new neighbors..old friends

im back home..and it feels good

ALEXS POV|
I left town last night..but I didn't tell anyone. Not even Michaela. I needed to get away so I decided to take the plane back home to visit my family that I missed so so so much. No ones asked me where I've been so far..so whatever.

I laid on the couch at my parents house back in Maryland, I was playing on my brothers playstation 4 with my 12 year old sister, maria. That was until I got a call. From Taylor.

"Hey babe. Where are you? I'm worried sick about you. Babe please tell me-" he says over the phone but I decide to cut him off.
"Hey Taylor, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'll be back home tomorrow afternoon. I'm at my parents house." I tell him, still playing the video game.
"Why'd you leave? Well..why'd you leave without telling me.." Taylor said softly. I could see he was hurt by this.
"I didn't think you'd care..it hasn't really been the same in our relationship since the jack incident." I tell him truthfully.
"Yeah I know. I still love you, and I want you home with me. Just please come home as soon as possible so we can try to fix..us." He says hurt fully and then hangs up. I just drop the phone on the couch and think about what my boyfriend had just told me.

"Wow! You suck at this game. Loser!" My sister yells at me while sticking her tongue out at me.
"Wow..okay well I haven't played this in like 5 years so screw off." I shooed her away and then she runs away, yelling my mothers name.
"Mom! Alex just told me to screw off!" She still yells, my mother comes out.
"Alexandra! How could you-" my mom scolds me, but I just bleep her out. I don't listen to a word she says. Maybe Taylor was right..maybe I needed to come home a little faster than I expected to come home.

JACK GILINSKY'S POV|
"Thank you. Yeah I'll stay away from heavy objects. Yes. Yes mam." I tell the nurse as she sends me home.

I was so glad that I was now able to leave this hell hole and go live with my best friends. I wanted everything to be back to normal, which it would soon be that way when I got home.

As I get home, my mom opened the car door for me and I slowly get out. I was really sore and I needed to be careful and slow. I couldn't rush anything or it could be dangerous to my health.

"Jack! Your home!" I hear someone yell. It was rae. I smiled and gave her an easy small hug that wasn't painful. It felt really nice to be able to hug her.

I walk into the kitchen and see a cake with my name on it. The words said "welcome home jack!" In blue frosting.
The cake looked delicious. I smiled.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked Rae, taking a seat at the dining table.
So does Rae and I look at her.
"Matthew..he's getting balloons, Cameron was picking up food, Nash and Hayes we're picking up soda and.." Rae continues to explain and i nod.

I felt so out of place, and kind of awkward. After thinking about all of the wrong I've done and the mistakes I've made..I've just felt so guilty.

"So I'm sorry.." I began to say, as i squint my eyes to focus.
"Your sorry? For what?" Rae said looking at me with confusion.
"For being an ass..I've been a bad friend. When you've needed me I haven't been there for you and I'm sorry for that." I tell her. I was being 100% honest and it felt good.
"Aww..jack it's okay." She tells me as she stands up and gives me a gentle hug. It felt nice.
"You guys didn't have to do this for me." I told her, scanning the tons of decorations plastered around the room.
"We wanted too. We love you and we want you to feel better and happy." She smiled at me. She grabbed my hand and gave it a quick squeeze. I smiled.

35 minutes later, Rae and I were watching something on Netflix as Nash comes in excited to see jack siting on the couch with me.

Nash jumps up and runs towards us, he was about to do the "bro hug" to jack and I yelled pretty loudly.

"No!" I yelled at Nash and stood in front of him, I was his guard.
Nash paused and looked at me worried.
"Your not allowed to touch him, you can give him a gentle hug but nothing that could put him in pain." I tell Nash and he just nodded slowly. I scared Nash. Whatever.

"How are you? Was surgery okay? Was the hospital creepy? Was the bed comfy?" The boys all asked him as they surrounded him on the couches in the living room area. Jack answered every one of their stupid ass questions. That made me laugh, oh god.

We started playing music, and getting the food ready. Matthew was the one cooking the food outside on the grill.
I decided to walk out and join him.

"Hey Matt. How's the food coming?" I asked him, leaving on the side of the grill that wasn't giving off heat.
"Good good. I'm surprised I haven't ruined any of it yet..I'm pretty surprised that the guys chose me to do the cooking."' Matthew laughed and so did I. We chatted for a little bit.

"So..you know how I wanted to tell you that think last week? When you got sick?" Matthew began to say as he flipped the cooked burger over.
"Yeah.." I said quietly. Thinking about what Matthew was going to say next.
"Well. I wanted to tell you..that I like you. A lot actually. Like I really like you." Matthew blushed a bright pink.
"Me? You? Liking me?" I asked him.
I was actually stunned..I didn't think he Matthew lee Espinosa liked me.

I like him too..but I can't date him. I can't. It would start too much. I can't afford to lose any friends right now.

"So. What do you say?" Matthew said turning his head to meet my eyes.
"um..." I said. I wanted to tell him that I liked him too but I was gonna have to lie straight to his very attractive face.
"You don't like me.." Matthew said nodding back and fourth while cooking.
"No. No. I just..I don't want to lose you as a friend. If anything were to happen..id be so scared to see our friendship end over something stupid like that. You know?" I told him. I was so wanting to take back what I said..I just wanted to kiss him..and tell him that I did like him too. I couldn't.

"You know you could have just said you didn't want to go out because you didn't like me right.." Matthew said meeting my eyes. I blinked.
"I'm sorry. I-" I was about to speak.
"No. It's okay. I love you. As a friend..and that's all we have to be if that's what you want." Matthew said while kissing my forehead. A smile spread across my lips.

I liked this boy, but I couldn't tell him or anyone else about these feelings I had. I would have to keep them from everyone. Even Alex.