13

❦𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮❦

From: My Best Friend

Please come save me! The guys are ganging up on me again and I need you to be on my side so it's 2v2.

Blake was right, Isaiah texts me constantly. But I really don't mind. It's been three days since Blake gave me the phone and dropped me back at my car. Somehow though, before we left, Isaiah took my phone again and named his contact. I haven't changed it back because I think it's funny.

I did however change Blake's back, because Isaiah also edited Blake's contact to read Asshole and I wasn't about to leave it like that.

The last few days have been crazy, I've been so busy with jobs that I haven't been over to see them since.

To: My Best Friend

Ok

A few moments later my phone dings again.

From: My Best Friend

Really? Fuck yeah. You need a ride or are ya good?

To: My Best Friend

I'm good. Be over in a bit.

It was late in the evening, and I was already camped out at a parking lot ready to call it a night. But hanging out with the guys for a few hours sounds like a better time than trying to discreetly read a book in the dim light of the parking lot.

I can't use a book light because it draws too much attention to my car, and that can cause issues if a group of people decide they wanna harass the loner girl sleeping in her car.

My phone dings again causing my brows to furrow.

From: My Best Friend

BTW we are at Blake's. Hurry

I lock the phone and set it in the passenger seat as I start laughing quietly. He acts like it's life or death, but knowing him it's probably something stupid.

Climbing over into the driver's seat my foot gets hooked on the back seat causing me to fall forward, my head makes contact with the steering wheel. This resulted in a loud honk ecowing across the parking lot and multiple heads to turn my direction both from customers going in and out of the store and a few people also sleeping in their cars.

My face turns red in embarrassment, I'm definitely going to need to find another place to sleep tonight, or for the next week, maybe forever.

⇿♡⇿♡⇿♡⇿♡⇿

I knock on the apartment door three times, Blake lives in a 5 story apartment on the third floor. The apartments are pretty high end and is located in a nice part of town.

The door flying open startled me as Isaiah grips my hand and pulls me inside slamming the door behind us.

"Alright! You tell them!" He exclaims as he crosses his arms.

Blake and Ace are sitting in the living room. Blake is sporting his usual glare towards Isaiah and Ace looks a little surprised, he probably wasn't expecting to see me.

"What am I telling them?" I whisper out of the corner of my mouth towards Isaiah.

"That the best Twin pop flavor is chery." He whispers back.

Twin pop? What even is that?

Oh well, I told him I'd come over so it could be 2v2 not 2v3.

"Yes, chery is the best twins pops." I try to say convincibley.

But Blake's eyebrow rose when I said twins, shoot it was just twin, not twins wasn't it?

"Really?" Ace says accusation in his tone.

I nod my head rapidly, what did I get myself into?

"Hmm are you sure about that? You don't look so sure." Blake says smoothly as he gets out of his chair and slowly circles me with suspicion dancing across his eyes.

I gulp loudly. "I-I don't even know what a twin pop is." I say in defeat and crumble down into the couch. Blake smirks in victory at cracking my lie.

"What? It's the popsicles that are fused together, you know? With the two sticks?" Isaiah said in a hushed tone trying to only let me hear. He still wants to win the argument, but I really have no clue what he's talking about.

"I don't know, I've never had one. I'm sorry." I say sadly, I can't even help him win a popsicle argument because I grew up in a messed up house with messed up people and didn't get to experience the same things most kids did.

"Ok, this is an emergency! Blake, bring her to the kitchen!" He says before he runs off.

"Don't be sorry, he just expects everyone to have eaten everything he has, like an arrogant fool. Secondly, sorry about him, he's about to make you try them, but if you don't want to, feel free to shove them in his own face or give me this signal," Blake scratches the tip of his nose with two fingers. "And I will remove him from the premises." He grumbles.

I smile up at him, but he immediately looks away and scratches the back of his neck.

"Hurry up!" Isaiah yells from the kitchen. I can hear plates chattering and the freezer door sliding open and closed along with wrappers being crinkled.

