Ella's pov:
After that...
Scary information, I watch Zander as he claps his hands together, looking at me.
"Well, follow me Ella, you can meet everyone inside." I smile at his offer and nod my head while Zander looks at Luke.
"I guess your dumb brain can come too."
"F*ck you."
"Gladly." Zander says, I try to hold in my laugh as he opens up a door leading to his house.
As I follow behind him, I see a boy in an arm chair, one on the couch, and another on the floor.
They all looked around my age, or at least in or just out of high school.
Well, thinking back to what Zander said, three of them, including him, are heading off to college.
Oh and no surprise here, they were all super attractive.
But I think Luke's looks were the best-.... why am I thinking this?
We are friends.
"I would like everyone to say hi to Ella, Luke's friend." Zander says pretty loudly.
All the boys look over and look at me and I...
Really hating myself...
Give them the same kind of wave I gave to Zander earlier.
"Jake." The one on the armchair says, he waves his hand.
"Damien." The one on the floor says next.
"Ashton." The last boy says who was sitting on the couch.
"Where's little J?" Zander asks looking at Ashton.
"I think she's in the kitchen, where I quote, 'I am not sharing my cookies with Jake because he is mean'." Ashton says letting out a small laugh at the end of his sentence.
"She is acting like I'm going to eat them all!" Jake says throwing his hands up in the air.
Suddenly, loud footsteps come from the kitchen and I watch as a girl comes out.
"Do you really want to go there Jake. DO. YOU." She glares which causes Jake to sink back in his seat.
"No Julie." He says.
Suddenly, my eyes go wide, now that look at her, it's-...
"Ella??!" Julie says as she looking at me.
"Julie, hey." I smile, but I am thrown off when she runs up and pulls me into a hug.
From behind her, I watch as the boys gives her a curious look.
"I thought I would never see your face again!! And I feel like I knew that was you in the hospital but I wasn't sure-.."
"Wait, she was the girl next to you in the hospital?" Damien asks looking at Luke.
Luke just scratches the back of his neck... "Yeah... wait Julie, you know her?"
"Yes! We met at the park, when I thought I lost Jake," she says pulling back from the hug, "again, thank you so much."
I give her a heartwarming smile, "It really was nothing."
"Wait, when did this happen?" I look over to see Ashton looking intently at Julie.
But at this, she lets out a nervous laugh, "Whose hungry?"
I let out a small giggle as she runs into the kitchen, while Ashton stands up and follows behind her.
"I'm hungry!!" Jake shouts and follows them into the kitchen.
I feel someone nudge my back and I look over to see Luke.
"Would you like to sit down?" Luke questions, I am about to answer but I am beat to it.
"Hold my phone," Zander says and throws his phone to a startled Damien on the floor who just caught it before it was able to reach his face, "Luke.. MANNERS??" He barks out holding his stomach.
Luke just rolls his eyes and lightly pushes me to another couch opposite to the one that Ashton was sitting on before he followed Julie into the kitchen.
I take a seat and Luke sits right next to me.
"You're being a dick." Luke says to Zander.
"What can I say, you are what you eat."
I almost choke on my saliva as I watch Zander smirk at Luke.
"We know." Luke rolls his eyes.
Out of nowhere, I watch as Zander takes the seat next to me on the couch.
"Wait, so are you..." I try to ask, I really didn't want to come off rude or offensive because, and I repeat, being social is not my greatest quality.
"Yep." Zander grins pridefully.
At this, I smile, "That's amazing how you are proud of it, usually a lot of people are afraid to come out."
At this, his grin widens, "Thanks, it took a while, but I honestly couldn't have done it if it weren't for Julie."
"I'm happy for you."
"You know, I am beginning to really like you, I think you will fit in just right."
"Really?" I almost cry, literally.
But who wouldn't. Not having a real group of friends for pretty much your whole entire life, then being told this...
It really means a lot.
