Stay

"But when will you be back?" Jenna mumbled into his t-shirt as he held her close.

"I don't know. Monday. It should be no later. I swear I'll be back before school." Eric whispered, shutting his eyes as he stroked her hair. He loved and hated touring all at the same time. He loved it because it was his passion and yet he hated it because it upset her so much.

The whole 'spending the summer together' thing seemed like a good idea, but one thing lead to another and the boys had more and more shows pop up. Not that Jenna was complaining. She was proud of Eric and his band, and hell even her brother's band who seemed to be doing just as well. Either way, it didn't make it any easier. It didn't make it any better when she spent weeks without any of them...especially Eric.

Afterall, there was a mere two weeks left before Jenna began her senior year. A year she was already not ready to face because of them all being gone so her not having them during the summer was making it worse.

"You promise?"

"I promise, Jenna. Nothing will stop me from spending the last day of summer vacation with you."

She looked up at him and he kissed her lips gently, "I love you."

"I love you too."

"I'll call you when we get there." He whispered, brushing her cheek softly. He had trouble leaving her. Something in him wanted to just protest it. Everytime.

"Please be careful, and how about alerting me when the urge for a new tattoo enters your head."

Eric chuckled, "I swear I will."

"Good. Go before Nick comes in here and kills me."

Eric grinned, leaning down and kissing her once more, "Your brother and them should get back next week so it won't be too bad."

"But they aren't you."

"I know, and you make this so hard. You have no idea." He breathed, his hand resting on her neck.

"Go." She whispered, grabbing the front of his shirt and kissing him, "I love you. Be careful."

"Love you."

The boy grabbed up his bag and fled from the house and she could hear Nick and him shouting at each other causing her to chuckle before falling onto the couch. This was going to be the worst week ever.

She managed to keep herself busy for the whole week with lack of friends. Between Eric's million text a day and John sending her funny pictures of everyone she really had no chance to be sad. By the time Friday rolled around and Garrett and the boys were suppose to arrive back, she was completely excited. Jenna paced the living room waiting on them to barge through the door as her mother prepared lunch for the group of boys.

"Honey, I'm home!" She heard and looked over to the door to see her idiotic brother Trey walking in followed by familiar guys she had missed more than she thought possible.

"Jen!" Pat spoke immediately, snatching the girl up. She sighed as she embraced him in a hug. She now felt whole again, minus the part that wouldn't be complete without Eric.

"I've missed you." She mumbled, still clinging to the boy who didn't seem to mind, "We missed you as well."

"Jarrrr." She spoke causing Jared to laugh and they instinctively did their hand shake before hugging it out.

"Gar bear." She spoke ruffling his hair and he swatted at her hand before she hugged Kennedy.

"Where's John Oh?" She spoke, realizing the tall lanky boy was missing from the equation.

"Right here, dear."

She spun around to see the boy stepping in the door way, his signature grin on his lips, all the while sporting a new, shorter hairstyle.

"I'm sorry, what did you do with the real John?"

John laughed before ignoring her and scooping her up in his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist.

"I've missed you." She mumbled into his shoulder causing him to go a little weak in the knees.

This summer the two had spent more time together than ever before. It could have been because Eric was gone and John was a lot like him. Either way, he hadn't expected it to happen, it just had and now the two were inseperable when he was home and spent way too much time texting when away. There was nothing wrong with that was there? He was beginning to question it.

"Missed you too, sweetie. We all have." He managed to get out and she pulled back to look at him.

"I like this." She stated messing with his hair and he chuckled, "Good."

"What have you been up to, Nickelsen?" He asked, not caring that she was still wrapped around him.

"Nothing. Life sucks without all of you. I didn't think I was going to make it."

John laughed, "No worries, Eric may not be back yet, but you have us for a while."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"So tell me everything." She said and John laughed as he placed her on her feet and fell onto the couch on his back.

"Everything?" He asked, yawning as she laid beside him.

"Yep."

John began to tell stories from tour as she traced patterns into his forearm that rested on his stomach, causing his eyes to grow heavy and his words to slow down.

Before he knew it, he was out, sleep taking over him probably because he hadn't had a full 8 hours in weeks.

He woke up to loud talking, which felt like several seconds while in reality was an half hour or so.

He cracked his eyes open in time to see a flash go off causing him to groan and realize Jenna was still beside him.

"I'm sending that to Halvo." He heard the familiar voice of Kennedy along with laughter after his words.

"I'm going to murder you all." John got out in a rough voice as he glared at the boy as best as he could.

Jenna was using her hand to cover her face and leaned against his shoulder. It was innocent really. The pair were not even touching. Couldn't people just sleep?

Kennedy walked alway and before John could tell the girl how ridiculous the boy was, his phone went off in his pocket. John groaned, reaching for it and placing it right in front of his face because he was still half asleep.

Of course he couldn't help but laugh at the text, 'Keep your hands to yourself, O'Callaghan. I am well aware she's beautiful and hard to say no to, but I also would hate to go all manly on you and whatever that entails!'

"Why are you laughing?"

"Eric texted me."

She raised up to read the text and she chuckled knowing if anything he found the picture amusing. He never was the jealous type. Plus the respect between John and Eric was too much to break.

John texted something witty back and slid the phone into his pocket.

"What did you say?"

"I told him I couldn't text right now, I was too busy sleeping with his girl."

Jenna laughed, "He's going to hurt you."

"Nah, he knows I'm kidding. I would never even attempt to break up what you two have. It's the weirdest, truest shit I've ever witnessed."

"Thanks?" She questioned with laughter in her voice.

"It's a good thing, Jenna. Not everyone is lucky enough to find that." He stated, staring down at her as he proped himself up on his elbow.

"I thought you didn't want to?"

John shrugged with a grin, "I wouldn't object to it. It just has to be right. I don't want to give it all up for a girl not worthy. Then again, I'm not very worthy. So there's that..."

"You are very worthy, John Oh."

The boy scoffed as he ran his free hand through his hair, "Jenna, how I am with you isn't how I am with every girl. You know that right?"

"Well, why not?" She asked genuinely curious.

"Because, not every girl is how you are with me."

"How I am with you?"

"Yeah! Like, you're a cool girl! You're not high maintenance, you can hang with the guys, you don't ask a million questions, you listen, basically you aren't normal. Which makes sense as to why you are with Eric. He's not normal..." John stated with a chuckle to lighten the mood although a sickening filling now hung in his stomach.

Jenna let out a laugh which caused him to smile, "Oh thanks."

John shrugged, "It's a compliment, Jenna. It really is."

She smiled, "Well thank you, O'Callaghan and take it as a compliment when I tell you how awesome you are and that you could get any real, decent, not normal girl you wanted if you tried."

Jenna kissed his cheek before moving off the couch and leaving him as she yelled to Garrett who was still in the kitchen.

It was then that John knew.

He knew the worst thing possible had happened. He had some how, in the twisted days of school mixed with the summer days he had spent with her alone, thanks to Eric being away, he some how had did the unthinkable. He had fallen for his best friend's girlfriend, his nerdy friend's sister. And not in the simple, high school crush way either. No, it was worse than that, he had fallen into something he would never be able to obtain with her. He had fallen in love with Jenna Nickelsen, against his will and against his logic. There was nothing he could do about it now.