It was barely five o'clock in the morning, but Haley couldn't take it anymore, Josh had promised to bring Chloe back to campus yesterday and not only hadn't he done that, she hadn't heard anything from any of them since she spoke to her brother two days ago.
"Haley, would you come back to bed?" she glanced over at Cam lounging on her bed and pulled a shirt over her head, no matter how much she wanted to go lay down with him, she couldn't do it as long as she didn't know what the hell was going on with Chloe.
"I'm going to Josh's, I need to know Chloe's okay" Cam sighed and pushed himself of the bed, pulling on his sneakers and grabbing his suade jacket from where it was dispatched on the floor by her bed.
"Then I'm coming with you" she turned and looked at him, she could tell from the determined set of his shoulders that there was no talking him out of it but she still tried.
"You don't have to do that, I'm perfectly capable of getting to my brother on my own" she said and he rolled his eyes before he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"You don't really think I'm going to let you go on your own in the middle of the night, do you?"
"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself" she protested and Cam rolled his eyes.
"I know, but I don't care, and besides..." he grinned and reached inside his pocket, pulling out a set of keys.
"I have a car, and you don't" she couldn't argue with that so she just nodded her head and offered up a smile.
"Fine" she agreed and he grinned, she loved that grin, and she felt it like a punch to her gut when she realized his smile wasn't the only thing she loved, she loved him.
Her sudden epiphany caught her off guard and she cleared her voice before she pulled away.
"I'm just gonna put on some pants," she murmured quietly and turned her back to him, she didn't know how to handle her new realisation, she'd never loved anybody that wasn't her family before.
"Hey, are you okay?" she swallowed and offered him a smile over her shoulder.
"Fine, worried is all" she could tell he didn't by it for one second, but he wouldn't pry, another thing she loved about him.
"If you say so," she felt guilty for suddenly being so chilly, but she needed some time to think about this, to get her mind straight.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rain was pouring outside and Chloe snuggled deeper into Josh's side. He was sleeping quietly beside her and she didn't know whether it was on instinct or if he was really awake, but he tightened his arms around her and she was once again reminded of how safe she felt being with him.
She'd had a hard time sleeping last night, nightmares and bad memories from the past kept tormenting her and she'd woken up screaming several times during the night, but Josh had been there every single time to chase away her fears and calm her down.
She couldn't get over how warm he was, it was like she had her very own furnace sleeping beside her and she was positive she wouldn't even need a blanket to stay warm as long as she remained in his embrace. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, all those frowns of worry from yesterday was gone and he looked like he didn't have a care in the world, he was truly the most beautiful man she had ever seen.
"What are you looking at?" his sleepy murmur caused her to smile and she kissed his bare chest.
"You. You're really beautiful, you know that?" he opened one eyes and cocked a brow at her and she laughed softly.
"Is this something you recently discovered or?" she slapped his chest playfully and laughed as he rolled them over, hovering above her.
"Nobody is blind to your devilish good looks, but I've never really noticed how beautiful you are until now."
"Why, thank you" he said in a girlish voice and fluttered his lashes and she rolled her eyes.
"Don't get high on yourself Mr, that's not why I said it." he grinned and kissed her and she closed her eyes, melting into his kiss.
"Mmm, I could stay like this all day," he whispered against her lips and she gazed up at him, wondering how the hell she'd become so lucky as to find such a great guy. Admittedly it was a little weird that he was her bestfriends brother, but as long as Haley didn't seem to have a problem with it she wouldn't make a fuss about it.
"But... considering I promised Haley I'd have you back to your dorm last night, I think we might have company very soon if I know my sister." As if on cue the doorbell seemed to be going crazy and Chloe laughed when Josh groaned and rested his forehead against hers.
"We could just ignore it" he muttered and Chloe found her self laughing again, what a change from all the crying she'd been doing the past 48 hours, it was nice to be able to smile again.
"You know she won't stop, it's your sister we're talking about." A second later Josh's cell started ringing and he sighed as he pushed up and got out of bed, leaving Chloe to admire his wonderful physique.
He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxershorts and her eyes followed his body from his muscular legs up to his very fine ass and toned upperbody, she couldn't see anything but muscles anywhere.
