There's No Turning Back

[Two Weeks Later]

Walking down the crowded hallways, I saw Sebastian leaning against a locker, talking to a girl with his eyes shining brightly. He saw me and grinned, saying something to the girl and then left, skipping over to me.

"Hi!" he greeted enthusiastically.

"Hey," I laughed at him for being so cheery in the morning, "Who was that?"

His smile grew, "No one."

"Okay." I said sarcastically and walked over to my locker. I opened my locker and placed my books inside; Sebastian leaned against the closed locker next to mines. "Are you coming over today?"

"When have I not come over after school?" he replied.

"So that mean you will?" I asked hopefully and he rolled his eyes and stared straight behind me.

He smirked, "Look who's coming with a little gift." he said and I looked at him strangely. He only smiled and left. I watched as he walked down the hallways and back to the locker where he had previously been, talking to the same girl.

I felt a tap on my left shoulder and I peered over, seeing no one. I jumped in surprise when I saw Bud leaning against the locker to my right where Sebastian had previously been.

"Hey," I breathed out as he planted his lips upon mines.

"I got you something," he said and pulled out three blood red roses from behind his back. I gasped, "Only for my lovely girl." he said sweetly with a soft smile as I took it from his hands.

"Thank you." I shut my locker closed and grabbed his hand, lacing our fingers together.

"Mhmm," he mumbled, pulling me into a hug, "I love you." he whispered in my ear and I only smiled before leading him by the hand down the halls towards our first class which was conveniently, next door to each other.

I twirled the three roses that were ribboned together, in my fingers as he slowly walked next to me. I could see the disappointed smile on his face as he watched me walk an inch ahead of him.

The secondhand unwinds;
If you're lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time

I heard my cell phone go off as I groggily answered it. "Hello?"

"Are you sleeping?" I heard David ask as I heard someone echo after him. He laughed and told them to shut up.

"I was." I replied, tiredly laying my head back on the pillow and shutting my eyes.

"Oh oka --" David started but his voice was cut off and replaced by Pierre's, "Too Bad." I heard him say as David whined, "Get your butt out of bed; we're all coming over." he commanded and I whined.

"But why?"

"Because we're bored." he whined back and hung up. I groaned and lazily got up, trying to reach my dresser for clothes to change into after a shower. With my legs not yet working and walking too close to the bed, it resulted in me falling over when my foot got caught by one of the legs of my bed.

I let out a final yawn before entering the bathroom and taking a cold shower to fully wake me up.

♥ - ♥ - ♥

I got out and got dressed in a plain, white shirt and:


I didn't bother with shoes so I only wore plain socks, and tossed my hair into two pigtails, not caring to put on any makeup.

I went out into the living room and fell on the couch hopelessly, shutting my eyes; the cold shower has done anything but wake me up. It was the weekends and I stayed up late last night - until the early hours of the morning - working on a few projects and editing some photos for work. There were still tons to be done from the tour that ended only two weeks ago.

"What's up with you?" I heard someone ask and I lifted my head up to see Cheyenne standing in the doorway of the kitchen with a bowl of cereal in her hands, taking a spoonful into her mouth.

"I stayed up late last night," I replied tiredly.

"It's only ten a.m.," she stated, "Why not sleep in?"

"Because," I yawned, "Simple Plan called, woke me up and ordered me to get up 'cause they're coming over."

"Why?"

"Because they were bored." I answered monotonously.

"Oh, how lovely." she giggled and I only let out a groan. I really disliked Simple Plan at the moment for waking me up, then inviting themselves over 'just because they're bored'.

I suddenly lifted my head up in alarm, "Where's Annie?"

"Uhmm..." she looked around, "She was around here only a moment ago..." she trailed off and her eyes went wide as I sent her a look. She ran off in search of Annie and only a few moments later, I heard a shrill scream coming from within the hall where their room was.

I got up and frantically rushed in to see Cheyenne glaring at some place and Annie sitting on her bed, smiling and laughing.

"What happened?" I asked, laughing.

"The little brat," Cheyenne huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, "She was hiding under the bed just to jump out and scare me."

I started laughing and she pouted, walking over to her bed and falling down on it face first. "It's not funny," I heard her whine and I walked over.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, sitting down next to her and trying to keep my laughter that died down into giggles, to myself. I patted her back and she stayed quiet, so I decided to tickle her to make her squeal and squirm.

The door buzzer buzzed and then came a knock. "I'll finish this later," I told her in a fake, raspy voice and went out to answer whoever - which I bet I know who - was at the door. I opened the door just a crack, enough to let me stick my head out.

