Distorted -Z.H.

older than i am

"well, hello there," skylar says, checking out a very shirtless jonah who opened the door, "who might you be?"

"um- jonah, what about you?" he says, turning a pretty dark shade of crimson.

"ayo jojo siwa," crystal interrupts skylar's check out session, much to her dismay, "were you guys... busy?" she asks, smirking.

"i'm skylar," skylar responds, bopping the shorter girl on the head.

"ouch," crystal scowls, "corboner! she hit me!"

"skylar!" corbyn's voice booms, "don't hit the weaker people!"

"what the fuck do you mean weak?!"

"ha. true that," skylar says.

"imma fight you two," crystal says, actually getting angry.

"try me," corbyn and skylar say at the same time.

"well, this'll be interesting to watch," jack says, as all the boys join the previous group in the living room.

"you're gonna regret this," crystal says. jumping onto skylar and corbyn. 

"no, nope, nah, nada, nein," zach says, holding crystal at the waist and pulling her off the two elder ones.

"yo, WHAT THE-" crystal starts screaming, only to be cut off by zach's hand on her mouth. she stared at his deep brown eyes, considering whether or not to. but then bites his palm, harshly.

"what the fuck?!" zach bellows, taking his hands off of her waist and mouth.

"pretty boy, don't meddle in our fights," 

"shawty a lil baddie," jack sings, making all heads turn to him.

"shut up jack," daniel and jonah say together, while trying to calm everyone down.

"i told you don't test me," crystal says to skylar, corbyn and zach at once. then continues to flop down on the couch and turn on the tv, switching to 'the suite life of zach & cody'.

"how- how does she go from jumping and biting three people to watching a disney show in a matter of seconds-?" daniel asks, bewildered at the girl's actions.

"well that's crystal nyx everlain for ya," corbyn says, getting up as jonah helps up skylar.

"nyx?" zach begins to laugh, "that's your middle name?"

"CORBYN MATTHEW BESSON!" crystal screams, jumping onto corbyn who was on the couch next to jack.

"you started it by jumping me," corbyn shrugs, "now get off me before i say more things."

crystal huffs and lets him go. daniel proceeds toasks her what the name means.

"nyx is the greek goddess of darkness. it's a really cool name, crys," jonah says, smiling at the now upset girl.

"thanks jojo siwa how do you know about the name, though?"

"i love mythology and anything to do with literature,"

"MARRY ME!" crystal says with wide eyes.

"no, marry me," skylar states calmly.

"awkward," jack says.

"shut up, jack!" everyone retorts.

"hate you guys," jack rolls his eyes.

~

"alright, how about we all get to know each other with twenty questions?" jack says, as the credits of 'enola holmes' rolled.

everyone agreed to it, seeing as the boys weren't as close to crystal and skylar.

"a'ight, imma go first!" zach says, sitting up, "so, butterfly, corbone told us you make music too. what kind of music is it?"

"um, well i really don't know how to describe it?" she took out her laptop from her bag to play her newest song that she hadn't yet released, "it's called 'older than i am' and i haven't released it yet, but you guys can listen to it. it's a little bit of a sad song..."

the song blares out of her phone. tears spring to her eyes as she thinks about the reason, or so to say, reasons that prompted her to write the song. the boys, except corbyn, could see the lyrics on the screen of the laptop and were surprised at how such an upbeat and cheerful girl could write an inexpressibly sad song. corbyn and skylar, on the other hand, knew all the behind the scenes of crystal's fake smiles and cheerful act.

"wow..." jonah says, as the song comes to an end.

"that... wendy, that was the most amazing thing i've ever heard," this was daniel.

jack was left speechless at the talent of the girl, "your voice, it's beautiful!"

"is... is there a particular reason you wrote this song? i mean, don't get me wrong, this is fantastic but the story behind it seems to be complicated," zach questioned, not knowing if that was the right time to ask the girl about it.

"you know, you don't have to tell them about it right now, if you don't want to..." corbyn said, putting his hand on top of hers.

"no, it's fine. well, there were a lot of things. this wasn't just a one time blow up thing. i bottled my feelings in for way too long. fake smiles are kind of addicting. you don't want people to know what you're going through because they will only give you sympathy. they will tell you that they're sorry, that you can always talk to them, that they're always here for you. although what they say is true to some point, it doesn't help, you know? i mean, i would rather hear that sorry from the person whose mistake it was other than the person asking me how i am," she stopped to take in a long breath.

"well, these feeling inside blew up when my ex cheated on me. i had to find it out through skylar, since his best friend is markie, ky's brother. i guess that one really took a toll on me and my mental health. we broke up about three weeks ago and he's already onto a new girl. i guess i'm just really bad at making people stay." at this point, tears were falling out of her eyes.

"don't say that, that's not true crystal!" jonah said.

"thought i was known as wendy, not crystal. well, it is true. my family did the same. they left me. i guess that's enough to actually prove that i'm bad at this."

"i didn't know... about your family," jack says, frowning.

"yeah, i didn't tell you guys about it so i didn't expect you to know it. but i- i really don't think i want to tell you the whole thing now," she replied, wiping the tears off her face.

"that's alright. i mean, you're gonna be living with us so we have plenty of time!" daniel says, trying to lighten the mood.

crystal looks across the room and over at zach, who asked the question in the first place. he was concentrating on something, thinking. he looks cute, she thought. he had his eyebrows furrowed, and eyes downcast. he didn't speak a word after what she had said. neither did he move from the position, until he got a text. she noticed his text tone was 'there you are' by zayn, she smiled at it. he opened his phone and with an unreadable expression replied to the text. was he happy? was he annoyed? she couldn't comprehend. he then turned towards the others. she looked away before he could notice that she was staring. as she turned around, she realized that they were still onto the game and asking each other questions.

"hey guys, kay's asking me if the party's still on. we can have the girls meet sky and butterfly," he said, breaking the others' conversation.

"yeah, sure that would be fun," corbyn replies as they go back to listening to skylar's story of how she once broke her hand while painting a self portrait.