Cali

2

I woke up to a phone ringing and saw Kian moving to fish his out of his pocket. What time is it? I sat up, groggily, and looked at the tv to see 3:00 AM in the top corner. Awesome. I realized I'd been sleeping across Kian and Sam and stretched out my arms. Moscow was asleep on Romeo in one of the chairs and Trevor was passed out in the other. "Hello?" Kian said when he answered his phone. "What time is it?.. seriously?... we must of fallen asleep at Liz's house... I'll be home soon. I have to round up everyone else... chill out, JC." He said and I was suddenly wide awake. Did he just say what I thought he did? There is no way in hell that it's the same JC. No fucking way. No. Simply not possible. No. Kian got off the phone and looked over at me. "Sorry, did I wake you up?" "No. Your phone ringing did but that's okay. Was that your roommate?" "Yeah. I told him I'd probably be late getting home but I didn't mean this late." He said and I nodded. "Well, we should probably wake them up." I said and he shook his head. "I'll just text JC and let him know we're staying here. No need to wake them up. You should probably go to your bed though. It has to be more comfortable than falling asleep on me and Sam." He said and started texting. "I don't want to leave you guys out here by yourselves." "Then we will move to the guest rooms." "How are all four of you going to fit on one full sized and one twin sized bed?" "We will figure it out." "Two of you can sleep in my room. I'll take the twin bed." "We aren't kicking you out of your bed." "Then one of you can sleep in there with me." I said and he looked confused. "You just met us?" "I'm not that worried about it. I feel like I've known you guys forever. Plus if you were going to kill me or something you would've done it when I fell asleep on you." I said and he nodded. He started waking up the guys and telling them to go to actual beds. Trevor shuffled into the room with the twin bed so Romeo and Sam ended up sharing, which meant Kian was with me. We went into my room and awkwardly laid down next to each other. Moscow took her spot above my pillow and I curled up on my side, facing away from Kian and fell asleep in no time.