What is all the noise about? It's just popsicles. Walking into the kitchen, Isaiah has a large plate set at the table with multiple popsicles laying on it. "Come on, come on. Sit." He instructs, scooting a seat out for me.

"Ok, so red is cherry, blue is blue raspberry, green is lime, orange is... Well it's orange, purple is grape and yellow is banana." He says excitedly.

I look at the pile of popsicles in front of me with wide eyes. How am I supposed to eat all of them? Almost like he can read my mind, Blake speaks up, "You can just taste them, we can put the rest of it back in the plastic and in the freezer for you to eat later." I nod, my lips turning up into a thankful smile.

I think I would get sick if I ate all these in one sitting.

To Isaiah's utter disappointment, I ended up liking the lime popsicle the most. This caused another argument because his favorite is cherry and the other two's favorite is orange.

I sat on the chair munching on the lime popsicle watching in amusement and then somehow we ended up in Blake's car heading for the mountains to go on a hike.

Blake is driving, I'm in the passenger seat and the other guys are in the back.

"You're going to love the waterfall we pass by halfway along the hike, Cupcake!" Isaiah eagerly says, his leg bonuses up and down in excitement.

Out of spite he ate all the cherry popsicles before we left to prove how good they are, now he has a sugar rush.

"He's like a child. We take him for a hike when he needs to run off steam, or else Blake wants to punch his lights out." Ace whispers in my ear from his seat behind me causing me to abruptly burst into a fit of laughter.

Blake scowls at the both of them through the rearview mirror as he drives up the windy road. I don't know why he's so cranky all the time. Maybe he feels left out.

"Are you excited for the hike?" I ask as I peer over to him. His body stiffens up some as he mumbles an "I guess."

My phone dings, confused, I dig it out of my backpack and unlock the screen.

From: My Best Friend

Ask him about the squirrel last spring.

A squirrel? Well ok then. I lock my phone and place it on my lap before shifting slightly so I was angled more towards Blake.

"What happened with the squirrel last spring?" I question.

Tilting my head slightly I wait for an answer, I'm genuinely intrigued on how a story about a squirrel would be so interesting that Isaiah would want me to ask about it. Blake's grip around the steering wheel tightens to the point his hands start losing color and he lets out a long huff.

"Goddammit." He muttered.

He's mad, oh no I made him mad. Why did Isaiah want me to ask him something that would upset him?

Blake's hand flies off the steering wheel and my body goes into autopilot. I scoot back until my back makes contact with the door. My eyes are wide as I follow Blake's hand as if he's about to hit me.

But he doesn't, of course he doesn't. I know that but my muscle memory doesn't.

Blake's hand is held palm up behind him as Isaiah grumply hands over his phone. He throws it in the glove box before turning his attention to me.

His eyes hold slivers of worry and hurt. "You ok?" He asks softly.

I nod my head slowly, positioning myself so that I'm sitting normal again.

Dangit, why do they have to see the worst parts of me?

"I got scared by a squirrel and fell into the lake last year." He uttered, "We all promised to not speak of the incident, but apparently Isaiah thinks you needed to know." He seethed.

"Hell yeah she needs to know. That shit was funny as hell. He let out a little yelp and everything before he fell in, then looked like a drowned rat the rest of the hike." He laughs out.

"You can shut up now." Blake says with a fake smile plastered across his face.

"Oh lighten up. She's one of our crew now." Isaiah states. Causing my heart to flutter. "She needs to know that way she can protect you from squirrels on the hike." He's laughing so hard now that he has to gasp for air every other word.

I would be laughing as well if I wasn't worried about upsetting Blake, that is until I see his lips twitch into a smile.

"Alright, alright enough." Ace says but his voice is strained from trying to hold back his laughter as well. Maybe they all had too many popsicles?

We pull into a small parking lot for a trailhead and hop out of the vehicle.

Blake hands me a water bottle, Isaiah complains that Blake didn't pack one for him too, Blake tells him to shut the fuck up, then we take off down the trail.

It takes us two hours to make it to the waterfall, my mouth drops open at the sight. The water falls over a clif that is covered in moss and into a pool of bright blue water below.

