Moving into my new apartment when smoothly. But it was just as lonely and cold as the one in New Jersey, the only difference being that I had friends here. I barely spent any time in my new apartment. I mostly hung out with Vic, Tony, Jaime, and Mike, and we wrote songs together and practiced together. I even shared my original songs with them, something I wouldn’t normally do. I’ve never felt so alive and happy. And I’ve grown comfortable with the guys. They made me feel like I was a part of their family, like I belonged, like I was finally home.

A lot of time passed by. I never felt depressed anymore. Part of that was because I was never alone; Either Vic or Mike or Jaime or Tony was always with me.


“Will you pass me the Hershey syrup?” Mike asked me with a plateful of spaghetti in his mouth. I looked at him like he was deranged.

“Mikey, I didn’t put Hershey syrup out. This is spaghetti,” I replied, laughing hysterically. He looked hilarious. It was a Sunday night, and every Sunday we had a family dinner. Tonight, I made spaghetti; tonight, Mike wanted Hershey syrup.

“Haven’t you seen the movie, Elf?” he asked. “I want to try eating spaghetti like Buddy does, with marshmallows and Hershey syrup and pop tarts,” he smiled excitedly.

“Mike, you’re such a child!” Vic scoffed playfully at his brother. Mike stuck his tongue out at him.

“Hey, can we play fifa tonight?” Jaime spoke up. That was his favorite game. The Fifa soccer game. It was my favorite game, too; I loved soccer.

“Yes!” Tony and I said simultaneously, grinning.

“Aw, yeah, and we can finally try out those new beanbag chairs,” Vic added. Last week, Vic bought beanbags for his room. It made video-game-playing a hundred percent more fun.

“Dibs on the purple one!” Mike said, his mouth still full of spaghetti. He was a machine. I rolled my eyes.

When we were finished with dinner, we raced to the beanbags. Mike got his purple one, Jaime and Tony shared the black one, and, before I could protest, Vic pulled me onto his lap on the dark blue one.

We played the game for a few minutes, and I was winning. That is, until I got a phone call. It was an unknown number. “Just let it go to voice mail,” Vic said in my ear when I looked at it. I shrugged my shoulders and tossed it aside, continuing the game.

Unfortunately, Vic liked to cheat by tickling my rib cage, and this started an all out tickle war. Well, it was more of them ganging up on me. Why were we such children? I laughed and cried as eight hands attacked my ribs, I was insane. But boy was I happy. I, sprawled out on the floor, turned my head to the right. I saw my phone flashing, someone was calling me again. I stopped reacting to the tickles, and numbness overflowed through me. “Jake,” the caller ID read. The guys noticed my change in facial expression and kneeled around me.

“What’s wrong?” Vic asked, touching my arm. I instinctively cringed away. My phone stopped ringing for a moment, and then it started again. Why was he calling me again? They watched me as I slowly got up and crawled to my phone.

“I’ll be right back,” I said, running out of the room with my phone. My heart thumped. I clicked answer.

“Hello?”

“Claire,” Jake’s deep voice said.

“What do you want?” I sniped.

“You, of course. Where are you, babe?”

“That’s none of your business, Jake,” I snapped. “I don’t want to see you.”

“That’s rude,” he growled. “Besides, I know where you are, anyway,” he added. His voice rose higher, like he was smiling.

“Bullshit,” I respond shakily. He couldn’t know where I was.

“Yes, I do. You’re in that band, now, right? Congrats, by the way, sweetheart.”

I gulped, waiting for him to continue.

“You know, it’s not that hard to find you. Everyone knows your name now. You’re practically famous, in the pop-punk world, at least,” he said.

“What does that have to do with anything?” I couldn’t breathe.

“You have a really shitty apartment, I’ll tell you that,” he yawned. “The bed’s comfortable, though, if you want to join me.”

I backed myself up against the wall for support.

“It’s rude not to reply,” Jake snarled from the other end.

“Get the fuck out of my apartment,” I growled.

“Hm, I actually quite like it here. Maybe I'll just wait for you to come home,” he threatened.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” I said. Then I hung up the phone and slid down the wall, burying my face in my hands.

It wasn’t long until I felt the air shift beside me. Someone had sat next to me, and that someone wrapped his arms around me, holding onto my shaking and terrified body.

“What happened, bear?” Vic whispered softly into my ear.

Before I could answer, my phone began to ring again. I almost threw up when I saw it was Jake again. “This,” I choked out, pointing to the phone call.

Vic’s face contorted. “What did he do?” he asked through clenched teeth. I just shook my head, burying it into his chest. “If he calls again, I’m answering,” I heard him mutter. He remained crouched close with me, petting the back of my head as I tried to calm down.

“He’s… he’s in my… he’s in my apartment,” I managed to tell him.

“You won’t be going back there, tonight,” Vic said, squeezing me closer.

I went rigid when the phone rang again. Vic answered on the second ring.

“You bitch! Who are you to ignore my phone calls, you worthless piece of shit?” I heard Jake scream from the other end of the line before Vic could say anything.

“Hey, there,” Vic said calmly. “Claire is unavailable right now. And she will remain unavailable for a very long time. So if you call this number again, or threaten her again, or go near her apartment again, I will personally fuck you up,” he growled.

Jake didn’t answer for a moment. “Who is this?” his words slurred.

“Your worst fucking nightmare. Don’t do it again, because guess what? I know where yourworthless ass lives,” he added. Then, he hung up. His teeth were gritted in anger. I carefully touched his face, making him look less angry.

“Thank you,” I sighed, curling into a tighter ball against him.

“Is she okay?” I heard someone—Tony—whisper. I felt Vic nod.

I stayed in a tense position for a few more minutes, and Vic continued to comfort me. Eventually, though, I relaxed, sitting up. “I’m sorry,” I said, wiping my eyes. Luckily I didn’t have eye make up on.

“Don’t be sorry,” Vic whispered. “We all have shit behind us,” he added.

“Do you want to watch Harry Potter with Mike? He’s having a marathon,” he changed the subject.

I half-smiled. “Okay,” I said, standing up. He held my hand with both of his as we walked to the family room.

Mike brightly smiled when he saw me, and he extended his arms. I squeezed Vic’s hand, a silent “thank you”, and crawled next to Mike. We had Harry Potter to watch, fuzzy blankets to cuddle with, and twizzlers to use as magic wands. And more importantly, I had one of my best friends to help me forget again.

Notes

Chapter 3 yay! Getting into the more interesting stuff, finally :)

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