*the next morning*

When I woke up I felt an arm lazily draped over me and got really confused. I rolled over to look and saw Kian. Moscow started walking on the bed and stepped on him, making him wake up and he looked at me, realized his arm was over me and immediately pulled it away, blushing. "Sorry, I cuddle in my sleep. Didn't think about that ahead of time." "It's fine. Don't worry about it." I said and stood up, pulling my hair into a pony tail before putting food in Moscow's bowl and filling the other with water. Kian rolled out of my bed and went to wake everyone else up. I went into the kitchen to make coffee because I'm a very avid coffee drinker. As the pot was finishing Romeo, Sam, Trevor and Kian all filed into my kitchen. "Anyone else want coffee?" I asked and Romeo and Kian took a cup. "So what do you guys have planned for today?" "Well, someone told me you've been wanting a tattoo so we can figure out what you want?" Romeo suggested and I nodded. "Sounds fun. I already know. It I have a couple of ideas for future ones if you don't mind bringing those to life." "Alright." "I'm supposed to make a video with JC." Kian said and I looked at him, obviously confused. "We all do YouTube." "Oh. That makes more sense." "We're filming today too." Trevor said, gesturing to Sam and himself. "We could all go to my house and hang out? I have a pool." Kian said and I nodded. "Sounds fun. I need to get Moscow food and water set up outside because she likes to eat things when I'm gone. You guys can go ahead and go because I still need to shower too." I said and once they finished their coffee they left. I put metal bowls outside with food and water for Moscow and let her run around while I showered and got dressed in light wash high waisted jeans and a black crop top. I put her outside right before I left and locked the doggy door and back door. I locked the front door and made the short walk to Kian's house. I knocked on the door and when it opened it was not a person I was expecting to see. JC Caylen was standing right in front of me, looking confused as ever. Well shit. "Liz? What are you doing here?" He asked and sounded kind of pissed. "Kian invited me over. I didn't know you guys knew each other. Or that you were the JC he lived with. I'm gonna go." I said and I got half way down the street before Kian came running out after me. "Where are you going?" He asked once he was in front of me, not letting me walk anymore. "Jc and I have history and not the best kind. I figured he couldn't be the Jc you were living with and I was wrong and I just can't do it." "What happened?" "Ask him because I'm still not sure." I said and tried to walk away again. "Liz, please just come inside. Hang out for a little bit. If you're totally miserable you can go home." "Fine." I said since I knew Kian wasn't budging. "By the way, all the other guys really like you." He said and wrapped his arm around my shoulders while we walked back up to the house. We walked in and the look Jc gave me was not one I liked. Kian took me straight past him and back to where everyone was filming. I saw Romeo sitting off to the side with paper in front of him and Kian pulled his arm from around me and I sat next to Romeo. "So what do you want for the first one?" "I want the word 'Geronimo'." "Why?" "Well, I'm not a slowly step kind of person. I'm a nose dive into it kind of person and that's what I came here to do. Nose dive into the next part of my life. So Geronimo." "I like it." Romeo said and I smiled. I've never explained it to anyone, or really mentioned it before. "How do you want it written?" "Thin, cursive. I want it along my collar bone." I said that and Romeo wrote it out and I smiled. "Exactly." I said and he nodded. "What about your ideas?" "Well, I'm a big Disney fan. Tangled is one of my favorites so I was thinking a paper lantern with a sun in the middle with 'at last I see the lights'  around it." I said and Romeo started drawing. Kian walked over and looked over his shoulder. "What are you guys doing?" "He's drawing an idea I had for a tattoo. I'm excited." I said and Kian looked at the paper in front of me. "Geronimo?" "Nose diving into the next part of my life. I'm not a step slowly, tread carefully kind of person." "You were from what I remember." I heard Jc say behind me and I turned to see him looking at the three of us. Romeo stopped what he was doing and looked between the two of us. "You guys know each other?" "Knew." I corrected and turned away from Jc. "Looks great so far, Romeo." I said, looking as he brought my idea to life. I heard Jc walking closer to us. "You also said you would never get a tattoo." "Jc, you haven't talked to me for 3 years. From what I remember I wasn't enough for you anymore so why worry about what I want?" I asked, snapping at him. He looked like he didn't know how to respond. "You clearly aren't the person I knew. She was nice." Jc said and glared at me. "No. She was a push-over. She also got fucked over enough to get past that." I said and he walked out of the room. "So mind sharing what happened with you two?" Trevor asked, stopping whatever him and Sam were doing. "Well, we lived across the street from each other for a long time, three years ago he just left. He said there was nothing for him there and that I wasn't enough to keep him there anymore so he moved out here." I said and they all looked confused. "I think I should go." I said when I felt tears rush to my eyes. I hurried to get out of the house and pretty much ran home. Once I got through the door I went to the back yard with Moscow. I sat in the grass and started crying. How could he be so cold? We were best friends for most of our lives and he just left. Now he acts like he hates me more than anything. I heard the door open behind me and saw Jc. "What do you want?" I asked, not caring about the tears still rolling down my cheeks. "Are you okay?" "Why do you care all of the sudden?" "I've always cared, Liz." "Yeah. I could really tell from the three years you spent acting like I didn't exist. "That's not what I was doing?" "Then what was it?" "I needed to start over. There was nothing for me there." He said and by this point I was standing. "You had me! I was there! I needed you!" I yelled and Moscow started barking. "It didn't seem like you did! I figured you'd be fine if I left." He yelled and gradually got quieter. "Well, you were wrong. I went through so much and you were the only person I wanted to have by me and you weren't there. I needed you." I said and started crying harder. He stepped forward and started to hug me, but I stepped back. "You don't get to do that. Not after disappearing for 3 years. I'm sure you came home. Why not try to talk to me?" I asked and wiped at my cheeks roughly. "I didn't know what to say to you. I was scared." "And you think I wasn't? My best friend just up and left me. So many things happened between then and now to make me the person I am. You weren't there for any of it. But every time I was hurting for any reason I always wanted you. Do you know how pathetic I felt? I wasn't enough for you and you were all I wanted." I said and my eyes got wide once I realized what I said. Hopefully he won't take it in the way I meant it. "What do you mean I was all you wanted?" "I think  you know what I mean." I said and pushed past him, going back into my house. "Liz, please don't tell me that I left when you felt like that." "How do you think I felt Jc?" "Did you like me?" "I loved you. You were the only person I wanted and you left me. You told me I wasn't enough for you." "Wait, you loved me? Why didn't you say something?" "Because I wasn't going to be the girl that said she loved you and then you left anyways." I said and wiped at my face again. We ended up in the living room and I saw Kian standing there, looking confused. "What's going on?" He asked and I was really hoping he didn't hear any of that. "How long have you been here?" "Long enough to hear you guys come inside." "So you heard us?" "Yeah..." he said and looked at Jc. I felt so embarrassed and upset and mad. I walked out of the room and into my bedroom.  I looked in the mirror and saw all the tears and how red and puffy my eyes were. Why did I have to say that? Why am I so stupid? I heard a knock on my door and walked over to open it. I saw Kian looking down at me with pity. I heard my front door slam right after. "Please don't look at me like I'm a hurt puppy." I said and he pulled me into a hug. I buried my face in his chest and wrapped my arms around him. "Do you still love him?" "I don't know. I don't think I do." I said and as soon as I said it I knew I was wrong. "Are you sure?" "No." I said and started crying again. He hugged me tighter and put his chin on my head. "It'll work out. Do you want to come back to the house?" "No. I'm gonna stay here and be by myself for a little bit. If it gets too lonely I'll text you." "Promise?" "Pinky promise." I said and pulled away to put my small hand in between us. He looped his pinky around mine and let go of me. I stepped back and he separated our hands. "Text me." He said and walked out of my house. I went into my bathroom and decided a bubble bath would help me.