As we get closer I almost squeal when I see a family of deer drinking from the pool.

"Woah." I breathe out. "This is so beautiful! How are we the only people here?" If I knew about this place before I would have been here every week.

"Isaiah's uncle owns this land. So unless you get the ok from the family, you don't want to hike this or you'll probably end up arrested for trespassing." Blake explained as he admires the waterfall as well.

"You got the ok though, Cupcake! I told my uncle about you so you're good to come up here whenever you want!" Isaiah yells as he rips his shirt off his body.

What the heck!? I quickly over my eyes and Blake stifles a laugh next to me.

"He's going swimming. We always go for a dip when we hike up here. You want to join us?" He asks.

I want to, I really want to. But I've already shown them so many bad parts of me that I try to keep hidden, no way am I going to let them see my scars.

"I'm fine, you guys go ahead." I force out the brightest smile that I can manage.

I still have all this beautiful scenery around me, no need to let swimming get me down. Blake studies my face, he seems apprehensive to leave me.

"It's all good. I'll just take a look around." I want to run.

Not in excitement, I'm just so used to running far away when anyone gets close to me.

But I can't do that with them. They have been nothing but sweet to me and I really want to keep them in my life, so that means no more running. No matter how uncomfortable that makes me.

"You sure? I can skip and hang out with you." Blake offers.

His words rip through me like a fiery blade, this isn't right. This kind of thing shouldn't happen to me.

Why is he so nice?

I don't know how to handle it, I'm used to words of hate and objects flying in anger. Not concerned and worried glances, not people sticking up for me and taking care of me when I fail to do so myself, not gifts and food and a freaking water bottle so I don't get parched on a hike.

I try to push all of that aside though, because as much as those actions confuse me to the point it hurts, they also make me feel alive.

"No way! Go swimming with the guys, I'll check out the falls from shore." I shew him off with my hand.

Blake still doesn't look convinced though, so I turn and start walking around the trees that surround the falls.

Soon after I hear three splashes and shouts from Isaiah that sound kinda like he is being drowned.

The forest surrounding the falls is beautiful, the trees are lush and green, thick bushes cover most of the trunks and moss is plentiful everywhere. There are little flowers and mushrooms growing out of the moss covered rocks and birds are singing songs around me. I feel like I'm in a movie, how could someone be so blessed to own a place like this?

I crossed a log that conveniently fell across the stream that flows out of the pool being filled by the waterfall. The guys are still in the water splashing around like tadpoles.

Blake yells out to me every once and a while to make sure I haven't gotten myself killed or something. They all seem to think I'm a high risk for accidental death.

I stop in my tracks as I get a good view of the cliff that the waterfall flows off of.

"I want to climb that." I whisper to myself.

If it's so pretty down here, I wonder what it's like up there? There is a section on the cliff that has a crack running up it, looks like I might be able to shimmy my way up it all the way to the top.

My fingers tingle with excitement, oh I just have to see what it will look like from up there. I skip over to it with a huge smile on my face and hoist myself up, gripping behind ridges in the rocks and pulling myself up higher.

It's at about the halfway point that I realize that I have no clue how I'm going to get down, but oh well I'll deal with that later.

Maybe I had too many popsicles also.

I reach the top and heave myself over onto flat ground.

Oh. My. Gosh. This is the prettiest thing I have ever seen. I walk over to the stream that flows over the edge and into a waterfall. How cool is this?

Peering over the edge I see the guys throw a huge rock into the deep part of the water and see who can get it first. Blake wins and throws the rock back on shore with a cocky look on his face.

He really thinks he's all that sometimes. Isaiah splashes him and Blakes face instantly turns hard as he glares at him, even though they all are already soaked so what does it matter?

He turns his head to the shore and calls out, "Rose? You ok still?"

Oh, whoops. Didn't think about him checking up on me when I was up here.

"Yeah." I yell back. All three heads snap to me as I do.

"The fuck are you doing up there? That's dangerous!" He yells. "Get down before you hurt yourself!" He glares at me, but not the same way he does with Isaiah, this glare is laced with worry.