"See something you like?" he tossed a cocky grin at her as he pulled on a pair of black fitted jeans and she stretched out, the blanket falling off and grinning as his eyes darkened.
"You know I do," she told him and he shook his head with a pained groan.
"Your killing me," she got out of bed as well and was amazed by how comfortable she felt standing before him in nothing but her laungerie and she actually reveled in the way he was looking at her, like she was something precious.
"Go answer the door before Haley breaks in," Chloe ordered and he took one more fleeting look at her before he went to open the door.
Chloe could hear Haley and Cam in the hallway while she was in the bathroom making herself presentable and it sounded like Haley was going off on Josh.
"You said you'd have her back by last night!" Chloe sighed and pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail before she left the bathroom and followed the sign of the voices, they had moved into the livingroom by the time she found them. Haley had her back to her and Josh was doing a good job of looking indifferent as Haley kept yelling, Cam was leaning against the kitchen island with an amused expression as he watched brother and sister go head to head.
"Entertaining, isn't it? This is what I grew up with." Chloe laughed quietly but apparently it wasn't quiet enough because Haley spun around a second later and pointed a shaking finger at her, her eyes were narrowed and it was clear she was really pissed off.
"And you!" Chloe could see Josh wasn't as cool anymore the moment Haley started on her and she shook her head softly at him, letting him know it was okay to let Haley vent a little.
"What the hell do you think you were doing, running off like that?! You didn't give an explanation, you didn't tell me where you were and you never came back! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you?!" Chloe lifted her hands up in surrender and smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry Hales, I just needed some time to think. I never mean to upset you."
"And then I call you and Josh picks up the phone, telling me you're sleeping and that you're fine! Don't you ever do that to me ever again!" Haley stomped towards her and for a moment Chloe was worried she'd actually slap her, but then she pulled her in for a hug and squeezed her so tight it was like her life depended on it.
"I was so worried," Haley said much softer and Chloe sighed and wrapped her hands around her.
"I know, I really am sorry." She could hear Haley sniffle and felt incredibly guilty for putting her through all of that, she could only imagine how she would have felt if the situation had been reversed, she'd be a mess.
"Are you gonna tell me what's going on?" Haley pulled away and Chloe locked eyes with Josh over her shoulder, he nodded his head briefly and stopped to kiss the top of her head before he motioned for Cam to come with him.
"We'll go and get some breakfast," he told them and pulled on his jacket.
"Stay inside and don't let anybody in until we get back." Chloe rolled her eyes but she was flattered with his concern.
"We'll be fine, just go. I want pancakes by the way!" she called after them and waited until the door closed behind them before she led Haley over to the couch and started talking.
She told her everything, starting from the time she dated Damon in the summer to the break in and Champ's murder and to her getting the phone call about his release.
Haley was quiet for a long time and Chloe had no idea whether that was a good or bad thing, Haley was usually never this quiet so she was leaning against the latter.
"Somebody killed my dog, I'd hunt them down and kill them myself! I mean, what kind of sick evil twisted person would do such a thing to an innocent little dog!" the look on her face was pure rage and despite the severity of the situation, Chloe couldn't help but crack a smile.
"What, what are you smiling for?" Haley demanded and Chloe pulled her in for another hug.
"Thank you Haley, I don't know how I would have survived out here without you." When they pulled away Haley's face softened and she squeezed her hand.
"Your a fighter Chloe, the fact that you went through all of that and survived proves it. You would have done just fine without me, that being said... I'm glad we ended up as roommates, my life would have been so boring without you." Chloe threw her head back and laughed.
"Yeah, somebody else become your roommate and they probably wouldn't have hooked up with your brother, or teased you about Cam or you would never had been drawn in to all my past drama.""Come to think about, maybe your "other" roommate would have hooked up with your brother, what do I know." Haley smiled secretly and shook her head.
"I doubt it, if it hadn't been you, Josh wouldn't have hooked up with my "other" roommate, as you call this fictive person." I gaped at her and barely registered the guys coming through the door carrying bags of food.
"Trust me, I know."
"Know what?" I looked up to see Josh dropping the take-away bags onto the island and leaning back against it with folded arms.
