Before you start this chapter I accidentally swapped who Becca and Sammy are so if you remember them Becca is now the nice one while Sammy is the mean one. I didn't mean for them to swap but I realized it after I already wrote this chapter and I'm to lazy to go through and change it.
I did however go back to the chapter where you meet them and swapped for that because it would've been easier so I'm sorry for the confusion.
I hope y'all like this chapter.
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I was in much better spirits than I have been in weeks. Finally feeling in control of myself I wasn't afraid anymore.
Okay that's a lie I will always be afraid of him but now I don't constantly overthink of him doing what he has to me again or trying to kill my brothers anymore.
Baby steps.
I've been trying to bring back the old me for years and I feel like I'm finally one step closer in that direction. It's like Clara has told me 'one day at a time' and for the first time ever I feel myself being excited for our meetings so I can tell her of the new motivation I have.
I wrote down how I felt when I climbed that tree in a simple journal so I wouldn't forget what it felt like to be up there and breathe the fresh air with the birds chirping and the warmth the sun gave me. It was the best feeling in the world.
It was Saturday and none of my brothers will be home tonight (for reasons I haven't been allowed to know) so now Lilli, Jace and Becca are sleeping over.
I really like Becca and Jace and the two of them together are always amusing so I decided I would ask if they could come over, and hesitantly Enzo agreed.
It turns out Becca and Jace were already together so they both responded right away saying they'll be over by 4:00 and I haven't heard from than since.
Despite Jace being a guy I feel very comfortable around him. A huge part of it does have to come from how he let me know that he's gay and has been out for as long as he can remember, but even before he told me he just gave off this warmth that made anyone he interacted with comfortable around him.
I waited in the living room near the front door since it was almost four.
I knew Lilli would be at least 15 minutes late since that girl could not be on time to safe her life. But I wasn't sure if Becca and Jace were the type of people to either be early, right on time or late.
I lost track of time as I played a coloring game on my phone to distract me from the anxiety that built up over having never hung out with Jace or Becca outside of school before.
It's a good thing Lilli was going to be here otherwise I would be having a full blown anxiety attack.
I sit up quickly as the door bell rings before running to open it before any of my brothers that are still home can.
My happy smile turned into a confused one as I watched the 4'11 girl hit the 5'8 guy who was smiling despite the violence.
Noticing my presence Jace smiles wider showing off his dimples. "Ella I missed you!"
I laughed as he picked me up twirling around almost bumping my head into the doorframe.
"Hi Jace hey Becca!" I almost fell over after Jace put me down.
Walking inside I noticed Becca's old blue hair was now pink again like it was the first time I met her.
They both seemed to have forgotten they're argument as Emilio came down the stairs, shirtless.
He must've also taken a shower since his hair was wet leaving water drops running down his chest and back.
I was used to seeing this but clearly my two friends weren't as both they're jaws were on the floor. I'm also pretty sure I saw drool on the corner of Jaces lip.
As if just noticing my two friends gawking at him he looks over at us and smiles as he walks over to us.
"Hey Gabs you haven't seen my dark blue button up with the orange and light blue stripes right?" I shook my head not even knowing he had a shirt that looked like that.
"Oh okay well I have to go get dressed, have fun with your friends." He smiled at Jace and Becca and left but not before looking Jace up and down and winking at him.
I'm pretty sure I could hear Jaces heart beating from here.
"Ella I think your brother broke him." I think she's right. Jace was still staring wide eyed at where Emilio has just been.
"Ella I know he's your brother and you probably already hear enough about how attractive they are from the people at school but damn your brother could run me over and I would beg him to do it again." I couldn't contain it anymore and let out a few suppressed giggles.
The three of us laughed as we made it to my room but not without Jace tripping Becca on the way for no reason other than to laugh as she fell into me taking us both down.
That man can be evil if he wanted to.
We were all laughing as Jace told us some of the dreams he's had over the past few weeks when Lilli burst into my room with a bag of chips in her hand.
