Gimme One Reason.

Third Person POV

Everyone was awake by nine in the morning when Jeremy arrived, his sister drove him so he wouldn't be leaving his car. They were to drive the moving van to Breckenridge, and he was flying home seeing as there was another station that would take the van in there.

"Lizzy." Michelle pouted as they sat on the couch together, they weren't planning on leaving until noon, so they had some time to enjoy.

Brian and Zack were in the kitchen cooking breakfast for everyone, smoke coming out of the kitchen for a moment before it dissipated.

"I know." Liz laughed at her friend, hugging Michelle and laying against her "I'm gonna miss you guys."

"It's not even fair, you won't be here when we get back." She sighed as Leana walked out of the bathroom.

"Like.. we can't just call and hang out." Leana added "We have to hop a plane to get to you now."

"It's not that bad." Liz assured, but neither of the girls bought it "You get to come skiing when you visit." She smiled.

"I mean..." Michelle huffed "Still not the same."

Liz watched as everyone interacted, Jeremy was talking nonsense with Jimmy, something to do with basketball. She was unsure of the actual topic. Michelle and Leana began talking about the tour, and leaving, and what to do without Liz there. Trying to guilt her, but little did they know there was no changing her mind. She was going, for good. She wasn't planning on visiting them on tour, she wasn't planning on visiting them at home. She really wanted the least to do with them all until she figured out her life.

As the girls talked, her eyes scanned to Matt. He was on his phone, he looked in deep concentration. Her eyes watched his features, her heart suddenly pinging. Was she sad to leave him? She couldn't be, she hadn't felt anything when they broke up, she hadn't felt anything really the whole time they were all home. Now? Now was the time she was going to feel anything?

"Fuck that." Liz stood suddenly and made her way up stairs, everyone watching the form of her body leave, even Matt tore his gaze from his phone to her leaving. He had been scrolling through messages with Liz, trying to figure out what everything had meant, searching for signs of her not being interested. Because this seemed so easy for her, more so than it did for him.

Zack and Brian soon entered the room, announcing breakfast was done.

"Where's Liz?" Zack asked.

"She went upstairs a little while ago." Jimmy pointed to the stairs, Zack sighed and began walking to them. He knew something was up, she had slept very rough all night. They all crashed in the living room after drinking much more. She tossed and turned a lot, and he knew his little sister was worried.

He slowly ascended the stairs, hearing noise coming from her room. He opened the door without knocking, seeing her sitting facing the wall, head in her hands crying. He sat down, knowing she had sensed his presence. He put his hand on her shoulder and she turned.

"What's up baby sis?" He asked as she fell in to his arms, he pulled her close and kissed her head "Shhh, shhh..." He hushed, holding her close as she whimpered "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." She looked up at him, her eyes red "I'm... confused? I'm not sure. I'm excited to leave, I'm not going to back out... I just.."

"It's going to be weird." Zack took his sister's hand in his "It's gonna be really weird at first, you're going to be all alone. In a new place, without any of us or even Mom and Dad." He sighed and watched her nod "We love you, and we want you to be happy... We... None of us can stop you from going. I just want you to know we're always here for you."

"Thank you." She smiled up at her brother, staring at his mirror image eyes of her own. "I'm just gonna miss being able to just have all of you here... especially during the week."

"I know." Zack stood the two of them up, holding her hand still "If you need anything, you need to call us... Michelle is more than willing to fly to you and stay with you until you're comfortable, so is Leana. She's already said it more than once with Michelle. Liz," Zack turned her, looking in to her eyes again "You mean the world to all of us, we love you more than anything.. we want you to be happy."

"I want to be happy, too, Zack." Her voice was weak, her brother knew this was going to be tough as much of a bad ass persona she put up. He was the only one who could truly see through this facade.

"You will be, you're going to be perfectly ok... but we're always here if you need to sit back and breath."

Liz embraced her brother, taking in the scent that was so familiar to her. The smell of the same cologne and body wash he'd used since middle school when their mother had put it in the shower and insisted because "You wreak of teenage boy and it's disgusting" and by teenage boy she meant she was tired of cleaning up tissues off his floor and washing his bed sheets twice a day.

Liz laughed to herself as Zack kissed the top of her head "I love you Lizzy Vengeance, and remember that. You're a Vengeance. No one can touch us." He smiled, looking down at his not-so-little sister.

The thought hit him finally. She was turning eighteen, she was as much of an adult as he was. She was on her own, she was making her own life. She was moving to another state, going to meet new people, she was going to have a new circle of friends soon. Sooner than he would like. And he wondered as they walked back downstairs together.

What if she met... a guy? A guy he didn't know, a guy he couldn't personally threaten to come to his house at night and castrate him, without him calling the cops and reporting him? With Matt he could do that, he was his best friend, he knew better than to hurt his best friend's sister. Zack could beat Matt up, Matt wouldn't fight back he knew better. Also Matt knew better in general than to hurt Liz. But what if she met someone, which was inevitable, and they got serious? What if he hurt her?

Zack swallowed hard at the thought. What if he hurt her, and Zack wasn't there to protect his sister? He couldn't knock someone's face in from hundreds of mils away. He couldn't be there in minutes, like he could to Matt's house, to rescue her from an argument gone too far. Not that Matt would ever dream of taking it too far.

Zack's mind wandered as he watched Liz begin eating breakfast with everyone, socializing with them, for the first time he took a good look at his sister. The first time he viewed her as a legal adult. She was gorgeous, as her older brother he was allowed to think so. She was something any man would be lucky to have, she was a wonderful person, her looks were incredible, and she was all around perfect material for some douche bag to take advantage of.

He took a breath in as Matt caught his stare, his nod giving away that he knew what was on the older brother's mind. He walked over.

"I'm just as worried." Matt spoke softly to Zack, so Liz wouldn't hear them.

"I don't... what if I can't get there in time?" Zack sighed, rubbing his neck as Matt took in a breath "Why..."

"Why'd I fuck up?" Matt laughed as Zack nodded "If we didn't break up she wouldn't be leaving.. but she wouldn't be going on to be happy and succeed in life."

"I know that." Zack stared at Liz as she tried to steal her coffee back from Brian, twisting his free arm until he gave it up "But.. I think we prepared her enough, right?" He looked at Matt, who was watching just as intently.

"Yah, she handles herself well." Matt sipped his coffee as the two watched the littlest Baker defending against Jimmy while he tried to take her bacon off her plate. "She can fuck up a bouncer, remember?"

"I do." Zack laughed a little "She'll be fine... right?" He looked up for reassurance from Matt.

Matt shrugged and nodded "She can call us anytime, she knows that."

"I hope." Zack mumbled as the two rejoined the table, serving themselves plates as the antics between Liz, Brian, and Jimmy calmed down at Michelle's command. It was going to be culture shock for them all.

There was no doubt.