"Chloe thinks that if she hadn't ended up being my roommate and I'd ended up paired with someone else, you'd hook up with her and not Chloe." The look the two of them shared was unnoticed by Chloe and she wanted to know what it was they weren't telling her.
"You really think that low of me?" Chloe stood up and crossed her arms, glaring at Josh.
"Why is it so impossible that you'd hook up with someone who wasn't me? It's not like we were meant to be with eachother, like were soulmates or anything." Despite her words she couldn't seem to believe them herself and it worried her that just the thought of Josh with someone else made her feel all hollow and empty inside.
"Okay, who wants pancakes?" Cam's lame attempt at drawing attention away from their conversation was poor but somehow it still worked because right at that moment, Chloe realized how incredibly hungry she was.
"This discussion isn't over," she muttered and she walked by Josh and into the kitchen, she could hear him sighing and saw him ran a hand through his hair, it was definetely not over.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Oh my god, this is so good" Chloe moaned and started on her fourth pancake, Haley was gaping at her and staring at her plate.
"Sheesh, how much sex did the two of you have these last couple of days?"
"Haley!" Josh and Cam snapped at the same time and Chloe choked on her food, gulping down water to wash it all down.
"What?" Haley looked at them like she couldn't see what the big deal was and maybe it wasn't such a big deal, but sex and stuff was still pretty new to Chloe and she wasn't entirely comfortable discussing her sexlife with her boyfriends sister.
"I'm just saying, with the way your eating... You must have burned some serious energy." Chloe cast a glance a hard glance at her without meaning to before she looked away.
"Our sexlife is none of your business Haley, you don't hear me asking about you and Cam's sexual activites," this time Cam was the one doing the choking and Haley blushed furiously.
"Fine, I get it. Subject dropped." She muttered and they all went back to eating in silence, the mood slightly more awkward then it had been a few hours ago.
"Babe, your phone" she looked at Josh who motioned towards her phone with his fork and she saw Sarah's name on the screen. She swallowed down the piece she was chewing before she pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hey," she could hear voices in the background, it sounded like Sarah had her dormroom open from all the hoots and catcalls that was standard at Collegedorms.
"Where the hell are you?" Chloe frowned and sat back, not understanding anything, Sarah knew perfectly well where she was.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm outside your dormroom and nobodies home, so I'm gonna ask one more time. Where. Are. You?"
"Wait, your here? Your at my dorm?" She heard sighing and then Sarah was telling someone off and then she was back on the line.
"That's what I said, isn't it?" She looked across the table at Haley and covered her phone with her hand.
"Sarah's at our dorm," Haley frowned but didn't say anything.
"I'm sorry Sarah, I had no idea you were coming. I'm in town, at my..." she trailed off and glanced at Josh who was watching her curiously.
"I'm at my boyfriends place," she noticed the look Cam and Haley shared and she caught the smile on Josh face before she looked away and focused on her conversation with Sarah.
"Since when do you have a boyfriend? How long has that been going on, and why don't I know anything about this?" Chloe smiled and was reminded of how much she'd really missed her childhood bestfriend.
"I'll tell you all about it later, I'll be there as soon as I can." She saw Josh standing up and reaching for his car keys.
"I can go pick her up, bring her here if you want." She hesitated for a second before she nodded her head.
"Hey Sarah, Josh is gonna come pick you up. He's the one driving the insanely sexy black audi, you'll know what I'm talking about." She letting Josh go on his own was risky thinking about Sarah and her nosy nature, but she was so hungry and the pancakes was just heaven right now.
"I'll come with you," Haley interjected and stood up, grabbing her jacket and phone, Cam looked like he wasn't planning on going anywhere which was completely fine, it hadn't been just him and Chloe for a really long time.
"Haley's with him, the two of you have sort of met already." They'd met eachother over skype a few weeks back and they'd seemed to hit it off so she just hoped it would be the same in person.
"Okay then, I'll just be here. Waiting. Forever alone."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you when you get here." She hung up the phone and caught a kiss from Josh before he and Haley disappeared out the door.
"Well then sugar, looks like it's just you and me." Chloe grinned at Cam and pushed the plates of pancakes his way.
"If you want more you better eat before Sarah get's here, she's even worse then the cookiemonster when it comes to pancakes."