lightning - jonah marais

chapter seven

Three weeks had gone by since Madison cheated on Jonah. When the guys found out, their responses were a subtle mix of "I'm so sorry, man." and "Hate to say it, but I told you so." Jonah didn't mind though, he knew they were right and he should've taken their opinions more seriously. Over the past few weeks, Jonah slowly started to feel better. He sulked and kept to himself the first week, keeping conversations limited and interactions short. It made you sad to see him like that, but you knew he needed to feel it out. More recently, you're starting to see a happier Jonah. He'd bounced back more bubbly and joyful than he was before. Since the night he came to you crying, you two became even closer. You didn't think it was possible to be closer with Jonah, other than in your dreams of course. Despite that, it happened. You became more physical; holding hands and shoulder kisses, constantly attached to each other. You had more deep talks, looked for each other in crowded rooms, shared every detail with each other. You became more infatuated with each other. The boys picked up on it, but no one said anything yet. You could just tell they noticed by the way they looked and you'd catch them whispering to one another. Unlike the others, Corbyn knew it wasn't a rumor or a phase. Corbyn doesn't break his promises, though.

Tonight the boys had a show in Salt Lake City. The crowd was amazing, you were in such awe of how many people and signs were at the venue. You took picture after picture, despite feeling as though a card on a camera could never store the capacity of adoration filling the arena. You took dozens of pictures of the boys, mostly group shots and a few solos. Once Zack told you that you could head back to the green room, you rushed off to go examine your photos. You scrolled through them all, deleting the imperfect ones and gawking at a few good ones. You stopped at a particular group shot of all five of the boys during In Too Deep. The bright lights of the background dimming their figures to silhouettes for a split second before the blue lights lit up. It was breathtaking, definitely getting posted later. The next picture made your heart race and your cheeks flush. A picture of Daniel and Jonah during Nobody Gotta Know, and Jonah's eyes locked directly to the lense. You were down in the corner of the stage, you had to be searched for to be seen from where he was. There was a small smirk on his face, damnit. You were going back and forth wondering if you were really seeing what you thought you were, or if your feelings were clouding your judgement. The sound of the door bursting open made you jump but you relaxed once you saw the boys. "Now that, that was badass." Corbyn breathed, falling back onto the couch. "One of the craziest crowds I think we've seen." Jack breathed in between chugs of water. Jonah sat down next to you, leaning his head over to see your camera. "That's a good one." he says as he points to the screen, "Daniel, come look at this one!" Daniel leant over the back of the couch to see it and whistles. "That one deserves to be on a poster." he chuckles, patting Jonah's shoulder. Once he walks away, you nudge his side, "Thanks for staring straight into the lense. Eye contact really helps with my likes." you said dramatically. Jonah laughed and clicked his tongue, "I was looking at you, not the camera. Finding you in the dark was like a game of Where's Waldo?" You laughed quietly, trying not to sound as giddy as you really were. "You were looking at me?" you asked, but more like squeaked. Jonah smiled and kissed your cheek. "Shut up, it's hard not to." he said, getting up to go change. You smiled back and let out a deep breath once he was out of sight. You felt the butterflies erupt in your stomach, but quickly tried to avoid them. No, you thought, he's just being Jonah. We've just been spending a lot of time together. You weren't sure if you could handle letting yourself believe that any chemistry between the two of you was real.

"Impressive." Jack said as you successfully chugged a water bottle in under a minute. All of you were in Zach and Corbyn's hotel room, bored out of your damn minds. Daniel tried to build a house of cards at least 10 times and Zach was playing basketball with the trash bin. Jonah stood up and clapped his hands together, "Okay, I'm bored." he stated and the room echoed with "yeah"'s and "same"'s. "How about we play truth or dare?" Jack said and everyone agreed. Within the first 5 minutes of the game, you had watched Corbyn try to burp his ABC's and learned that Zach's mom called him 'Pumpkin'. It was Daniel's turn, and he looked suspiciously between you and Jonah. Your eyes shot to Corbyn, who only shrugged. "Jonah," Daniel started, "truth or dare." Jonah quickly says truth and Daniel clears his throat, "Are you and Y/N just friends?" You felt your palms start to sweat as the room fell silent, keeping your eyes glued to the bed. "Yeah, we're just friends." Jonah slightly chuckles and you feel your throat become scratchy. You keep calm and go along with Jonah, "Yeah Seavey, that'd be weird." you laughed. You earned a nudge from Jonah and you smiled even though you felt your heart aching. "I'm gonna use the bathroom. Be right back." you said cooly, hopping off the bed. You locked the door behind you and sat on the floor. You'd been telling yourself for months that he didn't feel the same, so why did it hurt so bad to hear him say it? You felt a tear roll down your cheek and wiped it away, flushing the toilet and going back out. Corbyn sat alone on the bed and no one else was in the room. "Where'd everyone go?" you asked and Corbyn looked up from his phone. "They went down the vending machines. Are you okay?" he asked sincerely and you scoffed, "Yeah, yeah. Totally good. Just publicly friend-zoned is all." You sat down next to Corbyn, leaning your head on his shoulder. He patted your leg, "It's okay. Don't let it determine the future, things change Y/N." You sighed and sat up, "Yeah, maybe. I'm gonna head to bed, tell the boys I said good night." Corbyn nodded, "Will do. Sweet dreams."

You sulked back down to your room, mentally cursing yourself for offering to share another room with Jonah. You swiped your key and crawled into bed, turning the lights off. You fell asleep sad, deeply regretting letting yourself be any amount of hopeful.

That is, until you heard Jonah and Daniel outside your door.