"Ok, I'll be right down." I give him a thumbs up. It's not like I'm going to fall down the waterfall.

Also I'm only going to climb back down because I want to, not because he wants me to. And not at all because it's so dang hard to say no to him.

I turn to walk back to where I climbed up only for my foot to catch on a rock and trip me. But only a little I didn't even fall to the ground, only stumbled a little bit.

"Fucking hell!" Blake yells out as the other guys throw in their own curses and rush out of the water to get a better look at me.

"I'm fine!" I reassure them, and maybe myself because tripping that close to a cliff isn't the most comforting thing in the world.

"Get down! Fuck, no stay put. Shit. How did you even get up there?" His rough voice echoes around the forest. They haven't been up here? But it's so pretty.

"I climbed up over there." I point to the area that I climbed up, it doesn't do any good though because they can't see it through the trees.

"Ok, stay put for a second." He doesn't ask, he demands this time. I nod my head slowly and he jumps in the water swimming to the other side of the pool and closer to where I climbed up, the other boys following close behind. Once on the other side he calls out again.

"Slowly. For fucks sake, walk slowly and watch where your feet are so you don't trip, back to where you can climb down. Okay?" He's fuming, but also trying to keep his voice from sounding like it, so his tone sounds really off.

"Ok." Them all being so nervous has made the adventurous side of me calm down and I'm starting to get scared being up this high on a cliff.

I slowly walk over to the where I climbed up and quickly realize how freaking stupid I am, but also slightly impressed because I basically free climbed straight up this cliff.

But now I have to make it down, and preferably alive and uninjured.

"I got up right here." I say as I peek over the ledge at the boys. Blake's fists are balled at his side and his jaw ticks.

"You went up this? It's a goddamn cliff, Rose!" Ace declares.

"I-I realise that now, but I wanted to see and I just did it and I wasn't thinking. But I can get down! I promise!" I say in my most convincing voice, even though I'm scared out of my mind right now.

I sit down so I can scoot my way over the edge on my belly and find the footing and grips that got me up here.

"Wait." Blake growls out. "If you slip and start falling, you push away from the edge so we can catch you." He demands.

I look down at the cliff again and see that even though it does seem like a straight drop, it is at a slight angle so If I do fall and don't push out there is a good chance I'll bash my head into the rocks, nice.

I lock eyes with him as I nod my head. Even though his words seethe anger, his eyes hold nothing but unsease.

Everyone is quiet as I slide over the edge and find the first spot to put my foot, even the birds seem to have stopped singing. When I'm half way down, the same spot that I realised I maybe shouldn't have done this, the piece of the rock my foot is on breaks away and causes me to fall a few inches, my fingers grip with all their might to keep me up while my foot slides around to find another rock to step on.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Isaiah mutters beneath me and I hear them moving around, probably getting ready to catch me. My foot finally finds something to grab onto and just in time because my fingers were starting to slip. One of the guys lets out a breath they were holding.

I continue my way down after I let myself take a couple deep breaths. As soon as I'm within arms reach, Blake grabs onto me and guides me to the ground.

His hands don't let go as my feet make contact with solid ground, his fingers tremble against my waist. Isaiah rushes forward and flicks my forehead.

"Are you insane? You can't just go scaling cliffs like that! What the hell's wrong with you?" He scolds.

A lot of things, I think to myself.

"Sorry." I whisper out as my head drops in shame. I didn't mean to scare anyone, I really didn't and now I probably ruined the whole hike and oh no, what if they hate me now?

"Are you ok?" Ace asks. I nod my head, refusing to look up, I don't want to see his face full of disappointment in me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you like that. But you scared the shit out of me." Ace's voice is back to his normal one he uses with me, the gentle one and it confuses me.

"No, It's ok. I deserved it, I wasn't thinking." Truth is, sometimes I just do things because I don't care if I live or die.

Like I wouldn't purposely jump off a cliff, but I'd climb up it and not care about the consequences. I shouldn't act that way around other people though.

I'm just used to being alone so I don't usually have to worry about hurting other people too.