"Jonah!" I'm jolted awake by the sound of my step mother's voice echoing off my still-empty bedroom walls. I push myself up and my eyes are still blurry from the deep sleep I was just in. I don't even get to say anything before Laura barges into my room.

At least, I think it's her. It becomes clear that it actually isn't when someone starts jumping on my bed and eventually lands on top of me. I groan loudly and try to roll onto my back.

"Who the hell -" I mumble before this person is finally off of me.

"Looks like you haven't changed much," I hear him say. "Except maybe the hair. It looks a little rough."

I finally sit up and twist myself around so I'm able to look at the idiot who someone let into my house. When I see his dark head of hair and that stupid grin on his face I frown. He still woke me up.

"Don't look so happy to see me, Jo," Travis says with that same sideways grin he's always had. I roll my eyes and chuck one of my pillows at him before I crash my head back into the other pillow.

"What are you doing here this early in the morning?" I mumble into the pillow.

"It's noon, Jonah." He jerks the blankets off of me and I have no choice but to get up. Travis is leaning against the dresser by my door and looking around the place. "You still haven't unpacked? You're literally living out of boxes."

I pull on a pair of sweatpants laying on my floor and pull them on. "This isn't my home, so why should I unpack?"

I get up and stretch my arms above my head and walk over to Travis. He smiles and lets out a laugh. "I'm glad to see that my best friend doesn't let a move to the other side of the country change him to awful much."

I stare at him groggily for a few seconds. Then I lurch forward and hug him, a feeling of relief washing over me. "Glad to see my move hasn't changed you, either."

He pats my back roughly and releases me. "Looks like you have a lot to catch me up on. But first, let's go get some grub 'cause I'm starving."

I chuckle and turn around to grab a shirt and put it on. I catch up with Travis downstairs and find him sitting at the kitchen table, talking up a storm with Laura. He's always been able to charm people. For a while there, I wasn't sure if he'd ever get back to his normal self after his suicide attempt.

I don't think he ever would have gotten back to this if it weren't for Sawyer, his red-headed and fierce-loving girlfriend.

Jordan comes traipsing down the stairs a minute later and her face lights up. "Travis!"

She jogs past me and lands in Travis' arms as he hugs her tightly. Jordan has always been close with Travis, and Travis has loved her like a little sister.

"I'm glad someone is happy to see me," Travis says with a grin as he looks at me. Jordan doesn't spare a look my way as she grabs a sandwich that Laura made. "Laura, these BLT's are amazing. Does the west coast make you a better cook?"

She laughs. "I was always a good cook, you were just used to your fancy food."

I take a seat next to Travis and grab a sandwich myself. "How is culinary school, by the way?"

"It's great," he says with a shrug. "I love what I do. I just wish it would hurry up so that I can get the restaurant up and running."

"Oo, a restaurant?" Laura smiles widely. She takes the rest of the sandwiches and sets them on the counter in the kitchen.

"Yeah. Sawyer wants to help me start it up, actually."

I can tell just by the look on his face how happy he is about that – about all of it. A part of me hates myself for how I acted when he was going through what he went through. The other part of me is tired of thinking about that every time I see him.

"What's she majoring in, anyway?"

"She actually decided on majoring in business, so it works out perfectly. At first, I thought she was pulling a Sawyer and only doing that so we could go into business together, but she actually really loves it. And she's good at that stuff."

I nod my head in correspondence. "Nice. I'm really glad for you two."

Travis grins. "Thanks, man."

It doesn't take long for us to get caught up as we head to the living room to play a game of Fortnite. I tell him about the city and how the past three months of my life have been me figuring out how to navigate the place. Jordan and I often find ourselves on yet another road that will take us home. He tells me about Lydia and how she's about to graduate anytime now with her teaching degree while his parents are becoming more and more supportive. I mention the fight with my dad briefly and mainly stick to the story of how angry Jordan is with me.

Finally, we get onto the subject of my school and how much I'd rather be going to a school that doesn't require uniforms in 90-degree weather.

"You? Wearing a tie?" Travis jokes. "I'm having a hard time picturing it."

