Preacher Man // ross lynch + driver era

92

We decide to just grab Starbucks then head straight home which I'm more than grateful for because I can't sit in this car anymore. The only thing happening now is the radio playing as we all eat in silence. We pull up to the house and Rydel storms inside first.

"She's probably bored and needs something to be overdramatic about when nothing exciting is happening in her life," Rocky says before turning off the car.

Valid.

The three of us walk inside of the house and Mark is standing near the kitchen. "Morning," he says. "Why'd Rydel run to her room?"

"Family meeting - 5 minutes," Ross says then goes upstairs, hinting at me to follow with a quick movement of his chin.

As we walk into his room, he sits on his bed after closing the door. "You okay?"

I nod and sit beside him. "Yeah," I reply shortly.

He opens his arm, indicating for me to lean up against him. With his head on top of mine, he pulls out his phone and sends a text in his family group chat, repeating what he said to his father downstairs.

"Do you want to come?" He asks me.

I nod several times. "Yes, of course." I slide my hand down his arm in efforts to comfort him.

"I shouldn't be nervous because I didn't have a choice. They can't get mad at me... right?"

Ross lifts his head off mine so I take the opportunity to look up at him. "They might be upset that you didn't tell them, but that's all," I reply and push some of his hair back. "You didn't mean it maliciously at the end of the day. You didn't have a choice. You thought you were doing the only thing possible. You ready to go down?"

He sighs and nods before standing up and leading the way out of the bedroom. He stops before his hand grips the door knob and turns to look at me. He leans in quickly, his mouth possessing mine in a kiss. Next thing we know, all of us are at the table besides Rydel and Mark. Mark is upstairs now forcing Rydel to come down.

Ross and I sat beside each other with Rocky on my other side. Riker and Ryland are next to each other across from us. The two heads of the table are empty, waiting for the ones upstairs to come down.

"What is this about?" Riker asks, placing his coffee mug onto the table.

Rocky turns to look at the stairs. "We'll see whenever Rydel decides to stop acting like a child."

As if on cue, Rydel and Mark come down the stairs. She goes straight to her seat, sitting down and not looking at us - only staring at her dad.

"What's going on?" Mark asks, clearly aggravated with the events from this morning.

Ross drags his finger along the edge of table, attempting to focus on anything but speaking. His mouth opens and as he did before in the bathroom with Rocky, he blurts out everything. "I was forced to break up with Hayley and go into a fake PR stunt relationship with Danielle because I was threatened we'd get dropped from the label if I didn't."

I know everyone is staring us down and I don't want to look away from my eyes focusing on the side of Ross's face.

"What?" Mark asks as though he didn't hear a word that was said. "Why didn't you tell us? Me?"

Ross finally glances at me then looks at the table. "I wasn't allowed. I signed about it in the contract."

"You signed a contract without running it by me?" Mark yells and I can tell Ross is immediately contemplating why he ever said anything.