Chapter Seventeen

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-Jana pov-

After a very long and sweaty day of chasing the boys around a filming for their survival video, I finally headed back to the house for hopefully a good night's sleep before an early morning. I had gotten more comfortable at the Dolan household during the past two days. Yesterday we went shopping for some supplies and mapped out the videos. We also spent a lot of time with Lisa and Sean. They're truly genuine and kind people, and they have done their very best to make me feel at home.

As I opened the back door I remembered Grayson crouching in his little hut, whispering me a goodnight since he wouldn't be allowed to come inside and share a bed with me like we did the night before.

A true shame.

"Jana!" A voice exclaimed. "Come in dear! You must be exhausted, I made you dinner!" Lisa took my hand, guiding me over to the table.

I took a seat before the generous meal of spaghetti and meatballs. "Oh Lisa, you're an angel!" I waited until she and Sean had sat to dig in, savoring the hearty meal after eating protein bars all day.

"How did everything go?" Sean asked in between bites.

"Good! Grayson has made himself a camp while Ethan..." We all shared the same look. It was pretty obvious who was going to win.

"Although my boys may look similar, they certainly have different personalties," Lisa said, laughing. "But that is what I love about them."

Sean chuckled along with her. "I hope they carry those traits with them for the rest of their lives."

"Oh they definitely will, especially with you two by their sides." I gushed, but I must have said the wrong thing, the mood at the table changing as Lisa's expression turned sour. "I-I'm sorry did I-?"

There was a few seconds of pause before Sean spoke up. "The boys haven't told you?"

"Told me what?" I looked back and forth between Lisa and Sean, trying to understand what they were speaking of.

"I have cancer," Sean said simply. "I'm doing okay right now, but I most likely don't have much longer."

I was speechless. "Oh my god, I-I had no idea! I'm so sorry..."

"It's okay sweetie, the boys don't like talking about it so it makes sense they never mentioned it. But I think you have a right to know." He clapped his hands. "Now! No more sad faces. Lisa, bring out that chocolate ice cream!"

Lisa shook her head, rubbing her face. "Yes dear." She stood, starting to clear the table off. I helped as well, taking the plates to the sink. We got the ice cream out and Sean decided we should eat our ice cream in the living room and watch a movie.

Although my original plan was to get a shower before bed; after finding out that Sean was very sick I couldn't say no. As we were walking into the living room the back door opened, Ethan strolling in.

"What are you-?" I asked, very surprised at his casual entrance.

"Ooo, is that chocolate ice cream? Can I have some?" He exclaimed, running into the kitchen. "I'll take the L, I'm so hungry!"

Lisa, Sean, and I laughed, shaking our heads but overall not very shocked at his failure of a pretty easy overnight challenge.

*the next morning*

"Wakey wakey!" I sang in a sing-song voice, shaking Grayson's shoulder.

He groaned, rolling over. "It can't be morning yet."

"It is."

"Well in that case..." He suddenly sprung up, grabbing my waist and pulling me down on the ground with him. "Good morning Jana."

We were nose to nose, our arms wrapped aliens each other. "Good morning Gray."

"Did you sleep well?" He had an insane morning voice, his eyes still glazed from sleep.

"Yes." I poked his arm. "Did you?"

He scoffed. "Nope, and I won't tonight either but tomorrow..." He pulled me closer, kissing my collarbone.

I relaxed into his touch, but a thought nagged at me. "Grayson?"

"Yeah?" He was occupying himself with the nape of my neck.

"Why didn't you tell me about your dad?"

He immediately pulled away, a look of shock on his face. "Who-?"

"He did. Your dad told me about the cancer. Why didn't you? It would have been nice to be notified."

Grayson sighed. "It's not easy to talk about."

"I thought we promised to trust each other."

He got a far away look in his eyes. "Yeah, I guess we did." He says up, stretching out. "You should go wake Ethan up."

"Oh I did already, he slept at the house."

"He did what?!"

*the next day*

As soon as the challenge was over both of the boys jumped into the shower before eating big meals. I didn't talk to them much, letting them spend time with their mom and dad. And I had been with them non-stop the past two days.

Since our flight was later that night I wanted to get work done during the day; which included getting the footage uploaded and cutting out the parts we absolutely did not need. I sat at Grayson's desk, my AirPods in as I edited.

"Hey." A hand rested on my shoulder, the thumb massaging the back of my neck.

"Oh, hey." I turned around.

Grayson smiled softly. "Come down to eat, we can do that later."

I hummed, shutting my laptop. "Okay."

He took my hand, leading me downstairs but he suddenly stopped. "You know you're not completely honest with me, too."

I froze. "What?"

"I understand that I can be shady sometimes, but damn Jana! I know nothing about your family!" His voice rose slightly, some of that aggression sufarcing that I hadn't seen in some time.

"I pulled my hand out of his, wrapping my arms around myself. "Maybe I don't like to talk about it."

He scoffed. "And maybe I don't like talking about my dying dad or my-." He stopped himself, running a hand down his face. "You know what? Never mind. This isn't worth it."

"So I'm not worth it?" I choked out, annoyed that he wouldn't meet my gaze.

Grayson shut his eyes, sighing. "Yeah, I guess so." He shook his head again, walking away and down the stairs.

I took a deep breath, deciding to hold off my tears until we got back to LA and I could cry in my own bed. I turned on my heel, my appetite lost. "Fuck you Grayson," I muttered under my breath.

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