"What do you want, you buggers?" I asked rudely, trying to keep the smile off my face. Outside the door stood nearly twelve people; pretty much, the whole 'gang'.

Alice gasped and placed both arms on her hips 'angrily', "Is that some way to treat your guests?"

"I can't call you my guests," I stuck my tongue out, "I didn't invite you guys over; you invited yourself."

"Fine," Pierre shrugged, "We're not welcomed here so I guess we can go down, smash her car, and just walk around or find something to entertain ourselves." he said and turned his back to leave.

In an instant, I threw the door open and ran out after him - which wasn't a long distance at all - clutching him around the waist from behind. I held on tightly, "Noo, don't leave. I'm lonely." I pleaded and he immediately turned around with a big smile.

"I knew you couldn't resist us." he smiled and gave me a big hug, lifting me up and carrying me sideways into the apartment.

An hour later, we were all sitting around and chatting after giving up on finding something constructive to do. I laid on one of the couches with my legs over Sebastian and Jamie's lap and my head hanging off the edge, making my bangs fall away from my face and dangling there, dead. David and Ashleigh sat on the couch that only seated two people and Cheyenne sat sideways leaning her elbow on my stomach and her legs hanging over the arm rest.

It was a pretty crowded way of fitting four people onto a three-people couch.

Jeff sat on the floor with Annie in his lap, next to Pierre who had Lexi laying on her stomach next to him. Chuck sat on the recliner chair with Shelby in his lap and Nicolette sat with her back against the open spot where I laid. Alice and Patrick both pulled up chairs from the dinner table; Patrick sitting in his the opposite way.

We - well, a lot of the people - were talking about, what subject? I'm not even so sure. I only joined in from time to time, saying whatever I can. I looked up over at David and Ashleigh and saw how he was holding onto her hand and she was leaning against him with her head on his shoulders.

I felt a fragment of jealousy burn in the pit of my stomach and I had to force my eyes to tear away from them before they caught me staring - or worst off, before my eyes and expression gave away what I was feeling. I ripped my eyes away and focused them on something more relaxing.

Like maybe Jamie and Sebastian who was talking at the moment and Jamie had her eyes set on him lovingly. They're always enough to mellow me out.

He was saying something and it was all a blur to me before I realized that I must've said something strange to the subject - like probably disagreeing on something that they dearly loved. A lot of them gasped and looked at me with their mouths dropped open.

My eyes went wide and I looked around, wondering what was the big deal before Jamie, Sebastian, and David all piled on top of me.

There wasn't enough room on the couch with Cheyenne so David picked me up and slung me over his shoulders as I squeaked and kicked my legs, trying to get him to set me down. I caught a glance at Ashleigh to see something spark in her eyes.

I wasn't sure what it was but it sure frightened me.

David went and kind of threw me on the ground before all the other people who were seated on the ground - including Annie - jumped on top of me.

They all either poked me, tickled me, or rubbed my head the wrong way and messed with my hair. I was dying from the laughter and giggles that I resorted to going into the fetal position, and burying my head into my knees. My arms flew up to cover my head from the attacks.

They stopped right when I started crying from laughing so hard; I was practically in pain. I sat up and took my hair out of their pigtails, ruffling them and falling back against David, who was the closest one to me, as another fit of giggles surged up in me.

Falling off of him and onto the floor behind him only caused it to grow louder.

Ashleigh leapt to her feet and nervously brushed her hands on her pants. She let out a laugh that sounded to be forced out, "Mind if I get a drink from the kitchen?" she asked and I nodded, giving her a strange look as I tried to stifle my giggles.

"Of course; anytime. You don't have to ask." She briskly walked past us and into the kitchen.

What could be her problem?

Not even half an hour later, I saw Ashleigh pull at David's arm from their previous seating places. She held the look of a little girl who desired something with a strong passion but her mother isn't paying attention to her, standing there, talking to some stranger.

"David, sweetie, can we go home?" I heard her ask in a high-pitch tone.

"Why?" he asked, looking down at her and placing a soft kiss on the top of her head.

She paused and seemed to search through her thoughts for something before answering, "I have tons of things to do before I go to work and visit my mom tomorrow."

"Okay," he said hesitantly. He looked up and I saw that it wasn't the normal countenance I was used to seeing on him. They held uncertainty and disappointment. "We gotta go," he stood up and waved us goodbye while Ashleigh walked out next to him without anything so much as a single word.

"What's up with her?" Lexi asked with a frown as she continued to watch the door that had people walk through it just a few seconds before.

"I don't know," Shelby shrugged, "But is it me or does she seem to act weirder?" Everyone nodded with frowns on their faces, in curiosity.