I Found You, Something Told Me To Stay - (Jason Berry/Zacky Vengeance)

Chapter Sixteen.

“Pfft. Tell that to my mom.” Charlotte scoffed, laughing again. She then turned to me, a smile on her face. “Here’s a word of advice, Midge; never say no to my mother. She doesn’t like it. At all.”

“And that’s how she ended up with an indoor pool as well as an outdoor pool.” Linds joked.

“Oh, yeah?” I raised my eyebrows. “Which one does she use most?”

“She doesn’t.” They replied simultaneously.

My eyebrows shot up even more, partly at their reply and partly at the way they’d said it. While half of me was questioning why someone would go to the extents of getting two swimming pools and then not use them, the other half was making me realise how much I really had missed out on by living with my mum my whole life.

“She doesn’t like the smell of chlorine.” Charlotte quickly explained after. “The pools just make the house look better. Apparently.”

“Still, all the more water for us when we hang out over here. Which is all the time.” Linds said.

“Yeah, because the Avenged family take up the whole pool.” Charlotte sarcastically rolled her eyes. “You could fit like...three more lots of us in there.”

As she said this, we stopped outside a door. I hadn’t really been paying attention to my surroundings as we walked, but I had to hand it to Val; the decor was really nice.

“Well, this is it.” Charlotte said. “I prefer this one to the outside one.”

As she opened the door, I couldn’t help my mouth dropping open. I’d never seen anything like it before—not in real life, anyway. It was stunning.

It was pretty dim-lit in there at that moment, because the blinds were closed, covering the few windows that were in there. The walls were cream-coloured, and even with the blinds closed, I could tell there was huge window at the bottom. There were lights built into the ceiling, reflecting in the blue water that filled the huge pool, and around the pool, were big pillars from the floor the ceiling, three on each side—I was guessing just for decoration.

There were a couple of seats in the corner with pillows on, and Charlotte instantly started towards them.

“You see what we mean by Val liking to spend money now?” Linds laughed at my expression, joining Charlotte on the seat.

“Yeah...” I replied, looking around the huge room with wide eyes. “She’s right about it making the house look nice, though. This is amazing.”

“Thanks.” Charles smiled. “You get used to it after a while. My mom decided to turn it into a pool room when I was nine, but I wasn’t actually allowed in here until I was nearly thirteen.”

“Why?” I frowned.

“My dad always wanted to teach me how to swim and he never used to have time.” She shrugged. “So he wouldn’t let me in here because he was worried I would drown, but one day when I was twelve, I had a fight with him and got fed up. I decided, to get back at him, I would sneak into the pool room because I thought I’d be able to just swim easily as soon as I was in the water, just like that.” She paused to laugh. “But shit, I was wrong.”

“What happened?” I raised my eyebrows.

“He came looking for me to apologise for yelling at me, heard the water splashing about and ran in here. He had to jump in and drag me out.” She explained. “After that incident, he decided it was finally time for me to learn how to swim.”

As she continued to laugh, I couldn’t help but crack a smile. It sounded exactly like something I would do, and Linds seemed exactly the same, so I knew hanging around with them was going to be a lot of fun.

“So, uh...” I started again, perching myself on the end of the seat. “What’s it like actually being around the guys all the time?”

“It’s pretty cool.” Linds shrugged. “It only took me, like...a week to settle in and I was fine. You get used to it really easily.”

“Yeah, I mean, obviously I don’t know any different,” Charlotte agreed, “but this is a great family. And it’s even greater now that we have another cousin.”

I couldn’t help a smile slipping onto my face. I’d never had a family like this before, and the fact that I was being instantly welcomed into it was amazing.

“And like normal families, we totally argue with everyone as well.” Linds laughed. “Seriously, we want you to feel comfortable. Don’t hold back. If one of the guys pisses you off, let them know. I always do. I’ve had my fair share of arguments with Johnny, that’s for sure.”

“What could you possibly find to argue with the guys about?” I laughed along, frowning slightly.

“Oh, believe me, there’s tons of stuff.” Charlotte answered.

“There is.” Linds nodded. “The over-protectiveness is the worst.”

“Oh yeah?” I grinned, grasping onto what they meant. “How many dates have the guys ruined?”

“Too many of mine.” Linds then rolled her eyes. “Seriously, they are so protective. It’s something you just have to get used to.”

“Surprisingly, I’d say Zacky is actually the worst culprit of it.” Charlotte ran a hand through her hair, glancing at Linds as she agreed.

Annoyingly, my ears pricked up at the mere mention of Zacky’s name. I didn’t know what to say, but luckily, Charlotte continued speaking.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong, all of the guys are protective at times,” She said, “But he’s so terrible for it. On a couple of occasions, he’s been more protective than my dad and that is saying something.”

“Why do you think he’s so protective?” I asked interestedly.

“I think it’s partly because Zach’s all big on family and he genuinely cares.” Linds said. “But he has a huge issue with guys that disrespect girls. And I mean like...any girl, not just us. If he sees a guy disrespecting a girl, he just has to step in and do something about it.”

Instantly, my mind flashed back to the first night a few days back where I met Zacky. Where he’d helped me from the guys outside Madison Square Garden that had started harassing me.

“Don’t worry though!” Charlotte suddenly said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “I don’t wanna put you off dating or anything. We’re making the guys sound way worse than they are. It is possible to have a boyfriend around them...he just has to get through their interrogations first.”

All I could do was smile at that. I didn’t really have anything to say now that we were on the subject of Zacky, because I didn’t want to give anything away.

I knew that after today, I’d have to seriously sort out the way I was behaving around him. I was being stupid—really stupid—and it needed to stop, because I was going to be living here from now on.

But that just struck me with a problem.

I didn’t know how to turn my feelings off.