If you catch me, will you let me down?

Since we were spending another day in San Francisco, we didn’t know what to do. I slid to the kitchen in my bright green socks.

“You look tired!” Cameron said, biting on a piece of toast.

“Thanks,” I grabbed Cinnamon Toast Crunch out of the cupboard, “Every girl likes hearing that, Cam.”

He laughed, “You know I’m kidding. You look pretty.”

“Yeah, you’re still kidding.” I put the cereal back in the cupboard.

Zach appeared out of his guest room, looking fresh. “Hey guys. Beautiful morning!”

“You seem happy.” I shoved a spoonful of cereal and milk into my mouth.

He sighed, “It’s great!”

And then Michael appeared out of HIS room, “Morning,” He stretched, and ate my cereal.

“Michael!” I whined, “Just kidding you can eat that.”

Nathan yawned, “Wow, she’s sharing her food.”

I smiled at him, “I feel nice today!”

My phone began to ring once again. Ryan? What did HE want?

“Aimee,” He sounded frustrated, “Where’s my leather jacket?! I just tore your whole room up to find it but I can’t find it!”

I went to my luggage digging through it, “Oh.”

“Did you bring it with you?!” Ryan hated it when I packed up his clothes without telling him.

“Uhh, kinda?”

“God, Aimee-” He got cut off by the sound of yelling.

“What was that?” I asked. It couldn’t have been mom and dad. They NEVER fought. Well, except maybe once.

“Mom and dad are fighting.” I could kind of hear the stress in his voice.

“About…?” He fell silent. But I heard a faint, “Maybe (somethingsomething) of Aimee!”

Me? They were fighting because of me?

“Um, Ry I’m gonna go alright? And yeah I’m sorry about taking your jacket.”

“Yeah.” He said, and hung up.

--

I stayed in my room, crying. How could my parents fight over me? It made me feel worthless. I was in there for a good thirty minutes when Zach just barged in, "Hey Aimee- Oh."

I looked up at him, and I was pretty sure I looked more of a mess than I already did before, "Zach..."

He sat by my side, "What's wrong?"

I cried into his shoulder, "My parents are fighting, Zach. Over me. Me! How could they? I'm a bad daughter!" But it came out muffled.

"Aww, don't say that Aims. Maybe it's just a bad day. You're an amazing girl, okay?" He hugged me tighter. "But I'm gonna go grab some food with Cam, Nathan, and Michael. Wanna tag along?"

"No thanks." I picked at my nails.

A few minutes later, Michael came into my room. "I decided not to go get food."

"Oh, that's new. You guys are like, religious over food." I was still crying, but I smiled a little bit.

He sat by my side, like Zach did. "Now what happened, boo?"

"My parents are fighting. Because of me. I've never heard them fight. Ever, except for one time. And now I think I might... go back home." I sighed.

"No, you can't go home." He protested.

"Give me one reason." I held his hand.

"I can give you five." He smiled at me.

My eyes began to dry a little. I giggled and poked his dimple, "You so cute, Mikey."

When the guys came back, they were all happy. Because they had food, duh! I went back into the kitchen and sat on a barstool. I drummed my gray and purple nails on the marble counters, "I need a drink."

Zach handed me a water bottle.

"Not that kind of drink." I pushed it away.

Zach smacked his lips together, "No."

"Why though?"

"Because you said you'd never drink AGAIN. Remember?" He put his hand over mine.

Yeah, I remembered.

(Flashback.)

It was a Saturday night. I just turned seventeen, and there was a party somewhere.

"Aimee hurry up!" He knocked on my bedroom door.

"Hold on! Almost done!" I smoothed cherry chapstick on my lips and threw it in my purse.

"You look fancy!" Zach said, as I opened my door.

"Thank you!" I twirled around in my black dress.

When we got there, the party was bumping.

Ariana offered me something. I didn't know what it was, but it was SO STRONG. I didn't care. I was seventeen now. The rest of the night became blurrier, and blurrier, and blurrier until all I could do was hear. I blacked out completely. All I could hear was Zach faintly saying, "Aimee? Are you drunk?!"

The next morning I woke up on his bedroom floor.

"What the hell happened?" I had THE biggest headache ever. And talking just made it hurt more.

"You got drunk?" He came in with a cup of coffee for me.

"How drunk?" I put my hand on my forehead.

"Well, your hair was a mess, you lost a shoe... Oh and you kept flirting with guys on the dance floor ready to take your clothes off."

That wasn't me. That wasn't the girl I knew. "What?" I said.

He looked up at his whiteboard calendar, which said "AIMEE'S BIRTHDAY!" in big huge letters.

"Wait, do my parents know about this, Zach?" I was worried. I would've been killed if they found out.

"Don't worry, I called them saying you'd spend the night and today I have a post-birthday thing for you."

"You're great." I smiled.

"I try," He smiled, and his bright blue eyes reflected off of the afternoon sunlight. "But my post-birthday thing is curing your hangover."

I sighed, "If it's fun then sure." My head still hurt a bit.

(End flashback.)

"But yeah, Aimee. You can't leave." Michael kissed me on the cheek.

"Aimee? Going back HOME?" Zach looked at me.

I nodded.

"You can't go back home!" Nathan joined in, "Because if you weren't here I couldn't do THIS!" And he tickled me.

I started giggling and screaming at the same time.

Cameron hugged me from behind, "You can't leave us!"

And soon all the guys and I were in a group hug.

"You know what? I think I WILL stay." I slammed my palms against the counters.

"That's great," Michael hugged me so tightly, I couldn't breathe, "Because I love you."

I was speechless.