"Of course!" He goes to give me a fist bump and I give one right back.
"Hey Zander, did you find out who your college roommate is." Damien asks.
As they start a conversation, I turn towards Luke.
"I had been meaning to ask you, yoga, really?" I chuckle as he nods his head.
"Mind you, I think I would make a fantastic yoga instructor."
"Do you even know how to do yoga?" I let out an even louder chuckle as his grin fades.
"Kinda?"
"What do you mean kinda?"
"Who said you needed to know yoga?"
"Yoga instructor, you can't teach yoga if you don't know yoga."
"I think I can."
"Well I think you can't." I argue.
I hear a laugh and I look over to see Damien and Zander both looking at us.
Damien looked like he was going to laugh but Zander...
His look frightened me.
But it's funny because it reminded me of this character in a book that I loved who was obsessed with shipping people together.
...
Anyways...
"Are you hungry?" Luke asks looking away from the two boys and at me.
"I mean not really-.." but before I got the chance to finish that sentence, my stomach grumbles which makes me blush.
"Are you sure about that?" Luke laughs and stands up from the couch.
"Wait, I don't want to stand up though."
"Stop being lazy." Luke whines.
Usually, I would just ignore it and won't move, but thinking about food made me more hungry than I guess I thought I was.
So I stand up and follow Luke into the kitchen.
And when I walk in.... I realize that maybe it wasn't the best time.
"I'm going to kill you!!" Julie yells as she points a spatula at Jake who had his arms wrapped around a jar of cookies.
"I just wanted one!!" Jake argues out in protest.
They start to bicker, but what makes me really try not to laugh is how Ashton was almost like the peace maker in this mess.
He was standing between them with his arms up so Julie wouldn't attack Jake.
"Julie, baby, please put the spatula down." He lets out a nervous laugh as her glare on Jake flickers to him.
Baby? Huh, I wonder if they are dating. Well, now that I think of it, probably. It's obvious by the way he looks at her which is honestly kind of cute.
"Ashton let me at him." She says trying to move closer to Jake but Ashton only wraps his arms around her waist.
"Jake, this is a life or death situation, you might want to-..."
"Hell no, I deserve these cookies for finding them hidden in the cabinet."
Suddenly, Luke grabs my hand and forces me to move back away from the scene.
I give him a questionable look as he mumbles me a, "You might want to stand back."
He looks over at Julie like she was a ticking time bomb.
Actually, all three of them were.
"Julie... I'm sorry." Jake says, his eyes were widened as he took a step back.
I almost heard Ashton gulp, "Julie?"
"Three." Julie says, I watch as Ashton looks over at Jake and steps back away from Julie.
"Julie, let's talk about this." Jake says.
"Two."
Jake hugs the jar closer to his chest as Ashton takes another step back.
"One." Julie takes a deep breath.
"JAKE you ALWAYS steal my cookies, ALWAYS!! Give me MY cookies, they are meant for EVERYONE and EVERTIME you eat them ALL!! GIVE THEM TO ME!!!!!" She yells and next thing you know she goes up to Jake and smacks him with the spatula before Ashton has the time to react and try to stop her.
Jake, looking like he has been through hell and back, quickly hands her the cookies and rubs his side where she had hit him.
Then, all of a sudden, she smiles, just like the heartwarming one she gave me when she hugged me, "Thank you Jake, I knew you would come around."
Ashton goes up and hesitantly hugs Julie from the side.
That is when he sees me and Luke standing in the doorway and gives us a sheepish smile.
Julie notices and looks over at me, and at first she had a shocked gaze, but then she gave us almost a replica of Ashton's smile.
"Does anyone want a cookie?"
Isn't it nice to see the old gang back together?
To be completely honest, it was so nice to write this.
I missed writing about Damien, Jake, Ashton, and all of them.
I hope you enjoyed, just remember that this takes place like eight months after the ending of His Nerd Next Door.
Love you!!
~juls