"What are we talking about?" She asked as she came and sat next to me at my bay window while Jace and Becca were spread out on my bed.
"Oh just Jace's dream about how he sold his family so he could be with Harry Styles." Becca informed as she stole some of the chips in Lilli's hand much to her dismay.
"Why do all of your dreams involve Harry Styles?" I didn't realize I was staring at the bag of chips in her hands until she handed the bag to me.
"I mean can you blame me?" A few seconds of silence went by before the three of us shook our heads agreeing with him and continued the conversation.
"So what movie are we watching?" Becca's voice was muffled due to her whole body being covered by blankets to the point where you can only see some of her pink hair sticking out.
"I vote on a sad movie I feel like crying today." Jace dramatically sniffled to prove how much he really wanted to cry.
"I've already cried to much this week I want something happy." Becca's head popped up to throw a half bitten chip at the back of Jaces head.
After many debates and Lilli saying she wants a horror movie and me not caring what we watched, we decided we'd watch a movie for all genres we first started with a sad movie for Jace and he choose All The Bright Places and me having already read the book I knew how it ended so I didn't think I would cry...
I ended up crying the most out of all of us.
We watched Becca's movie next, we watched A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff, a movie we've all seen before. Becca even quoted the scene with Sam in the locker room with Austin before the big game at the end of the movie.
And for the horror we watched the original Scream. I was the only one who hasn't watched it before since I'm not the biggest fan of horror movies. I definitely jumped the most and had to hide behind Lilli who just laughed.
Half way through the last film me and Lilli migrated to the bed so now Jace was in the middle of me and Becca with Lilli on my right as the movie finished with my head half under the covers.
"That movie is so good. What do you think Ella?" I could hear the laughter in his voice as Becca giggled and Lilli just patted my head even though I knew she was silently laughing too.
I glared at them all while they continued to laugh.
"Aw you look so cute." I slapped his hand away as he tried to pinch my cheeks.
We sat in my bed bed talking about what we should do now since none of us were tired yet.
"Oh we should play a game!" Becca sat up on her knees excitedly.
"We should be basic bitches and play truth or dare." We all laughed at Jaces wording even though I felt my cheeks tint pink from his curse. (A/N I'm not saying truth or dare is basic I just meant it in a way that it's always in wattpad books I love truth or dare and think it's fun)
After agreeing we sat in a circle on my bed. "Okay Lilli truth or dare?"
After Lilli answered truth Becca was deep in thought about what to ask her. "Oh I know! Would you ever kiss me?"
"Sure." Lilli shook her head laughing. Before turning to Jace. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare." He said with a smirk as if he was challenging her. Well if there's one thing I've learned about Lilli, is that she doesn't like being challenged.
"I dare you to text your mom that you ran out of lube." Jace looked at her with shock while Becca was clutching her stomach with tears coming out of her eyes. I was just confused.
"Lube?" Becca laughed even harder at the sound of my question.
"Don't worry about it El it's dirty." I just nodded at Lilli not really knowing if I'd want to know what it is.
Jace reluctantly took out his phone before glaring at a smug Lilli. "You are just cruel I hope you know that."
"Oh trust me I know." She winked at him before motioning him to hurry up.
When Jace sent the text he powered off his phone. "Okay moving on, Ella truth or dare?"
"Truth." I narrowed my eyes at him when he smile a Cheshire Cat grin.
"Do you have a crush on anyone? More specifically a redheaded new student who's name starts with an A?" I just blinked at him while playing with my fingers before I registered what he just said.
"No! Definitely not!" I bowed my head so my hair would fall covering my blushing cheeks at his question.
It's not like I had a crush on Aaron, sure I might think he's cute and he gives me butterflies when he calls me that stupid nickname sweetheart, but I barely know the guy let alone enough to have a crush on him.
"I mean I wouldn't blame you if you did." Jace shrugs. "I mean he shows up and is something out of a book being all mysterious."