He knows how much I used to struggle with them when it came to any kind of formal event. I always got clip-on's, until now. "Yeah, well. On the first day, a random girl walked up to me and fixed it."

He starts laughing at this. "What? A random stranger just came up and tied your tie?"

"Well..." I trail off. "We weren't exactly strangers."

He shakes his head at me and I automatically know what he's thinking. I start laughing at that. "Dude. I was only here for like a week. Anyway, I met this girl before that day, so I guess she wasn't a total stranger."

He nods his head and waits a beat. "So, who's the girl?"

I give him a blank stare. "Just... some girl." I feel myself closing off as I give him the look that says I don't want to talk about it. "What are we supposed to be doing, anyway? Were you planning on sitting on my couch and eating my food all day, or...?"

"There you go again. Changing the subject 'cause you don't wanna talk about something that means something to you."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever."

"What's her name?"

I glance over at him and back at the TV. I take the victory in this game and quickly start another one so he'll get distracted.

"C'mon, man. Just tell me. You like her, don't you?"

Why do I keep this nosey brat around, anyway?

"Tell me or I'll just have to go ask Jordan."

"Jordan wouldn't tell you anything that would 'help' me. She's too pissed."

Travis is quiet for a moment, but his eyebrows are scrunched together like he does when he's thinking. Finally, he pauses the game. Great. This should be good.

"I have an idea. This could solve two of your problems at once."

"Too bad I don't want to hear it," I deadpan.

"This girl probably knows more about making Jordan happy than either of us. She could help you." I don't respond to him and he rolls his eyes. "Jordan!" He yells and I groan loudly.

"Her name is Layla!" I growl. "Layla Scott."

"Text Layla and tell her to meet us somewhere, then."

"I don't have her number."

"Okay, so all we do is search for her on some sort of social media." He takes out his phone and begins throwing his thumbs around.

"You should have stayed in Tennessee."

It doesn't even take him five minutes to pull up an Instagram page that definitely belongs to Layla. Besides her name being on the page and a bible verse written in the biography, you would never know it was her page. Her profile picture is of her behind a camera, which, is actually pretty accurate. And most of her posts are pictures of other people.

"Is this her?" Travis asks as he scrolls through her pictures. The photographs are amazing, so I'm not surprised at all. The pictures on her walls at her hideout are amazing, too.

"Yeah, that's her. She's always got a camera with her."

Travis smirks and I automatically know that I am going to regret ever becoming this kid's friend.

"Message is sent," Travis announces a few minutes later and un-pauses the game so I have no choice but focus on it instead of killing him. I clench my jaw but feel no real anger. I'm not that bothered with him texting Layla, but I am bothered that he will embarrass me to no end if she responds, and I'm not good at being embarrassed.

"If she responds to you, I swear-"

"'I'm actually on my way downtown now. Want to come with?'" Travis reads off his phone after he's paused the game – again.

I toss my controller on the couch and reach over to grab his phone, but he sees it coming. Travis jumps up and chuckles. "Just let me do it. I already asked her, so we can't back down now."

I glare at him and wish that looks could kill. "You're the worst friend in the world, you know that?"

He plops down beside me and props his feet up on the stand beside him. "You'll change your mind when you hear the wedding bells – she texted back."

I try to look over at his phone, but he dodges me. I briefly think about killing him and burying him the backyard, but I'm not smart enough to hide something like that.

He looks over at me and smirks, waving his phone if I could see it. "I hope you know who Bart is 'cause we're meeting your mystery girl there in half an hour."

I laugh at that because even with all his attempts to be the comedian today, that was the only funny thing he's said.

______________________

It's Travis!! You guys finally got to see what the old Travis was probably like! The song for this chapter is Everything is Fine by All Time Low because this was for the boys ✌🏻.
So I just wanted to say something about the language in this book: some of the language that Jonah uses is not my forte. To put it simply, I don't cuss. I don't like to, and I don't think God likes it. (I'm not judging people who do obviously. I don't have a right to).
BUT. This is a story that is supposed to represent real people and real people cuss. This is Jonah's character. I just wanted to say that! :)