Hopelessly Devoted to You

Chapter 4- Night at Dolans

We walked into the Dolan house and it was so open and nice. We sat down on their couch with me in between Grayson and Ethan, and Ellie on the other side of Ethan. We turned on a movie I hadn't seen before called Ouija. I was really excited to watch it since I was really into scary movies. As it started Ellie was already getting freaked out. Grayson put his arm around me and whispered into my ear "You scared yet?" I turned my head to look at him who had a smirk on his face.
"Nope." I said popping the P. He smiled and winked. I smiled back and turned my attention to the movie. As we watched he rubbed my arm.
"Are you cold?" He asked me.
"A little." I answered.
"Be right back." He said. He got up and ran up the stairs. Before I knew it he ran down the stairs with a light grey hoodie that had Duke written on it and two lacrosse sticks that formed an x underneath. "Is that enough? Do you need a blanket or something?"
"No, no I'm fine. Thank you." I laughed.
"Okay. You're welcome." He smiled. He returned to his previous position of sitting next to me with his arm around me. I didn't mind, actually I really liked it.

As soon as the movie was over, Ethan got up and announced that he was hungry and Grayson tagged along following him to the kitchen. Ellie looked at me and we laughed at them.
"You like him don't you?" She asked as she scooted closer to me.
"What?" I asked.
"Oh my gosh, don't act dumb Alex! The chemistry between you guys is so obvious!" She explained.
"Ellie, we just met. There isn't chemistry." I said.
"Then tell me why he had his arm around you the whole movie. Tell me why you're wearing his sweater. Tell me why, you have a date this Friday with him."
"How do you know?!"
"I'm Ethan's girlfriend, and Ethan is Grayson's twin brother. How else do you think I know?" She laughed.
"Who else knows?" I asked.
"Probably just us. I wouldn't imagine it going around to anyone else."
"Okay. Good." I sat back into the couch.
"Why wouldn't you want people to know?" She asked me.
"Because half the school already hates me for standing next to him. How do you think the school would react if I went on a date with him?"
"You'll be fine. Just ignore them."
"It's not that simple." I started playing with the strings in his hoodie.
"Hey! You'll be fine. You want to know why?" She asked. I looked her in her eyes as she continued to talk. "Because you're not alone. Trust me this happens to me too and as long as you keep close with the people who truly like you, like the three of us do, you're going to be fine." She smiled at me. At that moment I knew I could trust them with anything. I pulled her in for a hug.
"Thank you." I said to her. Our hug was broken when we heard Ethan and Grayson yelling in the kitchen. We ran over to find them laughing with flour all over the place.
"What's going on?" Ellie said. There was no answer due to their uncontrollable laughing. It was contagious; Ellie and I joined in on the laughing. After about five minutes of continuous laughing Grayson finally explained what was so funny.
"We found cake mix and it called for flour, so I was making a snapchat and Ethan was whippin with the flour in his hand and flour got everywhere." He barely said as he laughed the whole time.

"What's going on?" A women asked as she came into the kitchen. I assumed it was their mother.
"Uh, making a cake. Things got a little messy." Ethan explained.
"We'll make sure you clean up. Hi Ellie." She said. She looked at me as if she was trying to remember me.
"Oh mom this is Alex. She just moved here." Grayson said.
"Oh hello Alex. Nice to meet you." She shook my hand and smiled. "You boys better clean this up before you go to bed." She pointed at the mess.
"We will." Both of them answered at the same time. She walked out and I was so surprised my her reaction to the mess. I started to imagine what would happen if I was at my home. They were so lucky to have such a lenient mother. Grayson snapped me out of my thoughts when he placed some of the cake batter on my nose.
"Wake up." He laughed. I wiped the cake from off my nose and put it on his face and replied. "Sorry." I laughed with him and Ethan and Ellie joined in on the laughing. I probably lost ten pounds from laughing with them while I was here. Actually this was the most I laughed in a long time. After another hour of hanging out my brother came to pick me up. I greeted him with a smile but that quickly changed when I realized he was still annoyed. I couldn't take it anymore.
"Caleb," he lifted his eye brown in response. "What's the matter?" He sighed.
"People." He said.
"What happened?"
"I heard people say something about you and I almost lost it." I stopped, I was shocked. It was only my second day.
"What did they say?" I had so many ideas running through my head.
"Just you. They were talking about you and I wasn't going to let some stupid guys demean you like that." My heart sank.
"Wh-what did your do?" I asked.
"Nothing. I just, pushed them and told them not to talk about you like tha-"
"Caleb you can't do this anymore."
"What? Protect you? Huh? I can't tell someone to stop talking about you like you're some kind of animal, or a slut?"
"The violence, Caleb. You can't keep fighting people to protect me or anyone else."
"It could have been worse. That's what I have had to do my whole life and you know, what it's not going to stop. I did it at our old school, I did it with mom, I did-"
"Don't bring her up!" I snapped. "I have finally found a place where I feel welcomed. Even though it is mainly with three people I don't want anything to ruin that. Im happy here and I feel safe. Caleb I love you, and thank you for always protecting me but you need to also worry about yourself before you worry about me now. We're safe." I explained to him. I started to cry because he was crying too. We had been through a lot and we are still adjusting to our new life.

When we reached home I wiped the tears from my face. I realized I was still wearing Grayson's sweater. It was so comfortable and it smelt like him. I loved it. Before we walked inside I grabbed my brothers arm and pulled him in for a hug. He squeezed me super tight.
"I love you big brother." I said.
"I love you too." He replied.

AN: the sweater she is wearing is the sweater Grayson wears in their first video on YouTube that was the Q and A! Who else is disappointed that they deleted that video? Lol.