He wiggles his fingers at me causing me to laugh as he goes on about how mysterious Aaron really is.
Jace is right though there's so many things no one knows about him. I'm not saying he has to tell people he just met his backstory but there are some thing about him I think I deserve to know at least, mostly how he knows my brothers.
Despite not knowing him for long however I've felt myself slipping my guard down around him which scares me. That's probably the reason why I haven't been responding to most of his texts besides one worded answers.
I just can't let my guard down and let him in resulting in me getting heartbroken. All my friends left me after my mom died, they said how I was just to different now and they liked me better when I would talk and smile more.
I wish I said something to them back then about how my mother just died and I was stuck in a house with someone who parents warned they're children about. The real monster hiding under your bed.
Except I had no one to chase away the monsters.
But now I do. I have six brothers who have promised to chase them away from now on and so far they haven broken that yet.
That's another reason why my guard has been slipping around Aaron, my brothers trust him. At least I think they do.
"Well I answered the question so Becca, truth or dare?" We continued playing for a while before we started to get tired and just sat around talking about anything and everything.
It was mostly Jace talking about these conspiracy theories he's read about.
At around 1:30 am is when we started to lay down finally getting tired.
Even though my bed is big it would be to crowded if we all sleep in it especially since Jace has stated that he kicks in his sleep so we have him the couch to sleep on by himself.
The space on my bed was much bigger without Jace so the three of us stayed sleeping with Becca in the middle of me and Lilli.
Laying on my side with my eyes closed I focused on the soft snores escaping Jaces mouth ever couple of minutes trying to make myself fall asleep.
While my body is begging to fall asleep my mind won't turn off. I slip onto my back with my now open eyes trying to see anything in the darkness of my room. My eyes scan the walls before drifting towards my window staring out at the glowing moon.
The feeling of movement next to me captures my attention causing me to tense up. I didn't forget I was sharing my bed with my two friends I just wasn't expecting to start to feel like the walls were closing in and that I needed to get out of here.
My breathing gets ragged as I scoot myself to the edge as quietly and quickly as possible.
Making my escape out the door I take a big gulp of air before leaning shading the cool wall. I stare down the silent hallway with barely any light shining through it at all.
Looking back at my closed door I head down the hall figuring none of my brothers are here so I wouldn't get questions about me not being asleep.
I sluggishly walk up and down the continuous hallway for about ten minutes before making my way back to my room.
My footsteps falter hearing a creak behind me. I turn around turning on the light switch trying to see down the hall and around the corner as much as I could.
Taking two steps forward o freezing thinking I see a shadow move. Unless Lilli Jace or Becca have woken up no one else should be here.
I start taking steps back even though I don't see anything anymore the hair on my arms rise as a chill pass by me. I feel like I'm in a horror movie about to be killed.
Taking more steps back I gasp as my back collided with someone.
"Ow Jesus!" Lilli exclaims while holding onto her nose.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't even see you." I raise my hands as if I want to help her before lowering them not wanting to make it worse.
"Where were you? I woke up to go to the bathroom and couldn't find you." Lilli questioned.
"Oh I just couldn't sleep so I just walked around. I'm sorry for worrying you." I said guiltily.
"Don't feel bad it's just late now so we should go to bed." She glanced over my shoulder towards the end of the hall before ushering me towards my bedroom.
I slowly follow her watching as she showed no emotion on her face whenever she glanced back behind us.
Did she see something to? Obviously she didn't otherwise she would've said something, she knows it's just us here tonight.
Before we turn the corner I take one last glance back but see nothing again.
Strange.
Back in bed I realize how tired I was now. I guess walking around really tired me out.
I fall asleep to the confusion of wondering if there really was someone there and if not then why did I feel like I was being watched.
Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
I made character aesthetics of Jace and Becca so you can understand they're character a little more.
The girl I imagine as Becca is Amanda Arcuri with the pink hair she had when she played Lola from Degrassi: Next Class.
The boy I imagine as Jace is Tom Holland.