the shouting has stopped, we all look at Allie who sits up and looks around.

‘What happened?’ Jason brushes the hair away from her face,

‘You had a nightmare and we couldn’t wake you up. Chance came down and slapped you.’ Jason glares at our eldest brother here, ‘Will punches him and you woke up.’ Allie nods and sits up she pushes through me and the twins and looks at Chance,

‘Thank you.’ She says softly while we all stare at her in confusion. He nods wordlessly at her and then she turns to us.

‘I’m gonna go, see you tomorrow.’ She leaves before anyone can stop here and once the door slams shut I turn to glare at my brother.

‘Why did you hit here?’ I growl and he spits the blood that has gone into his mouth.

‘Because she was having a nightmare and a bad one at that. The only way ot break her out of it is to give her a sharp slap. Your gentle nudging would have done nothing and she would have been facing whatever her subconscious was throwing at her. So tell me would you rather she was suffering and getting no sleep or me give her a slap and she is fine?’ I am silent and my brother glares at me.

‘That’s what I thought. Don’t punch me again, and if you knew what was good for you. You’d stay away from her. She has problems we could do without.’ I snarl at him and pushing past I storm upstairs, ignoring the voices calling me back.